Yesterday morning, a couple of friends and I were interviewed by a local news station about cloth diapers! It was a pretty fun experience for all of us!  We had two 2 year olds and a six month old fighting us as it was their moment in front of the camera.  All in all, we think it went pretty well, and we were excited to help education people locally and nationally, as the show will also air on a national level!!

One of the questions she asked was why do I cloth diaper.  I cloth diaper for several reasons, but one of the most important reasons is due to the health concerns of disposable diapers.

Day 4 (April 19th):  Real Simple Real Diapers for Babies – Health benefits

If I mentioned the words sodium polyacrylate to you, would you have a clue what I was talking about?  Probably not.  That’s because it’s not widely used when talking about disposable diapers.

Now, what if I used the words gel beads?  You know what that is, right?  The gel beads are the polymers that absorbs the moisture in disposable diapers, and they are called sodium polyacrylate.

Remember way back, when the risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome was sky high due to a substance found in the super-absorbent tampons?  Sodium polyacrylate is a similar substance!  The last thing I want on my baby’s bottom is something that could potentially cause such toxic bacteria to grow!

Other factors:

  • In disposable diapers, the toxic by-product of bleaching called Dioxin, a carcinogenic chemical, is THE most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals.  So why is this chemical banned in most countries… but not in the US?  Makes no sense!!
  • Disposable diapers also contain Tributyl-tin which is known to cause hormonal problems.  That’s something you want your new baby to have to deal with right off of the bat, right?
  • If you have little boys, check this out.  Scrotal temperatures increase with the prolonged use of dispsoables!  This can cause problems to their testicular cooling ultimately resulting in fertility problems.  And we wonder why infertility is on the rise in America!
We use cloth diapers so that our little one doesn’t have to worry about what’s in his diapers!  We know!  It doesn’t get much more simple than cotton, bamboo, hemp, and wool!

For fact sources, check out the Real Diaper Association fact page!