The Scoop on Poop: The 5 Ws of Cloth Diapering
Bamboo, silk, hemp, wool, organic cotton: the garment labels in a socialite’s wardrobe? Try the ingredients in today’s cloth diapers. Oh yes, taking the environmental route has never been so luxurious --- or affordable.
If you’re still deciding between cloth and disposables, we’ve got the basics covered. What, who, where, when, and why? Forget the fabric choices (for now), and stop to think for a moment about some of the very real benefits of choosing cloth diapers.
What
Cloth diapers are diapers made of washable fibers instead of disposable ones. They are washed and reused throughout infancy and until potty training.
Birth Source currently carries a number of brands: AppleCheeks (read more about them in this issue’s product feature); Aristocrats wool covers; Bumboo; BumGenius; Bummis prefolds and covers; goodmama; and Little Beetle.
Who
Who cloth diapers? Anyone and everyone, these days! Find your tribe amongst the:
- Environmentalists. This group is often heard the loudest by those considering cloth diapers. You’ve likely heard their calls to action: using cloth saves 300 pounds of wood per child; you’ll use less water to wash your diapers regularly than was used to produce the disposables; using cloth saves 5400 disposables per child from the landfill.
- Budget-conscious. The cost of cloth diapering your child will depend on a number of factors: the brand you choose, the number you buy, the frequency with which you wash a load, and the length of time your child is in diapers. Assuming you buy top-of-the-line everything and wash them three times a week, you will probably still spend less than the $2500+ required for three years of disposable diapering. Two bonuses that disposables can’t match: the same cloth diapers can be reused for subsequent children, and many brands expand so that the same diaper fits a child from newborn to potty training.
- Fashionistas. Have you seen how cute cloth diapers are lately? The licensed characters on all those disposables have nothing on the fantastic designs carried by Birth Source and others. Our goodmama brand, for example, can be found in bright damask, plaid, and leopard print, to name just a few. Fashion-forward hues; luxurious bamboo and hemp; and moisture-wicking, temperature-regulating wool are just a few more properties of today’s cloth diapers that will have fashion-conscious parents running from disposables.
- Diaper haters. Let’s face it: even the cutest and most economical cloth diapers are still diapers. They still need to be changed and disposed of and dealt with for as long as your child is in diapers, and repeated visits to the change table are hardly the best part of any parent’s day. The fact is that cloth-diapered toddlers often potty-train faster than their disposable-diapered counterparts, which means your child could be free of diapers of any kind months ahead of peers.
- Rash haters. Many parents come to cloth diapering after trying everything else to treat their baby’s painful diaper rashes. A number of things contribute to diaper rash with disposables, including a lack of air circulation and chemical sensitivity, neither of which is an issue with cloth. Of course, the best way to ward off rashes is to change Baby frequently, whether he is in disposables or cloth, but for especially sensitive babies, a switch to natural fibers can be exactly the right solution.
- Crafters. Many mamas take the most economical route of sewing their own diapers from fabric scraps and leftover notions. Birth Source is so proud to stock a wide variety of diapers from mamas who started out making their own kids’ diapers and found them to be so popular on the playground that they started a business. If you’re craftily inclined, you can find tutorials online to help you sew a stash of cloth diapers and covers from materials you may already have on hand.
- Practical. For all the hype to the contrary, using cloth diapers these days is as easy as using disposables. Thanks to innovations like all-in-one diapers (which don’t require a separate cover), Velcro or snap closures, and moisture-wicking fibers, changing your baby in a cloth diaper can be the same experience as doing so with a disposable. Sure, you can still track down your grandmother’s cloth diapers if you want to, with the foldable cotton sheet and the pins and the rubber pants. That is an economical and viable option for many, but if the added time turns you off, know that it’s far from the only option.
Where
Cloth diapers can be used anywhere disposables are --- which is to say, anywhere and everywhere. At home, the process is as simple as it would be with disposables; on the go, you’ll bring a “wet bag” to stash any soiled diapers in until you get home. A wet bag will keep any mess and smell contained away from the other items in your diaper bag. Of course, cloth diapering doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. You wouldn’t be the only parent to use cloth diapers at home and disposables on the road, that’s for sure.
When
You will reap the most benefits from cloth diapering if you do so from the beginning. You will save the most money and have the biggest environmental impact by making the leap early on, but the benefits certainly don’t disappear if you find out about or choose to cloth diaper later on in your young child’s life. Remember that cloth diapers can be reused for subsequent children, and that many brands will expand in size to fit the same child from newborn through potty training.
Why
Cloth diapering is a very personal decision, as are most things in parenting. Here are a few final facts about disposables that may help you make up you make up mind:
- Sodium polyacrylate, the absorbent gel used in most disposables, can be very dangerous. It has been linked to toxic shock syndrome and has, as a result, been removed completely from tampons and most adult incontinence products. If ingested, it can be lethal to household pets.
- Dioxin, a by-product of the disposable diaper bleaching process, is a known carcinogen. It can also cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver.
- The fragrances used in many disposables are reported to cause headaches, dizziness and rashes in infants.
- Each disposable diaper you use can take up to 500 years to biodegrade in a landfill. Put another way, every single disposable ever used is still around, trying to decompose.
Take it one step further…
If you’re planning to use, or are already using, cloth diapers for your baby, it’s not a huge leap to consider reusable products for your own menstrual cycle. Birth Source carries two options: Luna Pads, a brand of absorbent cloth pads that can be washed the same way (and even at the same time) as diapers; and the Diva Cup, a plastic-free menstrual cup that is worn internally and washed between uses.
From the December 2009 issue of The Source
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