Ten Reasons To Use Cloth Diapers

1. Using cloth diapers removes contact of chemicals against your baby’s most delicate parts. Here’s a snippet from T. Washko from diaperjungle.com:


“Perhaps they know it would be unfavorable for them to tell consumers that they are in fact buying polyethylene and polypropylene plastic with bleached paper pulp, AGM (a gelling substance), petrolatum, stearyl alcohol, cellulose tissue, elastic, and perfume. Instead they would rather consumers subscribe to the ideas they present on national television...that you are diapering your baby with materials as soft and inviting as cashmere.”

2. Using cloth diapers promotes early potty training - This probably has as much to do with the general parenting philosophy of cloth diapering parents and potty training, but there are a few factors that help with the acceleration of potty training including the simple fact that your little monster can feel when he’s wet himself and, therefore, complain loudly and vociferously about it. We practice EC here at the So Green Baby household with Tristan and, contrary to authoritative studies by learned individuals that lament the stress put upon a baby because of this practice, we decided to stick with what apparently has been working since pre-industrial times and so far we have a very happy, healthy and well adjusted 1 year old.
 
3. Using cloth diapers helps you maintain your weekly garbage output at pre-baby levels - Before Tristan was born, we were concerned that our garbage production would go up as a family unit. This would be one of the most visible ways to see your impact, as you basically count the number of bags you’re putting out every two weeks. So far, we’re still putting out one or two bags on garbage day.
 
4. Using cloth diapers will help you leave some land for your grandkids to play on - Where did you think those disposable diapers were going? Here are some stats from realdiaperassociation.org:

Over 92% of all single-use diapers end up in a landfill.
In 1988, nearly $300 million dollars were spent annually just to discard disposable diapers, whereas cotton diapers are reused 50 to 200 times before being turned into rags.
No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren will be gone.
Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste.  In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste.

I must admit, a part of me wrestled with the idea of having a baby only to have him inherit and have to live with the vast number of problems we’ve dummied up in our lifetime, but then ... well, did anybody see Idiocracy?
 
5. Using cloth diapers lets you stick it to big corporations whose agenda is simply to get you to buy, and buy some more.
 
6. Using cloth diapers gives you yet another way to bond with your baby - This was a bit unexpected but the throwaway nature of disposable diapers vs. the investment that you have to make for cloth diapering creates another activity that you can bond with your little monster over. It’s another little thing that uniquely draws you into the whole child-raising process.
 
7. Using cloth diapers helps save on paying for disposables - There’s an initial investment which may seem high, but then you’re not rushing out to Walmart every two weeks to pickup a new batch of Pampers. There’s definitely a pay off over the long term, especially if you have more than one child.
 
8. Using cloth diapers  lets you dress your baby up in ridiculously cute and stylish prints - Anybody see that Huggies jean diaper commercial? Right, me either. Not really relevant when you can put your kid in cowprint, robots and monkeys.
 
9. Using cloth diapers ensures that you don’t give a damn that your little monster peed into that clean diaper you just put on him. It’s a good feeling to not have to envision dollar signs being flushed away with every disposable that you toss into the garbage - your cloth diaper goes right into the diaper pail for wash and reuse. Additionally, you never feel the urge to just let that diaper sit for a little bit longer because you have an inexhaustible stash of cloth that you can change him with as frequently as you need to (hello prefolds).
 
10. Using cloth diapers  is easy! You do that research to understand the nuances involved in selecting a TV - LED, 3D, HD, refresh rates and so on, right? Cloth diapers are way less complicated and intimidating, and contain hardly any coltan. The main refrain I hear dismissing cloth as a viable alternative usually centers around washing but really, once you become a parent your life revolves around bowel movements and baby puke. Handling these things becomes an everyday fact of life and, as Tasha puts it, it's pushing the buttons on the washing machine a couple more times a week.