7 Reasons To Use Cloth Diapers Rather Than Disposables
Being a parent of a baby is wonderful - even though your baby will live their first two years wearing diapers. Our main priority as moms and dads is looking out for our baby. Because our lives are so busy - we are all looking for ways to make things easier. And sometimes the choices that we make aren’t always the correct one.
One thing that we don’t always consider is the impact that the diapers we choose for our baby have on the health and comfort of our baby, the positive impact that we can choose to have on the environment, and the substantial savings available through the use of child diapers made from cloth.
We have done some research and here are our seven reasons to move away from disposable diapers and instead choose to use cloth diapers for your baby.
1. Better for the health of your baby. Sure today’s disposable diapers are super-absorbent - but what makes them that way. They are made from a sodium polyacrylate which is a strong chemical that in studies has been shown to potentially lead to toxic shock syndrome. In addition, since disposables go through a bleaching process when they are manufactured a by-product of this process is a dangerous chemical (it’s called Dioxin) that cause liver problems, suppression of the immune system and even genetic problems
2. Lower possibility of diaper rash for your baby. Disposable diapers are made of very dense material, while cloth diapers are made of breathable cotton. This means that you baby will be cooler, thereby reducing the build up of bacteria growth which lowers the possibility of a rash. Babies that wear cloth diapers get changed more often because they will feel wet to the touch when the baby is wet. Disposables on the other hand are so absorbent that even when the baby is wet the diaper may not feel wet and therefore the baby will not be changed as often. This will result in a greater chance of the baby developing a diaper rash.
3. Baby’s comfort. Cloth-style diapers are made from layers of breathable, soft-to-the-touch cotton. Plainly stated cotton just feels better next to baby’s skin. Cotton is breathable which means that it is cooler next to baby’s tender skin. Especially on hot, humid days cotton clothe diapers are much cooler than the disposable alternative.
4. Save money - raising a baby is expensive and we all want to save money when we can. There have been numerous studies that compare the costs of purchasing disposables versus the cost of purchasing and washing cloth baby diapers at home. The results of the studies vary but they all agree that the cost of cloth, home laundered diapers, is considerably lower than buying disposables. Consider that over a 2 1/2 year period where there will be approximately 7,500 diaper changes, the savings of cloth over disposables is in the range of $1,000 to $2,000. This savings is even greater when you consider that the same diaper can be used for another baby. In our case - in Holden’s first year we have saved over $800 by using cloth. Think of what you could do with the SAVINGS you earned from buying and laundering your own diapers!
5. Better for the environment - it is probably obvious that cloth diapers are better for the environment since they are reusable. Here are some more issues to consider. A good quality cloth diaper can be laundered at least 100 times. If you are having more than one baby they can be used for your second and third child. It does take energy to launder the baby diaper, but the energy used is a small fraction of what a disposable diaper does to the environment. It is estimated that a disposable will take 400 to 500 years to decompose in our landfills. The companies that make today’s disposables will use over 1 million metric tons of wood pulp and 75,000 metric tons of plastic each year. What a cost to our environment.
6. No fuss changing. Cloth diapers are built with snap closures (no more pins). They are adjustable so that they provide a great fit for your baby. Many of the cloth diapers are made with a built in outer liner making it easy for anyone to change a baby - even a grandpa.
7. Built in outer cover. That means just change the diaper - don`t worry about having to pull an outer cover over top of the diapers. It makes changing baby a breeze.
