Diapers, Diapers, Everywhere!

It’s not often that I’m at a loss for words. I want to add a post to the blog, but don’t aim to ramble simply to fill a page. Often throughout the day, I think, “Oh, I should write about this in the blog.” Unfortunately I seem to have a problem with my memory and forget the majority of my good ideas. When a baby enters the picture, the background turns into a white noise of sorts…and to that background flit those thoughts.

There is one thing that I have been wanting to write about for some time. It may seem silly, but I have become passionate about cloth diapers. Those that have lived in the days of old with those square cloths that have now become dust rags, and those of today who generally consider using cloth diapers the most antiquated practice ever would probably see me as a little crazy for saying that I’m “passionate” about cloth. Crazy or not, that’s how I feel.

What’s so great about cloth? Thank you for asking. Well, it’s good for everyone! It is estimated that for each year a child is in disposable diapers, there is one ton of disposable diaper garbage that is put into a landfill? That’s a lot of garbage! There is also a lot of speculation that disposable diapers may be linked to allergies and that the dioxins in disposable diapers may be linked to certain cancers (like a million other things we daily expose ourselves to, but still, why add one more). So we’ve covered why disposables should be avoided for environmental and health concerns, but there is also the pocket book that most people need to be careful with. We will probably spend about $500 on cloth diapers through the entire diapering life with Gwyneth, vs the $2000+ of disposables! For that reason alone, it’d convince us!


I’ve heard all the excuses as to why people don’t like cloth, but cloth has come a long way. The first top reason is that they are a pain to wash. Believe it or not, I spend about 5 minutes every other day tending to diaper washing. Send them through a rinse and spin on cold, send through a regular wash and then pop them all in the dryer. The second explanation I’ve heard from people is that it causes diaper rash. Well, we’ve tested the theory and Gwyneth doesn’t get diaper rash and more in disposables than in cloth. She was in disposables until her umbilical cord fell off and believe it or not, that was when her bottom got really raw. I’ve also heard that daycares won’t deal with them…guess what each daycare I looked at was open to using them. The list goes on and we’ve found that disposables aren’t really better, or even more convenient...especially when considering how often we've had disposable leaks and blowouts.

Yes, we do use the occasional disposable. I’m not THAT die hard, but really, why are we using so many disposable diapers? I personally want an earth that my little Gwyneth can enjoy as she gets older…one that’s filled with dirt and rock and molten lava…not one that has a core consisting entirely of our old, stinky diapers.


Here is a fabulous diaper that we use. We love it for daycare, but when at home, we use the never fail cloth squares placed in a diaper cover.