| A medium diaper is $12, a large is $13, and a small is $11,� she said. About as much as a whole pack of disposables, �but the cloth diapers will last you through multiple children.�
�If you buy 10 cloth diapers and use them for six to eight weeks, you�ve broken even. At that point, you are saving money, compared to the cost of buying disposables.�
Adkins, an Illinois native, moved to West Virginia as a teenager when her father, a coal miner, took a job here. She earned bachelor�s and master�s degrees from West Virginia University before moving to Beckley with her husband, a Shady Spring native, to work as a speech pathologist for the school system.
When her first child, Zoe, was born four years ago, �I wanted to use cloth diapers for her,� Adkins said. �But there were so many terms and everything, I just couldn�t understand how to do it or what I needed.�
Cloth diapers are staging a comeback after a generation-long hiatus, but they�re quite a bit different from the plain white cotton rectangles most of us remember. First, they�re not rectangles anymore; they�re pre-shaped. They�re not plain white (clan tartans, remember?). They don�t have to be cotton; some new brands use wool or fleece. Today�s diapers don�t even use pins; Velcro or snaps hold them up.
When Adkins� second child, Sam, came along almost two years ago, she had to revisit cloth diapers. Sam had a rash that just wouldn�t go away.
�Some people said, �If you get rid of the chemicals in disposables, it sometimes helps,�� she said. It worked.
Adkins and a friend, Beth Morris of Beaver, started Drybees. Adkins has a license to manufacture and sell �pocket diapers,� a design trademarked by a company called Fuzzi Bunz. �The inside is a polyester layer that wicks urine away. It keeps your baby dry,� Adkins said. �For the outside, I send off cotton fabric to a company in New Jersey that adds a waterproofing layer. �Oooh. The washing. That�s the big turnoff for most people, but even that isn�t such a chore anymore, Adkins said. �The technology in your washing machine has come along so much, you can forget about swishing the [dirty] diaper in the toilet like your mom talks about,� she said. �For the most part, your washing machine will take care of everything.�Adkins has been selling her diapers online since November 2003. �In a good week, I�ll sell about 20 diapers,� she said. But hardly any of them sell to West Virginians.�I have sold five diapers total in West Virginia,� she said. �I just cannot turn the people on to them here. People look at me like I�m nuts.�The cloth diaper industry is getting a foothold in West Virginia, though. Adkins� friend Morris has started her own business, diapercuts.com, which sells diaper fabric to people who sew their own. Adkins knows of another work-at-home mother in Huntington who sells cloth diapers and patterns through her own Internet business, Goodness Gracious. And within the next couple of months, Adkins and a friend in Massachusetts will launch a new business, sheepishgrins.com, to sell a line of lanolin-rich diaper washes.�It�s an old trend that�s coming back, to use wool� covers over cotton diapers, Adkins said. The lanolin in the wool, and in the special washes, makes the covers waterproof.�It really is a growing industry,� she said. �I think people are trying to get back to simple ways. My mom said something that sums it up: �Cloth diapers are becoming yuppie.� Moms are out of the house working, and they want to do something good for their kids.�True, you can go overboard: �I�ve seen cloth diapers on eBay for hundreds of dollars,� Adkins said. �It�s becoming a trendy thing .... Some people will pay any price for a cute diaper they want. It becomes kind of a cloth diaper addiction � they want more and more, cuter and cuter.�Compared to those couture diapers, �My diapers are relatively inexpensive,� she said.�It really is cheaper than buying disposables � if you don�t go nuts like that.�Adkins� diapers can be ordered at www.drybees.com.
To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189.
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