The first 2 plus years of a child's life are lived in diapers. Raising a baby has many wonderful rewards and some challenges. As parents we sometimes are just concerned with finding convenient ways to be a great parent.
One thing that we don't always consider is the impact that the diapers we choose for our baby have on the health and comfort of our baby, the positive impact that we can choose to have on the environment, and the substantial savings available through the use of child diapers made from cloth.
Here are 7 Reasons to Choose Cloth Diapers over Disposable Diapers
1. Improved health for your baby. Take a look at what makes up today's disposable diapers. They are made with a chemical that makes the diaper very absorbent - but this chemical (sodium polyacrylate) has been linked to toxic shock syndrome. And that's not the only dangerous chemical. You will also find in disposable diapers traces of Dioxin (this is a carcinogen) and it can cause genetic damage, immune system suppression and even disease of the liver.
2. Lower possibility of diaper rash for your baby. Disposable diapers are made of very dense material, while cloth diapers are made of breathable cotton. This means that you baby will be cooler, thereby reducing the build up of bacteria growth which lowers the possibility of a rash. Babies that wear cloth diapers get changed more often because they will feel wet to the touch when the baby is wet. Disposables on the other hand are so absorbent that even when the baby is wet the diaper may not feel wet and therefore the baby will not be changed as often. This will result in a greater chance of the baby developing a diaper rash.
3. Baby's comfort. Cloth-style diapers are made from layers of breathable, soft-to-the-touch cotton. Plainly stated cotton just feels better next to baby's skin. Cotton is breathable which means that it is cooler next to baby's tender skin. Especially on hot, humid days cotton clothe diapers are much cooler than the disposable alternative.
4. Reduce the cost of raising a baby. We have two boys. In the first 18 months of our first child's life we figure that we have saved about $1200 by using cloth diapers rather than disposables. This is taking into account the cost of purchasing disposables versus the cost of purchasing and washing cloth baby diapers at home. Independent studies have been taken which shows that over the time that a child wears diapers (2.5 years approximately) that a baby will wear about 7500 diapers and that by using cloth you can save between $1000 and $2000.
5. Make our world better - Each year about a million tons of wood and 75 thousand tons of plastic go into the making of disposable diapers. Because cloth diapers are designed for a long life they can be used over and over for your first child, and over and over again for your second and third baby and so on. We`ve all learned how important it is to reuse whatever we can. A good cloth diaper can be washed a hundred or more times, and the laundering does use energy - but the cost is very small when you compared to the negative effects of using disposables. Studies tell us that we can expect a disposable to take four to five hundred years to be fully decomposed.
6. Easy to change - today's modern cloth diapers have snap or Velcro closures, and adjust for the size of your baby. When using the all-in-one cloth diapers it is easy for anyone to change the baby. Even Holden's grandpa (JoPa) can make the diaper change without any complaints from baby or JoPa.
7. Diaper and outer cover built together. If you are looking for convenience in a cloth diaper look for ones that are called all-in-one diapers. This means that the diaper and the outer waterproof cover are built into one item. This makes for quick changes of your baby.