I won't say cloth diapers are always easy because they're not. Packing up and bringing urine-soaked and poopy diapers home with you is gross. And we do have to change Toddler in Chief more frequently than our disposable-toting buddies because when cloth is wet, it's wet. Mostly, I don't mind because I prefer TIC in a clean diaper versus a dry diaper (you can't always tell when the disposable ones are dirty).
Actually, even with those negatives, cloth is pretty easy. I don't rinse them. I don't scrape off any goo. It all just goes in the bin. Then once a week, my fabulous diaper service comes to my house, takes away the bag of dirty ones, and leaves a bag of clean ones. The best part is that Father in Chief has much less trash to take out on garbage night. And cloth is better for the environment, hands down. Reusable cloth diapers use significantly less energy and water than disposable diapers.
Mostly, I can't control a lot of stuff that goes on in the world. But at least with the diapers, I feel like I can actually make a tiny difference by not putting that extra garbage in the landfills (disposable diapers are the third most prevalent item in landfills). Plus, cotton diapers are just super soft on TIC's skin. What would you rather have strapped around your special parts? Breathable soft cotton? Or paper, chemicals, and plastic? I'd take cotton any day.
Try diaper liners. (We use Kushies liners.) They're like thick flushable toilet paper. Most of the time there is no goo to wipe. You just pick up both ends of the liner and drop it in the toilet. At that point, the difference between a diaper service and doing it yourself is just a couple laundry loads per week. There is no bleach... just half a cup of detergent and some baking soda. That's the recommended treatment for our pocket diapers.
Posted by: AJ | Feb 7, 2006 2:14:00 PM