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| Baby Linna in her reusable diaper-wearing days. |
I should preface this by saying that reusable diapers did work for us in the beginning. But, now that I'm getting busier with my Minnesota Baby endeavors, we've decided to go for the convenience of using disposable diapers. I know, I know... we're all going to be sleeping on heaps of rotting disposable diapers one day, and yes, disposable diapers are so bad for the environment. But the amount of time I spend scraping poop into the toilet, laundering the dirty diapers, double-drying the inserts (that's right, one dryer cycle doesn't do the trick), and running up and down the stairs to soak the inserts in the washer... for me, it just wasn't worth it.
All I can say is, at least I tried. Some people don't even try! And a big high-five to all of you parents who go through your children's entire diaper-wearing years using cloth diapers. Seriously, you're making a big difference. In the end, we really weren't saving money by using reusable diapers, because we were using so much water to wash the darn things. Plus, I was still using disposable diapers outside the home, and now that we're spending more and more time outside the house... we're using more disposable diapers anyway.
We use the Target Up&Up diapers, and buy the BIG pack online, and have them shipped to our house. If you spend $50 on Target.com, you get free shipping! This way, I don't have to worry about running out of diapers, and I don't have to drive to the store to get them. So. that lowers my carbon footprint, right?! ;)
Whether I've made a bad decision in the "green department" or not, the convenience of using disposable diapers has won this mom over, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I was kind of sick of being tied to the house, doing an additional load of laundry every day. The poop-scraping was the least of my worries!
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| My big-bum reusable diaper wearing baby. |
Again, I apologize to you Earth, and to all of you disposable diaper-haters out there. Trust me, I used to be one of you... BEFORE I had a kid. There's a lot of things I'm learning that are easier said than done. To make up for it, I'll take one less shower each week. How about that?!
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| My dirty little disposable diaper wearing baby. |
Very honest post. I love your quote " Again, I apologize to you Earth, and to all of you disposable diaper-haters out there. Trust me, I used to be one of you... BEFORE I had a kid."
ReplyDeleteI always say when people judge on others parenting, Your THE best parent until you have kids. So true. Great job for trying.
We get pampers through Amazon Mom. It's a super giant pack, and once you sign up for Amazon Mom (which is free), you get an extra 20% discount, and it's free shipping. You can do "subscribe and save" so they automatically send you a case each month and it's super easy to log in online to change the brand, size, frequency, or cancel altogether. They send you an email a couple days before a new case ships in case you need to change or cancel it, and after you get a couple months' worth, you qualify for free shipping on ANYTHING on Amazon Prime = dangerous!!! It's SOOO easy to buy things online now! I did all of my Christmas shopping through Amazon Prime and didn't have to drag a baby to the malls! We also recently started doing wipes every 3 months through Amazon Mom Subscribe and Save too. I don't remember the exact price breakdown, but over a year ago when we did the research, this was cheaper than the Up & Up brand from Target. We liked Pampers Swaddlers best, but those only go up to a size 3. Now that Drew graduated to size 4, we use Pampers Cruizers. (Pampers Baby Dry is NOT a good diaper!)
ReplyDeleteThat's my two cents... about the disposable diapers at least. Good for you for trying cloth diapers. I didn't even consider it.
Love your blog and TV segments!
Mary
I use cloth diapers and they are not for everyone! I am not sure if they are for me, lol! It is very time consuming and I am not sure how much good, or harm I am doing washing and drying (I don't have enough to line dry) them! If I had a job, or more than one baby in diapers, there is no way I could manage cloth diapers. Plus every time we have a poop diaper I wish they were disposable!
ReplyDeleteAt least find some natural disposables...they're better for limiting chemical exposure for baby and much better for the earth once they hit the landfill...
ReplyDeleteActually, the chlorine is the only thing usually removed from the naturals and in the end they say they are still going to rot in the same landfill. We did LOTS of research before my son was born and that was what we read over and over. As far as Amazon Mom goes... @ Team Copouls... I don't know when you signed up but I did last year before my son was born, it is amazing. However, I recommended it to some women at work, there is now a waiting list to get in and a $75.00 annual fee! ARGH! I feel so lucky to have gotten in on it when I did! I also use it to buy cases of Earth's Best Baby food. It's awesome.
DeleteTricia, my Uncle runs a paper company...they make facial tissue, toilet tissue and diapers. He was a key source for me when choosing which diapers to buy.
DeleteChlorine isn't the only difference (although chlorine is a big one, it is a proven carcinogen so not only are the workers in those plants exposed, the disposal from the chemical processing has to go somewhere and finally the baby is exposed to the chlorine as well as the landfill once it is tossed).
Seventh Generation diapers don't have petroleum based lotions, chemical scents, no latex etc. All those dioxins can absorb into baby's skin as well as the bigger environmental concern of using those chemicals (many of which are petroleum based which continues our dependence on petroleum)in the manufacturing process.
I didn't want my newborn sitting in heavily scented chemical soup that had compromised the health of people manufacturing it as well as people down the road whose ground water was contaminated from the chemicals in the diaper.
No wonder my mom told us never ever buy disposal diaper. we had bought reusable diapers in india to our new born babies.
ReplyDelete