My thoughts on Cloth Diapering

A friend of mine asked me to do some blog posts on cloth diapering and what my experience has been with it.






So..here is some information I have compiled on cloth diapering as well as my own personal experiences.


Cloth diapers are better for the environment.
Here are a few of the reasons why:

Eighteen billion disposable diapers are placed in landfills each year. They take as long as 500 years to decompose.

Disposable diapers make up the third-largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food/beverage containers.

It takes more than 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp (a quarter of a million tress) to manufacture the disposables that cover all the babies in the United States right now.

The wastewater produced from washing diapers is benign, while the wastewater from the manufacture of the pulp, paper, and plastics used in disposable diapers is toxic, containing dioxins, solvents, sludge, and heavy metals.

The Landbank Report, an independent review and evaluation done by a London environmental agency, concluded that compared with cloth diapers, throwaway diapers use 20 times more raw materials, three times more energy, two times more water, and generate 60 times more waste (The Landbank Consultancy Limited, “A Review of Proctor & Gamble’s Environmental Balances for Disposable and Re-usable Nappies,” July 1991).
Damage to the environment by using disposable diapers is only one factor in your choices about diapers.

Another factor is the health and comfort of your baby.
Consider these points:

Superabasorbent disposable diapers contain a substance called sodium
polyacrylate that absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. When you change a
baby that has worn one of these diapers, you may notice clear beads of this gel
on her genitals and bottom. No studies have been conducted on the effects of
sodium polyacrylate on infants, many of whom are exposed to it 24 hours a day
for years. Dioxin, a toxic by-product of the paper bleaching process used in
making disposable diapers, is present in them.

Recent research has indicated that disposables may be a trigger for asthma, due to the release of chemical fumes. No similar response occurred in the cloth diapers tested.

A German study found a possible link between plastic diapers and male
infertility. Further studies are needed to see if these effects are long term.

Disposable diapers seem to cause more skin problems in babies. Cotton
seems to “breathe” better. Disposables are so well sealed that a baby can go for
hours without a leak—but that same seal gives bacteria a fabulous breeding
ground as well, and the ammonia that develops in the bacterial breakdown of
urine has nowhere to go. Babies in cloth diapers tend to be changed more
frequently, whereas the sense of dryness that disposable diaper gives may cause
the parents to leave it on the baby for hours.

There are other advantages to using cloth diapers as well. One of these is cost. Disposable diapers cost between 14 and 32 cents per use. Cloth diapers can cost as little as 5 cents per use, if you wash them yourself, or between 8 and 15 cents per use if you use a service.

As well, experts tend to agree that toddlers who use cloth diapers potty-train earlier. There is a very good reason for this. Children who wear disposable cannot feel the dampness of their diapers. There is simply no incentive to learn to use the toilet.

Here is a great article from Mothering magazine on cloth diapering.
It is called, "Dumping Disposable Diapers"

p.s. - the formatting on that last paragraph is off, I know...couldn't fix it. ;-P