Real Diaper Week 2012

I'm pretty excited about this year's Real Diaper Week! It's actually my first time to participate.  I had previously cloth diapered N during the day but used disposables for her during the night and when we went out.  With E, I researched more, and was more experienced and currently cloth diapering him 24/7 plus we use cloth wipes, to boot!

N in her Next9

Real Diaper Week is scheduled from 16 - 21 April 2012 and this website has specific information on daily activities for the week to promote the use of real (cloth diapers).  The culminating activity is the Great Diaper Change which seeks to beat Guinness World Book of Records for the most nappies changed at the same time.  However, it is scheduled on 21 April 2012, 930am PDT which is 22 April 2012, 1230am OUR TIME.  Since I'm a mom of 2 young kids and need my sleep, I'm not even going to attempt to join (much less organize) it this year.  Clarice and I are in talks to organize one next year though - although hopefully, my little E will be toilet-trained by then!

E in his Rumparooz

My purpose in celebrating Real Diaper Week is to promote the use of cloth diapers and to show how easy and simple it is.  With N, I was quite intimidated with the thought of cloth diapering - which was why she was only semi-cloth diapered.  However, I got to talk to moms (yes,  Clarice , that's you!), read information and forums on how simple and easy it was to cloth diaper 24/7, even a breastfed baby with wet poo!  We are now cloth diapering E 24/7 and I'm hoping to promote its use to more Filipino moms!
First up is a blog carnival which will be the subject of a separate post.  I'm also organizing a Cloth Diapers 101 Talk at Medela House on 21 April 2012 at 1:30pm.  This will be organized together with Next9 Baby and Tickled Moms.  Target audience would be pregnant moms or moms who are not using cloth diapers but are interested yet intimidated with the thought of cloth diapering. Interested? Sign up here.
I've also emailed the Lifestyle Editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in hopes that cloth diapers can be the subject of a future article.  If you have the email addresses or contacts with other newspapers, do write them and ask that they feature cloth diaper during the Real Diaper Week.

There will also be a cloth diaper drive to collect old and used diapers for donation to The Little Children's Home in Taytay, Rizal.  Target date for bringing the diapers to the orphanage is on 21 or 22 April 2012 (in the morning).  Drop off point for the used diaper is at Medela House, 29 1st St. New Manila, Quezon City (M-F 830am-530pm, Sat 830am-230pm).  You can also courier your donations to me (contact me to get shipping address).  If you'd like to volunteer a location to be a drop off point, do contact me too.  We need more drop off points!

*Update: Drop off point in (1) San Antonio Village, Makati or (2) West Ave. Quezon City.  Please email me if you'd like to drop off diapers those areas so I can send you directions/addresses.
*Click here for complete list of drop off points.

If you are donating, please email me your name and how many diapers you donated so I can include your information when we deliver the diapers and the orphanage can properly acknowledge you.  Please email me also if you'd like to join the drop off scheduled either on 21 or 22 April 2012. [Update:  22 April 2012 is Earth Day 2012!! So I think that would be a better day to drop off the diapers at the orphanage :D]

*Update: The beneficiary for the cloth diaper drive is The Little Children Home run by Help International Ministries, Inc. They currently have 18 kids, with 14 of them in diapers. The orphanage currently uses diapers made from flour sacks. They only have 7 waterproof or all in one diapers and with 6 infants, the diapers get used up quickly.

Are you a cloth diapering enthusiast and want to help? You can do so by asking a pregnant or non-cloth diapering friend to attend the Cloth Diapers 101 talk.  You can also donate your old diapers for the cloth diaper drive. If you have a blog, you can join our blog carnival! Meanwhile, if you are a vendor, maybe you can hold some sort of promotion on your respective sites during the Real Diaper Week.  On my part, I'm going to be giving away my extra copy of Changing Diapers book so watch out for it!
Do you have any suggestions or comments? Drop me a line!