This post is part of the Real Diaper Facts carnival hosted by Real Diaper Events, the official blog of the Real Diaper Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to cloth diaper education. Participants were asked to write about diaper myths and real diaper facts. See the list at the bottom of this post to read the rest of the carnival entries.
As I speak with parents making the decision about what kind of diapers to use for their children, cloth diapers versus disposable diapers, people often ask me what reasons our family has for choosing cloth and why I stick with it. There are so many reasons we are proud to be a cloth diapering family – here are some of my favorites.
1. Cloth Diapers are sustainable. – With cloth diapers, I am not sending hundreds of pounds of diaper waste to the dump each month. Instead, I wash and reuse my diapers, making them much more sustainable. Others may try to convince you otherwise, but the environmental impact of cloth diapers versus disposable diapers is no contest. The Real Diaper Association estimates that 27.4 billion diapers end up in landfills each year, and that they may take anywhere from 250-500 years to decompose. The raw materials used in making disposables are incredible, too – it is estimated that 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. (You can check out these facts at more at the RDA’s Real Diaper Facts site or What a Waste.)
2. I’m not making late night runs to the store when I realize we are low on diapers. - When we start getting low on diapers, I just toss a load in the machine. It is that simple.
3. I am keeping chemicals away from my baby’s bottom. - No matter how you toss it, disposable diapers have chemicals in them that I would rather not have anywhere near my baby. For one thing, disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process (which is used in making the wood pulp in disposable diapers). Dioxin is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals, so much so that it is banned in most countries (but not the U.S.). Another chemical present in disposable diapers is a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP). SAPs are the chemicals that help to absorb liquid. They used to be present in tampons until they were banned from those products for contributing to toxic shock syndrome, but yet are still allowed near babies. (Again, check out the RDA’s Real Diaper Facts site.)
4. Cloth diapers save us a ton of money. – I just wrote about this earlier, with tons of facts and figures, so you can check that out if you would like. The end result of my research is that people can save an average of $1860.11 when using cloth diapers versus disposable diapers from birth through age two and a half.
5. They really are easy to use! – Honestly, with a family of five, if cloth was too much work, I wouldn’t be able to do it. It is just one more load of laundry every two to three days. And as I mentioned above, no runs to the store!
These are just a few of the MULTITUDE of reasons why we chose cloth in our family. Each family needs to make this decision for themselves, but I strongly urge you to consider cloth. I would be so happy to help you along the way – you can email me here.
Happy Diapering!
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Tags: cloth diapers, cloth diapers versus disposable diapers, cloth diapers vs. disposable diapers, disposable diapers, sustainability, sustainable diapers
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