When I got pregnant with my daughter I started to read up on cloth diapers and was drawn in by the thought of them right away and after a little research I was hooked!
The first reason -
The environment. In the first two years of a child's life they will wear approx. 6000 diapers! This is all going to a landfill and according to research it is unknown exactly how long it takes a diaper to fully decompose but they suspect somewhere between 250-500 years! YEARS!! This is a huge deal to me! Your great great great grandchild won't even outlive the disposable diaper!
Plus,
Did you know that you are actually suppose to get rid of poop from a disposable diaper (check the packaging)? This waste is sitting in the land fill, seeping into the soil, possibly affecting our ground water?
I did not want any part of that
Reason two -
Health & safety
Sodium polyacrylate - linked to toxic shock syndrome (banned from tampons)
Dioxins (by-product of bleaching paper) - know to cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys
Tributyl-tin(TBT) - know to cause hormonal problems in humans
And many other chemicals that have been linked to male infertility and asthma in children!
Need I say more?
Reason #3 -economical - sure the upfront cost of cloth diapers can be pretty daunting ($300-500 for a good stash plus accessories) but let me say that the upfront cost is nothing compared to what you would spend on disposables until your child is fully potty trained!
Let's say you use approx. 60 diapers a week and a package of name brand diapers costs $30 you are paying .21 per diaper for a total cost of just over $1300 for two years BUT only one child.
(You can take a look here at this post where I calculated he upfront costs of our stash before my son was born!)
Buying good quality diapers is especially important too, if you want to make the most of cloth buy from a reputable brand and they can definitely last through more than one child! Therefore saving you about $1000!
There you have it! Why we chose to use cloth! I hope you found this helpful, if so let me know by leaving me comment! What about you, if you already use cloth what were your reasons? Let me know!
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I wish everyone would use cloth diapers for their babies! :)
ReplyDeleteI never knew that the packaging on disposable diapers suggests dumping the poop. What is the point? You might as well cloth diaper. I did use disposables on my children and if I had another child, I said I would go cloth. There are so many options now, unlike when our mothers had us.
ReplyDeleteStopping in from SITS.
Stopping by from SITS - We have similar reasons for using cloth diapers! :) mostly economic, and I also think it is totally an education I got by learning to go all cloth! :) I love sharing my cloth-addition with others on my blog too! ayearwithmomanddad.com
ReplyDeleteI'm visiting from SITS and planning to cloth diaper our first (due in May). I would love to have you do a guest post about cloth diapering with all this great info. Email me if you're interested at barefeetonthedashboardATgmailDOTcom
ReplyDelete