The Cloth Diapering Debate

I wouldn't call myself a very "green" person. We have a recycle bin, but Mike throws anything and everything into it, and I don't always stop him. I thought about composting, but lost motivation to start doing it. So I know I'm not a Greenpeace spokesperson, but I do feel some responsibility to try to be more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly. I also like the benefits that come with being both of these things...convenience and more importantly, money in our pocket. 


So, when I got pregnant, I really wanted to try cloth diapering. I had done a little bit of research, and it's becoming a much more popular option these days as the system has definitely modernized itself since our parents diapered us. Gone are the days of diaper pins and rags. They have cloth diapers that work exactly like disposables now, with the added benefit of being able to reuse the diapers from birth until pottytraining. So my main 3 reasons for wanting to go the cloth route were:


1. Costs
Estimates have shown that each baby will need about 6,000 diapers during the first 2 years of life. Now if you were to diaper that baby in disposables, that would equal out to roughly about 60 diapers per week. A big Costco size box of diapers runs about 18 cents per diaper, which equals over $1000. So far, the diapering supplies that I have registered for totals around $400. Plus, we will be able to use this supplies the entire time Kenley will be in diapers, and hopefully, for the next kid as well. For diapers that are outgrown or just don't work well for us, the resell value is fairly high. There are many cloth diaper forums where people buy up used diapers for more than half of the original price (depending on condition). I feel alot better about spending money on something that we can reuse or resell, versus much more money that literally gets thrown straight into the trash. 


2. Health Benefits
Another major reason I wanted to look into cloth was for health reasons. I had heard that babies that are cloth diapered experience less diaper rash. This seems to have more to do with frequent changes than anything else. Here are some other facts I came across when researching cloth vs. disposables:

  Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process.  It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals.  It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S.

Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.

Disposable diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbency tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome by increasing absorbency and improving the environment for the growth of toxin-producing bacteria.

All of these facts kind of freak me out when I think about them being against my child's delicate skin for at least 2 years out of their life. 

3. Environmental
And lastly, I have to say that bringing a child into the world, I like to think we will be a good example of taking care of the planet and actually caring about the environment. Who knows what the world will be like once Kenley is our age, but at the rate we are going, it might not be too pretty. I would really like to pass on good habits and awareness to her, so she feels some responsibility to do her part. I know, it seems like a very granola, hippy-dippy idea, but I do think it's important. 


Did you know that even when using disposable diapers, you are supposed to dump the excrement into the toilet? Most people don't read that fine print on the diaper packages. So many in fact, that less than one half of one percent of this goes into our sewage system. That means, all those poopy diapers go straight to the landfill. It is estimated that it takes about 250-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose. Just thinking about all the diapers sitting in that landfill waiting to decompose is astonishing. If your parents used disposables, those diapers are still sitting in the ground somewhere, and will be there for the rest of our lives. Pretty eye opening stuff. 


Now the more difficult part was getting Mike on board with the idea. This being our first time around all this stuff, he was skeptical to believe that cloth is going to be just as easy as disposable. He also posed that if cloth diapering was so much easier now, why you didn't see more people doing it. Our only examples of diapering parents are Mary and Eric, and even they are not sold on my idea that this will work for us. My philosophy is when I hear someone who DOES cloth diaper say it's hard, a waste of time, or too yucky, that's when I will listen. But those who have never even tried a cloth diaper, or who know nothing about it, don't really have much of an argument against it. 


The big turning point was going to be daycare. If daycare said they wouldn't do cloth, it was going to be a hard battle to win, since Kenley will be there 5 days a week. As soon as the daycare we chose agreed though, the tide tipped back my way. 

So, I have worked on getting a system down that will work for the both of us. There are so many choices out there for cloth diapers, and all in different price ranges. I decided that fitteds and prefolds will work well in the beginning when Kenley is still small. Rochelle sent us some Kissaluvs fitted diapers that are supposed to be great for newborns and little babies. These simply snap on like a disposable and require a waterproof cover on top (we will go with Thirsties covers). Perfect for those middle of the night changes, and any time Mike doesn't want to mess with a prefold. 

A prefold is much like the diapers our parents used, but these days you can pin them with a Snappi. This clings to the diaper like those Ace Bandage clips. Also, the great thing about prefolds is that you can use them for burp cloths and as doublers in your nighttime diapers. Multi-use and cheap! I don't have any of these yet, but definitely plan to get a stash of them.


In addition to these bargaining points, I told Mike that we will cloth diaper when it's convienent. I agreed that while travelling or on longer trips when washers and cloth is more difficult to keep up with, we can use disposables. My whole point is to make things easier and more cost efficient. 


I also told Mike that I would be in charge of doing the laundry for these. So literally, I would only be asking that he change her out of a cloth diaper and into a new one. How can you say no to that kind of deal? As we got in our first diapers, we did a little practice session, so he could see how simple it was. Mike demonstrates below:

Pretty simple! Dad, grandma, and daycare friendly to boot! And hello, look how cute the colors are! I might not ever want to put pants on Kenley! These are called All-In-One diapers, because that's exactly what they are. The whole diaper is already put together, you simply take it off baby and wash it all in one piece. I got a few BumGenius One Size Organics to try out. These are great because they fit babies from about 8lbs - 35lbs. You can adjust the rise and the side flaps with snaps (which are recommended over the velcro version as they hold up better, and it's harder for older babies to pull out of). Plus, these specific diapers are known to be super absorbant and fit well lots of different sized babies well. 


So all in all, I think we can really succeed with the whole cloth diapering thing. But I did agree that if it wasn't working for us, that we could switch, although I think I've made a pretty convincing argument of why we should fully jump into this crazy world! ;)


A few extras from our photoshoot. If I can diaper Zoe, I think I can handle a baby! Look how cute she is...