I have always been a big fan of cloth diapers. When I got pregnant with twins, I ran out and bought wonderful organic cotton diapers and was so excited to try them. Then reality set in. Twins? Cloth diapers? Yee gads.
Then when my babies were born they were sick and needed lots of care. My husband and other family members wanted to help take care of them. “Cloth diapers!?!,” they yelled. “No way.” Disposable diapers have been used since 1948 -- how bad can a few more be! I was powerless to buck the anti-cloth movement and secretly thankful that at least this aspect of their care might be easy. Thus began my slow descent into the world of ecological/health compromises.
Am I proud of my descent? No, but I'm not sure I could have handled (at least with the twins) the whole cloth diaper process. Are there ways to make your use of disposable diapers a little more environmentally friendly and healthy? Yes! I diapered my twins, and their little sister who followed a few years later, with disposable diapers, trying to make some environmentally sound, healthy decisions in my choice of brands along the way.
Most "conventional" diapers contain superabsorbent gels and chemicals that have been linked to childhood asthma (from breathing the airborne emissions from them). The chemicals used in them are absorbed by their sensitive skin and, once used, contaminate our landfills. Our babies' carbon footprints are HUGE...
I started by using Tushies brand diapers for the babies. They are gel free and made with non-chlorine bleached woodpulp and cotton for NATURAL high absorbency. If you have little ones with nice big bladders, be careful not to use their cheaper, more widely carried Tender Care diapers -- my kids regularly pee'd right through them. There are no super-absorbents in these diapers and I felt a whole lot better not exposing my kids' tushies (pun intended!) to these chemicals. Are the outer linings of the diapers covered with a plastic "cloth-like" material like other disposables? I'm not sure, but I do know that, given enough water, these diapers will leak. Fortunately, even for my son (who is still a prodigious pee'er), these diapers did the job consistently until they were about 2 years old. My bottom line on the Tushies Brand: Great absorbency and utility, though somewhat bulky; fabulous for the environment because at least most of the diaper can bio-degrade and they don't poison landfills with the super-absorbent chemical gels; and much more healthy for the babies because the diapers in my experience don't cause diaper rash (other non-green diapers caused MAJOR problems in that area) and don't expose our babies' sensitive skin to the chemicals found in other diapers.
Now, there eventually came a time (when they were around 2 yrs old) when my kids' bodies and bladders got much bigger, they became more mobile, and the Tushies diapers were (for my son) just not absorbent enough) and (for my daughter) a little too bulky to allow her to walk without impeding her stride. That's when I made the switch to Seventh Generation disposable diapers.... I happen to love Seventh Generation diapers (and many of their other products, like some of the cleaning products, their toilet paper and paper towels), mostly because they disclose all of their ingredients. I don't think any other "conventional" diaper manufacturer discloses their ingredients. Even if you don't like a few of the ingredients they might use, they at least tell you about them and have material safety data sheets posted on their web-site for all to see.
This is what Seventh Generation says about their own diapers: "All disposable diapers, including Seventh Generation’s, rely on man-made materials to deliver the high-level performance that parents expect of modern diapers. These materials are mostly petroleum-derived and are not renewable, which adversely impacts the environmental footprint associated with these products. At Seventh Generation, we are pleased to offer an alternative that is not bleached with chlorine, and are working hard to further improve the sustainability of our diaper products."
I respect that. Let's face it -- most moms in this country would FREAK if they had diapers that leaked every time their children pee'd in them. To avoid the gels and the petroleum products as much as possible, I used Tushies as long as I could. Once they no longer worked, I (reluctantly at first) turned to Seventh Generation, knowing at least I was supporting a company that had no fragrances or chlorine residues in its diapers -- and one that was willing, publicly, to admit the environmental and health issues that the petroleum-derived materials and chemicals presented, as well as disclose all the ingredients they used. Having to switch to gel-based diapers spurred me on to try to potty train my kids earlier. I figured early potty training would be key for me to reduce my environmental impact on the world.
One problem with potty training, however, is that I temporarily switched over to pull-ups. Yes. I felt and feel the guilt, but figured they would help me potty train faster than the other diapers. I chose Huggies brand pull-ups with the velcro sides. They were fabulous for potty training; and horrific for the environment and perhaps my kids' skin as well. I chose them in particular because they seemed to have less of a scent and I loved the velcro. There is no way a child (ok, perhaps my children anyway) can get potty trained while wearing diapers that can't be easily pulled up and down. Many moms I know potty trained in the summer months by letting their kids run naked outside with a potty available near by. My kids decided they were ready to lose the diapers during the winter, rainy months when they were at pre-school, so that was not an option. The ease of the Huggies velcro side openings were great for school and when we were out and about.
Seventh Generation subsequently came out with their own brand of training pants , which are great (I used them often for our youngest), but they still don't have the velcro openings on the sides of the pants... If I had had the option, however, I would have forgone the velcro and opted for the Seventh Generation option.
One thing I absolutely hated about the traditional pull-ups I used was that they often left a horrible grit on my kids' skin when I changed them -- especially after they had gotten really wet. The gel would become semi-hard balls that would get EVERYWHERE -- right through the lining of the inside of the pull-up. (This, oddly, has never happened to me with the Seventh Generation training pants.) Those chemicals can't be good for either our kids or the environment.
When I was cleaning out a storage unit last week I came across my notes from a biology course I took long ago. I had written about the skin and how it's our largest organ --and that whatever you rub or put on your skin can often be absorbed by it. Think of all those chemicals in the diapers/pull-ups slowly, during the most vulnerable time in our children's lives, being absorbed into their little bodies.
I think it's time to throw out the pull-ups.
