After my misguided notion that I could easily brush up on the basics of cloth diapering and give you all the salient points, saving you time and energy, I realized that cloth diapering is it’s own planet. So the real issue is what planet would you like to live on, the cloth diaper planet or Earth (which of course is about to implode thanks in part to disposable diapers)?
I set out with the intention of writing a cloth vs. disposable diaper post, two warring camps, one brave blogger walking through the fog and dust of the front line. Here’s what I discovered: Like everything else in parenting, it doesn’t have to be a fight, an either/or scenario. In fact, chances are even if you go cloth you will inevitably use disposables at some point (air and car travel, staying for the weekend with grandma who sees cloth diapers as turning her back on progress and women’s liberation, or the first couple of days (or weeks) after coming home from the hospital, because H-Christ how hard do things have to be?). Of course, if you choose disposables, your right, you probably will never use a cloth diaper. But maybe you’ll be missing out? So the question is, how important is it to you?
Champions of cloth diapers say that cloth reduces blow outs and diaper rash. Disposables certainly blow out (like up to the hair at the back of her neck, many times a day), but cloth can leak. Different brands of each have pluses and minuses. The diaper rash issue isn’t one I’d put money on. Babies get rashes, in cloth or in disposables. The cause of those rashes and the recurrence of said rashes could totally depend on your diaper choice. Can you know which diapers will set her off before the kid is born? Not unless you’ve got the smartest smart phone around. The gel or other chemicals in disposables could irritate the skin, or the wetness on the skin unavoidable in cloth could do it. One kind of cream could solve it, but ruin your cloth diapers, another kind could make it worse.
Is cloth diapering more work? Let me put it this way: You should install a hand sprayer attachment to your toilet to “remove the solids” for the diapers before washing or having them laundered. And if you are washing them yourself, then you need to know that there is washing, there is deep cleaning and there is disinfecting. All of which need to be done at different times. I’m not trying to dissuade you. Actually, I want you to have a realistic idea of what you are getting into. But the thing that is hard to imagine is that the whole baby thing is so much more work, that all of this will feel like a drop in the bucket (no pun intended, it just happens). If you want to be an environmentalist, if you want to feel that you are truly doing the small things that you can do to help our planet. If you want to avoid pressing desiccants directly to your baby’s junk, then cloth diapering is for you.
And you know what, no one worth their salt is going to judge you if this you just have to let this one go. Do what you can do, then have a glass of wine and go to bed. This is parenting.
If you want to try cloth, here is a cool trial kit that has everything you need.
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