A dilemma in our household lately as we make our final preparations for baby girl has been to brave the world of cloth diapers or go with the standard disposable.
We have officially decided to give cloth a try.
While I was on the fence Jimmy had a strong opinion favoring the idea of cloth diapers for various reasons. The top concern for him of course is baby. What’s the best for our baby? Concern #2 waving heavily for him was the environmentally impact of disposable diapers. While I consider ourselves environmentally conscious consumers there aren’t many areas of our lives where I’d say we go above and beyond to be environmentally friendly. That being said, here are just a few environmental statistics that really “hit” me:
· It’s estimated that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are consumed every year in the US.
· No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it’s estimated to be about 250-500 years!
· Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest single consumer item in landfills. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste.
· A family who chooses cloth diapers prevents one ton of solid waste from entering the waste stream.
I actually ordered 2 different brands of cloth diapers – BumGenius and FuzziBunz because I’m a visual person and needed to see for myself how these things would work and what exactly I would have to do differently with this process opposed to the standard change and toss of the disposables. Well of course my engineering minded husband had the things taken apart in no time and for various reasons we are choosing to order the FuzziBunz brand. They seemed to be softer, more durable, more versatile in terms of sizing (we are going with the one size option – meaning our babe will wear the same ones from newborn to potty training), and easier to take apart for washing. They also offer these handy laundry bags that allow you to load the diapers in the top, and then unzip the bottom over the washer causing the diapers and inserts to go directly into the washer, toss the bag in with the diapers and wash them all together – less messy! They (as in most cloth companies, not just FuzziBuns) also offer biodegradable, flushable inserts that you can put directly into the diaper as well – avoiding the need to shake or scrap out the diaper when baby performs #2. I must admit, that was the #1 thing I was wanting to avoid in this whole process and they now offer a way around it so I had no excuseJ
Of course there are some cost benefits to using cloth vs disposable – although with some bulk buying options out there this is debatable. But, this wasn’t a big part of our decision making it’s always nice to save some bucks, right?!
Regardless of the statistics and convenience for me the determining factor was truly my husband’s desire to give cloth a try. I saw so many conveniences in disposables but discovered that this was something that was important to Jimmy. Cloth diapers have come so far from where they used to be. My mom’s first reaction to me telling her we were going to try cloth was “have fun with that!” but when you look at the way they have evolved today’s cloth diapers are quite a bit different from the days of our childhood, don’t you think? No more folding and pin snaps, shaking out the solids, soaking them in bleach buckets, etc!
You go mama! After 3 kids I am actually going to give these a try myself... my sister-in-law, Heidi, makes amazingly soft ones!!! For like $7.50 a diaper... keep that in mind next time you purchase some :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you guys finally made a decision, they are very cute and I hope it goes well for you!
ReplyDeleteWe love cloth diapering and are actually kind of annoyed when we travel and have to use disposables! The best tips I was given: the liners don't do anyting until baby starts solids. Breastmilk poo is too runny to be "caught". However, breastmilk poo also washes right out in the regular wash process so it's no biggie anyway. If you get any staining put the washed, damp diaper (or onsie, Dad's shirt, baby's socks...) in the sun and the stain will disappear in about an hour.
ReplyDeleteEric started off questioning the decision to cloth diaper, but now he is always telling other people how great it is! (And we even go the super cheapo way of prefolds and covers instead of the easier AIO's!) It is funny how parenthood changes you...never would have thought Eric would be the type to hail the wonders and anything designed to catch poo. hahaha
We are so excited for baby girl to get here; you and Jimmy are going to be such awesome parents!!!
I'm catching up on your blog, didn't know it existed till now. :) We've used bumgenius since James was 2 weeks old (once the black poo was over) and loved them. When you use them from the beginning you don't really know any different. I haven't regretted our decision once! We also have a couple cloth diaper pale liners that have been great, and we used gerber washcloths as wipes (with a homemade spray) and just put them in the wash with the diapers. If you have any questions about cloth diapering let me know, I'd love to talk about it!
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