Smarty Pants Diapers & More

 

Well, obviously, we do. :) But in all seriousness, the problem is that not enough people use cloth.

 

1988 data shows that 18 BILLION sposies went into landfills each year, and that was TWENTY YEARS ago! RDA (RealDiaperAssociation.org) used 2000 census data to estimate that 27.4 billion sposies went into landfills that year in the US alone. That's over 300 lb of wood, 50 lb of petroleum feedstocks and 20 lb of chlorine to produce sposies for ONE baby EACH YEAR (Diapers: Environmental Impacts & Lifecycle Analysis, 1991). It's estimated to take 250-500 years for a sposie to decompose in a landfill.

 

Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest, single consumer item in the waste system, following newspapers and beverage containers--sposies make up about 30% of the non-biodegradable waste (Punkinbutt.com). It takes about 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp (about a quarter of a million trees) to manufacture those sposies in the US alone (Mothering.com), and about 1 billion trees worldwide, which are bleached with chlorine gas (thegreenguide.com, Punkinbutt.com).

 

Now, waste water from washing cloth diapers is environmentally benign (when using phosphate-free detergents) because that water goes into the sewage system, which is designed to handle that kind of waste. Washing cloth diapers uses about 50-70 gallons of water every 3 days, which is about the the same as flushing the toilet 5-6 times a day (Mothering.com). That sounds like a lot, but would you wear disposable clothes and use only paper plates and plastic forks/knives in order to avoid the cost of doing laundry or running the dishwasher? Using disposable diapers doesn't make any more sense than using disposable dishes and single-use clothes.

 

But also factor in that the producation of sposies uses about 2.3 times more water than washing cloth diapers (RealDiaperAssociation.org), and that waste water contains dioxins, solvents, sludge and heavy metals, traces of which remain on the diapers. What's dioxin, you ask? Dioxin is "one of the most toxic substances ever made by humans and is one of the primary components of Agent Orange" (Punkinbutt.com).

 

 

Remember that dioxin we just discussed? This extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process is listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It's banned in most countries, but not in the US.

 

But wait--there's more!

 

Sodium polyacrylate crystals are those white, dust-like particles you would find inside a sposie if you cut it open. Add water, and those little particles turn into a gel. Also known as super absorbent polymer (SAP), these little particles can absorb up to 800 times their weight in water. Sounds great, right?

 

Sodium polyacrylate was removed from tampons in the mid-80's due to its link with toxic shock syndrome. But it's still used in sposies.

 

Now obviously, you don't put a sposie inside the baby's body where it comes in contact with sensitive areas. But diapers--especially wet ones--can break open, thus exposing baby's skin. Now what happens when your little one wakes up from a long nap and finds a delightful mess from a disintegrated diaper? You betcha--that stuff goes straight to the mouth. What kinds of problems can this gel cause while inside the baby's digestive system??

 

And that's not all...

 

In the year 2000, Greenpeace in Germany found tributyl-tin in 8 different brands of sposies. TBT is a biocide used in wood treatment, marine paints, textiles, and wood pulp & paper mills, and "can harm the human immune system and disrupt hormone function, and it can be absorbed through the skin" (thegreenguide.com). So what's TBT doing in babies' diapers? No one knows for sure, but it was there, and no one has continued testing for it, which means it's probably still there.

 

One more thing: diaper emissions. And no, I'm not talking about that lovely scent after your baby has filled the diaper. I'm talking about that fragrant, baby-scent you notice when you first open a new package of sposies. Sposies contain a "volatile mixture of plastics & fragrances" (thegreenguide.com). In fact, one study in 1999 linked diaper emissions from sposies with an increased occurrence of asthmatic symptoms in mice. The one brand of cloth diapers tested showed no effect on the mice. The researchers then analyzed the emissions from the sposies and found "several chemicals with documented respiratory toxicity" (thegreenguide.com).

 

 

What about rash? Wel-l-l-l, back in 1955, of course 100% of babies were diapered in cloth. An-n-n-nd, only 7.1% of them experienced rash. Fast forward to 1998 when 90% of kiddos are diapered in sposies, and you find that about 78% of babies experince rash.

 

Well, is it sanitary? Actually, the biggest issues here are the caregiver's hand-washing habits and the storage containers used for the dirty diapers (both cloth and sposies). By law, you're supposed to dump poop out of sposies, too, so that the human waste doesn't end up in landfills, which aren't designed to handle human waste. And in reality, many parents have found that they have fewer leaks (especially the poopy kind) when using cloth diapers. Personally, I'd rather deal with poop in a cloth diaper than poop all over my baby's clothes and blankets and car seat and ...

 

 

Now, I've used some VERY general averages and guesstimates to come up with this chart, but I think you'll get the idea. Remember that actual expensies will vary greatly, depending on your diapering routine, your baby's wetting and pooping habits, your local prices, and many other factors.

 

Also, I've used prices for regular packs of sposies only, not bulk purchase boxes, and for single cloth diapers only, not discount packs. Especially with sposies, there's a hidden cost of buying in bulk--you never know what's going to work for your baby when. As soon as you buy that honkin'-huge box of 250 size 1 diapers, your little progeny has a growth spurt, and 235 of those size 1's are only good for doll diapers.

 

Sooooo, with that consideration stated, here are the numbers:

 

Bargain-priced Luvs diapers on diapers.com range from .15 to .33 each, and premium-priced Pampers run .21 to .46 each. Sounds pretty good, huh? Until you consider that you'll probably need somewhere around 7300 diapers over the 2.5 years from birth to potty training (newborns need 10-12 diapers/day, toddlers need at least 6/day--average of 8/day). So that's $1752 for bargain dipes and $2445 for premiums.

 

Now, you have to wipe that poop off the sweet bottom somehow. Enter disposable wipes. I figured 2-3 wipes per poop (yes, I know, we moms can usually clean a bum with 1 frugal wipe, but you have to factor in 5-6 wipes/poop when hubby changes the diaper!) and, let's say, an average of 3 poops per day. Obviously, newborns will often poop more, and toddlers less. But we're talking averages here... So now you're gonna need 5475 wipes, which translates to 20 bulk boxes of Luvs wipes at $186 or 143 tubs of Huggies sensitive wipes at $318. So be ready to fork out $1938 for bargain dipes & wipes, $2070 for bargain dipes & sensitive wipes, or $2763 for premium dipes and sensitive wipes.

 

Then you have to ask, "Whe-e-e-en will this kid ever potty train?!" The disposable diaper industry has your little one figured out--make the diaper feel bone dry, and Baby won't bother with potty training anytime soon. Oh--Got a new baby coming? Return to "Go" and do NOT collect $200.

 

 

So what about cloth diapers? Alright, there are sooo many options for cloth, that it's impossible to determine an exact cost up front. So let's look at the cheapest option, and 2 very popular options.

 

Cheapest option is to use prefold diapers with cheap-o covers. Figure $9.50 for each prefold/cover combo, but remember that you won't need a cover for every prefold, so that'll save you money. You'll need about 2 dozen or so of each of 3 sizes, so let's say 90 total. That's $855 for the dipes.

 

The most popular type of cloth diaper today is the pocket diaper, which uses an absorbant insert that should be removed when laundering to speed drying time (woohoo--saves electricity!). NickisDiapers.com lists Fuzzi Bunz (the original pocket diaper, comes with an insert) at $20 apiece. Again, figure on up to 30 of each of 3 sizes, yielding $1800 for the dipes.

 

Another popular option is one-size pockets. These dipes give you the ability to adjust the rise so they'll fit babies from just-bigger-than-newborn all the way to about 35 lb (varies with baby's proportions). You can get a one-size Happy Heiny's (with both a smaller and a larger insert) for $20. You may want to allow for more than 30, even though you shouldn't have to "size-up", because you'll want to rotate diapers through your stash from time to time, or you lose a diaper when hubby accidentally throws one away, or you want to try a different brand, or whatever. So for 50 one-size, we'll have to cough up a whole $1000.

 

What about laundry? I've not done the math on this myself, but the general consensus is that diaper laundry shouldn't cost you more than $8/month. Over 2.5 years, that's $240. If you're spending more than that, re-evaluate your wash routine and/or consider line-drying instead of machine drying.

 

Don't forget the wipes! Look--you're already doing diaper laundry, why not use cloth wipes, too? Now, you can get the fancy-schmancy, hand-made, exotic wipes if you want--they're really cute. Or you can get 2 dozen cheap-o Gerber washcloths from Wal-Mart for about $8. They work better, you won't care if they get stained or lost, and they're cheap!

 

So now we have $1103 for prefolds/covers/wipes/laundry, $1248 for one-size pockets/wipes/laundry, or $2048 for pockets/wipes/laundry. Baby wanting to potty train early? Join the club! Got a new baby coming? Use the diapers again and pay only for more laundry! (Be sure to get gender-neutral dipes!) Are you sure you're done having babies? Sell the dipes on Diaper Swappers!

 

 

Okay, first of all, even if you do use the old-fashioned prefolds or even the flat diapers, you don't have to use pins if you don't want to.There's this great new invention called a snappi, which puts the snap back into old-school diapering.

 

But that's only the beginning. Fitted diapers still require a cover like prefolds do, but otherwise, they go on much like sposies do. You can get velcro or snap, you don't have to fold them, and there are tons of great colors, fabrics, prints and embroidery.

 

We've already talked about pockets, but there are also all-in-one dipes where the inserts are attached, so you don't have to go searching through the pile of laundry to match a dipe to its insert. I personally prefer the flexibility of traditional pockets, so I can choose the insert that is appropriate to the specific need at the moment, but AIO's can be really nice for dads, babysitters, and grandmas. Keep in mind that, not only are they more expensive, they also take longer to dry and often are designed in such a way that they don't get as clean.

 

 

Well, running 2-3 loads of laundry each week is certainly no worse than last-minute runs to the store, or packing large bags of sposies in with all of your groceries, then later emptying the diaper pail and lugging a bag of stinky, heavy diapers to the garbage once or twice a week... not to mention all the money you'll save by avoiding those spontaneous purchases while walking to the diaper aisle... I suppose you get more exercise that way, though. ;o)

 

 

Alright, I've diapered 2 babies with sposies and, now, 1 with cloth. Do you re-e-e-eally want to hear the blowout horror stories with my first 2 babies?? Like the one where my 2-month-old daughter held it for the first day and a half of a road trip, then POURED out the poop just as we arrived back at my sister's house after her white-coat ceremony--there was poop all over her clothes, her blanket, her car seat, and yes, even dripping through the holes in the bottom of the car seat and pooling in the deep crevices of the car seat's base. There are many more I could tell you, but suffice it to say, my cloth-diapered son has never had a blowout escape his cloth diaper, whereas explosive blowouts were relatively common with both of my sposie-diapered babies. You're having a baby. You're going to touch poop. The only question is whether you'll be doing diaper laundry, or cleaning poop off of everything ELSE that your baby touches, from clothes, to blankets, to toys, to car seat covers.

 

 

You may be asking yourself: How does this work in the REAL world?

 

For example, cloth diapers are a bit bulkier, right? Well, actually, do you remember those sodium polyacrylate crystals that could absorb up to 800 times their weight in water? Now think about all the times you've seen a soaked sposie bulging out of the crotch of your friend's baby's shorts. You do need to allow a little extra room for cloth diapers to start with, though--rompers and overalls work great, or just a t-shirt!

 

What about going out? You've got all those cute diapers--don't leave them at home! You can also get super cute wet bags to put the soiled diapers in until you get home. And changing your baby's cloth diaper in the public restroom gives you yet one more opportunity to show off that cute cloth!

 

What about nighttime? Some babies can be super pee-ers at night, so you'll probably need extra stuffing to keep those pj's dry. But this is not unique to cloth--my first daughter was a really super pee-er at night, and we actually had to buy disposable doublers for her night-diaper.

 

How do I treat rashes? Be careful to use cloth-safe healing ointments so you don't get a residue on the diapers, which can affect absorbancy. If you must use something that is not "cloth-diaper safe", you can use flushable liners on the diapers to protect them from the ointment.

 

What about traveling? We have this super-handy hanging diaper pail that snaps around a door knob. I take it with us when traveling so I can keep the dirty diapers in the same room where the baby sleeps without taking up floor space (or packing space in the car). Many parents still use sposies when traveling, though, if laundry facilities won't be as convenient. Consider using gDiapers or some similar, chemical-free version of sposies for those trips.

 

 

Face it--cloth has GOTTA be more comfortable. And I know from experience that it's wonderfully huggable. :)

 

Anything that makes diaper changing a little more entertaining is worth its weight in gold!