It all started in preschool, my aunt ran a home daycare (it runs in the family) and I can remember the staggering amounts of trash, most of it diapers. It was disgusting, and since it was a private residence and not a daycare with a dumpster the trash would be in the can outside for an entire week. Quite the smell let me tell you.
With the impending recall of Pampers due to the chemical burns this topic has been on my mind over the past few days. Its really a frightening thought that a diaper is in contact with some seriously sensitive skin for at least 2 years of a child's life. Day and night every single day this product is used and yet we know very little about them.
I found these facts online that may be quite shocking.
Environmental:
In 1988, nearly $300 million dollars were spent annually just to discard disposable diapers, whereas cotton diapers are reused 50 to 200 times before being turned into rags.
No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren will be gone.
Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste.
Disposable diapers generate sixty times more solid waste and use twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp.
The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth.
Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR.
Chemical effects on babies:
Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S..
Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.
Disposable diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbancy tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome.
In May 2000, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published research showing that scrotal temperature is increased in boys wearing disposable diapers, and that prolonged use of disposable diapers will blunt or completely abolish the physiological testicular cooling mechanism important for normal spermatogenesis.
Certainly was an eye opener for me. Considering everyone is so "ecofriendly" and "green" lately...why isn't more being said about cloth diapering?
What if some of the horrible things happening to humans like autism, cancer, fertility problems and SIDS are actually caused by prolonged disposable diaper use?
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/pampers-recall-due-chemical-burns-false-rumor.html
ReplyDeleteJen G.
That doesn't surprise me. But I have seen the terrible diaper rashes it gives babies who are sensitive to the chlorine so its only a matter of time before diaper companies are forced to change their ways.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why people don't talk about cloth diapers more. We used them for most of the time my daughter was in diapers, we switched when she was a few months old. It was so much cheaper and really no trouble. Most of her diapers went on to be used by more babies and I have some I use as rags (they're my nicest rags, heh, very absorbent!), six years after she stopped using them. Plus, they're so soft compared to disposable, like wearing underwear instead of a wad of paper towels or something. Even factoring out possible health issues, they were a better choice for us. I hear people saying that the "cost" (monetary and resource cost of laundering them) of maintaining cloth diapers is equal to the "cost" (monetary and resources in producing and, presumably, disposing of) of disposable, so earth-wise and money-wise, there's no difference between cloth and disposables. Which I think is, um, crap! Sorry ;)
ReplyDeleteI also have an "issue" with disposable diapers, except mine is the length of time kids spend in them. I say "kids" because the time goes well beyond "babies." I'd been debating blogging about it - yet another similarity! (Except I tend to focus on the non-work aspects of my life.) Seriously though, in addition to the environmental benefits, I find younger (under 2 years) kids a lot easier to train than kids over 2.5 years.
ReplyDeleteI've also seen rashes on kids, except due to fragrance. How do you feel about the less-bad disposable diapers, such as Nature Baby and Seventh Generation?
One of my kiddos uses Seventh generation, but they leak. he needs an additional diaper liner at night or there will be major flooding.
ReplyDeleteDirty Jobs did an episode on cloth diapers and they showed the great lengths they go to to clean and recycle them. Its hard to compare a one use product to something that can be used for 10 or more years.
I teach 3 yr olds.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of each year I have children still in diapers. In fact right now I have 4 in my class that have not given in to peer pressure or parental pressure and ditched the diapers for underware. Some of these kids are 3.5 yrs old.
That is a lot of time in plastic,paper and chemicals. Some of the parents are beside themselves trying to figure out how to get them interested in potty training. I told them it is warm outside send them in the back yard to play in their underware, they will soon understand when they have gone in their pants. Today's disposables are so absorbant these kids don't realize they have gone.
Wish I could talk my daughter who is pregnant into using cloth.
My solution to potty training at that age is simple. Stop buying diapers and prepare to do a lot of laundry. Eventually they get tired of being wet and dirty.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you're trying to talk her into cloth diapers tell her about those fun facts, or better yet get her a trial of a diaper service as a baby gift and have her compare for herself. Or tell her babies sleep better and longer in cloth diapers about 36 hours AFTER she brings the baby home...lol.
These are what we use for our little Liam. www.gdiapers.com/ He's four months old now. We use the disposables inserts at daycare and the cloth inserts at home. Both go in the same diaper cover. You just swap out the liners and wash them. The disposable inserts are plastic-free and can be flushed or composted. However, I believe the daycare just tosses them.
ReplyDeleteWe've had no issues with diaper rash. He seems comfy in them. No leaks unless someone gets the fit wrong. And we don't have to worry about what's touching his skin. If I thought the daycare would rinse the poo off the dirty diapers, I'd send the cloth inserts there too. Ah well. It's a good compromise!
Cloth diapers are out there I think people just don't want to deal with them. We made the decision to use cloth with our daughter when we discovered just how far they have come! Some people do still use the old standard diapers but we used fuzzibunz because they were easy for everyone to use and we could stuff them according to our needs IE nighttime has a different insert.
ReplyDeleteWe spent about $150 for the 2 years my daughter was in diapers, then I spent $12 on training panties and panties and she is now totally "big toilet" potty trained. Some of the diapers were bought new and I even bought some from yard sales and a website called "diaperswappers".
As far as extra work it was as simple as an extra load of laundry a week.
We will certainly be using cloth again. It is actually strangely addicting and I find myself looking at some of the cute patterns even now when we don't need any diapers.