As a mother and grandmother, I have changed countless diapers. Now, with twins on the way, there will be countless more. My daughter, Lisa, is weighing her diaper options. When I was expecting my first child, the choice was cloth or disposable. It took me about 3 seconds to decide on disposables. Of course I had no idea how long it took a diaper to disappear from a landfill, I just thought “how cool is this, no washing diapers”. I should tell you that I am 15 years older than my brother, and was Momma’s little helper. That help included doing my homework at the Laundromat, washing, drying and folding those cloth diapers. So when I realized that I didn’t have to do that with my own, I was thrilled. Now, all these years later, I am happy to say that the options are many.
I have visited tons of sites trying to gather information. This is just a small summary of what I have found out. Pricing in your area may vary, or they might go up or down at any point in time, this is just to give you a general idea.
With cloth diapers you can choose from basic cloth to fancy pants, and a diaper they call ” the hybrid”. It’s a cloth diaper with a disposable insert that’s flushable. They have disposable diapers that are biodegradable in 50-150 days as opposed to 500 years in a landfill. The downside is you have to order most disposables on line and the cost, well they do cost a bit more. I guess the greenest and least expensive are the pre folded diapers at about $14.00 a dozen with waterproof diaper covers selling for about $13.00 for a three pack at Babies R Us, they also have cute printed pre fold for $20 a six pack. On the other hand a 5 pack of Kushies fitted cloth diapers are about $53.00. There are gdiapers, FuzziBunz, Bumpkins and others. Some of these you can use a biodegradable disposable liner or a cotton washable liner.
I still don’t know what Lisa will choose to use, but at least she has greener choices than I did. Maybe it will be a combination of all choices.
It would be nice to say that this is an easy choice. In reality, the choice will have to be made by each Mom with cost, convenience and availability kept in mind. In the meantime, enjoy being a parent. The time goes by so quickly. Happy Parenting, good luck and if you have any other ideas, please, please leave a comment.
