Lily in her magenta cloth diaper
Many months ago I became very interested in cloth diapering and all that goes into it. I first started my research on the Internet. Learning as much as I could about all the pros and cons and how they actually work. The Internet was overwhelming and looking at pictures of the diapers online wasn't really a help. What I did learn from the Internet was enough stats and figures about the dangers to babies and the environment that lead me to want to find out more. So next I talked with some local parents that were CD'ing (clothing diapering) . They had a very positive and easy experience with them and referred me to Sarah, our local cloth diapering lady, for a consultation. Jeff, Lily, and I went to her house and she walked us through the many different cloth diapering options. She was very knowledgeable and lead us in a direction towards a diaper that would work best for our lifestyle. We ended up with the AIO (all-in-one) one size fits all mother's touch diapers. They go on just like a disposable and latch with Velcro. So easy! We got enough that I would only have to launder them every other day. If I do step back a little, I will tell you, years ago Chris and Beni told me they were going to cloth diaper Olivia and I thought they were nuts. I thought the whole idea was gross and didn't understand how the whole washing them thing was going to work. Then 3 years later I am having my own child and doing the same thing. So I know some of you out there think I am nuts too, but it really is easy and not gross. Of course, we didn't cloth diaper until she was having more solid #2's so I can't tell you what it would be like to cloth diaper a newborn. However, it has been great and easy and not only is helping the environment it is saving us money too. Cloth diapers can be used on subsequent children as well. Did you know that kids go through around 2-3,000 disposable diapers? That's a lot of money! Also kids that wear disposables potty train later and have more outbreaks of diaper rash. So the next step for us is to figure out if we can make CD'ing a newborn work. I plan to try it out, but if that becomes too overwhelming there are some more environmentally friendly disposables out there to use.
Seventh Generation makes Chlorine Free Disposable diapers and Gdiapers are a great newer product that have a cloth outer cover and a flushable insert. I have a friend here in town that uses them and really likes them. The covers are super cute too!
* Did you know
Some of the facts: 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown in landfills each year, taking as many as 500 years to decompose. Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers--a significant fact, considering they are a single product, used by a limited portion of the population.1 It takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US.2
"(Conventional) Disposables contain chemicals that were banned in the 1980s in women’s tampons, but continue to be used to improve absorbency. Since babies inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults do, and are generally more affected by the toxicity of air pollutants, this is troubling. And since most diapers are treated with chlorine and press against the most sensitive spot on your baby’s body all the time, better to be cautious...”3
(1.) EPA, "Positive Steps towards Waste Reduction," June 1989.
(2.) Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Corporation.
(3.) “HEALTHY CHILD HEALTHY WORLD - Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home” March 2008
On Saturdays, Downtown Bloomington hosts our local Farmers' Market and Artist Alley. In our attempts to be greener and eat healthier, we have become frequent patrons of the market...in effect, we have become "locavores." Locavores are "people who eat locally produced goods." Each week we make a list of groceries we need to get from Meijer and a list of groceries and goods we can pick up from the Farmers' Market. This week I purchased some delicious ciabatta bread from Medici, some red potatoes, a huge and tasty cinnamon roll from Kelly's Bakery, free range chicken breasts from TJ's Free Range Poultry, and a few Kohlrabi (pictured below) from the Blue Shoolhouse Farm.
Last week my dad introduced us to kohlrabi (he got it, in fact, from the market). I have eaten it before at his house and have always liked it, but it was Jeff's first time trying it, and he loved it too. It is really hard to describe the taste...crunchy like a radish, fresh, and a little kick to the flavor. So needless to say I picked us up some more this week. I also re-stocked the poultry that we had gone through from my last visit to the market. I bought huge, boneless, skinless chicken breasts from TJ's Free Range chicken last weekend, and they were excellent. They came off the grill so tender and juicy. They really didn't need any seasoning at all!
