cloth pads, was: Re: female problem, was Healthy House

[Guest guest]

hi, betsy! hee - great questions. here we go!

At 05:39 PM 3/9/2004, you wrote:

>Can you and whoever else has had an experience with cloth pads expand

>on this. Exactly how not gross are they? Are these just for around

well, i mean, it's no grosser than looking at a regular pad. just instead

of throwing it away, you rinse it off. more below...

>the house or can you go out in public with them? With teaching I

well, i didn't know better before i moved out to vermont and started

working from home. so i personally do go out in public, but it's the co-op

or whatever. it's not like i go to a job every day. i know other women who

do though, and they manage. i think that a good freezer-quality ziplock bag

should really do the trick...

>must have very dependable protection because I'm constantly facing

>the board working problems and if I had any detectable leakage it

>would be noticed by the room full teenagers and I'd probably never

>regain control. Also, at my new job I'll be at full-time in a few

heehee. boy, i hear that!! i generally have pretty heavy flow, and i didn't

have any leakage trouble, even post-partum when it was, ya know - really

ucky. here's some things i do: first, the glad rags are good, but

personally i find that some of the old-fashioned cloth diapers (the thin,

gauzy, great big squares) are actually better. i fold them over and over

until they're shaped like a pad, but the best thing about them is that

they're extra extra long, so there's a lot of security there. another thing

i've done in the past to feel extra secure is to wear good, tight-fitting

nylons (in particular, legg's energy), which kind of " shrink-wrapped " me

all together, ya know? i haven't worn nylons in ages now, and of course

they're not organic blah blah, but lemme tell you - it *does* work. in a

pinch, i've even worn two pair of panties -- although it's much better to

have good airflow, feeling like things are tight and clingy really goes a

long way to make you feel secure!

as for leaking *through* (as opposed to overflowing), that's a matter of

changing often enough for your flow. i find every two hours is pretty good,

and you can always keep a handful of organic tampons around for a sudden

extra-heavy day.

by the way, if you're a fan of deodorant pads, you can do the same thing

with cloth - in several ways. you can pre-fold them the night before and

put a drop of some nice essential oil (lavender is nice) on a corner, or

you can fold in a bit of powder if you feel it's necessary. however, you'd

be surprised how unnoticeable your smells are to other people, even if

they're noticeable to you. (chris after his workout notwithstanding!)

>months, I'll be the only female in my department so my protection has

>to be discrete. I'm also like 20 years younger than everyone else

>and it seems like I'll be paranoid that everyone could tell that I

>was wearing a folded diaper cause I don't really feel like I fit in

heehee. well, definitely experiment at home. again, the glad rags that are

sold online or in co-ops are slim and trim, and they have wings, just like

regular pads. (just, with a snap instead of sticky stuff) also, the word

" diaper " definitely conjures up big, bulky images, but again, if you get

the thin guazy kind, it's really not bad. another thing you could do, for

economical-ness, would be to take an old towel, and experiment with folding

that in different ways...just zig-zag stitch the edges (if you have a

sewing machine) to keep it from unravelling.

>very well. Maybe I should just stay at home. Seems like everything

>would be simpler for women if we just stayed at home and churned

>butter instead of trying to work with men who don't seem to

>understand that you can't have a 4-hour long meeting with no long

>breaks for anyone menstruating to go back to their desks. It's

well, here i really agree with you. our society doesn't give us the

opportunity to respect our cycles, which to me should really be a time to

get in touch with yourself. but, ya know. that's kind of the way it is. so

i try to make sure i take time during each cycle to relax and spend on

myself (in the evening or whenever), and other than that i just do the best

i can. one thing though, don't be afraid to just get up in the middle of a

meeting if you have to -- if they ask what you're doing, simply reply

politely that you're going to the ladies' room. if they're smart, they'll

agree that a break would be good. if they're not and they ask why, smile

kindly and say " i'm menstruating, and i need to take care of it. " i

guarantee they'll never bug you about it again! (ok, perhaps that will seem

a bit over the top for your situation. though, i've done it!)

>probably hard to be taken seriously when everyone knows you're

>wearing a diaper. And how frequently do you have to change it. And

hahahahahaha! well, ya know. you really don't *tell* anyone that you're

wearing a diaper. also, ya know, it's just cloth. it could be a piece of

cotton flannel, or some muslin, or a freakin' sock, frankly. (it *is* kind

of nice to know that you'll never be caught with nothing again, cause

honestly, you really can just use a sock.)

>what do you do with the used one? Do you just put it in a baggie in

>your purse? Do you worry about it accidentally falling out in front

>of other people?

well, i personally am ...um...kinda brazen. if it fell out in front of

people, i'd just pick it up like nothing happened. however, if i were

somewhere that i couldn't be so, ya know, this is what i would do:

i'd take a freezer-weight ziploc bag, or two if i were feeling paranoid.

i'd put that in a cloth bag of some attractive sort (perhaps a handbag, or

a nice make-up bag, or just a little pouch i made myself, but at any rate,

something that is solely purposed to this task.) i'd take that with me to

the ladies', and i'd fold up the dirty cloth and pop it in, dirty and all -

if i were concerned about appearances, i wouldn't want to risk someone

coming in while i was rinsing it and wringing it out! it will rinse just

fine when you get home. then put a clean one on and away you go. no one

ever has to know there's a dirty rag in your bag!

i hope that helps...practice at home first, and if all you can manage at

first is to use organic tampons at work and then switch to cloth pads when

you get home, that's already a big start.

also, to really pamper yourself, here's a trick: if you're feeling crampy

and raw, *iron* your cloth pad before you put it on. it's warm and soothing!!

there ya go. now you all know alllll about my bleeding habits.

-katja