Cloth Diapers

We recently switched Haddie to cloth diapers and I have really liked the results.

You may be wondering why?

Why?

• Disposable diapers go straight to land fills and sit there forever. It made me realize that disposable really isn't disposable. They say 500 years but, we really don't know for sure yet. One thing we do know is that there isn't any air in landfills so you can imagine what just sits in them. Here is some info from Mothering Magazine:

" Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers--a significant fact, considering they are a single product, used by a limited portion of the population.1 It takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US."

• The disposable diaper companies advertise with making your baby feel dry while they are actually wet. Is this really a good thing? Their urine is still there and We(myself included) will just leave the diaper on them until its "heavy" well now its full of their pee, there isn't any air in the diaper and it creates the perfect storm for a nasty diaper rash.

• The cost of diapers is awful: Even if you buy the store brand pack the lowest I have seen is 5.75 for a week multiply that by 52 weeks and most likely 2 1/2 years....that equals $747.00.
  

• Finally, a chemical called sodium polyacrylate it is what makes the diaper super absorbent sometimes you can see this when changing diapers they are like little beads or a clear gel on your baby. This chemical can absorb 100 times it weight in water. Here is the kicker: Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome. There hasn't been a long term study on the effects but maybe in the future.

I have really liked that I am more involved with Haddie's cycle instead of just forgetting about it and letting her diaper get obnoxiously huge for me to notice, reusing diapers over and over again after you wash them is just CRAZY AWESOME I am no longer paying for diapers, and its helping Haddie realize when she is actually wet (obviously for later on in life). :)


I will post later on how.


I just encourage anyone who is interested to look it up!!!


Here is a link to the mothering magazine article:

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html