Wait! Don't Throw Away Your Diapers!

You throw your diapers in the trash? That's weird.

Cloth diapers are almost a forgotten tool, with almost 95% of parents in the US using disposables (abcnews). Let's go over why you should rediscover cloth.

Cost: You can save between $540 and $1350 over 2.5 years if you use cloth diapers (WEN). This includes the cost of water, electricity, and wear and tear on your washer!

Diaper Rash: Disposables are designed to absorb the most moisture possible, thereby extending diaper changes. Efficient and convenient, right? NO! Leaving that on your baby's sweet little bottom will irritate his/her skin. In fact, according to the Journal of Pediatrics, 54% of one-month old babies using disposable diapers had rashes. Mark Fearer in "Diaper Debate - Not Over Yet," stated that "Several independent medical studies document an astounding increase [in diaper rash]: from 7% in 1955 to 78% in 1991. Critics of disposables say this parallels the increase in usage for disposables." Read this for more info.

For some reason, there are a lot of statements saying that there is no difference in diaper rash occurrences between disposables and cloth, but the studies tell us differently. Beware "Big Diaper" and it's twisting of the truth! Jack's bottom is always pale and pasty, never red and irritated!

Environment Impact: If you believe that the environmental impact between disposables and cloth is equal, then you are a gullible tool of "Big Diaper". Did you know that you are supposed to wash the solids out of a disposable before you throw it away? Human waste has to be treated, not thrown in landfills! Also think of these facts:

• 49 million diapers go into US landfills or the ocean each day! And these take 550 years to decompose. (source)

Health Impacts: If the previous facts aren't enough to make you want to use cloth, I found some other interesting tidbits during my research. Disposable diapers contain dangerous chemicals, namely dioxin (carcinogenic), sodium polyacrylate (numerous negative health effects), and trybutiltin (hormone emulator). (source)

There is a lot more information out there that I couldn't fit on this page, if this isn't enough to convince you then please check it out!