I am sure the first thing that comes to mind is rubber pants, pins and rinsing diapers in the toilet. I know this was the very first though in my mind when I heard this mentioned. But after spending days and hour pouring over the vast variety of diapers out there. I came to the conclusion that cloth diapering was not only helpful to my children. But good for the environment and would save me money. What mom can't resist something so cute on their baby. Especially something as cute as this tiny diapered behind with the cutest cloth diaper on!!! Well I know I sure couldn't and I'm sure that you won't be able to either. Even if your saying I don't think so right now. I think once we finish this article. That this may have just swayed your thinking enough to atleast give it a try!!

Disposable vs Cloth

A.) Health Risks

Disposable diapers contain gel beads which absorb the urine. These gel beds are made of Sodium Polyacryslate which is the same material banned from women's tampons in 1985 because it caused toxic shock syndrome. So just think about this it's harmful to women but we still put this in baby diapers. You surely wouldn't want your wife/mother/significant other using this. So why would you want your baby using this?

Disposable diapers are thought to be the cause of the sharp rise in male infertility. The disposables heat up the testicles of little boys so much. That it can interfere with normal growth and development. Which can lead to male infertility trouble later in life. I don't know about you but I want grandchildren. If I worked hard raising my own children. I want to reap the reward of being a grandmother.

Disposable diapers also contain Dioxin. This chemical is a highly dangerous chemical linked to cancer. It has been shown to cause numerous problems with lab animals. Just to mention a few of them such as birth defects, liver disease and genetic damage. Although yes these were just lab animals. Would you want your baby to be a "guinea pig" and end up with any of these issues?

Disposable diapers also contain a very real choking hazard. I know you might think okay lady what truck did I fall out of. There are lots of choking hazards to a baby and a diaper surely can't be THAT big of a risk. But it is a very real risk from a baby pulling any part of it's diaper apart and sticking this in their mouth. I for one would want to eliminate any risks factors I could.

Disposable diapers are known to increase diaper rash. A leading manufacturer even states that the cases of diaper rashes rise from 7.1% to 61% when people used their product vs cloth. One big reason is because they hold more. People think they don't need changed as often. But because they hold more should they REALLY be used to hold more? Just think of it this way. Your children will one day be changing YOUR diapers. Would you want them to change you right away or let you keep urinating and defecating in your diaper until it was well full and they got their money's worth out of it? I for one hope that my children remember I used cloth and changed them often.

B.) Environmental issues

Disposable diaper manufactures say those using cloth are the ones hurting the environment. They claim the high amounts of excess water needed to wash all these cloth diapers. We are abusing the earth and environment more then their disposable products. However I have to differ with that line of thinking. Disposable diapers add to the landfill each year about 2 million tons of urine, feces, paper and plastic just from American babies using disposable diapers. These dirty diapers then contaminate the soil and water supply. Oh and did you know that disposable diapers even tell you to FLUSH the feces out of your diapers before throwing them away! Yes they really do read the very fine print on the bags!!

Disposable diapers consume about 900,000 lbs of plastic a year and around 250,000 trees. This is the amount alone needed to diaper the babies in America. Just think about these numbers for a minute or two. Using disposables is comparable to just putting a plastic garbage bag on your baby as a diaper.

Disposable diapers it will take around 300 lbs of plastic and 900 lbs of wood pulp "fluff" just to diaper your child from birth to potty training. This is compared to less the 50 lbs of materials used to make cloth baby diapers.

C.) Money issues

Disposable diapers will run you around $2,500 diapers from birth to potty training. Cloth diapers will cost you between 600-$1,200 from birth to potty training. Just depending on what style of diapers you choose.

Now some of you may be saying but you didn't mention many things about cloth. You just mentioned a lot of bad about disposable diapers. Well the next question that I have for you is this. After reading all that do you really need to know the benefits of cloth? Just think of everything that disposable diapers do. Cloth diapers do the exact opposite. Not to mention cloth diapers can be re used with additional children. Thus saving you even more money a month.