Greening Baby

by Beth Yim

In my day, cloth diapers were hard to come by. They weren’t “in,” but disposable were. I had to order plain white cloth ones through the Sears catalogue. They weren’t the nicely shaped ones you can get now—these were the rectangular flannel models you had to fold yourself, something I never learned how to do before I had my first baby. With help from my mom and my grandmother, we were able to fashion a style that, after a couple of weeks, I could manage. I only stabbed myself with the diaper pins a few times, drawing blood only once.

By the time my second child was born, some bright and thoughtful person had invented a fitted cloth diaper with Velcro. I loved that person. No more folding, no more pins! I figured that was the ultimate invention, the perfect way of greening your baby and ensuring they were raised in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. I was wrong!

Today, parents have so many choices it’s dizzying. There are diapers made from hemp, bamboo, or organic cotton, with designer fabrics or without, pocket style or all in ones, pre-folds or wraps, all with your choice of colour, design and accessories. New parents have it made. Raising an eco-friendly baby is not only easy, it can be fashionable too!

Fashion aside, using cloth diapers is a smart choice. It’s good for landfills (each child wearing disposable diapers will produce, on average, one ton of diapers before being potty trained), easier on baby’s bottom and economical. The savings can be quite significant. Especially if you decide to have more than one baby.

According to www.naturalfamilyonline.com, the average cost of disposable diapers from newborn to training pants—that’s about 7,400 diapers—is just under $2,700. Cloth diapers will cost you about $225 for the first child and virtually nothing for the second. Add to this the cost of washing cloth diapers, which according to Consumer Report costs around 55 cents a load. Based on two loads a week over a three-year period, you’ll spend about $170 for water and energy. That brings the grand total for using cloth diapers to $395. That’s a savings of about $2,300.

And if you consider that cloth diapers can be re-used for the second and third child, passed on to the next generation or turned into dust cloths and rags, the savings keep adding up. (Note: Avoid colour-coded, pink or blue diapers, as you may have a variety of genders and boys might not like looking at pictures of themselves dressed in their sisters pink diapers!)

The most important incentive for using cloth diapers however, is one of safety, according to the B.C. Medical Association. The gel chemical in disposable diapers absorbs 100 times its weight in fluid and when wet, becomes even more absorbent, pulling moisture from your baby’s delicate skin.

There is also a concern about the safety of the chemicals themselves. No one knows the long-term effects of the various chemicals, including dioxins, that are used in the making of a disposable diaper. It’s pretty straight forward what’s in cloth, especially if you buy organic materials.

Another bonus of cloth diapering that many people don’t consider, but one that was the most important for me—the earlier potty training possibilities. It was one of my major motivations for choosing cloth.

I didn’t enjoy washing diapers. They smelled bad, especially if left for a few days! And at a time when I needed recuperative sleep, my baby was pumping out fecal material faster than I could say “shut eye.” Potty training wasn’t just the next step in parenting, it was my sanity saver. Forget the go-on-demand, I started demanding they go!

I kept track of each of my kids’ elimination patterns and made mental notes of the most likely potty times. I let them run around outside naked in nice weather and although Zack had an easier time widdling in the garden than Megan, it cut down on laundry and they learned how and what it felt like to pee (an important concept, one that some disposable diaper-producing companies are acknowledging with diapers that let baby feel dampness). So by the time they were 16 months and 14 months they were potty trained. Hallelujah! No more diaper pails!

Though using cloth diapers had its icky moments, especially when Zack decided he’d help me clean out the bucket of soaking diapers, I’m glad we chose this option. It felt right. And taking the time to fold those diapers, usually while the babies were asleep, was therapeutic. My hope now is that my children will choose to green their babies, maybe choose a couple of hemp all-in-ones and a few bamboo pre-folds. I hope they don’t go for the fold-your-own type, because for the life of me, I can’t remember how to do it!

Resources
For instructions on folding diapers (in case your mom forgets!) visit www.borntolove.com.
For forums on cloth diapering and parenting visit www.diaperswappers.com.
For a Vancouver-based service that sells diapers (hemp, bamboo and Cloth Diapering 101), visit www.newandgreen.com.
For more motivation to use cloth diapers visit www.wastenotvi.ca.

Beth Yim lives in Nanaimo with her husband and two children. She is dedicated to creating a sustainable future for her children and educating individuals in healthy lifestyle choices. Visit www.agelesswarrior.com.