Monday, August 29, 2011

We've come a long way baby!

When I mentioned to my grandmother that I was choosing to cloth diaper, I confess that she laughed and asked why on earth would we choose to use cloth when we had the option of disposables now.  Of course, when she was parenting, there was only one option.  And that was a dinky thin "prefold" pinned together around baby.  Leaks were unavoidable and when disposables first were brought onto the US market in 1961, it was a "revolution."  Moms were able to trash the poopy diapers and avoid the washing that came with cloth.  No one thought about the repercussions that would come, harming the planet and baby.

Diaper waste adds 3.4 million TONS of waste to landfills every year in the US alone.  The products do not biodegrade, and will be with us on our tiny planet through time.  (And really, I am not trying to sound like some overzealous, nature-loving hippy here - how can you NOT find that amount of unnecessary waste just so sad for our future???)

Disposable diapers contain many chemicals (yes - even the chlorine free ones do).  These diapers can hurt baby's skin, causing diaper rash, yeast build-up and even chemical burns (okay, so I AM one of those all-natural, chemical free hippies).

And so, we return to the cloth that our grandmothers were so eager to get rid of...  With the advancement in technology across the board, even cloth diapering has greatly improved since the 1960s.  No longer are baby's just wearing a prefold with pins (well maybe still around the house), as there are a number of different types of diaper to choose from now.  Babies are in Pockets, All-in-Ones, All-in-Twos, Fitteds, Flats and advanced Prefolds made from organic fibers (but with a cute PUL cover to keep everything dry).  The absorbency is so great that it far exceeds a disposable, and comes free of chemicals.  Babies are sitting in hemp, bamboo, fleece, microfiber and wool!  So much nicer than chlorine and alcohol on baby's skin!!!



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Thursday, August 18, 2011

And so we begin!

Hey everyone!  I am starting this blog to encourage all of my friends and colleagues to choose cloth diapers over disposables!  There seems to a be a HUGE baby boom right now among my circle of friends (many of use turned 30 this year - i blame that) and I see so many (well almost all) choosing chemical-filled, rash-causing, chemical-burn inducing disposables!  I used disposables with my first two, not knowing that cloth diapering was actually cost-effective, safer, and MUCH cuter!  It really isn't even that gross, you guys!

So anyway - check back soon for new posts on cloth diapering because hey, we cloth diaper!!!