Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Cloth or Disposable Diapers?

Question:

Please help us decide on cloth or disposable diapers.

Answer:

Congratulations on becoming parents!  Please see the URLs below which have information about choosing what kind of diapers to use, and a link to a little quiz to help you decide what suits your own needs best.   As we know, babies DO need diapers, and there are environmental issues regarding whatever choices we make.   Also included is a link for information about flushable diaper liners which work nicely with cloth diapers (used by my mother in the 1930s and by me in the 1960s).

Diapers – Cloth vs Disposable, from the Berkeley Parents Institute, Nov. 2003:   http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/where2buy/diapers_vs.html

Diaper Choices, by the University of Minnesota Extension Service, 1992:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/DK5911.html

Cloth or Disposables?  “Take this quiz to help you determine which type of diapers would be most suited to you…” by Natural Family Online:
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5-diap/47-cloth-or-disposables.htm

Flushable diaper liners – Green Mountain Diapers.  The site has a nice discussion about using diaper liners [although I’m not recommending purchase of any one brand]:   http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/doublers.htm

Environmental Impact of Disposable Diapers, by Enviro-Baby.  Article includes many numbers [maybe not too useful and accuracy not easy to determine] and a bibliography:   http://www.enviro-baby.com/wenvironmental.html

You may also contact the Acterra Library in Palo Alto to ask if they have a pamphlet file on diapers:   www.acterra.org
 
Thank you for your question, Flo