Diapers, diapers, diapers...

I have a very sweet friend who just mailed the baby a HUGE box of baby clothes. There is a gallon zipperbag full of tiny socks. Lots of bitty booties, stacks of clothes Newborn through 12 months, hats (some with tags still), and diapers. Four different types of diapers. Lots of velcro and snaps.

Alex was in disposables. There was no diaper service and the washing machine was on its last legs. When I moved in with my mom there was no way I was switching to cloth. The idea of a diaper bucket in her house made me want to gag and she had horror stories about my bitty butt to share.

Apparently, there was a diaper service in the area when I was a baby. It was cheap, it made Mom feel good about her rustic lifestyle, and I was so allergic to the diapers that we were both in tears on a regular basis. She would put me in disposables to let me heal, so she could use creams and such on my bum, but when she would switch back the rash would come right back. So she gave up on cloth. We had the same conversation about IUDs a few years ago. She hated hers; I adored mine. I hope diapers go the same way.

Anyway, this box of baby goodies that arrived on my door-step had gDiapers, Litewraps, and Flips in them. I read about all of them. They each sound really great. Yay economy! Yay environment! What do you mean I swish poo in the toilet? And then I keep a bag of these wet things in my house? Dirty? At $1.25/wash at my local laundromat I go through about $40 worth of laundry a month as it is. That's not including detergent. Now I need to add about two additional loads a week and each load needs to go through the machine 3 times? That doesn't sound economical or environmentally friendly. I wash our clothes in cold water. Not only does it save energy, it's better for the clothes. The diapers have to be done in hot. The hot water demands more energy consumption and three cycles through for each load (2 per week x3 cycles each x4 weeks a month = 24 additional (just diaper) loads/month) is a lot of waste water. The sheer wear and tear on the machine was what kept me from cloth diapering Alex.

I did all this figuring when I was pregnant with Alex. Basically, it came down to what was better for our situation. Yes, I had my own washer, but it was 35 years old and we had a septic system and we paid for our hot water which was heated with oil. It was just as bad for the environment (carbon footprint-wise) as the disposables. I had no guilt. The only thing that would have made me switch was an environmentally friendly diaper service that used earth-friendly vehicles and machinery.

Viola! Smarty Pants! I'm kind of in love with their website. I've been "friends" with them on Facebook since before Bryn convinced me we needed a baby. Now I need to figure out if the diaper service is worth $15/week to me. It will cost me $10/week to do it myself; is it worth the extra $15 (total of $25/week) to have someone else deal with the diapers? Until the kid is on solids, the whole diaper goes in the pail - I don't have to do a thing. Once a week I put out the stinkies and they deliver folded perfectly ph-balanced and washed diapers. $100 per month - $40 I would do myself = $60 for not having to swish poo. I wish I had an income. Being broke makes this a hard choice.

I know me. I am lazy. I hate laundry day. I don't want to get lazy, but what if I do? What if I skimp on the cycles and the kid gets a rash? I'll switch to disposables until the rash is gone and then - will I go back to cloth? Remember, I'm lazy. Gah! There are people here in our little community who cloth diaper. I need to talk to them. I have also pre-registered for Cloth Diapers 101 towards the end of the month. I wish cloth diapering weren't a lifestyle choice. And don't tell me it isn't. Cloth mommies terrify me and I was an AP mommy who breast-fed on demand for 27 months.

I think the only thing that is really keeping me from just saying "Screw it!" and buying Pampers (which I found fit the Alex perfectly for the first 3 months) or Huggies (which fit best the rest of the time before she potty trained) is the endocrine disruptors. Don't call me crazy. I've read a lot of things about fertility issues and chemical burns and for some reason Good Guide, my usual savior when it comes to this kind of stuff, has no information health-wise for diapers. Seventh Generation diapers have their ingredients listed, and there is nothing bad in them. The Pampers Swaddlers, that I used on Alex, rank almost as high, but there is no list of ingredients. The major brands claim proprietorial privilege. Coke still has to list its ingredients and no one has gotten that right yet... 100+ years later.
Out of curiosity, I checked the new Huggies. The list of ingredients is a lot longer than Seventh Generation's and there is only one thing that raised a red flag, though tentatively. Not sure I feel much better, but at least if I back slide I know that it's the bleaching process that causes infertility and the absorbing agents that cause chemical burns - I keep getting those two mixed up. ...should I stop bleaching Hubby's under-roos?

If anyone has any ideas, insights, good jokes to snap me out of this - feel free to leave a comment.