Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My Answer to Burning Question number 4

I kind of got side-tracked and should've answered this sooner...
Like many of you said, I consider mom's that use cloth diapers to be awesome and better women than I. I use disposable diapers, simply for the ease and convenience of them. If I were a stay-at-home-mom I would've considered them more seriously. But with Lola going to a babysitter and me being out of the home enough that keeping up with the laundry would've been a daunting task on its own... I decided disposable was the way for me. For my own sanity! I seriously cringe at diaper changes when I think about the diaper sitting in a landfill, but I am selfish enough that I haven't changed my ways.
When I have another baby, if I am able to stay home, then I think I will try out cloth. For now, I feel it is a lot to ask of a daycare provider to have to learn about cloth diapering, especially if they watch other children. But if I could find a sitter that was willing to work with them, then I may try it as well. I like the fact that they are money saving and environmentally friendly. When the time comes for another little one maybe we can investigate cloth diapers together and ask Kate for advice as well!

4 comments:

  1. Pete is the only kid that his mom used disposable diapers on. She made all the others and washed them out in the toilet before washing them in the washer... I'm not sure I'm that strong of a woman either, but hey they didn't exist back then.

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  2. I'm a working mom too and use disposable diapers but I wouldn't switch to cloth diapers for any reason! The amount of water and chemicals it takes to clean them balances out the environmental effects -- it's not necessarily better. It's hard enough being a mom - and the guilt never ends! My mom used cloth diapers on 7 kids, bless her heart, but I love my huggies!!!!

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  3. Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid to slap on a huggie's diaper if I am going out and about. I didn't cloth until 6 wks, and I have bought two small packages of dipes in my daughters 5 month existence...

    Also, we don't have to dunk and swish anymore... phew, don't worry, I think that's disgusting.

    There are a lot of myths about diapers. There are actually more chemicals in disposables... You have to use special detergents free of chemicals to wash cloth.

    Water usage is a source of ammunition for disposable diaper advocates who are always looking to find reasons why using cloth diapers is comparably earth unfriendly. To manufacture a disposable diaper requires massive amounts of non-renewable resources. Did you know, 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 (from the report Diapers: Environmental Impacts and Lifecycle Analysis to The National Association of Diaper Services (NADS)). Personally, one extra load of a renewable resource (Water) isn't going to balance out... It turns out that the amount of water used to wash diapers is about the same as the amount of water used to flush the toilet four or five times a day for a week.

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  4. I just ran across this awesome site:

    http://www.babyoopies.com/whyclothdiaper.htm

    ReplyDelete

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