The Diaper Dilemma

So we have been having a debate on diapers. We would not mind going with a more “green” diaper, if not for the enviromental factor, but for the fact that sometimes green costs less in the long run or is more manageable. Then there's cloth diapers, these seem to be green and more cost effective, but also more labor intensive and not very friendly to people around you when you're out and carrying a fully loaded one. The last option is disposable, these seem to be cheap and when used you just toss them in the trash to sit in a landfill somewhere far away for the rest of yours and your baby's natural life.

First I looked into the green diapers. These are a cloth reuseable outer shell with a flushable insert. They seem to be easy to use and friendly to going out. The down side is that they seem to be on the expensive side. Whether its from the usual “green” mark up or because they don't seem to have caught on in general we may never know. The only one of these options we seem to find for this type is www.gdiapers.com they sell the outer shell for about $18 and the inserts in cases of a 40 count for $15, which breaks down to 35 cents a changing.

The cloth diaper alternative comes with a few options. There are pre-folded ones and interchangeable outer shells. Prefolded cloths run about 6 for $11 which comes out to $1.83 per diaper, but you can get multiple uses out of each. Interchangeable ones from bumgenius run for about $40 for two with extra inserts. So we're looking at about $20 a diaper but have multiple changings. Included we have to look at the special sensitive detergeant to clean them in which is about $20 for 50 ounces and cleans about 130 loads, or 15 cents a load. Another portion of this is the option for a diaper service. These are not found everywher and only one seems to be here in Columbus, OH. Bundle of Joy is the company here, www.bundleofjoydiapers.com the price is $76 per month for a weekly delivery of 80 diapers. Which comes out to 24 cents a changing. The best part is that you don't have to deal with cleaning them yourself either! Again the downfall seems to be that you'd have to carry around a vertible toxic waste dump if you were out and had to make a changing, which might only help if you got stuck in a long line.

The final option is the widely used diaposable diapers. The ease of just being able to toss out the toxins and not having the potential disaster of having them soaking in a pail until they get clean is the main draw. At a rate of 84 for $17, or 20 cents a changing they also look to be very economical. Then there is the landfill issue too. I think the recent debate says that they last for about 200 years before decomposing. Since they haven't been around that long I'm not sure how true that is. I also have no clue about that kind of stuff and not a huge drive to be influenced by it either.

In the end it looks as if we are going to go with a cloth diaper system while we are at home and since that will be saving money in the long run we'll be able to go with the gdiapers while we are out on the town partying it up.