UK basketball and cloth diapering

Okay, fine. This actually has nothing to do with UK basketball, but never let it be said that I’m above shameless trolling for page hits.

But, onward and upward: my husband and I have recently decided to use cloth diapers with this new baby (translation: I decided and then convinced him with an avalanche of pamphlets printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper).

We know the way will not be easy; there will be

• annoyance: I will actually have to do laundry. Quite often, even. Boo hiss.

• sartorial misadventures: I hope they make Hammer pants for babies, because cloth diapers are not known for their trim fit (except for maybe Fuzzi Bunz).

• possible fatal injury: hopefully our heads won’t swell up and explode from the smug knowledge that we’re saving the world one dirty diaper at a time, blah blah blah shut up and go drink a wheatgrass smoothie already Heather.

But while we’re on that topic, let me make one thing clear: this post is not intended to make anyone feel guilty about their diapering choices. Heaven knows it’s hard enough to deal with the stress of a new baby without having to worry about laundering the kiddo’s dirty diapers. But I’ve done a lot of research on this, and it’s something we feel we need to do.

I’m not going to lay out all the facts and figures (better bloggers than I have already done so, and far more thoroughly than I ever could), but here’s a few highlights:

In favor of cloth diapers:

• If you get the right kind of diapers and use them properly, they won’t leak with even the nastiest blow-outs (according to Lexington’s own uber-mama Guinever)

• Also according to Guinever, they’re really not that hard to launder.

• General health concerns: babies in disposables tend to have more diaper rash, the chemicals used in manufacturing the diapers (especially dioxin) are potentially dangerous, and the scrotal temperature rise associated with using disposables may negatively impact a boy’s future fertility.

• Waste products get processed through the water and sewer lines, instead of being dumped into a landfill and possibly contaminating the groundwater.

• The landfill issue: Cloth diapers biodegrade in about six months. Disposable diapers take at least 500 years to do the same thing; that’s a problem since disposable diapers are the third-most common item thrown away by people in America, and make up 4% of all landfill content, and 30% of all non-biodegradable waste. That’s a lot of garbage, considering each child in disposables generates over two tons of wet/dirty diapers in the first two and half years of its life.

• You’ll save money buying cloth diapers and washing them at home (you’ll have to, since there’s no diaper service in Lexington), and the savings is even higher if you use the diapers on more than one child. But even if you only use them on one kid, people sell gently used cloth diapers on eBay at an excellent profit. Oh, quit cringing, they look just about brand new if they’ve been cared for. And what do you think babies do all over those cute second-hand rompers you buy on eBay?. (Correction: the sale of used cloth diapers has recently been banned by eBay, but you can buy and sell any kind of cloth diaper on the Mother-Ease site.)

In favor of disposables:

• They’re more convenient, especially when traveling or if the kid has just had immunizations. However, there are reasonably easy ways around this if you’re committed to cloth diapering. And putting untreated polio virus in a landfill is kind of gross anyway.

• Daycares often have policies forbidding cloth diapers. Which is silly, because good hygiene practices by daycare workers have a lot more to do with preventing the spread of disease than what kind of diapers the kids are wearing.

• Um, that’s about it.

We’re still exploring all our options and trying to figure out the best way to go about all this; it’s a brave new world for us and I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a lot of research still to go on this. But first I think I need to go shopping for some baby Hammer pants. And possibly the matching sunglasses.

Do any of you all use cloth diapers? What kind do you like best, and do you have any tips for beginners?