Parenting Poll Of The Week – Diapers

The idea for this week’s poll was suggested by 2lilpumpkins. It’s actually a topic I’ve been meaning to rant write about for a while.

There are many products which are so useful, time saving, and efficient, that we take them for granted. The light bulb. Air conditioning. Microwave ovens. Even something as simple as a fork. All these inventions have made our lives better. The improvement is so immense, the decision to use them is so indisputable, that nobody discusses it anymore. Or so I thought.

One such invention is the disposable diaper. Ever since 1961, when Pampers were introduced, parents everywhere have been relieved of the need to deal with cloth diapers. Yet there are still people debating which type of diaper to use.

Given the cheap cost and wide availability of disposables, why would any parent actually choose to use cloth diapers!?! Ok, I know I’ll get some reaction from the environmentalists out there, on how bad diapers are for the environment. Maybe disposable diapers aren’t helping the environment. But compared to serious dangers, like greenhouse gases, diapers are hardly topic #1 on Greenpeace’s agenda.

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8 thoughts on “Parenting Poll Of The Week – Diapers”

  1. Cheap? I don’t know where you buy your Pampers, because they used to cost me $20 a box! When I began attending babywearing group meetings, I met several ladies who cloth diaper and they filled me in on my options. I ended up buying used (sterilized) bumgeniuses and bumkins from a friend at a fraction of the cost of retail. I’ll never buy another disposable again. And next time I have a baby, this will save me a ton of money because I won’t have to buy a whole cloth diaper stash; I can just enhance the one I have with a few extra. It might cost $100 total to diaper my next child, and less if I can get more used diapers. Plus, washing them is easy. You just put them in the washing machine. They are much cuter than Pampers, better for my daughter’s butt, and, you said it, they are better for the environment. See here for my recent rant about that: http://babyfingers.blogspot.com/2008/04/parents-magazines-cloth-diaper-slip-up.html

    I’m not saying everyone should be expected to do this, but it’s worth a try for some of us. I’m tired of it being seen as “weird.”

    P.S. You have a Google Ad on your page for Seventh Generation diapers, which are an alternative to unnatural (bleached and questionable absorbent material) Pampers. Would you say these are a good investment?

  2. Disposable is certainly more expensive, especially Pampers. But if you go with the store brand (Target, Walmart, Costco) they are much less.

    I’ve never seen them, but from what I can tell, the Seventh Generation diapers cost about the same as Huggies or Pampers. So, if they work the same, and they are more “natural”, probably worth it.

    I am a bit skeptical of some “natural” and “green” products. Often it is more hype and marketing, like some “organic” foods.

  3. I had lots of misconceptions about cloth dipes before I started out. It has been an ease for us–my daughter potty trained by two years old, my diapers were one-sized so they grew with her and are ready to re-use on a future babe, we didn’t deal with diaper rash, and I saved the estimated 2.7 tons of landfill space. I feel pretty darn good about our choice.

    So, sure, I recognize it isn’t a choice for everyone but it really isn’t a big hassle to cloth now–no pins, no bleach, no wet pails, no folding these days! Just velcro (or snap) and go.

    My husband has become a devoted cloth diaperer.

    And honestly, disposable diapers (especially the off-brand ones) didn’t hold my super-wetter.

    Finally, I don’t wear plastic/paper underwear, why wouldn’t I put some cozy, breathable cloth next to my baby’s bum?

  4. I am a cloth diapering mama, and would never go back to disposables. I even wrote an article about it (http://www.squidoo.com/clothdiaperingbaby ). I spent $300 in cloth diapers, and I have been using them for three years with my two boys. I figured out that using disposables on the both of them would have cost me $2500 per child from birth until potty training. So with a grand total of $5000, and me only spending $300 in cloth diapers, I think I definitely took the cheaper route.

  5. OK…I used disposables on my two sons and still do on one of them. Thanks to my friend Jenny, I am now more educated about cloth diapers. When she told me that she was switching to cloth diapers I thought she had TWO HEADS! Who in the world would want to use disposables? I envisioned square pieces of cloth and safety pins….I was very wrong. I am absolutely amazed at how the cost is efficient and they actually hold the pee and poop in. You buy one diaper and it lasts from newborn until they are potty trained. One problem…..I know how I hate it when my oldest son has a number 2 accident, the clean up is NOT fun. Many moms have told me that it really is simple to clean. If we ever adopt a baby…I will definitely give cloth a try.

  6. I use disposables. I very recently switched to cloth diapers with my toddler hoping he would find potty training to be more comfortable than that. As my luck runs with getting him to potty training this failed. He would pee just once in the cloth diaper and it would end up going through. Now I have a bunch of cloth diapers sitting around the house.

  7. I babysat for a family who used “little g’s”–partially disposable (flushable), but with little pants that go over that are cloth (or, well, plastic–but they come in an array of colors, and look very cute on baby’s bottom!). They were very easy to use (even for the babysitter!), and the mom sang their praises. It seems as though it’s a nice alternative to disposable or cloth–and you still save money with them!

    Check out their website: http://www.gdiapers.com/shop/
    (Look for the video on the website that shows how much more bio-degradable they are than disposable diapers!)

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