Custom Made Cloth Diapers for Your Little One

Why You Should Cloth Diaper

Cost

While a cute pocket, fitted, or AIO diaper can cost you between $12-$25, a pop, cloth diapers are still cost effective.  The reason is because the diapers can be reused over and over and over.  The average baby will go through between 4,000 and 6,000 diapers before he/she is potty trained, usually around 2 years old.  That is based on the assumption that a baby is changed on average 8 times per day; perhaps more during those first few months, perhaps less later on (8X365= 2,920 in 1 year X 2years = 5,840). That’s nearly 6,000 diapers!!!  Let’s say the average diaper costs about 30 cents each.  This figure will vary depending on brand and where you live.  So, at a rate of approximately 30 cents each, times 5,840 diapers, you’ve spent $1,750.  You’ve spent almost $2,000 in 2 years on diapers!!!  And that is only for ONE child.  And, we didn’t add in the cost of disposable wipes.

 

Now, let’s consider cloth diapers.  You will need at least enough diapers for 8 changes per day.  If you purchased 10 Kentucky Keisters Medium Pocket diapers, you would spend $130.  For a newborn, it is usually cheaper to use pre-folded or flat diapers (you know: the kind used with pins) lain into a diaper cover.

 

*Prices and sizes based on Kentucky Keisters brand diapers.

Health

Disposable diapers contain harmful substances such as:

Dioxin

· Dioxins are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science.  They were unheard of until the age of industrialization.  According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), there is NO safe level of exposure to dioxin. In fact, it was the primary component of Agent Orange (which was used during Vietnam to kill plant life in which the enemy hid.)  Many veterans have suffered ill-effects of being exposed to Agent Orange.   click here for agent orange info.

 

· The EPA has also confirmed that dioxins are a known carcinogen.  That is, they cause cancer.

 

· Dioxins are also responsible for some severe and developmental problems. It damages the immune system and interferes with hormonal systems.

· Dioxins have been linked to birth defects, decreased fertility, pregnancy difficulties, diabetes, just to name a few.

For more information

Tributyl-tin (TBT)

· This substance is an active ingredient in many products that are used as biocides. 

 

· Has primarily been used as an antifoulant paint additive on ship and boat hulls, docks, fishnets, and buoys to help prevent the growth of marine organisms (barnacles, bacteria, tubeworms, mussels and algae)

 

· Human skin has an extreme sensitivity to TBT.

 

· TBT is EXTREMELY toxic to aquatic life.

· TBT is also resistant to natural degradation in water.  This means, it does not go away easily or quickly (think trash, land-fills)

 

Sodium polyacrylate (a type of super absorbent polymer)

· This is what those little crystal bits inside disposable diapers are.

 

· Sodium polycrylate can absorb 200-300 times its weight in water.  The substance holds water in a squishy gel-like substance.

 

· These gel crystals can stick to the baby’s skin and case severe skin and allergic reactions.

 

· When injected into rats, it has caused hemorrhage, cardiovascular failure and death.

 

· The use of this substance in tampons was banned in 1985 because of its link to Toxic Shock Syndrome.

Click here for other health effects of Sodium Polyacrylate.

 

***OK….so disposable diapers contain all these really harmful substances.  Why are we still putting them on our precious babies’ keisters???***

Disclaimer:

While saving money may be what draws many parents into using cloth diapers, I would be a liar if I insisted that YOU will save money by using them.  You see, this whole money saving thing, is a theory.  The theory works, but only if you work the theory.  If you ONLY buy the diapers/covers you need, and do not indulge in the luscious fluffiness (that is what we die-hard cloth diaper fanatics call our diapers) out there, you will indeed, save money.
However, once you see how wonderfully beautiful cloth can be, you may find yourself staring down the barrel of an addiction not easily kicked.  But, at least we can say that we are doing good things for our babies.  And what mother hasn’t bought more than her baby needed (toys, clothes, furniture, etc.)? 

With that said, you may or may not save money using cloth diapers.  It is not the main reason why many moms get into it. It’s an added bonus, if you work the system right.  There are other, more important reasons to use cloth diapers on your baby’s keister.

Environment

 

· Disposable diapers make up the 3rd largest single-use item in our waste system.

 

· It takes at least 500 years for a disposable diaper to degrade in a land-fill.

 

· Did you know that you are supposed to remove all solid fecal matter before you discard a disposable diaper??  I didn’t know either.  If you read the packages of disposable diapers, there is an area that instructs users to do just that.  However, very few people follow those directions.  This adds to the pollution in our land-fill systems. 

 

· An estimated 27 billion disposable diapers are consumed each year in the U.S.

 

· Disposable diapers generate sixty times more solid waste and use twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp.

 

· Add this information to the nasty substances that are used to manufacture disposable diapers….and again, why would we put that on our babies’ precious little keisters??

 

· The manufacture and use of disposable diapers actually uses more water than the extra laundry loads created by cloth diapers.  Further, more raw materials are used in the manufacture of disposable diapers than cloth.

Here are links to some additional articles you may find useful:
Disposables or Cloth?
Ecological Debate
Ecological Debate