Question of the day: Would you cloth diaper if disposables were free?
I think I would cloth diaper. Cost was an added benefit but not the main reason we chose cloth. There's health issues.
Sposies are chock full of nasty chemicals and gels. There's the cost of the trash of disposable diapers. The only time the boys weren't in cloth is when we didn't have our own Washing Machine bc we were waiting for our house to be built. After we moved, I didn't have a full stash of Larges because I kept thinking that Sam was going to potty learn - that was a surprisingly long process!
Here's a oldie but goodie from Mothering circa 1998: The
Joy of Cloth There's a side bar updating some of the information for today which talks about the increased use of disposables and subsequent increase in trash.
Of more serious concern are the toxic chemicals present in disposable diapers.
Dioxin, which in various forms has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects,
liver damage, and skin diseases, is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process
used in manufacturing disposable diapers, and trace quantities may exist in
the diapers themselves.6
And what about the material that makes "superabsorbent" diapers
so absorbent? If you've ever used disposable diapers, you've probably noticed
beads of clear gel on your baby's genitals after a diaper change. Superabsorbent
diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, which absorbs up to 100 times its weight
in water. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons
in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome.7 No studies have been
done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's
reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years.
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