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Do you use disposable diapers? Do you buy your disposable diapers in bulk?

Posted by on March 16, 2011 13 Comments

A lot of people mention that they don’t really need to save money by using cloth diapers because they always buy their Pampers in bulk, their Huggies in bulk, or their Luvs in bulk. Unless you are deadset against disposable diapering because you think it’s gross (even though I already explained why disposable diapers are actually grosser in a previous blog) or you don’t have access to a washing machine, the fact that people buy their diapers in bulk is even less of an argument against cloth diapering.

The number one reason why people who have considered cloth pass on it is the initial investment. I have three issues with that:

  1. You could buy one cloth diaper a week throughout your third trimester and have a full set of diapers. One cloth diaper a week is less than you would be spending each week on disposables once the baby arrives.
  2. If you can afford to buy bulk disposables and plan your budget that way, why couldn’t you plan your budget to accommodate cloth diapers. A set of even the most coveted cloth diapers is about $275.
  3. If you have a baby shower, you could either register for cloth diapers, or you could return all your bulk sacks of Pampers, Huggies and Luvs to Wal-mart or Target and buy yourself a set of really nice cloth diapers. If you choose a good All-In-One like Bamboo Baby or FuzziBunz, you’ll be set on diapers for the next three years (and then the three years of diapering any future children as well, unless of course, you choose to sell your diapers when you’re done and get most of your money back.)

You see, even with the cheapest package of the flimsiest, crappiest bulk disposable diapers from an outlet store like Costco, you’re still going to end up paying about $50 a month.

*****calculator clicking*****

Ooooooooh.

Ouch. That’s over a thousand bucks if you manage to potty train your baby within two years.

Hmmm….

Do you still think you can’t budget for that $275?

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The Real Difference Between Cloth And Disposable Diapers

Posted by on November 4, 2010 2 Comments

I was so completely disappointed to watch The Early Show segment comparing cloth and disposable diapers:

Really?  You have no statistics, no proof, and no real discussion about the ramifications of the build up in our landfills. You actually stated the landfill waste from disposable diapers as “it’s not the worst type waste in landfills”?  Really?  And smoking in a room full of children isn’t the worst type of second hand smoke that they might have to be subjected to either- but I am not ADVOCATING that you actually do it because “it’s not as bad….”

And the primary reason for promoting “Huggies”, so blantantly in your face,  vs. cloth was ease of use.  Obviously NO research was done, because cloth has a come a LONG way!  Check out our tutorial section on how easy they really are to use.  Just as simple as your “1, 2, 3″ that you posted about disposables.  And that extra load of laundry(which is actually washing itself, you just put in the soap and push a button) can be done as quickly as it takes you to bag up and walk out the extra bag of trash for the garbage truck to pick up.

Give us a call, CBS when you are ready to get some facts for your story about cloth diapers- and let us show you how it’s done!

-Crystal, cloth diapering mom of 3 children,business owner, wife, and homemaker(oh, and laundry manager) ;)

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Gel Balls in Disposable Diapers

Posted by on October 13, 2010 1 Comment

What are those little gel balls that come out of the diapers?

Those gel balls that parents often find on their baby’s skin (sometimes even inside their little girls’ vaginal openings) during the diaper change is a chemical called sodium polyacrylate. They are the substance in disposable diapers that allow them to absorb so much urine and stay so trim while dry.  It’s a fantastic idea… Except that you’re supposed to keep sodium polyacrylate away from skin. In fact, when it comes into contact with skin, most of the manufacturers of this chemical recommend you flush the skin with water for fifteen minutes.

Don’t believe me?

I happened to find a few Material Safety Data Sheets from various chemical labs for sodium polyacrylate in PDF format online. Have a look for yourself. Read how implicit the directions are to keep sodium polyacrylate off of skin. Maybe it won’t make a difference to you. It really won’t bother me if people are not as concerned as I am about the regular use of this chemical against a child’s skin. What will bother me though is if the people that read this blog are complacent enough in Consumer Land to read the Material Safety Data Sheets for themselves:

“If it wasn’t OK for our babies, they’d pull ______   from the shelves.”

We hear that phrase all the time regarding:

  • children’s medicines
  • artificial food coloring
  • baby formula
  • genetically modified food
  • disposable diapers

I think the thing to keep in mind is “OK” can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Our children matter. Complacency is unacceptable. It is our duty to keep our children safe. Please make your own decision. I will respect your choice, (Yes, even if it’s to use disposables) provided it’s an informed one.

-Dawn Papple

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Who is training who?

Posted by on August 30, 2010 Leave a Comment

The time to potty train can be different for every kid.  When it came time to train my twin daughters, it felt more like I was the one in training.  I felt like I was prepared.  I had a plan in place and I had the supplies I needed. Potty. check. Training pants. check.  No major plans for a week. Check.  What I didn’t plan on was how emotionally challenging it was going to be.  

Introducing the potties was fun and exciting for everyone.  We had stickers to put on the potty as a reward for peeing, and a big jar of balloons as a reward for poops. One balloon for each poop.  Everything was progressing nicely, until it set in that this was a change that was not a one day event.  My girls started acting out in ways I was not expecting.  Looking back the kinds of things they were doing seem funny, but I was in tears the day they both stood next to their potties and peed right on the floor.  Laughing the whole time.  They thought it was a huge joke.  That was the first time they turned against me.

It wasn’t until my pediatrician suggested just telling them that we were not using diapers anymore.  Being prepared with change of clothes and just dealing with the accidents was the turning point for me.  Standing firm.  I had to be the one to make the change.

The second time around was a little bit easier.  At about 18 months my son just started climbing on the toilet.  We hadn’t even dusted off the potties yet.  I decided that if he can climb on the toilet, he was probably ready to take off the diapers.  We still did the stickers and balloons, but it only took about one month compared to the six month transition for the girls.

Being a parent requires flexibility and patience.  These two lessons are put to the test during potty training.  Compared to my friends who chose to use disposables, my cloth wearing toddlers were potty trained one to two years before their sposie wearing friends.  Thank goodness.

Here is a great article about the frugality of not using disposable training pants.

Frugal parents toss disposable training pants

Bless,

Jess

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Cloth Diapering on Vacation

Posted by on August 10, 2010 3 Comments

The biggest challenge I received when trying to encourage new moms to cloth diaper has always been, “What will I do when I’m on vacation?” Well, you have a few different options. When making your cloth diapering choices, if you go out of town a lot:

  • You could go the hybrid route. Even if you want to do a cool pocket diapering system the rest of the time, for a very small investment, you could still be super green and economical while on vacation. With these, you get disposable inserts and purchase about three covers for them. You one of the super comfy covers (much as you would have used the rubber pants in the old days) for several diaper changes, and only change the insert. When you’re done with the earth-friendly and chemical-free insert, you throw it away.
  • You could make sure you stay at a hotel (or with family) where a washer is accessible to you. Call the hotel ahead of time and see. Often there’s a laundry mat nearby as well. Cloth diapers dry fairly fast, so it would only take about an hour and a half out of your morning every couple of days while you’re on vacation. This is a regular choice for many of us cloth diaper advocates, but I do understand for people on the go it is a less appealing than the first option.
  • You could buy disposable diapers just for your trip. See, when you purchase a cloth diapering package, you don’t have to sign any contracts or promise to use them every day for the duration of your diapering career. There are no oaths that you have to take vowing off disposables forever. You will still be highly regarded as making positive choices, because the other 51 weeks of the year, you’re using cloth. Even if you occasionally use disposables, you’re still putting significantly less waste into the landfills, still saving enormous amounts of money, and still significantly reducing your baby’s exposure to toxic chemicals.

The really great thing with cloth diapering is that, with time, you’ll be able to save yourself enough money to pay for a trip to Disney World.

Dawn Papple

Filed Under: Cloth Diapers General, Natural Parenting & Lifestyles, Products, Sales and Specials | Tagged: Tagged With: , , ,

Irony at the Pediatrician’s Office

Posted by on June 22, 2010 3 Comments

My pediatrician wants me to implicitly trust his advice and advanced problem solving skills, without question, and yet, upon examining my child to find her sporting an adorable cloth diaper, he quaffs, “What’s this?!”

Having owned a natural parenting store in my local town for a few years, I am accustomed to explaining the ins and outs and pros and “pros” of cloth diapers, but I was taken aback when my doctor was dumbfounded at what he saw. Certainly, I couldn’t have been the first cloth diapering mom to enter his exam room.  I couldn’t help but wonder if women out there strap a ‘sposie on their child when going to the pediatrician to avoid this kind of situation- As though there is something to be ashamed of by raising our infants to reduce waste, live healthy and be economical.

And so I explained it was a cloth diaper.  Aware of his denial and confusion, I demonstrated how different modern cloth is from the cloth we were raised in. I emphasized the health benefits of course. He was very intrigued. I don’t fully understand how a person can specialize in babies, but be unaware of the vast amounts of cloth diapers that began emerging into our society about a decade ago. Just while sitting in HIS office, I read one article and three ads in one of HIS magazines about cloth diapers.

After this long discussion, I was highly amused when he explained to me that they don’t really recommend Tylenol for fevers anymore unless the fever is out of hand. He explained that fevers are our bodies’ way of naturally fighting infection. I smiled at him and thanked him politely, remembering sitting across the hall in another exam room eight years prior with my infant son, suggesting to his partner the same thing… only to be frowned upon.

It won’t be long ladies. In a few more years, women will go for their first office visit with their new child’s pediatrician and he will say, “Oh, by the way, we don’t really recommend using disposables anymore. We’ve found cloth diapers are much healthier for the baby.”

Dawn Papple

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Disposable Diapers and Oil Dependance

Posted by on May 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkdAOhnrGyw]

I would hope with all of the horrendous oil spill news, that everyone will look at every facet of their lives and reduce their oil dependance by at least half.

Just watching this video of how disposable diapers are made makes me contemplate how much of our precious resources go into creating something that will get pooped in.  Then thrown into a landfill and take over 600 years to decompose.  Sick.

What happens to a disposable item after it gets tossed is only half of it.  We all need to consider how things are made and packaged.  How they get to the stores, and eventually to your home.

This may be extreme here, but we need to drive less, buy local, invest in clean and renewable energy, and respect the planet. Our children’s future depends on our actions.  Consumers are most responsible for the Gulf oil spill, and for all oils spilled around the world.  That is right folks.  In our take and toss society the only person to blame is ourselves.

Just look at how long it takes for these things to decompose.  Then look at what you are putting in your garbage.

  • Banana Peel: 3-4 weeks
  • Paper Bag: 1 month
  • Cardboard: 2 months
  • Wool Sock : 1 year
  • Tinned Steel Can: 50 years
  • Aluminum Can: 200-500 years (But if recycled, it can be reused within 6 weeks!)
  • Disposable Diapers: 550 years
  • Plastic Bags : 20-1000 years
  • Plastic Jug: 1 million years
  • Glass : 1-2 million years
  • Styrofoam: 1+ million years
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