Every eco-friendly family with babies should consider adopting green reusable diapers into their lifestyle.
When fully disposable diapers first became available to consumers in the early 1960s, they were celebrated as a great innovation that would relieve all of the hassle associated with cloth diapers. There certainly are benefits to disposable diapers—convenience being the big one—but there are also some problems. For one thing, throwing out those disposable diapers creates a huge amount of waste. For another, disposable diapers contain chemicals that may potentially be harmful, especially to a baby with sensitive skin.
Many parents have found that modern reusable diapers are actually less of a hassle than disposable diapers for a wide variety of reasons. Here are a few of the reasons parents have chosen reusable diapers.
They’re environmentally-friendly.
Sure, you have to use some laundry soap (we prefer eco-friendly baby laundry soap) and water to wash them, but that makes much less of an environmental impact than throwing away disposables every time your baby has a dirty diaper.
They’re easy to wash.
One thing that stops some parents from getting reusable diapers is the fear that they’ll be a pain to wash, but many parents already using them for their kids say it’s not as much work as you might think. Choose microfiber diapers if you want a material that will be almost dry when they come out of the washing machine.
They (may) aid in potty training.
Every child is different, but some parents have reported that reusable diapers have helped with potty training because their kids were more aware of wetting the diaper than they were with disposables.
They’re less likely to leak.
Well-fitted cloth diapers tend to be less likely to leak than disposable diapers, meaning fewer headaches and messes for parents.
They won’t make your trash cans smell.
One of the biggest downsides of disposable diapers? Diaper-specific trashcans are expensive. Without one, dirty diapers can really stink out your house or outdoor trashcans, especially if they’re sitting out in the sun, or if your trash is only picked up every couple of weeks. With reusable diapers, you avoid this problem completely.
They fit babies of all sizes.
You can find reusable diapers that fit babies and toddlers from 8 to 35 pounds, which is convenient for parents who have more than one child in diapers.
Are reusable diapers starting to sound pretty good to you? If you do decide to make the switch, make sure that you’re changing the diaper every 3 to 4 hours and washing them with baby care laundry soap to keep your child happy and healthy.
See our selection of green baby products and help out moms and baby live a cleaner life.
