our little man

6.08.2007

you're doing what? why?

so, we've finally taken the plunge and switched ben to cloth diapers.

its something we've been thinking about for a long while - as far back as my pregnancy with sophie and we even thought about switching her to cloth last year but we didn't find a good fit right away and ultimately decided to continue with disposables mainly because of perceived convenience. i'm a bit disappointed that we didn't pursue it, but we're making a commitment to stick to it with ben.

we've gotten a variety of reactions from the few people we've discussed it with, but they inevitably begin with, "why?" the quick answer is that it's the environmentally sound choice - for us it's an easy step with significant impact. following that, we also feel it's a better choice for ben to be covered in natural materials as opposed to chemical-filled disposables, and lastly there is also a nice economic benefit as well.

that, of course, is the short answer. for anyone who's interested in learning more about cloth diapering, i'd love to provide some more information we learned while looking into the issue and making our decision...

first is the environmental info. this one is a no-brainer, as we all know that disposable diapers are a huge contributor to solid waste in landfills and take hundreds of years to decompose - but here are just a few facts you might not have known that really drive the point home...

"Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste."

"Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR."

"The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth. Disposable diapers generate 60 times more solid waste and use 20 times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp."

"We estimate that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are consumed every year in the U.S."

As for our feeling that covering our baby in cloth is better for him, here are a few health-related facts to consider...

"Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S."

"Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals."

"In May 2000, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published research showing that scrotal temperature is increased in boys wearing disposable diapers, and that prolonged use of disposable diapers will blunt or completely abolish the physiological testicular cooling mechanism important for normal spermatogenesis."

and lastly, as a bonus, is the cost savings of cloth. now, don't get me wrong - with the innovations of cloth diapering and all of the amazingly cute options out there, it would be easy to spend a lot of money - but it can also be done very economically. i have done a lot of shopping around and bought carefully and have managed to build our small stash for just about $100. i have my eye on a few more pieces, and some of the covers we have now will need to be replaced as ben grows into the next size, but considering that it would cost us nearly $1100 to keep ben in disposables until age 2.5 (and nearly $1400 until age 3) you can see that the savings is significant.

i'll certainly have more to say as time goes on, but i feel really proud of our decision and am happy that we're doing what we feel is important for our family.

posted at 9:38 PM by aimee // 1 comments