Why Modern Moms Are Going Back to the Basics – The Evolution of the Cloth by T. WashkoHaving a baby is one of the most exciting times of your life. It is also one
of the most stressful. So many decisions have to be made about nearly every
aspect of your baby’s comfort, safety, and happiness. You spend hours
pouring over pregnancy and child rearing books, picking out the perfect
crib, finding the most adorable and comfortable clothing, and envisioning
the safest and most peaceful birth for your baby as possible. No doubt
somewhere in your planning you have thought about how many diapers you will need for your new little one and perhaps you have even purchased some in advance. If you are like the majority of parents out there, then you have
automatically decided upon disposable diapers without ever giving it a
second thought. Stop right there! There is an alternative; consider using
cloth diapers.
Cloth diapering today is not what it used to be. When many parents think of
cloth diapers they think of flat diapers that need to be folded in several,
origami-like folds and fastened with diaper pins before they are covered
with plastic pull on pants. Generally they also think that the clean-up
involved with using cloth diapers would be tedious and messy. Cloth diapers
have been stereotyped and it seems as though many parents have missed the total evolution of the cloth diaper that has occurred over the past decade
or so. I know, because I was one of them.
My own personal decision to use cloth actually came with my second child.
With my first child I used disposable diapers, as most do, and thought
nothing of it. When I became pregnant a second time I joined a pregnancy
discussion group online and in one particular discussion I saw a signature
line that contained a link to a work at home mother that sold handcrafted
cloth diapers. It was an “Ahaaa” moment for me. I had no idea how far cloth
diapers had come. I had dismissed all previous thoughts about using cloth
diapers with an exaggerated “Ewwww!” I didn’t want to clean messy diapers
and I didn’t want to stick my baby with safety pins. But these diapers were
fitted, they had Velcro-like closures, and they were CUTE. I search far and
wide for adorable clothing for my babies so how could I resist adorable
diapers?
New choices in materials and high tech fabrics are causing an increasing
number of parents to reconsider whether disposable diapers are the best
choice. We have options now that provide us with cloth diapers that are
elasticized so that they are fitted and snug, waterproof many instances, and
manageable with Velcro-like closures or snaps, making them just as easy and convenient to use as disposables. It is not just their functionality and
convenience that has been affected by this evolution either. Cloth diapers
available today are infinitely more attractive. They are available in a
variety of different colors, prints, and textures. Cloth diapers made from
silk and cashmere are not uncommon. This is a big selling point for many
parents because there is nothing cute about a disposable diaper. Quite
simply, cloth diapers are convenient, cost effective, healthier for our
children, and better for the environment. I feel as though the real question
parents should be asking themselves is why use disposables?
As a general rule, it is almost always cheaper to reuse than to buy new
every time. This is no different with cloth diapers. Most parents go through
6 to 8 thousand diapers per child, from birth to about age three. If we take
an average of what those diapers cost, that equates to between 2000 and 3000 dollars per baby. Once those children are potty trained those diapers are gone. They can’t be re-used. So a significant chunk of our hard earned money has gone to buying, what is essentially, garbage. In comparison, enough cloth diapers to last for three years will usually cost between 3 to 8
hundred dollars. At minimum that is about a 1200 dollar savings. But wait,
consider too, that those cloth diapers may last for one or more successive
children and your savings doubles and even triples.
What should also be of serious concern to all parents are the toxic
chemicals present in disposable diapers. Dioxin, which in various forms has
been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, skin diseases, and
genetic damage, is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process used in
manufacturing disposable diapers, and trace quantities may exist in the
diapers themselves. Dioxin is listed by the EPA as the most toxic of cancer
related chemicals. Disposable diapers also contain sodium polyacrylate. If
you have ever seen the gel-like, super absorbent crystals in a disposable
diaper then you have seen this substance first hand. Sodium polyacrylate is
the same substance that was removed from tampons because of its link to
toxic shock syndrome. No studies have been done on the long-term effects of
this chemical being in contact with a baby’s reproductive organs 24 hours a
day for upwards of two years. Cloth diapers, on the other hand, are free of
the many chemicals contained in disposable diapers.
Then there are the environmental reasons for using cloth. According to the
Sustainability Institute eighty percent of the diaperings in this nation are
done with disposables. That comes to 18 BILLION diapers a year, just in the
US. They require thousands of tons of plastic and hundreds of thousands of
trees to manufacture. After a few hours of active service these materials
are trucked away, primarily to landfills, where they sit, entombed or
mummified, undegraded for several hundred years. The idea of a “disposable” diaper is a myth. The ramifications of that myth will stay with us for centuries to come. They are the 3rd largest single product in the waste
stream behind newspapers and beverage containers. The urine and feces in
disposable diapers enter landfills untreated, possibly contaminating the
ground water supply. When you consider the unnecessary depletion of our
valuable forests, the huge volume of garbage created, the toxic air and
water pollution and the potential health risks to children, it is very
difficult to comprehend how washing and reusing cloth diapers could ever be
considered an inconvenience. No, they are a rewarding investment all around; a financial investment, an investment in our children’s health, and an
investment in our planet.
Tiffany Washko is the owner of The Diaper Jungle,
http://www.diaperjungle.com and Nature Moms, http://www.naturemoms.com. After working several years in corporate
healthcare marketing and public relations, she took time away to be a
mother. This new pursuit lead her to a new passion, helping new moms make
the decision to return to the basics and use cloth diapers.
Article Source: Lady Pens
