#1. Your baby's comfort.
Would you like to wear stiff paper (and/or plastic)
underwear 24 hours a day? The comfort of cotton and knowing
I was providing the best possible comfort for my
daughter was the #1 reason I switched to cloth diapers,
and why I still love them so much today.
#2. The environment.
Leave a cleaner world behind for your
baby, and your grandchildren. Disposables
leave behind an average of 2.7 tons* of non-biodegradable waste (not
to mention the waste produced by manufacturing
them alone) per child. Compare that to a
few dozen cotton diapers, and the responsible
choice also becomes an easy one.
#3. Save money.
With disposables, some estimate you spend an
average of $2000 per child.
Cloth compares at only an average of $150-$350 per child
(with the added but minimal cost of electricity and water to launder
them). What a great excuse to start a college fund for
your baby now, and you can rest assure that your money
is being well-spent and not going to "waste" in a land-fill!
#4. Potty training is easier, and happens earlier.
It's a little-known fact that cloth diaper children
potty train earlier, and with less effort on their
parent's part. This has mostly to do with the fact
that when a cloth diaper is wet, they can feel the
sensation. Chemical laden disposables can feel
so dry, your baby never gets a chance to understand
what their body is doing.
#5. Cotton diapers are gel free.
Polyacrylate gel in diapers is a relatively new
phenomenon, and no one really knows what the
long term effects are. It also leaches moisture
from your babies skin. Additionally, disposables are full
of dioxins. While non-organic cotton cloth diapers
can also have dioxins, they typically are washed
out within the first few pre-washes (before your
baby will ever wear them), however one-use-only
disposables are never rid of them. Additionally,
and perhaps the most compelling reason to use
cloth diapers, is that disposable diapers
containing polyacrylate gel are
suspected of exacerbating, and
even causing, asthma.
#6. Cloth diapers are so much better looking.
Photographers still traditionally photograph
diapered babies in cloth diapers, simply because they are so much
cuter!
Today they are available in as many prints and colors as their are
fabrics available, not to mention the combination of
choices you have with twill, flannel, hemp, terry and more.
Imagine how many classic baby photos would suddenly
become less "quaint" with a baby wrapped in a disposable diaper.
I prefer to bring my groceries home in paper and plastic, not my baby!
#7. More fun for Mom.
While not every mother (or woman, for that matter) is a born
"shopaholic", most moms I know just love how fun it is to
shop for cloth diapers. There are unlimited choices
today in cloth diapering, like all-in-one, terry,
flannel, contour, prefold, fitted and other contemporary-style
cloth diapers. And when you are on a budget,
swapping is a great, and
economical,
way to try the latest new "rage" in cloth diapers.
#8. Better cushioning for baby's bum.
We all know that babies and toddlers have
their fair share of bumps and spills!
Cushy cotton provides a much softer "landing pad"
than a flat paper diaper.
#9. Convenience.
Convenience? Yes, convenience! You'll never have
to worry about making another late-night trip to
your grocery store for a package of disposable
diapers... You'll never have to hold your nose while
emptying and re-bagging one of those complicated
"Diaper Genie®"
contraptions... And you'll have approximately
two bags less of garbage to haul to the curb every week!
#10. Being a leader is much more fun than being a follower.
Stand out from the crowd and show you care to give
your baby the very best, including the way you diaper.
It's so much more fun to share the joy of cloth diapering
with other mothers (who are usually very curious!),
than to waste time clipping the latest coupons for the
cheapest disposable paper diaper.
» Have
you also
read The Top Ten Myths About
Cloth Diapering?
*
"Disposable diapers were introduced as recently
as 1961, but they now dominate the market,
accounting for 80 percent of the diapers used in
the United States, with each child using an
average total of 5,000 diapers from birth to
about 30 months. This adds up to over 16
billion diapers or 2.7 million tons of municipal
solid waste nationwide which contributes to the
already existing landfill problems, according to
the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)."
-- Luanne Berk, Family.com
** Disposable diaper
emissions cause asthma-like
symptoms in mice
WESTPORT, Oct 01 (Reuters Health) - Chemical emissions from
disposable diapers leads to pulmonary
irritation and other symptoms in exposed mice, researchers
report in the September-October issue of the
Archives of Environmental Health.
Drs. Rosalind C. Anderson and Julius H. Anderson of Anderson
Laboratories, West Hartford, Vermont found
that following exposure to "...two brands of disposable
diapers, many mice exhibited reduced mid-expiratory
airflow velocity, sensory irritation and pulmonary irritation."
These Effects were increased
with repeat exposure.
"Chemical analysis of the emissions revealed several chemicals
with documented respiratory toxicity," the
authors write.
Exposure to a third brand of disposable diaper did not cause
irritation, but negatively affected breathing
rate and pattern, while only slight respiratory effects were
noted with cloth
diapers.
The team concludes that "[d]isposable diapers should be
considered as one of the factors that might cause
or exacerbate asthmatic conditions."
Dr. Julius Anderson told Reuters Health that further studies
"...are needed to determine whether child care
products such as disposable diapers are contributing to the
worldwide childhood asthma epidemic."
He recommended that in children "...with asthma or other
respiratory diseases [one] should probably avoid
disposable diapers and use cloth diapers instead...and mothers
with asthma should probably avoid handling
disposable diapers."
Arch Environ Health 1999;54:353-358.
-Westport Newsroom 203 319 2700
© 1999, Susan Dodge-Doak. May not be reprinted
without permission.
