Introducing another wonderful article from my dear friend, and a beautiful Mother, Allison R. I wish I had read about this before I had my kids- so helpful in breaking down all of the costs, how to save money, and a real-mom’s guide to cloth diapers. Thank you to Allison R. for a fabulously funny, informative and helpful guide to taking poo to the “green” side! ~Kristin Noel

Poo Is the New Green!                                                                            By: Allison R.
In these days of environmental consciousness, we’ve all heard the statistics about disposable diapers in landfills- like 50 million chucked in every day.  But enough with the guilt, let’s talk about something closer to home than the rainforest or the dump.  What if cloth diapers were easier on your bank account, and not just the environment?   So instead of the guilt, let me help you navigate the world (it’s a lot bigger and more diverse than you might think) of cloth diapers and how it is you use the darn things.

I first became intimate with the details (not the messy ones just yet) when I was pregnant.  Our family eats lots of organics, we limit the use of toxic chemicals in our household products and personal care stuff, and my husband has worked for several organic food companies.  I wanted to use cloth instead of disposables, primarily because of the environmental impact, but also because of the desire to have something more natural on my baby.  Disposable diapers are made of plastic, and chemical gels and are frequently bleached with chlorine, and I didn’t want that in almost constant contact to my baby’s skin, especially her genitals.  

When my husband started doing research on-line and found out that the cost of disposable diapers would come to roughly $2,500 during her first two years, he was all for cloth, too, even if it meant changing a few (okay, way more than a few) himself.  $2,500!! I knew raising a child was expensive, but disposable diapers are thrown out!  That’s money covered in crap and thrown away! 

After a bit of research, considering ease of use and availability, we settled on using the gDiaper system, and then ended up modifying it and making it even cheaper in the long run.  Here is a short, and thus by no means definitive, list of cloth diaper possibilities:
Gdiapers- a system that combines cloth and disposable.  They call it ‘the new hybrid’-chuckle, chuckle.  This system consists of a cloth pant with a snap-in plastic liner, and a flushable or compostable insert that resembles the inside of a disposable diaper.  These inserts are available at Whole Foods and at gdiapers.com and cost $14.49 for 32-40, depending on the size.  Because we were living overseas, and shipping would have been astronomical, we went a step further in cutting the cost and lined the cloth pants with old-fashioned cloth and cloth pre-folds.  This of course, means washing them instead of flushing or composting, but we’ll get to those details later.  Here’s why I love them: the cloth pants are doggone adorable, making that cute little bottom even more wiggly and squeezable (okay, maybe I’m nuts, but just look at the pictures on the website, and you’ll see I speak truth) but mostly because they’re easy.  No pins (that’s so last generation) and the Velcro closures make them go on just like a familiar disposable.

bumGenius- these cloth diapers are an All-in-One variety, meaning the cloth and the waterproof outer layer are already put together for you, and you won’t need waterproof plastic pants like you would with traditional cloth diapers.  They can be found at bumgenius.com, and are also conveniently available at Target for $35.99 a pair.

 
Bumkins- this company offers a wide variety of products on its website, bumkins.com, as well as a few at Target.  They carry the All-in-One’s as well as cotton diapers with Velcro closures that also require a plastic cover.  There are plenty of colors, styles and accessories to choose from on the website.
Snazzipants.co.nz- this website that my sister-in-law turned me on to, is really only useful for ordering if you live in New Zealand (and I did a lot of it when I live d there) but more importantly, it is a fantastic, honest resource for what’s out there.  They candidly review and carry products from Canada, Europe and the US, as well as their own brand.  I used the site frequently in writing this article.
Now that you’ve gone shopping, you’re ready to make it happen, with your baby’s help, of course.  Where else did you expect to get the poo?

This is how we do it:
Ingredients:
    15-20 cloth prefolds or flats (thinner, bigger, and not folded)- these can be found online at underthenile.com (4/$34 for organic prefolds), cottonbabies.com  ($1-$2 each for flats) or Target at $10.99 for a dozen flats.
    6-8 cotton boosters- these are dog-bone shaped inserts that can increase absorbency, and are great for a heavier wetting period, especially through the night.
    5-8 pairs of cloth pants- gdiapers sells these as gpants, and has them in a constantly updated and dizzying array of colors.
10-12 plastic liners- these snap into the cloth pants. 2 come with each pair of cloth gpants, and are also sold in pairs on the gdiapers website for $4.99.
For cleaning: A 5-gallon bucket of water with 1 cup of white vinegar, baking soda and eco-friendly laundry detergent.

Minor assembly required:
If you use cotton pre-folds in a gdiaper like we do, then start by snapping the plastic liner into the cloth pant.  Take the pre-fold and fold it in thirds lengthwise, with the thickest part in the middle, then fold a third up in front and fit into the plastic liner.  You may need to adjust this a little to make it snugger.

Cleaning:
If you’ve just got a wet one, rinse the cloth insert in the sink, then dump into your bucket.  You can rinse and dump the plastic liner, too, but if it’s not too damp, it could go another round.  If the cloth pants got wet, dump them, too, but leaks are usually pretty infrequent.
If you’ve got a dirty diaper, it’s going to take a little more work (about three minutes) and some down and dirty cleaning.  Start by washing the plastic liner and let the cloth pants air out, unless they’re dirty, too, in which case, they get washed with the rest.  Just like our mothers and grandmothers before us, I dump what I can from the cloth prefold into the toilet and flush it down, just like the adults doo, I mean do.  Sometimes, I have to jostle it around in the toilet to shake loose stubborn stuff, and once all the chunks are gone, it too, goes into the sink.  Using a little bit of liquid soap (we’ve used Softsoap, Dial, and Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint- which has the added benefit of smelling nice) rub the dirty sides together (so you don’t have to touch anything) rinse, and toss into your bucket.  Some stains may remain, but it’s well on it’s way to getting clean, and either the washing machine or a little added bleach (for cloth only, not the pants or plastic liners) will help.  The bottom (pardon the pun) line, however, is that a little shadow is no big deal- it’s a diaper and it won’t be seen in public.  Don’t be turned off by these down-and-dirty details.  It’s not that bad.  Really.  If you’re going to have to wipe up a dirty bum, cleaning out the diaper isn’t any worse.  And at least the diaper doesn’t wiggle while you’re trying to clean it.  Seriously, once you’ve done it half a dozen times, you don’t even think about it.  You just doo it. (Okay, I’ll stop with the poo-puns.)
And, of course, after all this, WASH YOUR HANDS!
Every two or three days, dump the bucket into the washing machine, with plenty of detergent and a little baking soda, maybe a tablespoon, and wash in hot or warm water.   The best way to dry cloth diapers is the old-fashioned way, out in the sunshine.  Sunlight and fresh air are two of the best disinfectants, and they’re easy and free.   I did this in New Zealand where the air is always moving and almost everyone has a clothesline in the backyard, but here, our yard is small, so I use the dryer.  Drying racks are great, because they’re less obvious and mobile, which is especially nice when it rains.

If all this diaper cleaning seems revolting, and you don’t mind the cost, a diaper service is a wonderful thing, too.  Most diaper services are not much more than buying disposables, and you don’t have to go anywhere.  They pick up and deliver right to you.  A couple that have service to the Bay Area can be found on-line at Tideedidee.com which run about $15/week for 40 cloth diapers w/Velcro fasteners, or Tinytots.com at $18.25/week for 55 prefold cloth diapers. 

I haven’t kept an exact count over the last (almost two) years, but a quick glance at all these numbers have me calculating that by using cloth diapers and washing them myself, we’ve so far (she’s not out of them yet) spent less than $400 on diapers.  And we can use them on consecutive children, too, which of course, you can’t do with disposables.  Eeew.  This doesn’t include the water used (we rent) in washing them, which incidentally is no more than the average adult uses to flush the toilet 5-6 times a day, but it is unlikely that even in drought season, the water bill would tip the scales as compared to going the disposable route.  By going the Green Poo way, we’ve saved over $2,000!  A small chunk of her college education, but at least it’s not sitting, and not really rotting, in a landfill.
So go Green, and save some green!  Everybody’s dooing (last one, I swear) it and it’s so fashionable these days- just think of all those cool hybrids running around full of groceries in reusable bags. Yes, that’s right, poo can be fashionable, too.

Allison R.