>When I asked for Mailbox Mondays submissions back in August, Hannah gave me the following idea for a post:

I think this would make an interesting blog post:

What do you think or hope cloth diapering will be like in the future (5-10 years)?

-Hannah  

Interesting indeed, but as long winded as I am, even when I am trying to keep it short, I could never fit it all in one post.  I had thought about writing a post about what my “dream” diaper would be, but I think this is even better.
 
As I thought about this, it got me thinking…why haven’t disposable diaper companies gotten in on the action, instead of attacking cloth diaper users?  I don’t know if anyone followed the Pampers Dry Max debacle, but there were a lot of fingers pointed at the cloth diapering community, saying that we were making it up/instigating it to further our “agenda.”
 
With designer disposables actually selling at their crazy prices, people clearly want a cute diaper.  GroVia and gDiapers both make disposable inerts/soakers for their covers, so why aren’t the big names in disposables getting in on the act?
 
Now, if they did, I would expect it to be a marketing scheme; I wouldn’t expect inserts they manufactured to be compostable or flushable.  But really, why not?  They could sell their own covers, or even just make a durable disposable cover that could be reused several times.  They could make a thin soaker, maybe even work on making it compostable/flushable.
 
All of my thoughts on the future of cloth diapering are pretty intertwined, but maybe the baby step of getting disposable diaperers used to the concept would be a step in the right direction?
 
On a totally different tangent, I think another huge leap in the right direction would be getting the free disposables out of hospitals.  I know that even the biggest cloth diaper companies don’t have infinitely deep pockets, but what if we “practiced” diapering babies with cloth diapers in the classes at hospitals?  What if every hospital used prefolds and covers on newborns instead of disposables? 
 
I know that will happen at about the same time they start refusing the formula freebies but hey, even a choice would be huge!  In fact, if I had the money (or the sponsorship) I would LOVE to take some diapers over to my local hospitals, and offer a quick Q&A on cloth during all of the new parent classes!