cloth diapers, people!

i'm stepping up on my soap box for this post. i think every parent should seriously consider using cloth diapers. my parents used cloth. my husband's parents used cloth. i'm going to hazard a guess that a lot of kids born before 1990 wore cloth. it was just the way of things in those days. my mom said disposables existed, but she didn't trust them to hold a minute's worth of mouse pee let alone the gallons of pee my sister and i managed to expel each hour. and just because disposable diapers exist now and are relatively leak proof doesn't mean we're obligated to use them. sure, they're easy. they're convenient. they're no hassle. and 80% of american families use them. but we're also a lazy, lazy generation. our computers pay our bills for us. our mail comes to our laptops, so we don't even need to walk out to the mailbox at the end of the driveway. remote starters on our cars, electric toothbrushes, and retractable dog leashes have pretty much eliminated the need for physical movement throughout our daily lives. the reason we use disposable diapers is not because they're leak proof, but because we have it in our minds that cloth diapers are too much work. so clear away all your preconceptions and read the facts:


ENVIRONMENT
disposable diapers are terrible for the environment. they sit in land fills for 500 years and release chemicals into the soil. our kid goes through ~7 diapers a day, 49 per week, 196 per month, 2,548 per year, and 7,644 by the time she achieves potty-trained status. that is a ton of diapers that would sit in a landfill for 500 years. you may argue it takes energy (water and electricity) to wash cloth diapers, but the energy required for washing cloth diapers is a fraction of the energy and resources needed for disposable diapers. each year, manufacture of disposables requires 1 million metric tons of wood pulp and 75,000 metric tons of plastic. 


HEALTH

beyond the environmental impact, researchers don't really know what effect the dyes, sodium polyacrylate (the super absorbent gel), and dioxin, which is a by-product of bleaching paper, have on baby's bum. sodium polyacrylate has been linked to toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and allergic reactions. dyes and dioxin can damage the central nervous system, kidneys and liver. diaper rash is way more common with disposables, but this varies according to skin sensitivity. studies show that the gas emissions from one disposable diaper caused asthma-like symptoms in mice. tolune, xylene, ethylbenzene, styrene, and isopropylbenzene are chemicals that produce gas emissions from disposable diapers. i have no idea what any of these chemicals are, but i know they're not in my daughter's cotton diapers.  

MONEY

everyone likes to save money. if the environment and health arguments weren't persuasive, maybe money will sway you. cloth diapers are an up front investment. diaper covers are about $8-12 each (we own 8 or 9, but really we could get away with 4-6). the actual prefold diapers cost us approximately $20 per dozen. if you go the all-in-one or pocket diaper route, you could pay anywhere from $12-$25 per diaper and you'd need about 18. so like i said, it's an investment up front. but after you buy the diapers, you don't have to worry about buying any more. no more midnight runs to the grocery for a $10 pack of diapers. no more budgeting each month for $100 worth of diapers and wipes. studies vary on the exact numbers, but all agree using cloth diapers, laundered at home, is significantly cheaper than purchasing disposables. you can even drop costs even more by eliminating the use of a dryer and hanging them on a line; cloth diapers last longer that way, too. 

SO EASY!

if you don't believe me, watch this cbs news video segment: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7131550n

we've been cloth diapering for 12 months and it is so easy. we have a variety of cloth diapers, but, for the most part, we stick to prefolds and inserts during the day and fuzzibuns at night. we stack the diapers after washing and have them ready to grab when we need a clean one; it's just as easy as grabbing a disposable. and washing is a piece of cake, too. we just dump the pal in the washer and run it through 2 full cycles (one with detergent) and then pop them in the dryer. occasionally, we'll add vinegar and baking soda to the load to eliminate any residual odors. 

POOP

most people i talk to are most concerned about poop. they don't want to touch poop. they don't want poop in their washing machine. they don't want to wash diapers in a toilet. etc. but let me put it to you this way, do you put your poo in your trash can? do you store your poo in a diaper genie? my guess is no and if you do, the health department might have something to say about it. poo belongs in the toilet, not stinking up your baby's nursery or sitting in your kitchen garbage bin. poo also does not belong in landfills, where it can spread bacteria and viruses to scavenging animals and the world at large. poop during the first 6 months of a breast-fed baby's life is a piece of cake. most moms don't even rinse this poop from diapers; there's really no need. and poop post-solid food is smelly and often triggers a gag reflex, but you just shake it out in the toilet, maybe even give it a little dunk in the water or, as we do, use a handy dandy sprayer, and toss it in the pal. and no, your washer isn't going to have skid marks. your subsequently laundered clothes will not come out smelling of poop. the diapers will go through 2-3 hot wash cycles effectively killing any germs and removing any traces of poop from your washer. 

ECO-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVES

seventh generation, earth's best and gdiapers make eco-friendly alternatives to pampers, huggies and other store brands. these eco-friendly diapers are chlorine and bleach free, made with recycled and renewable resources, and gdiapers are flushable (so no landfills!). a package of these eco-friendly diapers runs about $2 more than pampers or huggies, but if you're going to insist on sticking with disposable, spend the extra $2 to give our environment a fighting chance and keep your baby's bum free of myriad chemicals. 

there is so much more information out there than what i've provided here. please, if you're the parent of a kid in diapers, consider going the cloth route or, at the very least, the eco-friendly route! cloth diapers are not just for hippy parents and the environmentally conscious.