diaper duty update

NEVER, EVER once in my life did i imagine i would be so excited about something so YUCKY as cloth diapers!!! but i have to tell you, i did SO much research about switching from disposables to cloth diapers, not only do you have to make that switch but you really have to know what TYPE of clothies you are going with, and i am sorry but this is a GIANT commitment!!! like i said i did SO much research on diapers then i searched for prices...i literally spent 8 hours one day making a decision, but i finally did it!!!

we ended up spending around $250.00 for 12 diaper cover (6 in each size...oh yes we have 2 in diapers!!!) 24 microfiber inserts, 2 (to try out) hemp inserts and the plastic liners came with the diapers. alot to drop at once but the way we go through diapers, that is a 4 month supply of disposables.

for the covers we went with the awesome, hybrid, gDiapers...they come with plastic liners that snap in and out and have inserts you buy that are flusable/disposable/or even COMPOSTABLE!!! the inserts are supposed to degrade anywhere from 50 to 150 DAYS...ALOT less time than the 500 YEARS the average disposable takes...but i wanted to use cloth inserts so we opted for some microfiber ones. i figure we can use the disposable liners at night because the girls usually mess their diapers first thing in the morning and use the washable ones during the day, so far it is going quite swimmingly, we still have messes at various times throughout the day but they are very managable.

for the cloth microfiber liners i went to a specialized diaper boutique wildflower diapers, they have so many choices it will make your head hurt, but the owner is so great so acutally has a ton of info posted right on her site to help new clothies figure out what they are doing. we also bought some hemp ones, i am very impressed with the fact that hemp does not require pesticides, is more absorbent than cotton, is not bleached, and tends to last longer than cotton so i am interested to see how it actually performs. i will let you know.

i did check out the aio (all in one) diapers and though they seem so much more convienent than covers, liners and inserts, i really wonder how clean that diaper is truly getting, it holds messes in and pulls them away from the baby but how does it know it's in the washer and supposed to release the messes?? (just a thought)

anyway...thats whats new on the cloth diaper front...even daddy is on board so things are quite well.

oh, my big tip is buy all of the recommended diapers when you first start using them, we tried cloth with our older daughter and because i had only bought 2 covers and a pack of the pre-folds we could not keep up with the demand and ended up going back to disposables, it is so much easier if you have plenty of clean liners and covers at the ready for you.

diaper duty

One of my main green journeys is to find earth and baby friendly diapers. I have been on the hunt since my son, Quentin, was born almost 10 years ago. I know cloth is "supposed" to be the best, but honestly, I do not have the time, or patience for that matter, to clean up the messes and deal with washing poopie diapers. I tried with Quentin then when I had Veronica almost four years ago I tried again because it seemed no matter what I did she went from perfect to bleeding in one diaper change, her skin is so extremely sensitive even the cloth diapers irritated her. It wasn’t the cloth or the cotton, but the way both diapers are processed.

Through the magic that is the internet I found unbleached, organic diapers of all sorts. Cloth diapers are great if you have the patience, as I said I do not , but I am still being earth friendly by using a brand called seventh generation, the company’s mission is great, they consider how everything they manufacture will affect the next seven generations and they recognize that we all use some disposable products, but their main goal is to manufacture disposables that are used in the manner that is safest for consumers and the environment.

“Most diapers and wipes are made with absorbent materials that have been whitened with chlorine. But these whiter materials come with unpleasant consequences. Bleaching withchlorinecreates dangerous toxins such as dioxin, furans and other organochlorines. Once loose in the environment, these chemicals accumulate in both people and animals. Hundreds of studies have shown a direct link between dioxin exposure and cancer, birth defects and environmental and reproductive disorders.” seventh generation.com

There are many, many green brands, check some out at diapers.com :

NATURE BABYCARE - Eco-Friendly Baby Diapers

Tender Care Diapers

Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Diapers

And just one of the many cloth options available are:

Bum Genius

And now we are testing out gDiapers, from the outset these diapers look fabulous!!! They have a cloth cover to keep messes in, a snap in cloth liner that is unbleached and a flushable, or get this, COMPOSTABLE liner. I can not wait to see how this goes, but with 2 still in diapers and one in pull ups at night I need something easier on me and safer for them and the environment. I will keep ya posted!

Have a FABULOUS week…Oh and don’t forget the wipes, nearly all organic brands have their own line of organic wipes as well

With 18-23 billion diapers heading for landfill each year, it makes diapers the 3rd largest single consumer item in our waste system – following newspapers and beverage containers¹. Not a small accomplishment for a product used by about 5% of the population. ¹ US EPA Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States, 2003