on diapering

When this whole baby adventure thing began, d.w. and I, like any good environmentally-minded soon-to-be parents, had some very serious conversations about the respective cradle-to-grave impacts of cloth vs. disposables vs. gDiapers (a category unto themselves).

In the end the decision was made for us when d.w. found a couple of dozen cloth diapers at a garage sale. Score one point for us. We were set for all Chins' diapering needs.

Fast forward a few months.

All those diapers seem to have decided as a group that they would begin deteriorating rather rapidly, and all at the same time, becoming rather ratty and threadbare.

This was a month or so ago.

We still had a lot of diapering ahead of us.

What to do -- switch to disposables? Yeah, right. I'm way too lazy for disposables. You have to take them all the way out to the trash can? No thanks. For convenience, cloth is definitely the way to go. Drop them in the wash every couple of days and you're good to go. So cloth it would continue to be.

We started looking at the cloth diaper options we had — and what options! I had no idea the diapers that were out there. Any visions of prefolds and plastic pants were quickly thrown aside when I saw the offerings available.

Now it's all about polypropylene linings and microfiber inserts. Of course, you need to watch for anything off-gassing phthalates — the complications of the modern world! Anyway, we also found some hemp inserts, which somehow hold in ungodly amounts of baby pee. (An aside: who knew babies could pee so much? It's ridiculous. I swear Chins must lose 5 pounds overnight.) And we just bought some bamboo wipes to replace the frayed flannel ones we were using.

Why would anyone use disposables when you can use fair trade organic hemp and bamboo diapers made sustainably by microloan-financed survivors of domestic abuse? Or is that just too Ode for ya?

Yeah, I just totally made that up. But you get my drift.

My personal favorites are made by Wallypop, the nomme de guerre of a wahm in Des Moines. She makes these great wool diaper covers.

What's that? Wool???

Yeah, that was my first reaction, too. Ever try wearing a sweater out in the rain? But seriously, boiled wool makes awesome covers. They don't leak, they look cool, and they're not those awful plastic pants. Best of all, when it's time to be changed Chins starts smelling like a wet sheep. And you don't need to wash them, although I'm still coming around to that one.

So yeah, cloth diapering is where it's at. But don't ask Chins. We already know what he would choose if he had his way:

Comments

[Auntie M]

What a cute naked bunch of cats and babies!

[Papa Bradstein]

First, I'm glad that you're back. I've missed you, D.W., and Chins. As for the diapering, that's very cool that you were able to find so many workable options.

[samantha Jo Campen]

I crave cloth diapering 411. Thank you thank you thank you. Good to know about the wool and the hemp. I heard so much about the wool covers but felt a little funny. Now with your recommendation I'm adding those to The List.

:-)

I'm happy his tushie is all eco-friendly!

[Henitsirk]

I did wool diaper covers (Nikkys, they resemble Wallypop Woolie Wraps) for both of my babies and loved them. I really liked that they were breathable and didn't need to be washed. Baby poop did stain them, but heck, they're diaper covers!

For a while I also used homemade wipes made from cotton flannel cut to size. It was easy because I could recycle old cloth, put them in the hamper with the diapers, and didn't have to worry about the cost or chemical ingredients of purchased wipes.

I am completely jealous of your fat little man! My kids were never sausages like that.

[Jason Graham-Nye]

Zygote Daddy

Jason here form gDiapers. We got in to them as cloth diaper users back in Australia. So we used cloth inserts with the little g pants. Some cool colours online if you want to check them out. Many Aussie cloth customers use the flushable inserts for extra absorbency at a night. If you check out www.flushability.com we have about 800 or so Mum and Dads who use gDiapers on a Yahoo User group.

Happy parenting.

Cheers

Jason
dad/ CEO
gDiapers

[zygote daddy]

Jason: I'm giving you a pass on my "no ads in the comments" policy, because you make awesome diapers. :)

So I will play along -- gDiapers are great! We used them as our "out and about" diapers when Chins was smaller, until he outgrew them. We often used them with prefolds instead of the flushable liners, because I must admit I never quite got the hang of it (but then again I don't get the hang of a lot of things), but I urge new parents to give them a try.

Good to hear from you, Jason!

[Liam Baldwin]

Ah! the great Reusable V Disposable debate. We had both of ours in traditional cotton toweling nappies* for the first few months (big safety pins - the whole works) then moved onto some sort of re-washable plastic coated jobbies (Kushies?) which were great until they started running around and we had leakage. Be prepared to have this whole debate again when Chins gets mobile. The traditional cotton nappies are still in use around the house doing a variety of other jobs.

*British for 'Diapers'

[katie allison granju]

First of all, Chins is so freaking CUTE! Lordy, that's a cute baby.

I am expecting baby #4 (after a 10 year hiatus) and I plan to use cloth again. People are always surprised when I tell them how much easier I find cloth to use. I, too, am too lazy to deal with bags and bags full of nasty, filthy, plastic diapers that need to go to the landfill.

I love wool covers. My favorites were the Biobottoms brand, before they went out of business. But these days, lots of folks make a good wool cover.

My favorite diapers are snugglebottoms (don't cloth diapers have embarrasingly puerile names?) wihich you can order at Baby Bunza online, and Kissaluvs. For all in ones cloth diapers (requiring no covers, I like the BumGenius ones and Bumkins.

Best cloth diapering site, in my opinion, is www.wildflowerdiapers.com.

[dear wife]

We love our Bum Genius. Unfourtunately the Bumkins did not fit the chub-a-lubs legs, they left nasty red marks. I am having so much fun trying out all the many options out there, it is amazing the variety. I will have to check out that site.

[Art Nerd]

I have nothing to say, really, about diapering options. Except that I couldnt wear plastic diapers, but that's really a lot to know about an internet stranger. hehehe.

But CHINS!! OMG he is so squooshy! Must nibble his arms!

[andrea]

Chins is adorable, that's a given. I'm also quite taken with the feline ham in the background. So fluffy and cute!

[Lynn]

We are loving our Sandies Organic snap diapers topped with hand knit (by me!) wool soakers, shorts and pants. Your baby is seriously cute!