Diapers Are Not Meant to be Toilets

I recently found a great article discussing the debate between cloth & disposable.

You really should read the entire article, but I found one quote particularly worth mention:

We live in a fast-paced society where people don’t want to deal with the `yuck’ factor,” adds Smithson. “Parents look at a diaper as a container that doesn’t leak and can be left on for eight hours, instead of looking at it as clothing worn on the most sensitive parts of the body. Shouldn’t we be changing babies when they wet?” Adds Erica Froese, owner of Mother-Ease Diapers, “A diaper is not meant to be used as a toilet.”

Again, the idea surfaces, that while baby may feel dry in a disposable, there’s urine in there (I’m assuming you’d change the baby if there’s more than urine). When I was battling Diaper Boy’s rash issues, I found very frequent changes to be helpful (even in disposable), but the cost & environmental impact of disposables becomes considerably higher when you change as the baby wets. When I switched to cloth I realized that he actually peed about every 30-45 min. (more or less depending on how much drinking was going on of course). I often would leave him in a disposable for 2hrs & thought after 2hrs that perhaps I was “wasting the diaper” b/c it wasn’t “full”. Now having the liberty of frequent changes in cloth, I really struggle using disposables. I basically have to choose between my baby’s skin & my budget restrictions/the landfill issues.

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