Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Eww...You're Doing What???

                              This is the response I tend to get when I tell people that we are choosing to cloth diaper our little bundle of joy. I also get "Are you crazy?", "Why would you do that?", "Are you guys poor?", "Do you need me to buy you some diapers?" and my favorite "You're going to have to be scrubbing and touch poo...ewwww".
                              Truthfully, if you told me that I would be going the option of cloth diapering a couple years ago, I would have said "Me, NEVER", but like all things, perspective changes with time. So what would make a girl who is grossed out by puke and many other bodily functions, choose to undertake cloth diapering? Well here are some of my reasons (not listed in any particular order).

1. Cost Effective. Before even becoming pregnant I was aware of the cost of diapers. Every parent, at some time in their child's first years chime in unison that diapers are expensive. According to my research one child will use approximately 8,000 diapers by the time they potty train. Add in disposable wipes and parents will probably spend between $800.00 to $1000.00 a year in disposables. Cloth diapers on the other hand run you a start up for as little as $300 to as much as $1000.00 (sometimes even more)  if you choose  the high end of cloth diapering. So where is the savings? Well the savings is in buying all you need upfront, usually 24 to 30 diapers depending on how often you wish to do laundry. (And you don't use as much water or electricity if you have washers and dryers that are energy efficient)  I know some women who only have 14 diapers and wash more often than someone who has 24. The genius is in never having to buy another diaper for your child until he/she potty trains, mostly because the newer diapers are mostly one sized, which means they grow with your baby! I really liked this feature, and this was one of the reasons we choose to cloth diaper. Not only that, but we would like to have another child and we can pass down the diapers we already bought to him/her, thus eliminating to buy diapers at all! Lastly, we believe that this is a good way we can strive to be good stewards of the resources the Lord has blessed us with.

2. The Environment: About a year ago, there was a Sabbath school lesson about being stewards of God's creation and the earth. It really made me more aware of how much we should not be adding to the ruin of our planet, but caring after what we can. As a vegetarian family, we could not reconcile trying to be natural with our foods and then turning around and dumping so much unnecessary waste into a landfill. Waste that would take years to decompose, and if and when it does, could seep into the water supply for plants and animals. It just made no sense that we try to live such a healthy conscience life and neglect something so big as this. My husband and I don't believe that we will make the earth a better place, or help restore Eden, we just believe that we can do our part not to contribute to the waste that's already there. Just imagine that one baby in disposable diapers produces over a ton of waste in the first few years of life!

There are other reasons why people choose to cloth diaper, but practicing stewardship and not convenience is the main reason that we have chosen this method. Oh, wait, they are adorably cute too. The other reasons I would be able to comment about as we journey into CD'ing (Cloth Diapering) when the baby comes, but just to give you an idea, here are some reasons people site for using cloth diapers.

  • Babies using cloth diapers generally potty train sooner than other kids
  • Using cloth decreases diaper rashes. Some Mom's even report babies never having diaper rashes.
  • Temperatures in disposables can cause boys to experience infertility later on in life.
  • Comfort: Your baby's bum is in lovely cotton!
  • OH, AND DID I MENTION THEY ARE CUTE!
What are some reasons why you use cloth diapering? What are some reasons why you will never use cloth diapering?

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