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Cloth vs. Disposable

Cloth is better than disposables for cost, health and environmental reasons.

COST

To cloth diaper a baby from birth to potty training will cost between $100 and $700. If this seems high, consider that it costs $1800 to $3000 to diaper a baby with disposables for the same time period. Double that number if you have twins!

HEALTH

Disposable diapers are made of synthetic ingredients like plastic and synthetic rubber and natural ingredients like oil and tree pulp. While these ingredients themselves aren’t harmful, the process by which they are made and put together is. For example, the tree pulp in diapers is often bleached to make it white. The bleaching process creates a toxic byproduct called dioxin. Dioxin has been proven to have bad side effects ranging from minor skin rashes to cancer. Additionally, babies with sensitive skin are more likely to develop irritations from the synthetic materials and toxic byproducts. In fact, according to the Journal of Pediatrics, 54% of one-month old babies who use disposable diapers develop diaper rashes - 16% develop severe rashes. In contrast, cloth diapers are made from all natural (and in some cases antibacterial) ingredients like cotton, bamboo, hemp and wool.

ENVIRONMENT

Disposable diapers are made from plastic, synthetic rubber, oil and tree pulp. The result is an annual US consumption of 80,000 pounds of plastic, 200,000 trees, and more than 18 billion disposable diapers in our landfills.