Yesterday at work we had a celebratory lunch that involved a few pitchers if margaritas and a lesson in tequila sipping. There are a lot if daddies at my company but I'm new and I haven't really loosened up enough to talk with them about baby issues. I guess the tequila helped a little, because I had a chat with a coworker who is expecting a babe around thanksgiving.
I told him about my crunchy tendencies and it was pretty clear from the get go that this guy isn't one who is interested in listening. But it did get me thinking about all the reasons people are afraid of or resistant to cloth diapers so I thought I'd do a blog series.
This particular dad's concern is germs. Honestly, when he didn't respond to my usual logic, I kind of gave up...but here is my rational:
First if all, changing a cloth diaper involves exactly the same exposure to germs as changing a sposie. Babies do not poop more in cloth, nor does a sposie somehow reduce your proximity to poop at changing time.
Second, cloth forces you to get rid of human feces the way that our society has agreed is sanitary...by flushing it down the toilette. You do not have poop sitting in a dirty diaper in your trash waiting for trash day.
Third, because you are the one who chooses how often you do laundry, you can wash diapers whenever you feel the yuck factor has reached your threshold.
I made these suggestions to my coworker and he said he keeps dirty diapers in a "hermetically sealed container outside". I didnt know what this means...maybe a diaper genie? I thought about going into the fact that diaper genie poops will be sitting in landfills until they become fossils, but it's clear thus guy isn't Eco motivated so I saved my breath.
If you are reading this and have more feedback on the germ concern and cloth diapers, I'd love to hear from you!
- Blogging from my iPhone
My only real comment to the germ one, because it is a valid concern, is that as parents we will have to clean up vomit and diarrhea for many years following being potty trained. Why should we steer clear of it when they are infants and toddlers?
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, disposable diapers are more apt to have blowouts than cloth, so it would actually be more messes to clean up. I've never had a blowout with cloth, and she had some pretty messy diarrhea for a few days a couple weeks ago.
Oh good point, I'll remember that one! Maybe I'll convert this coworker yet ;)
ReplyDeleteI, sadly, have had blowouts from cloth a few times but they are rare and far between. See the post "Why I (heart) my diaper sprayer". Yuck.