Choices I've Made as a Mother: Cloth Diapering

I have always been a person who tries to make environmentally conscious decisions, and unfortunately sometimes it is just too darn expensive, at least for us, to do things such as eat organic or have some of the green household technologies available today, but cloth diapering is something I can do!  And not only is cloth diapering good for the environment, it's better for Addisyn and for our wallet (we will probably save $2000-3000 during the diaper years) than disposable diapers are!

You will hear conflicting reports about whether or not cloth diapering is actually better for the environment than disposable diapering.  Disposable diapers take more than 500 years to decompose!  Some sources (especially disposable diaper manufacturers) will indicate that cloth diapers are less environmentally friendly because they use more water during laundering.  Proctor and Gamble (makers of Pampers) claims that "cloth diapers use 4 times more water and produce more sewage" than disposables.  A more objective source (Lehrburger, Mullen, James, Diapers: Environmental Impacts and Lifecycle Analysis, January 1991) indicates that disposables actually use 37% more water than cloth diapers that are laundered at home or through a laundry service.  Disposables only seem to produce less sewage because the waste is being put into landfills, which is technically illegal - by law, even people who use disposable diapers are supposed to remove and flush solid waste before throwing the diaper away.

Disposables also contain things like dioxin, chlorine, and perfumes, which can cause rash and irritation to many babies' skin.  Furthermore some of the synthetic fibers that have been banned from use in tampons due to their association with toxic shock syndrome are used in disposable diapers!

Many parents feel like cloth diapering is too much extra work, but I really don't see where it takes too much extra time and effort, especially when compared to the benefits.  I have also switched to cloth wipes, saving us even more money, and saving me the trouble of having to pull disposable wipes out of cloth diapers to throw them away.  Everything gets washed together!  It took a few days to come up with a system that worked for me once we switched from disposables (we used them for about 2 months) to cloth.  I wash diapers every 2 days, and everything (diapers and wipes) just gets dumped right into the washing machine.  Because Addisyn is exclusively breastfed I don't even have to worry about rinsing out poopy diapers before I wash them - this will change once we introduce solids.  I have also started drying our diapers on a clothes line, saving us more money on electricity and using the the sun's UV rays to naturally bleach (liquid bleach and other chemical stain removers should not be used on cloth diapers) out stains and kill off germs.  When they come off the line the soaker pads (absorbent part of the diaper) are stiff, so I do throw them in the dryer for 10 minutes which softens them right up!  The cloth diapers we have chosen are one-size diapers that should fit Addisyn until she is potty trained with snaps that allow for rise adjustments to be made as she grows.  And they're just so darn cute!