We had the best of intentions. A baby uses approximately 10,000 diapers which seems like an environmental disaster when using paper. So Jack began his days sporting cloth diapers, thanks to the generousity of my Dad who gave us 6 weeks of a diaper service. (To be fair, cloth are also a bit rough on the environment when you consider the water needed to soak, rinse, wash, and rinse all those diapers - not that I'm trying to justify anything.) But little Jack is a sensitive fellow. As soon as he gets wet he gets mad, which means crying, and this boy gets wet A LOT! It is not unusual to go through 5 diapers in less than 10 minutes. He will wake himself up out of a deep sleep because his diaper gets wet and then not go back to sleep and instead fuss for an hour. We had been using paper diapers at night to keep things easy - at one 3am change Dan finished putting on the diaper only to look down and realize that the clean diaper was still sitting on the changing table, he had put the dirty one back on. We also use paper when we go out so it is easier to throw or pack out the dirty ones. So, given that we use paper half the time and when we do use cloth we not only go through countless changes, but the level of fussiness in the house is increased we have decided to drop the cloth and make the move to paper. We don't feel great about it environmentally speaking, but the instances of crying in the house have decreased which feels wonderful. And if the guilt gets bad enough we can always buy some carbon offsets.
2 comments:
Well, what ever makes the little fellow happy, I say. In future years making him happy may be a bit more problematic than this. And perspective from an old Gram' is that there are millions of other opportunities to do the right green thing. Maybe this means you are now obligated to be the Den Mother of the scout pack and make sure your boy gets the Conservation Badge!
Hey! I pressed the wrong radio button. I am not "anonymous"! I am the Wee Won's Mamie!
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