To cloth or not to cloth…pt. 2

(These two posts were written at the same time, but due to a visit from the flu at our home I never made it back to the computer to post part 2. I’m sure you’ve just been waiting to hear more on cloth diapering! :o) Here you go!)

The third aspect of cloth diapering is the safety for the child.

An interesting fact about cloth diapers: children who are using cloth diapers rarely get diaper rashes, versus children in disposable diapers who will just about all experience what a rash is like. An interesting study was done in the 1990's on diapering and rashes. In 1955 virtually every baby in the country was using cloth diapers. Diaper rashes were at 7%. In 1991, 90% of babies were in disposable diapers. Rashes jumped from a mere 7% all the way up to 78%.

Disposable diapers are full of chemicals. Tri Butyl Tin (Tbt) is one of the most dangerous pollutants ever made, yet it's found in the inner and out layer of many disposable diapers. What makes disposable diapers absorbent is the gel sodium polyacrylate crystals (those nasty gelly beads you find on babies after they swim in a disposable diaper.) This gel was actually banned for use in tampons, for its link to causing toxic shock syndrome in women, yet it's still permitted and allowed to be used in baby's diapers?? It’s reported that if a child ingested even a mere 1/8 of a tsp of those gels it would be enough to kill them. Shocking. In bleached disposable diapers (nearly everything is bleached these days *sigh*) is a highly toxic chemical called dioxin, which scientists have dubbed "the most toxic chemical on earth." We’re not even sure what exposure to dioxin can cause, Shyloh looked it up online and it was very confusing. All we know is it's bad. LOL

Also of interest: disposable diapers have been linked to childhood asthma and all eyes, nose and throat irritations. Hmm, interesting.

Finally, in the category of safety, studies are currently being done on disposable diapers and their possible link to male infertility. Somehow, the plastics in the disposable diapers don't allow for airing or breathing the same way cloth diapers do, and it's causing little boy's "boy parts" to heat up to hot. Temperature is very important when it comes to little boy's man parts developing properly and their future sperm health.

Shyloh was very thorough when she did her research. She slowly got me to seriously consider going cloth, the only thing I was still hung up on was the convenience. Well let me just say that things have changed in the last 20 years when it comes to cloth diapering. The days of swishing out poop, pins, and icky rubber pants are long gone.

Today cloth diapers are quite amazing. You can use Chinese prefolds with a cover, (and that doesn’t mean a pair of rubber pants) there are all in one diapers, pocket diapers, and fitted diapers. Those are just the styles and types. The great thing is you can purchase these and because of the nifty little snaps and buttons they can adjust to fit your newborn or your two year old. How great is that?

As for cleaning them, that has been simplified also. They make little sprayers that attach directly to your toilet line and hide inconspicuously behind the tank. When you need to clean the diaper you just spray it off! If that is too much for you then you can also buy little biodegradable and flushable liners that you put inside the diaper. When they poop you just lift out the liner and flush. Voila!! Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Little Miss Shylie has graciously agreed to be our guinea pig. We figured we could practice on her to see if we even liked using cloth and if so what brands and styles we preferred. The first we tried was a basic pre-fold with a prorap cover. Let me just say that this was not her favorite. It was a bit more bulky that she was used to. I probably should have continued with that and she would probably have potty trained herself to get out of them.

Shyloh then ordered us a set of the all in one diapers and brought them over for Shylie. We knew we were in trouble when Shylie’s eyes lit up like giant stars at the sight of these pretty diapers. She went nuts! I turned over all ordering and researching of brands to Shyloh. We are splitting packs as they come so we can both figure out which ones we like or don’t like. When Shyloh carries in a package into our home Shylie runs to her and says, “baby diapers for me???” She looovves her new diapers. She tries to show off her diapers to anyone who comes over. Uh, oh. Not so good when we’ve been slowly working on potty training.

We’ve decided that we need to hurry up and go buy her some little training underwear quick…they just need to be prettier than these cloth diapers because she’s pretty taken with them.

So here I am going on baby #10 and I’m actually going to give this cloth thing a try. How’s that for teaching an old dog new tricks? I think this will definitely be interesting. My family are all just a bit concerned as they know that they are being dragged along on this ride. One for all and all for one! It will indeed be a new adventure for all of us!