[dukie41181]

Which are you choosing (or have you chosen) to use with your new little ones? Why?

[flamingpajamas]

We will use cloth. For us this was not even a choice. We just cannot live with with the waste that disposables produce when there is an easy and healthy alternative. Cloth are probably cheaper too and don't contain all the chemicals that disposables use. Toddlers potty train earlier with cloth because a wet diaper is less comfortable than one that wicks the moisture away with chemicals. That being said, we will have a small store of Tushies (the only disposables that do not have the polymer gel inside) for occasional use while out of the house.

I hope this helps in your decision!

[Anastasia]

This is a really good question. I would also like to do what is best for the environment. Although, I have heard that the chemicals used to disinfect the dirty cloth diapers is just as bad as throwing out the disposible ones. Also, I think you have to have a service to do it, does anyone know more?

[dukie41181]

Thanks for the responses so far. I myself and heavily leaning towards cloth diapers for several reasons. They are cost-effective, good for the environment and healthy for the babies. I had never truly thought about it until my sister had her son and she chose to use cloth. At first I thought she was crazy for doing it, but now that I see how easy it is for them, I am seriously considering their use. As far as having to have a diaper service launder them, that is not the case. You can do that, but you don't have to. My sister and brother-in-law just follow the wash instructions and do seperate loads in their own washing machine. They even use all natural laundry detergent. Keep the responses coming, I'm interested to know where others are coming from on this issue.

[tracilynn]

I seriously considered cloth but I live in a city that incinerates all trash so there's no landfill issues and I also live in a drought prone area so it's actually more "green" for me to do disposable.

I have heard that if there is no service in your area you can wash your own but my friend says sometimes you need to wash the diapers twice to get them really clean and that uses alot of water - she regrets doing cloth now but she says she's already too invested - with buying cloth diapers, the liners, etc.

[sarahelaine57]

I know I should use cloth diapers but we decided to go with disposables...yes it would be great to use cloth and be doing something great for the environment but for us the best option is disposables. I know my mom used cloth with me, but like someone else said it uses a lot of water, because not only are you washing the diaper but don't you have to have some sort of liner type thing on the outside of the diaper to prevent leakage, so you are washing that too. But I guess if you can do cloth diapers you should, but I am going to be a disposable user. Great thread though!

[flamingpajamas]

I also had concerns about the chemicals diaper services use to clean the diapers. So we will wash our own. A good friend of mine does this and finds it easy. She presoaks the diapers while they are waiting to be washed and then washes them in their own load. I am less concerned about wasting water (especially considering new moms hardly have time to shower so I am sure I will be using less water) than the energy it takes to dry them. I think we will line dry them as much as possible (and time allows).

[Momitchi]

We're doing a mix. Until the baby's belly button has healed, we'll use disposables with the little cut out. I'm more comfortable with that than I am my folding skills. After that we're going to go with cloth and flushable liners.

In my experience (I had a family member's child while she was an infant), it didn't really take all that much more water/work to get the cloth diapers clean. I always give them a hand pre-wash and then put them in the washing machine. You use less water that way and your hands end up really soft. And let's face it: Children always equal more laundry!

If you want or feel you can't get around using disposables and the environment is your concern, there are a few brands of biodegradable disposables out there.

[nursesunshine]

There is a laundry service in our city that is environmentally responsible so we will be trying cloth diapers through them. It is also a great deal for twins - $25/week for one or $30/week for twins! If it doesn't work out will cancel or reassess but it seems like a great option for us. I am a little concerned about the stuff they put in disposables - I have heard that there are studies being done to see if that might be partially responsible for the increase in IF rates!

[dukie41181]

As far as your concern for what they put in disposables to make them more absorbant, here is some information I received. Personally, I found this to be very interesting.

[FONT='Georgia','serif']What are those little beads?[/font]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']So I recently had an unfortunate experience with a disposable diaper. We had company, and one ended up in my diaper pail along with my cloth diapers. I had no idea so I threw all the dipes in for a wash and WOW little beads of gel exploded all over my diapers and washer. Needless to say it was an extreme mess, but it got me wondering what are those little things? I did some digging online and here's what I found out...[/font]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Sodium polyacrylate[/font][FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] - "an amazing water absorber -- it can absorb 200 to 300 times its weight in tap water (even more if the water is distilled) and hold it in a gooey gel." [/font][FONT='Arial','sans-serif'](Source: "How Stuff Works" available online at http://home.howstuffworks.com/question207.htm)[/font]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']So then one might wonder, are there any drawbacks to these little beads being ever so close to my baby's precious parts? I found my answer at Diaper Hyena a wonderful cloth diaper resource site.[/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'](The following is taken directly from "The Diaper Drama" article. Available online at http://www.thediaperhyena.com/diaper_drama_scene3_health.htm.)[/font]
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Properties:[/font]

• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']It can absorb up to 100X its weight in water (1). [/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']It can stick to baby's genitals, causing allergic reactions (2).[/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Reported to cause severe skin irritations, oozing blood from perineum and scrotal tissues, fever, vomiting and staph infections in babies (2).[/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']When injected into rats it has caused hemorrhage, cardiovascular failure and death (4).[/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Banned from tampons in 1985 because of its link to Toxic Shock Syndrome (1).[/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Has killed children after ingesting as little as 5 grams of it (5).[/font]
• [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Causes female organ problems, slows healing wounds, fatigue and weight loss to the employees in factories that manufacture it (6).[/font]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']So in case you ever wondered, "what are those little beads anyway?" now you know. Also as a side note, the same polymer is found in planting soil to help aid in water retention for potted plants.[/font]

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif'] Stephanie, Owner of Z. Bear Diapers[/font]

[dukie41181]

Opps, that last post did some weird formatting thing, but the info. is there if you just read around the oddities. Sorry, but I know we are all smart enough to figure it out!

[nursesunshine]

Originally Posted by dukie41181

Opps, that last post did some weird formatting thing, but the info. is there if you just read around the oddities. Sorry, but I know we are all smart enough to figure it out!

Thanks for sharing that information. I had heard some of that but not all of it. I think I'm making the right choice trying to do cloth! I'm sure we'll use disposables when we travel or are out for a long time but I feel better using them as little as possible.

[Roxane]

This is such good info! I just honestly dont know with 3 little ones if I could do cloth.... Then again, thats 3X the waste..... I have already stocked up on cases of disposables at Costco!

[flamingpajamas]

FYI Tushies disposable diapers do not have the polymer gel. They are not biodegradeable (no disposables are) but they don't use the beads in them. This is what we are planning to use when disposables are necessary.

[casb77]

Depending on how you look at the data, both cloth and disposable diapers have about the same impact on the environment. With disposable there's the impact from manufacturing and all of it ending up in the landfill. With cloth there's all the water, electricity, and detergent used to wash them.

This is a frequent topic on the Ask Umbra column on Environmental News and Humor | Grist | 01 Jul 2008. You can search the archives to find all the articles she's written responding to letters. In fact, there was just one on June 18. The guy even had a handheld bidet to wash the baby's "deposit" into the toilet. Who knew there was such a thing. The article contains a link to a big Brittish study from 2005 comparing cloth to disposable.

There's another alternative where parents use no diapers and are somehow in tune with their baby's pre-elimination behavior and establish signals with the baby to tell them to wait until the parent can hold them over a toilet. You have to be able to hold your baby the majority of the time to make it work, though. There are also diapers with an absorbent cloth pad that's inserted into elasticized bloomer things so you only wash the insert and not an entire cloth diaper.

On the never-ending diaper ado | By Umbra Fisk | Grist | Ask Umbra | 18 Jun 2008

I'm not a diaper freak, the the way, I just used to work for the company that makes Huggies.