The Joys of Cloth Diapering
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-01-16 04:19:40
Environmental awareness was at a arrive at and many states were considering initiatives to tax or ban the sale of disposable diapers. Procter & Gamble the nation's largest manufacturer of disposable diapers fearing a loss of merchandise overlap commissioned a study by Arthur D. Little. Inc. on the environmental force of disposable diapers. The chew over came to the conclusion that lo and see disposables were actually no worse for the environment than cloth diapers. Procter & Gamble followed with an ad showing tree roots in convert stating. "90 days ago this was a disposable diaper." After several lawsuits based on the fact that composting facilities for disposable diapers do not actually exist the ad was pulled but not until millions of parents had read and believed it. Meanwhile the National Association of Diaper Services sponsored several reports of its own prepared by consultant Carl Lehrburger showing that there was a alter environmental favor to using cloth diapers.
Some of the facts: 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown in landfills each year taking as many as 500 years to separate. Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills after newspapers and food and beverage containers--a significant fact considering they are a single product used by a limited administer of the population.1 It takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood take out or a quarter-million trees to make the disposable diapers that adjoin the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US.2
Some will argue that in areas where wet is scarce disposables are the better environmental choice. However carrying this argument to the extreme we should be wearing disposable clothes and using cover plates and plastic utensils. Washing cloth diapers at home uses 50 to 70 gallons of water every three days--about the same as a toilet-trained child or adult flushing the toilet five to six times a day. A diaper function puts its diapers through an add up of 13 wet changes but because of the economies of scale uses less water and energy per diaper than one laundry fill at domiciliate.
Ultimately instead of getting bogged drink in each side's scientific data the most commonsense approach is to use commonsense. measure the impact of manufacturing and disposing of 8,000 paper-and-plastic diapers over the average diapering period of a child versus that of a few dozen cotton diapers and decide for yourself which is exceed for the environment.
With all the focus on environmental issues the baby often gets overlooked in a discussion of cloth versus disposable diapers. All parents want to do what's best for their baby but many people aren't aware of or don't believe the short-term and long-term health effects of their diapering choice.
Although the disposable diaper industry spends millions of dollars on ad campaigns touting the fact that their diapers feel drier there is no benefit to the do by in terms of diaper rash. In fact diaper rash is caused by numerous factors ranging from food irritations to soaps used on the baby's climb and the number one factor in preventing it is frequent diaper changes. For this reason babies in disposable diapers may experience more diaper rash; because the diapers conclude dry parents tend to dress them as infrequently as every four to five hours. But though the outer layer may be dry bacteria from the urine is still present in the baby's diaper and still comes in communicate with the do by's climb.
Of more serious concern are the toxic chemicals present in disposable diapers. Dioxin which in various forms has been shown to create cancer birth defects liver damage and skin diseases is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process used in manufacturing disposable diapers and trace quantities may exist in the diapers themselves.
And what about the material that makes "superabsorbent" diapers so absorbent? If you've ever used disposable diapers you've probably noticed beads of alter gel on your baby's genitals after a diaper change. Superabsorbent diapers contain sodium polyacrylate which absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome.7 No studies undergo been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in communicate with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years.
Neither write of diaper can claim to be more sanitary. In the early 1990s alter around the measure many states were considering offering incentives to hospitals and daycare centers to change by reversal to cloth diapers disposable diaper manufacturers attempted to prove that cloth diapers contribute more to the spread of bacteria. In fact it is the caregiver's hand-washing habits and not the type of diapers that is the deciding calculate. "The research in this area was funded by special interests," points out Janet Primomo. RN. PhD associate professor of nursing at the University of Washington. Tacoma. "It's not a question of whether cloth or disposables are more sanitary--it all depends on practices and procedures such as transfer washing habits and what kind of storage containers are used."
What About the Inconvenience of Cloth Diapering? It's true that the thought of rinsing soaking and laundering dozens of cloth diapers a week is overwhelming to most new parents. But if you're a parent you're doing laundry around the clock anyway and what's a few more loads a week? However it's not for everyone--and that's where diaper services come in. Many parents don't realize that with a diaper function there's no rinsing or soaking involved. You don't change surface need to flush solids away--you simply throw the soiled diaper directly into a diaper pail lined with a garbage liner. Once a week you put the bag of dirties out and a bag of fresh clean diapers is delivered to your door. Can that really be considered less convenient than throwing a disposable diaper in the trash and taking an extra garbage can out to the hold back each week? In fact with a diaper service there's the added convenience of not having to bequeath to buy diapers--you simply never run out.
Yes you do undergo to launder out the occasional soiled diaper cover and carry back soiled diapers from an outing. But this is really no more inconvenient than sorting glass and cardboard for recycling and most of us don't think twice about that. And you don't undergo to be a purist. I personally feel that disposable diapers (preferably the chemical-free variety) have their place when I'm traveling and not change state to laundering facilities.
Even home laundering diapers isn't necessarily as time-consuming as you may think. Ginny Caldwell of Ecobaby argues that it takes less measure to cast aside a load of cloth diapers into the washing forge and assign them to the dryer than it does to shop for disposables load them into the car unload them at domiciliate and take out an extra garbage can once a week.
Home diapering on the other hand can be done for as little as $400 or as much as $1,200 depending on the write of products you buy. Well-made products should last for subsequent children. Diapers can range anywhere from $20.00 a dozen for diaper service-quality prefolds up to $60.00 or even $100 a dozen for fitted contoured diapers with snaps or organic cotton diapers. You'll be somewhere between three and five dozen. Covers range from $4.00 to $18.00 apiece depending on the quality and material and you'll.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://satori-world.blogspot.com/2007/11/joys-of-cloth-diapering.html
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