Burning Ones

Posts from April 22, 2009

• Cloth Diapering

  From April 22, 2009 @ 10:04 am

  

  So after finding a wonderful and encouraging resource at the Maternal Wellness Center (MWC) where we took a class on the subject, Timmy and I decided to cloth diaper. Cloth diapering has come a long way from safety pins and cloth (that’s what my mommy used on me!)

  I highly recommend cloth diapering. In fact, I think it’s downright silly not to.

  Here are some reasons:

  • Your impact on the environment will be significantly less. The average child uses about 600 diapers. That means you will have contributed 600 diapers to some landfill and because they’re made from the same material as menstrual pads, they will either take a VERY long time (not in your life time, or your child’s life time) to disintegrate or they will never break down because they’re in a closed landfill.
  • You will save thousands of dollars.. that’s right, thousands. You can comfortably cloth diaper your child for about $500-$1000. If you buy disposables and your child is in diapers for the diaper average (2.5 years) you’ll be spending about $2000 if you buy a relatively-medium priced diaper.

    AND your cloth diapers, if you take good care of them, can last through 2 kids, meaning you’ll save about $3000 even with the added cost of the cloth diapers.

  • It’s easier to potty train your child. Disposables are “great” because the child can not feel that their wet. That isn’t so with cloth which gives your child a good reason to stay dry.
  Common Objections:
  • You don’t want to do more wash: We bought a total of 32 diapers and I have to do wash 6 times a month. That’s it.
  • I don’t want to scrap poop into a toilet: You don’t have to! They have something called  “rice paper” which is essentially thick toilet paper and you can “catch” a poop and then dispose of it in a toilet (did you know it’s actually illegal to throw out excrement? Obviously a law that’s not enforced).
  Now, I don’t want to sugar-coat it. It is more work. A lot of couples wait until their infant is on solids because dealing with breast milk poop is like dealing with daily diarrhea. But, to be honest, it’s not that bad. The rice paper catches most of it and if it does leak out onto the cover you wash the cover. But I think that the inconviences far outweigh the positives.

  It’s something you can ask for at your baby shower (to lower cost even more). We use Growing Greens (we got hemp instead of cotton because hemp absorbs more) with Imse Vimse Wool Covers (we have 24 of those) and then we have 8 Bum Geniuses which we use for going out because they’re one piece. I have heard great things about Mother-ease also.

  And here’s a picture of me at 5 months pregnant about to go to the class: