Lift Up Your Hearts!

To repeat, from Part 1, lest I forget:

The first principle is that nobody should be ashamed of thinking a thing funny because it is foreign; the second is that he should be ashamed of thinking it wrong because it is funny. The reaction of his senses and superficial habits of mind against something new, and to him abnormal, is a perfectly healthy reaction. But the mind which imagines that mere unfamiliarity can possibly prove anything about inferiority is a very inadequate mind. — G. K. Chesterton, writing on foreign travel in What Is America?

I thought the diapering world was divided neatly between cloth and disposibles, with elimination communication thrown in as an added wrinkle—which only shows how limited and parochial my world has been.  Of course, the whole diaper situation here was planned to be well under control by now, but it has become an issue thanks to a miscommunication with the "diaper lady" reminiscent of my last-minute struggles with Lufthansa's baggage policy.  "No, I don't actually sell diapers; I only have samples you can experiment with to help you decide what you like.  You can't actually buy them here in Switzerland, and no, I don't have any overseas suppliers to recommend...."

This was a Boston Rubbermaid moment for me.  At home I would zip off to Babies R Us, Target, or Walmart, all within walking distance, and grab several packages of birdseye prefolds.  Here I was prepared to pay Swiss prices, but I was not prepared for diapers to be unavailable!

But of course, I'm wrong.  Diapers are available here.  Swiss diapers.  Which are decidedly not birdseye cotton prefolds.  I spent half an hour looking for a good picture of one for this post, without success, although in the process I found out more about diaper choices and technology than I ever imagined existed.  (Type "diaper folding" into YouTube for just a glimpse at the possibilities.)  But imagine large, thin, square cloths in all sorts of colors and designs, sold individually.  If you ask the sales clerk at the baby store how to fold them, fasten them on the baby, or how to cover them so they don't leak, she has no idea.  They don't sell diaper fasteners and they don't sell diaper covers.  Cloth diapers, it appears, are popular baby items, but no one in his right mind actually diapers a baby with them.  That's what disposables are for.  Real diapers are bought to be used as burp cloths.

Unless, of course, you go to the "organic" store here.  Except that she would gag on the prices, I kept thinking that our all-natural, organic, earth-friendly friend Serina would be in heaven there.  At that store, the clerk was very competent indeed; if she hasn't diapered a thousand babies herself, she at least must have given the demonstration a thousand times.  They sell not so much diapers as diapering systems, all in an eye-pleasing, natural, ecru shade—you couldn't bleach it, but stains would be less obvious than with white.  The diapers themselves are still the thin sqares of cloth, but these folks have obviously thought about their practical use as a diapering medium.

Watching the clerk fold a diaper was like watching Johnny Montroll fold an origami animal.  Faster than I could follow, she created a very clever diaper from the square, thick and thin in all the proper places.  I didn't follow the rest of the procedure, either, as she was demonstrating two different systems, with explanation in rapid-fire German.  In addition to the diaper there are inserts of various kinds, covers to hold it all together, and a few other things I'm sure I've forgotten.  It was, no doubt, a lovely system for an all-natural, earth-friendly, baby.  In many ways it was quite attractive and appealing.  But SO complicated!  It's one thing to accept, and even embrace, inefficiencies in laundry, and quite another when one is attempting to diaper a squirming baby, or promoting awareness of potty needs.

This problem is still in search of a solution.  Despite the imminent arrival of the baby, it's not an urgent situation because of what Janet already has in place, but it's definitely a puzzlement.  We've been looking around online for what we might order.  Alas, most of the American companies I depend on won't ship overseas.  My brief investigation into European online stores yielded Heather's favorite diaper cover and a whole array of previously-unknown (to me) cloth diapering options, none of which is either the kind of diaper I'm used to back home or what is common in the stores here!  Who'd have thought diapering could be so complicated?

Maybe it's a very good thing that Janet has been folding John Montroll models since she was six years old.