Motherhood Choice #2

Yesterday, I spoke about the decision to bottle feed over nursing.  Today, I am discussing Doug's and my choice to disposable diaper over cloth diapering.

Honestly, cloth diapering was never an option for Doug and myself.  Some of our friends chose to cloth diaper and that was their choice.  When they tried to convince us with information about the toxins in disposable diapers, I felt like they were going too far.  Fans of cloth diapers also point out that diapers sit in landfills for many, many years.  I guess I'm just not environmentally concerned enough to care.  Sorry.

Admittedly, the diaper covers stores and shops sell these days are adorable.  However, that is not enough to sway my decision.

Doug and I chose to use disposable diapers for several reasons.  First, unless your child is sitting in a diaper for hours (which they shouldn't be regardless of diaper material), there isn't a huge risk of the so-called poison affecting the baby.  Secondly, when using cloth diapers, you have to remove the "solids" out of the diaper before washing it in the washing machine.  Who wants to play with poop?  It's all I can do to wipe my child's behind and deposit the offending diaper in the garbage.  Plus, even if you remove the waste, you cannot get your water hot enough to properly kill any bacteria, so then any other clothes you wash are being washed with bacteria.  If you choose to send the diapers to a diaper service, you still have to remove the poop and when you receive the diapers back, you don't know what other babies have used the diapers.  I can't see diapering my baby in cloth that has other peoples' children's bacteria traces left on them.  Also, what do you do with the soiled diaper out in public?  Dumping it into a toilet is all well and good, but you still have the remnants in the diaper stinking up the car or diaper bag.  Where do you put the baby while you're emptying the diaper?

If one chooses to cloth diaper, I don't think they are bad parents because I feel that there may be extra bacteria on their child or share with them my thoughts on the subject.  I just politely state that we are using disposable diapers and we are quite happy with that.  Therefore, people who cloth diaper should not accuse me of being a bad parent because I diaper my child in supposedly toxin-filled diapers.

Whichever way people choose to diaper, it's right for their family and let's be honest, cloth or disposable, when the baby poops, it's always toxic!