Real Diaper Week - What's in Those Disposables, Anyway?

SO I got started with cloth diapering because I wanted to save my family big bucks over the course of our baby-years.  Then I got hooked because they are ridiculously cute.  Then I felt really good about my decision when I learned about all the chemical grossness in disposables, and about all the potential health risks inherent with them.

Now, not everyone's baby will have a reaction to disposable diapers.  Some families will use them exclusively for all of their kids and never notice an issue.  Some unlucky families will have issues though.  And some of them will be pretty bad.  I just think that every mom and dad should know what the possible health ramifications are no matter what you choose.  An informed parent is a smart parent.  Our babies are too precious to stick our heads in the sand.

I can't tell you that my baby never gets rashes now that she is exclusively cloth diapered.  She has sensitive skin like her momma, and that means a red tushie now and again.  The wonderful thing for us though is that she's gotten a lot fewer rashes since switching to cloth, and the ones that she does get are much milder. She got some pretty nasty rashes in the first month of her little life, and I just felt so horrible for her!  I feel a lot better knowing that she spends a lot fewer days with an irritated bum now that she's in cloth.  Any time you expose your baby's bottom to wetness there is a possibility for rashes to occur.  That is why, with either cloth or disposables, it is so important to change their diapers as soon as you know they've done their business.

The thing I like about cloth is that, even with stay dry options, you know as a mom that your baby will need to be changed often in order to keep them comfortable.  With disposables, it's easy to put off diaper changes because they can soak up so much urine.  In fact, by some accounts, disposable diapers can soak up almost 800 times their weight.  This let me slack off on my diaper-changing duties a few times, and I know I'm not the only one.  The problem is that while baby may feel dry, they are still sitting in their own urine, not to mention the chemicals that are absorbing them.  It's not good for their sensitive skin.

The chemical that allows a diaper to soak up so much urine is called Sodium Polyacrylate.  You know those little gel-like crystals that you sometime see on your baby's behind when you change them?  That's Sodium Polyacrylate.  This chemical is thought to be part of the cause of skin irritation and respiratory problems in babies.  In fact, this same chemical was taken out of tampons because it was causing Toxic Shock Syndrome.  We don't really know what kind of long term effects this chemical may have because it hasn't been used for very long in diapers.   The thing is that your baby's skin, like our adult skin, absorbs some of whatever chemical substance that comes into contact with it, especially for long periods of time.  I personally don't feel comfortable letting this potentially toxic chemical sit against my baby's skin for a few years.  Not only that, but since it doesn't always stay in the diaper, it freaks me out that these little gel crystals could be making their way into my little girl's lady parts.  Yikes.

Most diapers, usually with the exception of "green" disposables, are bleached with chlorine to make them that nice white color.  The problem with this is that it creates a chemical byproduct known as dioxins.  The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has listed dioxins as a highly carcinogenic chemical.  It is extremely toxic.  The World Health Organization has stated that exposure to dioxins can cause skin irritations and reactions, impairments to the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, altered liver function, and impairments to reproductive functions.  All I can say about that is, why in the world are companies still bleaching their diapers?  And why aren't they made to post a warning on their packaging like cigarette companies since their product contains cancer-causing chemicals?

Another thing to think about if you a diapering a little boy is that there is some evidence that disposable diapers can adversely affect male reproductive health.  Disposable diapers trap more heat in them than breathable cloth diapers, and with little boys this heat can contribute to higher scrotal temperatures.  Doctors believe that this can have a lasting affect on male sperm count and the ability to reproduce.  There is nothing conclusive yet on this subject, but it has been raised as a concern amongst some pediatricians and others in the medical field.  Definitely something to think about.

There are a lot more chemicals and potential side affects than the ones I've listed here, but I don't want this post to be just a scare tactic.  I really want to be clear that I believe every parent should be aware of the potential risks and complications with both cloth and disposable diapering.  Personally, when I weighed them out I decided cloth was a safer and healthier way to go for my baby.  She still gets the occasional red bum, but nothing like when she was in disposables for a month.  I also feel good about keeping her skin away from all of those gross chemicals.  She'll be exposed to chemicals her entire life.  I'm not naive enough to think that I can protect her from all chemicals all the time.  I do, however, want to protect her from as much chemical exposure as I can.  Choosing cloth is one way that I can do that, and I feel really good about it.

Real Diaper Week- So you think you can't afford to cloth diaper?

Diapering a baby is usually one of a household's biggest expenses in their baby's first two or three years.  If you use disposables you will spend anywhere from $1500 (if you're super frugal and use coupons ever time) to $3000 (if you can't be bothered with coupons ever and the very thought gives you hives).  That's a lot of money, even if it is spread out over a few years.

If you cloth diaper your baby, you can spend anywhere from $150 up (less if you do pre-folds and covers) for a set of pocket diapers.  The thing is, it takes some searching to find the brands that are momma-tested and wallet-approved.  If you're expecting, or trying to make the switch, this can be a daunting and time consuming task.  I'm going to try to save you some time and tell you about a few brands of pocket diapers that won't break the bank.  I'm going to cover mostly pockets because that seems to be the diaper type most new-to-cloth-mommas go for due to their ease and convenience.

The first brand I'm going to tell you about is Kawaii pocket diapers.  These diapers retail for about $10 a piece, making a stash of 24 diapers (enough to do laundry every 2 days) about $240.  You'd spend that on disposables in just a few months.

Diaper Junction has their own "house brand" if you will.  Their Diaper Rite pocket diapers are $9.95 per diaper if you choose a suede-cloth stay-dry inner material or $11.95 if you choose their bamboo option.  With these diapers you're looking at spending around $240 to $290 for 24 diapers.

SunBaby Diapers are made by a work at home mom, offer a ton of prints, and are some of the most affordable pocket diapers around.  She sells her diapers in bundles of 6, 12, or 24 diapers and with or without inserts.  For a package of 24 diapers and 48 microfiber inserts you will only spend $144.00!

If you search around, I know you'll find more brands of affordable diapers.  Another option is to search places like Craig List or Diaper Swappers to buy some used diapers for a great discounted price!

Cloth diapering may be a bigger up-front cost than disposables, but it doesn't have to break the bank!

Real Diaper Week- Where Do They Go?

If you do any research online for the environmental impact of disposable vs cloth diapers, you're going to get a lot of mixed information.  There haven't been any truly unbiased studies done on the subject, and realistically, there probably won't ever be.  The debate is too heated.  So while I can't point you to any truly conclusive study on the subject, I can talk to you about what I think is just plain old common sense.

Disposable diapers are used by about 95% of the American population on an exclusive basis.  This means that the only diaper that ever touches the bums of 95% of American babies is a plastic disposable.  Now, I know how many diapers my daughter goes through in a day.  In the 5 weeks or so that we used disposables before baby girl could fit into her one-sized diapers, we filled the equivalent of about 4 garbage bags.  In only 5 weeks.  Gross.  Now multiply that by two to three years, and then again by just about all the babies in the US.  That's a lot of poop-filled garbage bags.  Yikes.

Now I'm not going to sugar coat this for you.  You will use more water and electricity using cloth diapers than you would using disposables.  Your water bill will be a little higher, and it's the water and electricity usage that causes some studies to conclude that disposables and cloth are both on equal footing when it comes to being a detriment to the environment.  I might even agree with that if I knew that all those disposable diapers were bio-degrading peacefully in all of those landfills.  But here's the thing.  Almost nothing actually bio-degrades in a landfill.  They are packed so tightly and so high, that virtually no air or water touches anything that gets thrown in there.  Nothing can decompose.  Your morning banana peel that you threw out last month is probably preserved in almost perfectly-nasty condition a few feet below whatever got thrown on top of it.

What this means is that all of those diapers that get thrown away annually, all 18 billion, are going to sit preserved for who-know-how-long.  I mean really.  We don't know how long they will sit there because disposables are a relatively new invention.  What we do know is that those very first disposables ever made and pooped in are still sitting in a landfill somewhere.  Who knows, someday some archaeologist may excavate our ancient landfills and find your baby's 700 year old disposable diaper.  Eww.

I know we all have to weigh the choices we make.  There's always a give and take.  What I've decided is that I don't want my daughter's 9,000 or so dirty diapers sitting, preserved, in a landfill for all of eternity. To me,  the cost of disposables is too high.  Both to my wallet, and to the environment.  It is a personal decision.  I know we all have crazy lives that move faster and faster, so I get why so many people choose the easy route and do disposables.  I just know that the extra hour a week I spend washing  my daughter's diapers is a worthy sacrifice of my time.  I am making a difference, and not contributing to the nastiness piling up all over our country.  In the long run I feel like the extra water and energy I will use is nothing compares to the near permanence of throwing disposables in a landfill.

I hope you'll take some time to weigh all the info for yourself.  All of us can make a huge difference together.

It's Real Diaper Week! Newborn Cloth Diapering 101

It's Real Diaper Week!  What does that mean?  It means that all week long we are going to be covering a range of cloth-diapering related topics and try to help spread the word on how awesome and easy it is to use cloth!  Stop by all week and check it out!

So I know that in the last week I've given you guys some good, basic information on cloth diapering.  I don't really think that I need to repeat most of that (if you're stopping by from the blog hop, and didn't see my cloth diapering 101 posts, just scroll on down!  =)  Hopefully it will help you figure things out!)  so I am going to focus on cloth diapering from the moment your little bundle of joy is born.

Now let me be honest.  I didn't cloth diaper my daughter until about 5 weeks.  Somehow I had convinced myself that cloth would be more work than it actually is, and decided to do disposables until she was able to fit into her one-sized diapers.  I'm not sure what all I thought would really be involved, but it seemed daunting to me.  I was going to be a first time mom.  I didn't know what I was going to feel like, or how long it would take me to recover from her birth, etc etc.  Now I know that everyone's experience is different (don't believe me?  Go back a few pages and read my daughter's birth story.  I was in labor for 5 days.  Everyone is different!), but I want you to know that cloth diapering is totally doable right from the start.  I wish that I'd done cloth right away!  I would have saved my daughter some nasty diaper rashes, and saved myself a whole lot of money since I would have used those same diapers on my future babies!

(I will say this though, you will probably want to either purchase a really small pack of newborn disposables, or cut up some cheap fleece to line your baby's very first diapers with, because those meconium poops are gross.  Like black tar.  And they aren't going to wash out easily, so you don't want to stain your cute tiny new diapers on the very first use.  Wait to use your new diapers without any lining or anything until your babe's poop turns that mustard-y yellow color that you will come to know so very intimately.)

Ok.  So you are thinking to yourself "my baby won't wear these diapers for very long.  It seems like a waste of money!"  I know you're thinking this because I thought that too.  Here are my thoughts. If you know you are going to have another baby or two, buying some newborn cloth probably makes sense financially.  There are really cheap ways to diaper your newborn, and in the first month of life, you are going to spend about $75 on disposables any way.  Heck, sometimes you are going to put a diaper on, and your baby is going to immediately poop in it.  Ok.  That's going to happen all the time.  You're going to go through a lot of disposables.  After about a week I thought "I might as well wipe her butt with money and throw it away, because that's basically what I'm doing anyway with these disposables." Yeesh!

Now if you decide to do pre-folds and covers while your babe is tiny and new, you will probably only spend around $100.  And you can use these for as many babies as you feel like having, then re-sell them later if you want!  For instance if you go to DiaperJunction.com and look at their house brand of prefolds, Diaper Rite, you can get an entire pre-fold kit for your newborn for only $86!  So you'd get 24 pre-folds and 4 covers, which would easily let you do laundry only every two or three days!  Not bad!  You can get pre-folds just about anywhere, and you can find covers at any local cloth shop, or online retailer.  They can be as simple, or as elaborately patterned as you want!  You have a ton of options!  Just make sure to prep your new pre-folds before you use them!  You want them to be absorbent!  Wash them on hot 4 to 6 times, and dry them on high at least once.

Now I know that pre-folds sound scary, but they are actually super easy to use!  There are a few ways that you can use your pre-folds.  You can use a diaper folding technique like the "angel wings" fold, or you can just fold it into thirds and lay it right in your cover, velcro or snap it, and you're good to go!  When the baby soils their pre-fold, just take it out of your cover, put it in your wet-bag or diaper pail, give your cover a quick wipe down (unless it's covered in poop.  Then you may want to grab a clean cover) and pop in a new pre-fold.  Simple!  And the great thing about newborn poop is how easy it is to wash!  There's no spraying, dunking, or pre-soaking involved!  Just throw it in the washer, run a cold pre-wash cycle, with a little detergent if you feel like your diapers are super gross and messy, otherwise it should be fine to run it without.  This will get rid of your poop.  Then add your detergent, and run a hot wash cycle with an extra rinse cycle.  The first time you do your wash, you may want to open your washing machine in the middle of your extra rinse cycle.  If you have bubbles, you need to do another rinse, and you may have used a little too much detergent.  If you don't have bubbles, you are good to go!  Once your wash is done, dry them on low heat in your dryer, or hang them up outside in the sun!  It's really not a whole lot more work than your regular laundry.  Just make sure that when you are choosing your detergent you pick one without brighteners or enzymes!

Of course you can always go the route of fitted diapers and covers.  Or newborn pocket diapers.  Or even newborn all in one diapers.  Really it just depends on your comfort level and your budget.  One thing to keep in mind is that newborn diapers, if you go the pocket or all in one route, are really easy to resell for a good percentage of what you paid for them.  They don't get tons of use, and if you have a good washing routine, and occasionally sun out any stains, they will probably look good as new, even after a few kids!  You can't say that about all of those disposables!

What I really want to get across here is that I wish I had gone straight to cloth.  With baby number 2, I will.  It really only adds one extra load of wash every two days, they're so much easier than you think, and if used over the course of a couple of babies, so much more cost effective.  You can even split the cost with a pregnant friend who is due a few months before or after you, or a friend that you know is trying to conceive.

So if you are new to cloth and are scared to jump right in, you can do it!  I wish someone had told me how easy it was right from the start.  And how cute my little newborn would look with a big fluffy tushie.

Yay for Real Diapers!!!!  (and happy two-month-birthday to my sweet little girl!)