Cloth Diapering 101: Why We Chose to Cloth Diaper
Wren's cute little cloth diapered bum back in January (~2 months old)
It is no secret that we use cloth diapers and we are loving it! We get a TON of questions from so many different people...friends, family members, heck...even strangers in the bathroom while we're changing Wren! Even people who don't have kids are interested in seeing how things have changed.
For that reason, I thought I would do a little blog series this week in celebration of Earth Day on Friday, sharing why we chose to cloth diapers, sharing pictures of the diapers/our laundry routine/daycare, what our favorites are, some of the challenges, etc. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to email me. We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have!
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear, from the beginning, that we are IN NO WAY saying that we think everyone else should cloth diaper. We realize it's not a choice everyone wants to make. We 100% feel that cloth diapering is the best, and only, option for us and our family. But frankly, we don't care what other people do. That's not to say we don't care about the little baby bums, just that we honestly don't judge anyone else for their choice to use "disposable" diapers.The posts pertaining to cloth diapering are strictly our opinions, our experiences and just a way of sharing information. We don't claim to know what's best for any families other than our own! Also, we are not experts by any stretch of the imagination!
Okay, so I thought a good place to start was with talking about the factors that led us to choose cloth diapers. In the end, it was an absolute no-brainer for us.
For that reason, I thought I would do a little blog series this week in celebration of Earth Day on Friday, sharing why we chose to cloth diapers, sharing pictures of the diapers/our laundry routine/daycare, what our favorites are, some of the challenges, etc. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to email me. We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have!
DISCLAIMER: I want to be clear, from the beginning, that we are IN NO WAY saying that we think everyone else should cloth diaper. We realize it's not a choice everyone wants to make. We 100% feel that cloth diapering is the best, and only, option for us and our family. But frankly, we don't care what other people do. That's not to say we don't care about the little baby bums, just that we honestly don't judge anyone else for their choice to use "disposable" diapers.The posts pertaining to cloth diapering are strictly our opinions, our experiences and just a way of sharing information. We don't claim to know what's best for any families other than our own! Also, we are not experts by any stretch of the imagination!
Okay, so I thought a good place to start was with talking about the factors that led us to choose cloth diapers. In the end, it was an absolute no-brainer for us.
Here is a short list of reasons why we chose to cloth diaper:
*Environmental
*Health
*Cost
*Cute Factor!
*Other
*Health
*Cost
*Cute Factor!
*Other
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:So this is where people tend to get a little testy. Again, let me say that we don't care if YOU use "disposables!" Please don't take offense to the things we have to say...these are our opinions combined with the facts. Okay, moving on...
The first figure that I remember gasping at was when I read that it takes between 200 and 500 years for a "disposable" diaper to actually decompose in a landfill. When we put that into more personal terms, that means that "disposable" diapers we put on Wren today would be here long after she is gone, after her children are gone, after her grandchildren are gone and even probably after her grandchildren's children are gone. That's just not okay with us. We both feel that we need to be good stewards of our land and at some point we will run out of room. In fact, we are already running out of room! Did you know that Hawaii is already out of room for landfills, so they are shipping their waste to the lower 48 states? Yep, true story.
Another environmental factor is the incredible amount of crude oil it takes to produce "disposables." If you think about it in more personal terms, it's pretty safe to say that 8 diapers a day is a good average. More in the early days, less as they get older...but 8 is a pretty good estimate. So you figure 8 diapers a day, so 8 cups of crude oil a day. That calculates to just over 180 gallons of crude oil used to diaper ONE baby in ONE year. Each gallon is just under 7 pounds. So if you calculate it out, each baby, over the course of his or her diapering "career," will use over 1.5 TONS OF CRUDE OIL. And that doesn't even include the oil used to make the plastic packaging! Crude oil is not a renewable resource. Once it's gone, it's gone. That's just not okay with us.
*I should note here that we are often asked about the extra water used to wash the diapers. My arguement to that is water IS a renewable resource. I'd rather use a bit more water than deplete something that will one day be GONE. I'll talk a bit more about water use in the "cost" section.
Finally, the solid waste and chemicals that are wrapped up in each "disposable" diaper are really not meant to be put back into the Earth. If you actually read side of a package of "disposables," it mentions that you should flush the fecal matter down the toilet before throwing them away. (Full Disclosure: I've only read this online, I've never actually checked the side of a package.) But we all know that doesn't happen! I'll get to the chemicals in the next section...
The bottom line is that we're just not okay with contributing to filling our land with waste. We feel that cloth diapers are one way that we can help to prolong this beautiful Earth for Wren and her children, grandchildren, etc.
HEALTH IMPLICATIONS:Last year, you may remember all of the news surrounding the investigation of certain stay-dry diapers causing chemical burns on babies. This was an immediate red flag to me. We had, by that time, already pretty much made the decision that CD'ing was for us, but this was just another confirmation that we were making the right choice.
Whether or not the diapers were actually the cause, I don't know. And frankly, I don't care. There were thousands of parents who came forward and made the claim. For me, reading just a little bit about the chemicals used to make the stay-dry "disposable" diapers was enough to make our decision.
If you do any sort of research on chemicals like Dioxin and Sodium Polyacrylate, I can assure you--it's not pretty. Dioxin is produced as a result of the bleaching process that "disposables" go through. The EPA considers Dioxin to be the most dangerous of all carcinogens (remember, the word "carcinogen" means "cancer causing") and it is banned in most countries outside of the US. Sodium Polyacrylate is the chemical that causes "disposables" to gel up and form little crystals. Sodium Polyacrylate was banned from use in tampons in the 80's because of its link to Toxic Shock Syndrome. It is a dangerous chemical that, if ingested, will cause nausea, vomiting and even in some cases has caused death. The list literally goes on and on. We were just not comfortable exposing Wren's delicate skin (and other body parts) to these chemicals.
And if they're not safe for her bottom, they're obviously not safe for the ground, which goes back to the environmental piece.
::off the soapbox::
COST:
I think, especially at this point, that we would both agree that even if we didn't save ANY money by cloth diapering, we would still do it. The health and environmental reasons, for us, justify the decision enough. BUT, the good news is that it actually is MUCH cheaper to cloth diaper!The first figure that I remember gasping at was when I read that it takes between 200 and 500 years for a "disposable" diaper to actually decompose in a landfill. When we put that into more personal terms, that means that "disposable" diapers we put on Wren today would be here long after she is gone, after her children are gone, after her grandchildren are gone and even probably after her grandchildren's children are gone. That's just not okay with us. We both feel that we need to be good stewards of our land and at some point we will run out of room. In fact, we are already running out of room! Did you know that Hawaii is already out of room for landfills, so they are shipping their waste to the lower 48 states? Yep, true story.
Another environmental factor is the incredible amount of crude oil it takes to produce "disposables." If you think about it in more personal terms, it's pretty safe to say that 8 diapers a day is a good average. More in the early days, less as they get older...but 8 is a pretty good estimate. So you figure 8 diapers a day, so 8 cups of crude oil a day. That calculates to just over 180 gallons of crude oil used to diaper ONE baby in ONE year. Each gallon is just under 7 pounds. So if you calculate it out, each baby, over the course of his or her diapering "career," will use over 1.5 TONS OF CRUDE OIL. And that doesn't even include the oil used to make the plastic packaging! Crude oil is not a renewable resource. Once it's gone, it's gone. That's just not okay with us.
*I should note here that we are often asked about the extra water used to wash the diapers. My arguement to that is water IS a renewable resource. I'd rather use a bit more water than deplete something that will one day be GONE. I'll talk a bit more about water use in the "cost" section.
Finally, the solid waste and chemicals that are wrapped up in each "disposable" diaper are really not meant to be put back into the Earth. If you actually read side of a package of "disposables," it mentions that you should flush the fecal matter down the toilet before throwing them away. (Full Disclosure: I've only read this online, I've never actually checked the side of a package.) But we all know that doesn't happen! I'll get to the chemicals in the next section...
The bottom line is that we're just not okay with contributing to filling our land with waste. We feel that cloth diapers are one way that we can help to prolong this beautiful Earth for Wren and her children, grandchildren, etc.
HEALTH IMPLICATIONS:Last year, you may remember all of the news surrounding the investigation of certain stay-dry diapers causing chemical burns on babies. This was an immediate red flag to me. We had, by that time, already pretty much made the decision that CD'ing was for us, but this was just another confirmation that we were making the right choice.
Whether or not the diapers were actually the cause, I don't know. And frankly, I don't care. There were thousands of parents who came forward and made the claim. For me, reading just a little bit about the chemicals used to make the stay-dry "disposable" diapers was enough to make our decision.
If you do any sort of research on chemicals like Dioxin and Sodium Polyacrylate, I can assure you--it's not pretty. Dioxin is produced as a result of the bleaching process that "disposables" go through. The EPA considers Dioxin to be the most dangerous of all carcinogens (remember, the word "carcinogen" means "cancer causing") and it is banned in most countries outside of the US. Sodium Polyacrylate is the chemical that causes "disposables" to gel up and form little crystals. Sodium Polyacrylate was banned from use in tampons in the 80's because of its link to Toxic Shock Syndrome. It is a dangerous chemical that, if ingested, will cause nausea, vomiting and even in some cases has caused death. The list literally goes on and on. We were just not comfortable exposing Wren's delicate skin (and other body parts) to these chemicals.
And if they're not safe for her bottom, they're obviously not safe for the ground, which goes back to the environmental piece.
::off the soapbox::
COST:
We literally sat down last night and calculated how much we have spent on our diapers.
Let me be clear: they are an investment. But they *will* save us money. Some people say they don't have the money to invest immediately, and I do understand that. For us, that wasn't an issue. So, to give you an idea, most people say that around 24 diapers is plenty. For us, we made a rookie mistake or two at the beginning, so we have wound up with more than that. Also, we like to have more since Wren goes to daycare a couple days per week. We have 55 diapers. 6 of those are strictly for newborn use (we used "disposables" until her meconium was gone and her umbilical cord fell off). Another 10 of them are a brand that hasn't worked out for us. The good news is that they retain their value VERY well, so we are giving it a little time to see if they fit better as Wren grows, and if not we will sell them for exactly what we paid, or a few bucks less at the very least (YES, they retain their value that well!). So for 55 diapers, we have paid $535.61. I should note that we received some as gifts, won one on a blog giveaway and were given 3 from someone who decided not to CD anymore. But, in general, we've paid just under $10 per diaper.
I used a cost calculator and we will (most likely) break even when Wren turns about 7 months old. MIND YOU, we could have easily spent $150 less, so it is very possible to break even at even 4 or 5 months!
Are there added costs? YES! We have seen our water bill go up some, but it is difficult to gauge how much given that we a.) have a new baby who has a lot of laundry and clothes outside of the diapers, b.) moved into a new house only a little while before starting with the cloth diapers. But, yes. It has gone up. As for drying, we hang them outside as often as possible and haven't really seen an increase, again probably due to the added person in the house, the bigger house, the higher water heater setting, etc.
We also have spent a bit of money on wet bags (where we store the diapers for daycare and the dirty diapers...I'll show more of this later in the week), and we do have to buy detergent for them. We are currently using up the last of our store-bought wipes and will soon be switching to cloth wipes, too, so there will be no expense there.
But the great thing about the cost factor is that we'll already have made the investment if/when we have more babies! We will most likely spend $100 or so just on some new colors and some small sized cloth diapers, but for every additional child we have, we will be saving $1,700 to $2,000 or more PER CHILD over the course of their time in diapers.
Clearly, cost is great. Josh wouldn't have been on board if it hadn't been cost effective, at least not initially. I think he'd agree today, like I said, that even if we didn't save a dollar, we both think the cloth diapers are worth it! Bottom line, though? Cloth diapers are much more cost effective than sposies.
CUTE FACTOR:More to come later in the week! All I can say is that it is soooo much fun and sooo addicting! I have some super cute pictures showing the many different options for matching diapers up with her outfits. Basically, it's one more way to coordinate her outfits and her fluffy little butt is just so adorable!
OTHER FACTORS:I can't really speak to this (obviously), but there is some evidence that says kids who are cloth diapered potty train earlier than those who aren't. The theory is it goes back to those chemicals, and the fact that babies/kids in "disposables" don't even know they're wet because the crystals form and soak up all of the wetness. CD'd kids know they're wet. They can feel it...so apparently this helps when it comes time to potty train.
Again, I can't really speak to this, but some say CD'd babies get fewer diaper rashes. Wren has had some rashes, but they were almost always linked to yeast, so they had nothing to do with diapers.
Finally, some say that you have fewer blowouts with cloth diapers. We have encountered some leaks here and there (I will discuss this in a future post), but we have only really had one or two "blowouts," and the one real one was after a 14-day stint of no pooping by Wren. So I'm pretty sure nothing could stand up to that kind of force!
PPPhhew!!! If you stuck around this long, you are really interested!!
I promise, this was the most "dry" of the posts. I will have lots of pictures and will be answering questions, so I look forward to hearing from you! I promise tomorrow is going to be CUTE OVERLOAD!
