Poopy Pleasures

The advantages and benefits of cloth diapering from practical reasons, like saving money and keeping waste out of the landfills, to the zen moments one experiences when receiving fluffy mail or pulling hot cotton baby diapers out of the dryer.

Why do I cloth diaper? Because I like it. Alright, I did take a little literary license with the title of this article (get used to it if you're going to read anything else on this site). The actual poop part isn't exactly pleasurable, but the diapering ritual is. If you do a little research on the internet you'll find a few standard reasons for cloth diapering. 1) Its healthier for your baby. 2) You save money. 3) Its better for the environment. But I'd like to add one more to the list. 4) Gosh darn it, I like it. Don't get me wrong, I cloth diaper for those other reasons too, but there is a preference factor that is sometimes overlooked. To a certain extent I can't even tell you why I like cloth diapering, I just do. Its like when someone asks you why you like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream better than toffee almond crunch ice cream. You don't know, you just do, it just tastes better.

Diapering is a fact of life with a baby. You're going to do it and you're going to do it often. Why not make it a little bit enjoyable? It feels good to put something soft and cute on my little boy's bum. I like the look and feel of his quilty unbleached cotton prefolds. The styles and prints of the covers are completely adorable. Did you know you can buy zebra print? How cute! These sure aint't yo' mama's cloth diapers. You've come a long way baby! The shopping part is fun too. Its fun to surf the net and see the wonderfully imaginative, creative and ingenious diapers and covers that are out there. And what a variety! Its exciting to arrive home and see a package sitting by your back door filled with your latest find. Many women enjoy sewing their own diapers. You won't find me sitting in front of a sewing machine, however. First I have to fine tune my button sewing skills.

Now, can the same be said for disposable diapers? Oooooh, I just love to run my hands across the nice industrial plastic. And that sodium polyacrylate is a complete pleasure for my senses. I love the way it gels up on my baby's butt after its gotten too wet. I can just spend hours in the grocery store diaper aisle. Hmmm velcro or tape?

What about all that work? The toilet dunking… the heavy wet pail…the laundry…ugh! I'm going to be honest. Many cloth diapering sites claim that cloth diapering is as easy as using disposables. Maybe for a few people it is. But my opinion is that it is a little more work. Not too much more, though, and it definitely is worth it. First, dunking. You don't have dunk. For the period that you are exclusively breastfeeding, you don't have to worry about the poop at all- it comes right out in the wash, now worries! When you are faced with solid poopies you have a few options: shaking it into the toilet, using disposable liners, or using a device for dunking that keeps your hands far away from the inside of the toilet bowl. Now, the wet pail. You don't have to soak diapers, there is a dry pail method. And finally, the laundry. I don't think it is a big deal to do a few extra loads a week. I actually take some sort of pleasure (is it sick?) in taking care of my cloth diapers. One mother on an email diapering list I subscribe to actually described when she takes her fresh clean diapers out of the dryer as a "zen moment". You'll have to just trust me on this point; you have to practice cloth diapering before you can actually understand the zen aspect!

Now, I'm going to have to double back and give some airtime to the "standard reasons" for cloth diapering. It is healthier for your baby. Babies have less diaper rashes. Babies are not exposed to synthetic products and plastics for which we really have no idea what the long term effects might be. The first generation of mass disposable diapered babies is just now coming of age, so we'll see about the long term health implications. There are some possible adverse health effects for which you'll find studies on both sides which say yea and nay. There are possible links to allergies & asthma and possible links to infertility in males. I'll let you scan the science and studies and draw your own conclusions. For me personally I wonder, why risk it?

You save money using cloth over disposables. You save a lot of money if you use prefolds and inexpensive covers, especially when you can pass down most of your supplies to younger siblings. You can spend more money on fitted diapers, cute covers, and/or the super easy option of "all-in-one" (aio) diapers. Even then, you'll still spend less than you would on disposables. And yes, that includes factoring in the energy costs of laundering. Another lesser known detail which contributes to the lower cost is that cloth diapered babies generally potty train earlier (at 2 to 2 ½ yrs) than their disposable diapered counterparts (3 to 3 ½ years or longer). The theory is that those disposable diapers keep babies feeling so dang dry that they don't really feel a need to go in the potty.

Now, what's behind door number three? Well, Bob, it's the environment! You don't have to be a super liberal "tree hugger" (my apologies to tree huggers, I'm not trying to degrade you) to be proud of what you can do for the environment by choosing cloth diapers. If you choose disposables, you will be contributing 1/2 ton of waste per year per child to our over-burdened landfills. Imagine disposing of that in your back yard! Did you know that disposable diapers are the third largest category of consumer items in landfills after food containers and newspapers? Furthermore your baby's diapers will take 500 years to decompose. What about the bleached wood pulp and crude oil necessary for manufacturing disposable diapers? We often forget about the air pollution that is created by manufacturing disposable diapers. I've never been a great environmentalist, but this is probably the one most significant gift I or anyone else can give toward preserving our environment. I am proud that I can do a little more than just recycling a tomato soup can.

So, to recap, cute bottom, healthy bottom, full wallet, green earth. Cloth good, disposables, well…