Cloth diapers for the baby

Before the baby was born, we started thinking about cloth diapers. At AID, many volunteers had already tried them and posted their experiences at AID forums. There is also a wealth of information on-line.

The reasons for going for cloth diaper:

1. They save the landfill from the hazardous waste. We used some disposable diapers during the first 1 week and had to throw a bucketful of used diapers in the landfill each day. It was a pitiful sight.


2. Unlike what they seem, the disposable diapers are not made of cotton, but polyester and other petroleum extracts. Then they are filled with Sodium Polyacrylate, the magical super-absorbent chemical. Sodium Polyacrylate is rumored to be cancer causing. FDA as usual has stayed quiet.


3. Cloth diapers are cheaper even after including the cost of laundry costing about a 1/3 to 1/2 of disposable diapers. A baby uses on average about 5000 diapers.

Unfortunately, the age old cloth diaper is now available mostly on-line and not in the local stores. We narrowed down to two brands of pocket diapers: bumgenius and haute pockets. We got them at cottonbabies.com They are out-standing (absorbent, easy to wash, sturdy adjustable size and leak proof). For the wipes, my mother-in-law (Atha) stitched a bunch of four layered cloth wipes which were softer and more absorbent than the synthetic wipes. We haven't looked at disposable diapers or wipes since.

During the baby's first three weeks, we used small dual layered cloth diapers that Atha brought from India. They were not as easy as the fleece lined pocket diapers. They did not keep the baby's butt dry and had to be changed in less than an hour. The weather being cold at that time also made them uncomfortable for the baby. Although Atha was persistently changing the dual layered diapers every hour (sometimes 3 in an hour) and washing them, we decided to move to pocket diapers as soon as the baby's butt fit in them.

Vinegar and baking soda help in cleaning. Soiled diapers are washed in water and placed in diaper pail (a huge bucket). The diaper pail is filled with few tumblers of water mixed with baking soda. Baking soda removes odors and neutralizes the acid in urine. During the first rinse cycle, couple of table spoons of vinegar is added to neutralize the alkaline baking soda and also helps remove the stains and lint.

Adopting cloth diapers was made easy with a lot of support from my mother-in-law who makes sure that the right quantity of baking soda and vinegar is used. She also makes sure that diapers are washed, dried and ready for the baby every morning.

So, far this experiment seems successful, although it is too soon to judge.

Here is a very good article by Aravinda on cloth diapering.