Posts from — September 2009

Recently, I ran into a blog post I wrote on March 19, 2008 on a private blog.  Below is an excerpt from that post which I found interesting and wanted to share with you.

There are a few things I LOVE about cloth diapers….

1. I haven’t had to empty the diaper pail for sposies in a LONG time.  I must admit it was bothering me in the past that we were producing so much waste with the disposables.
2. Feels amazing to know that a huge amount of chemicals is not touching my daughter’s bum.
3. The selection is amazing… there’s like a million different cloth diaper designs out there!  I think I have at least 9 or 10 different kinds of cloth diapers.
4. Prefolds are incredibly cheap compared to sposies.  Fitteds and pocket diapers are a bit more expensive, but still, in the long run you save quite a bit of money.
5. They make diaper changing time more fun.
6. I love how my daughter’s bum is not swimming in poo.  When she’s wearing cloth diapers, her poop soaks very well into the fabric thus making clean up a lot easier.  That might be one reason why she’s not getting as many rashes when wearing cloth diapers.
7. My daughter’s been getting very few rashes with hemp and bamboo diapers.  When she was wearing disposables, she almost constantly had rashes.
   
8. Cloth diapers (when the fit is right and they’re put on properly) look more comfortable… no rubbing of plastic against the baby’s legs or tummy.  Also, I’ve noticed that when my daughter’s wearing a comfortable cloth diaper she seems to be having better naps during the day.  Not all cloth diapers are created equal though when it comes to comfort… some are less comfortable than others… but most of the ones I use look pretty comfy :-)

A lot has happened since then, but I still love cloth diapers for those reasons.  I just wanted to add a couple more.

9.  I can make my daughter perfect fitting diapers.
10.  Cloth diapers (especially with wool covers) speed up healing of diaper rashes.  With cloth diapers, my daughter rarely has diaper rashes – if she does, it’s usually thanks to my experiments with detergent.

What do you love about cloth diapers?

Lately, I’ve been asked a lot about PC Green Diapers.  These diapers are still relatively new and there isn’t a huge lot of information about them online.  So, I decided to tell you everything I know about them.

As I’ve written in a previous post, PC Green disposable diapers are chlorine and fragrance free.  Those of you who have had trouble finding other eco-friendly disposable diapers close to home, might have better luck finding these since PC Green diapers might be available in your supermarket store (owned by Loblaws).

What I do like about this diaper:

• Very stretchy tabs.
• The diaper is quite a bit cheaper than other “green” diapers.  The regular price of PC Green diapers is $15.99 for 46 diapers in size 4.  Seventh Generation diapers are $17.99-19.99 for 30 diapers in the same size.  Also, you can sometimes see the PC Green diapers on special for $12.99.
• No rashes so far.  It does not promote healing of rashes very well though.  I found that bamboo cloth diapers with wool covers at night promote healing much better than the PC Green diapers even though cloth diapers get quite wet overnight.  I guess it’s not a surprise since cloth diapers do allow more airflow.

What I do NOT like about this diaper:

• Contains SAP (Super Absorbent Polymer).
• Contains plastics.
• Packaging is not biodegradable.
• It’s still a disposable that takes hundreds of years to decompose.
• I wasn’t impressed with what is written about cloth diapers at the back of the packaging.  They make it seem like all cloth diapers are made of pesticide sprayed cotton.  Trust me there’s LOTS of diapers out there (including my daughter’s) that are not.  I also wasn’t impressed with the mention of detergent as if tons of it were being used on diapers.  The truth is, most people use only 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent to wash their diapers.  Some people use soap nuts/berries which grow on trees!  Also, a lot of people these days use front-loading washers which use quite a bit less water.

NOTE: These diapers do fit a bit bigger than SG diapers, so if you’re using SG diapers and your baby is almost outgrowing a size, PC Green diapers in the same size might still fit her/him well.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Just please keep in mind that I’m not an expert on disposable diapers – I normally cloth diaper only.