How To Make The Best Green Choice For Your New Baby’s Diapers

A new baby brings a great deal of joy, and with it a number of decisions. From the moment you learn that you’re pregnant, you’ll have to make decisions about things like what doctor you’re going to use, what foods you’re going to eat, and how you’re going to deliver the baby.  This is only the beginning of the decisions that you’re going to have to make when you have a child. As soon as your baby is born, you’ll realize that there are many decisions that parents have to make, often on a daily basis, about how they’re going to raise their child. These decisions are even more difficult to make when you’re trying to live an eco-friendly life. How, for instance, can you make changing your child’s diapers an eco-friendly activity?

Diapers

New parents are often shocked at how many diapers an infant can go through on a daily basis. Some infants go through as little as five or six diapers a day, while many go through seven or eight or even more.  All your child is eating to begin with is in liquid form, so it goes through their body very quickly, which means that you have to take care of the waste on a regular basis. Today’s parents often go right for the disposable diaper section in the store, as they’re looking for the most efficient way to get rid of the smelly mess their baby leaves behind.  Are disposable diapers really a good choice for the environment?

Disposable vs. Cloth

Both types of diapers have advantages and disadvantages. Disposable diapers are easy to get, fairly affordable, and can be tossed away the minute that they’ve been used.  However, disposable diapers often have chemicals in them, and are made of materials that do not break down easily in landfills. The chemicals in the diaper may also irritate your little one’s bottom, which can be can be frustrating and annoying for your little one and you.

Can disposable diapers be considered green? Actually, they may be able to be a good option for parents. Disposable diapers are thrown away, and while it can take generations for them to be broken down in your local landfill, they also help to save on water and on electricity, as you don’t have to wash or dry disposable diapers. This idea tends to be something that shocks and frustrates those who are for the cloth diaper way of life.

Cloth diapers are what our grandparents and some of our parents used. They are diapers that are made entirely of cloth and that absorb the liquids or solids into the cloth. Any solid waste is shaken out into the toilet and the rest of the diaper is washed in the laundry with the rest of your clothes (although many parents tend to wash cloth diapers separate from regular clothes so that they can be washed with baby-safe detergent). So while they won’t go into your local landfill, and if they do get thrown away they dispose fairly quickly, they do take an amount of electricity and water to be washed.  If you put them in your dryer, they use electricity this way as well.

So what is the best option for a parent who is trying to diaper their baby in the greenest way possible? That is actually a very difficult question to answer, as both groups of this debate have very valid points. While disposable diapers can take awhile to break down in the landfill, they don’t require any electricity or water to clean.  On the other hand, cloth diapers break down quickly, but you have to wash them and possibly dry them as well.

This simple choice comes down to being what a parent needs and what they can do. Some parents have to work full time and many daycare facilities refuse to take children who do not use disposable diapers. Those parents who work and who wish to use cloth diapers may find that they have to use disposable diapers at the daycare and use cloth diapers at home.  Then there are many women who wish they could use cloth diapers, but who are nervous about what they have to do to take care of them. For these mothers, there is another option – a type of diaper where you can actually insert an absorbing pad, much like the inside of a disposable diaper, and where you can rewash the outside of the diaper. These types of diapers are becoming very popular among mothers now because you can opt to either insert a disposable pad or you can insert a reusable pad.

Either way, this is a decision that you’ll have to make as a family, by selecting what is best for you, your child, and the environment as well.