A "Few" Thoughts on Cloth Diapers, Part 1

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My sister's friend's sister is getting ready to have a baby and was considering cloth diapers:
This is my summed up experience:

I have been using bumgenius one size pocket diapers. I decided on these since I thought if they were still serviceable after potty training I could use them with the next kid.
I started using them when Duke was a year old. We had discussed using cloth diapers before I gave birth, and I was vaguely interested, but only if I could find a diaper service. I didn’t do much research at the time other than trying to find a service. They didn’t have one in little old Melbourne, so we moved forward with disposables.

Around his first birthday another friend was getting ready to give birth and was considering using cloth. We had been on vacation and when we got back, he was suffering from some serious diaper rash. He’s never had a problem with that in the past, but I started doing some reading on the Internet and lots of discussions were found talking about diaper rash and disposable diapers. Well, I knew that he didn’t have a problem with the diapers, but it led me on a trail to some sites about cloth diapers and I was really impressed with how far they’d come since I was a kid.

My husband and I have been trying to “Go Green” and make any kind of lifestyle changes we can to that end, including starting a compost pile and growing some of our own vegetables. So I decided to take the leap. I ordered 12 of them (you will need around 22-24 from what I understand with a newborn). With all the accessories (special additive/enzyme free detergent, a sprayer, diaper liners, diaper pail, hemp inserts for overnight, etc…) I spent over $400. I was so excited when they came- they were SO cute and soft, I was just thrilled to be doing something good for the environment and for Duke. I quickly ran into problems. I could not get the smell of ammonia out after washing. I called customer service at Cotton Babies (I have come to know them well as I’ve spent over 8 hours on the phone with them). I went through a series of treatments for the diapers, including stripping them, soaking them in a boiling pot of water, then in boiling bleach water. We went round and round.

For weeks I had trouble. I called all the time. The microfiber inserts that are so great for absorption as a diaper makes them really hard to get clean, especially if you have an HE washer (which we do) because the diapers just don’t get enough water running through them to be cleaned.
Having spent all that money, I was committed to getting the things to work. I have found some things that have helped- for instance I do not use the one size inserts that came with the diaper. They are just too thick and were not getting clean no matter what I did. I double up the newborn inserts and use those and a mixture of the newborn cotton cloth diapers stuffed into the bumgenius pockets. (All additional costs!)

I was so stressed and troubled when I started these- I am a smart girl, I could NOT understand how hippies could figure this out and I was having so much trouble. I can only imagine if I’d been going through this while trying to adjust to life with a newborn- I would have seriously had a meltdown.

Let me tell you some of the drawbacks that I’ve found (most of them anti-green):
1. You MUST wash the diapers every 2 days. For you with a newborn, you’re going to have more diapers than I do, but I doubt you’ll have a full load. That to me is a waste of energy that I have to run the wash every other day with a handful of diapers in it.
2. Every time you wash, you have to do 2.5 loads. You must first do a cold water wash to get the solids off and remove staining. Then you must do a hot water wash and either an extra rinse cycle or a third clear water wash. (HELLOOO, waste of water and energy for hot washing).
3. To dry these things takes about 45 minutes on medium high heat. I have one of the organic all-in-ones from bumgenius and that thing takes over an hour to dry. Again, total waste of energy.
4. For poopy diapers, I do have a sprayer attached to the toilet. Duke poops about 2-3 times a day. Each time I have to spray them down and use two flushes. Another waste of water. (And this isn't even going into wringing out poop-water diapers with my bare hands!!)
5. Once every 3 weeks or so you will have to strip the diapers. This means that you wash them with Dawn detergent and a cup of bleach on hot water, then do 2 clear water washes afterwards (at least; sometimes one more if there are still suds).

The very worst thing to me is the amount of time that you spend doing this. I want to enjoy Duke’s childhood, believe me it is going by SO FAST. And yet here I am every other day spending all this time, my energy and non-renewable energy and water to do this. I would so much rather be playing with him and experiencing the world with him. Not to mention the feeling that every time I do this I am wasting such huge amounts of water, energy, chemicals, etc.

To me the biggest impact I can make on the world is through my kids, so next time I am going to use disposables and spend more time teaching my kids to make decisions that will benefit both the earth and the people on it.