Cloth Diapers vs Disposable Diapers

So, have you read your latest issue of Mothering Magazine? I have only gotten as far as the article about cloth diapers with the whole disposable diaper history lesson and already, I am stunned. Simply stunned.

There is a lot of data going the internet around that makes people feel okay about using disposable diapers. There are ridiculous biased studies that claim that if you factor in the amount of resources required to create cloth diapers and wash them, they are comparable in their environmental impact to disposables.

Come on!

Are you buying that?

I did a bit of quick math in my head and was able to get numbers even worse than what these articles say. For example, I have read that it costs $3000 to use disposable diapers over the span of diapering. I did some quick math and realized that this was based on the child being in diapers for 2-3 years and only on about 7 diaper changes per day. The prior is unrealistic and the latter is disgusting. Most children who wear diapers pee way more often than that and if they are peeing significantly less, especially in the first year, you need to be worried about dehydration. It turns out that potty training has been delayed more and more since the popular use of disposable diapers because children are disassociating with their own elimination. So figure on 4-5 years of disposables for many children, with some in pull-ups at night for 6 years and beyond. If you don't believe me, go see what the stores are stocking.

I am here to say that anyone who says the decision to choose cloth diapers or disposable diapers is a toss-up or a personal decision is wishy-washy, misinformed, or intentionally misleading you. Disposable diapers are a huge problem for our babies, our environment and our wallets. Period.

My friend Kathy (owner of BabysAbode.com) and I do a monthly talk at the Hollywood Birth Center for families who are expecting a baby and one of the topics is cloth diapers. I was stunned to have a fellow in there one time who was openly hostile about what we were saying. He simply refused to believe that the effect of feces in the ever growing landfills and diapers that don't decompose for 500 years was anything to worry about. And he came from Denmark, a country he readily admitted was quite advanced in its opinions on environmental issues.

Why do people stick their heads in the sand when it comes to our own short-term convenience? Why do we think it is acceptable to dump fecal matter in the regular trash when there are all sorts of complicated processes that go on for sewage to save us all getting contaminated? Remember all the plagues that stopped with the advent of indoor plumbing?

Cloth diapers are not all that complicated to care for and they are super inexpensive compared to disposable diapers. Let me back up a bit and say I was terrified to use cloth with my older daughter. I used the Tushies brand from Whole Foods because I figured they would be more natural for my baby's tender nether regions. Plus they decompose in a mere 50 years so we can go visit her poop pretty much for the rest of my lifetime.

I found the very thought of cloth diapers repulsive. Seriously, I did. If you have ever met me, you might be startled by that. I share that to show how far I've come and that I have faith that you, too, can come a long way in your thinking. You're reading this so you are open minded! So I continued using paper diapers on my sweet little baby's bottom.

But after 8 months of a continual disgusting diaper rash, I was motivated to look into other options. After a brief and confusing stint with a diaper service, I finally made the plunge and bought a starter pack of contoured cloth diapers and wraps. I had no one to guide me so I found it confusing at first but there are so many online forums with information handy that I was able to get it figured out pretty quickly.

I had a front loading washing machine so I could not soak my diapers. It turned out that there was no need. I only had enough diapers to last 2 days so I did laundry either daily or every 2 days. I did a cold rinse and then a hot wash with a minimal amount of gentle detergent. At that time, I machine dried my diapers but later, I realized that I could just tumble them for a few minutes and then hang them dry and save on resources. I no longer use a dryer at all for any laundry.

My daughter's rash cleared up within a few days. For good. After a few months, I got bold and stopped using the wrap when I was around the house. A friend who had lived in Africa for a few years educated me on how often to change diapers. I had been under some notion that the goal was to soak up as much pee as the thing could hold before changing it. Looking back, I wanna smack my former self sharply around the face for this but it is what I had soaked up from all the commercials which show a diaper about to explode and the parents still blissfully able to ignore the child. With cloth diapers not costing anything to change, there is no need to try to get the most out of each diaper.

So I started using the diapers alone and constantly checking for wetness, changing immediately. Long story short, she was totally out of diapers on her second birthday. With my second baby, I started doing elimination communication from birth and she was out of diapers for the most part by around 18 months. We also used cotton training pants fairly often because they hold a bit of pee and are less bulky to launder, and you can buy a whole lot of them for less money. I see no reason to keep children in big fat bulky diapers if you are going to change them after each pee. And my sqeamishness about getting pee or poop on me has, at least as far as my own babies is concerned, nearly completely gone away. For now, anyway.

One last thing I'd like to say is this: These ain't your mama's cloth diapers! In fact, cloth diapering has changed so much in the past few years, I dare you to go look and not come away hooked. Last month at our talk, we passed around a signup sheet at the beginning for a cloth diaper class. That clipboard flew so fast, a few people got injuries in their haste to get it back to us blank. Then later, while Kathy was passing around some cute cloth diaper options, I slyly started the clipboard on it's second journey. It's no surprise it came back with about half the people signed up!