Most of you know already that we have decided to use cloth diapers exclusively for Pip. For us, it was an easy decision because 1. it’s cheaper, 2. it’s much better for the environment, 3. it keeps chemicals and plastic away from Pip’s skin (given my allergy issues, we thought this was a good idea).
Since deciding on this path, which we chose before Pip even started baking, I’ve done a lot of research about types of diapers, methods of cleaning, and anything involving diaper fluff. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve also seen how seriously some families take up cloth products, even switching to “family cloth” (when no one uses toilet paper or paper products).
I have also seen a number of posts by families who have decided that cloth diapers aren’t worth the trouble. Here is one article written by a mother who decided the stress of cloth diapering was too much and that she needed to use disposables to survive. Here is another article in which a mother decides not to use cloth diapers because of a “personal quirk” that she feels soiled clothes should be discarded.
Now I want to be careful with the things that I say next, because I do think that each family needs to decide what it has to do to survive. I do not think that it is my place, especially as someone who is not yet even a parent, to rail against other families’ decisions. And making life work is priority number one. However, I do not think the decision to use disposable diapers is as simple as “a personal decision that we have made for our own family based on our unique preferences and circumstances,” as described by the second blogger mentioned above.
Unlike breastfeeding or co-sleeping or baby-wearing or any number of other parenting decisions that are equally divisive, cloth diapering is a choice that affects my child as well as another parent’s. According to a study, disposable diapers create 2.3 times as much water waste, use 3.5 times as much energy, use 8.3 times the non-regenerable raw materials, use 90 times the renewable raw materials and 4 to 30 times as much land for growing raw materials as cloth diapers. This study is outdated at this point, but I am struggling to find a clearer one done recently, and the environmental costs have not gone down.
So, yes, parenting decisions have to be made by each family, and there are a number of reasons why one choice is made over another. However, I can’t simply say, “to each their own” regarding a choice that so directly impacts the environment and the future of the world my child will inherit. I feel similarly about those who choose to drive cars when there are other options, or who select gas-guzzlers because they like the style of the car.
Every choice involves weighing pros and cons and deciding what will work. I think that we should all consider the impact of our choices on others who inhabit this planet with us as we choose. Maybe cloth diapers are icky, and maybe they take more time. Maybe driving to work feels more comfortable, or driving a huge SUV feels safer. But these choices are not sustainable, and have greater reach than the one family making the choice. There are reasons to come to one decision or another, and I try not to judge without knowing each family’s own struggle, but I hope that we can all consider these greater impacts when making important choices.
Our choice for cloth diapering wasn’t a hard one for us to make, but it’s also symbolic of how we want to teach Pip to live in the world: to consider his actions, to think about others, and to sometimes choose something slightly less convenient in an effort to preserve the shared world.
Peach and Pip 