Thursday, December 4, 2014

Diapers and Fragance Sensitivity. A Tilting Point in the Decision

I visited my sister's new home this summer. Gave her the big stroller and a suitcase full of baby clothes, the bottle sterilizer full of bottles and a baby toy.

Then we went downstairs and all hell broke loose. Not even in the last step, I got a strong scent of a cleaning product. I figured it would go away, it didn't. Spent the whole evening with a headache and stomachache, coughing and silently crying while Frozen was displayed on her TV. Once over, I went back upstairs to sanity thinking I was out of danger.

But no, even though I requested to sleep there, she brought sheets and pillow cases and I realized the source of my problems: laundry detergent. I was forced to sleep in a cold night with nothing but a polyester blanket that was used as box sheet, cover sheet AND blanket itself, for me and the 2 boys.On top of that, I had to use my diaper bag as a pillow (you never know when cloth diapers will fulfill vital functions) and the night was a cold one, very.

Funny thing is, nobody else noticed. My mom could not perceive it, and obviously my sister and husband couldn't either. That led me to investigate why I was so bothered by certain smells, to the point of despair, and that I, in fact, have taken several decisions in life based upon my intolerance to fragrances.

And, believe it or not, cloth diapering was one of them. When I had my first boy, I had diaper issues from the start, and it didn't help that they were expensive, so I bought the cheapest available, and those were heavily perfumed (and even the expensive ones bothered me).

So, when Tiny Guy came in, after opening a brand new bag of Luvs, I realized it was never going to happen. Managed to find a cheap brand that did not have perfume, but definitely opted for cloth at one point, to get rid of the perfumes altogether.

I couldn't believe what it did to the house. Not only did the nasty smell of plastic and perfume go away, but the poop too, since I had to rinse them rightaway, and would wash every day back then, the overall smell inside was my prefered one: nothing. I did have ammonia problems later on, but that is not as annoying as perfume for someone with my sensitivities (and was solved relatively fast).

I know a lot of people do not talk about that factor as a deciding one, but it is another advantage I needed to raise babies and not to die on the intent. If you have fragrance intolerance (commonly and erroneously known as perfume allergies), this might be an option for when you need diapers around.