Cleveland, Ohio
By Diana Steele (Group member)

The "Cleveland" chapter of DiaperFreeBaby actually spans a wide geographic area, stretching more than 100 miles from east to west, and 30+ miles to the south. Only Lake Erie prevents us from having members to the north (so far, we haven't heard from any Great-Lakes-sailin' satellite-Internet-connected diaper-free mamas—hey are you out there?).

We debuted with a great feature article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer ("Diaper-free babies," 1/12/06), which covered our very first actual meeting in January 2006. A color photo of Lauren (at six months) on a Baby Bjorn Little Potty, with her mama Lisa Wilkins, was splashed across the front of the Arts and Life section. Needless to say, the favorable publicity has generated quite a bit of interest in our group.

For me, getting together with other mamas who share many of the same parenting philosophies as I do has made me feel less isolated in the sea of bottle-feeding, stroller-pushing, 'sposie-diapering culture that surrounds me. And the wisdom of several of our moms who have EC'd more than one child is both helpful and inspiring.

To accommodate the geographical diaspora of our members, we have been meeting monthly in rotating fashion on the east, south, and west sides of Cleveland. Our next meeting, on May 4 at 10 a.m., will be on the near west side, in Ohio City. (If you're anywhere in Northeast Ohio -or even out on Lake Erie- and would like more information about our group, contact Lisa Wilkins, or find us on the Web at groups.yahoo.com/clevelanddiaperfreebaby.

And if you have a yacht on Lake Erie and would like to host any of our summer meetings on the north side of Cleveland, we'll bring the refreshments!