By Jacob Stevens Corvidae
Forget the old question of 'cloth or disposable?'. It's time for a whole new
question: 'diaper or none?'.
Parents everywhere know that a huge amount of time
and energy goes into dealing with the bodily functions, and especially the waste,
of babies. To the chagrin of non-parents everywhere, it's a common conversation
topic for new parents. Well, I'd hate to break with tradition and, being a new
parent, I'm going to talk a bit about babies and their bathroom habits.
Cloth vs. Disposables
Most people who are interested in ecological issues are familiar with
some of the debate about disposable vs. cloth diapers. Disposable diapers have
the much touted advantage of being very convenient for weary parents, and the
less obvious but very real advantage of being the dominant product used by most
parents in the US. Of course, environmentalists know that disposable diapers
won't decompose anytime soon and are filling up tremendous amounts of space in
our landfills. (The exact figures are easy to find elsewhere.)
The surprising
part of the debate is that some studies have shown that cloth diapers aren't
necessarily better, based on the idea that the damage to the environment from a
standard diaper pick-up service, which uses lots of gasoline driving around
picking up diapers and then cleans them using caustic cleaners, is comparable to
disposables - or maybe even worse!
This argument has, unfortunately, led many
environmentally-conscious parents to believe it's just a choice of lesser evils
and that perhaps disposable diapers are the lesser evil to be chosen.
First off,
the idea that these are the only two options is incorrect. Cloth diapers can be
handled differently than those studies imply. There are a variety of ways to
alleviate the concerns of using a diaper service, from dropping diapers off
yourself on the way to work, to pressuring your service to use less toxic
cleaners. But the biggest and simplest solution is to wash the diapers yourself!
For anyone with a washing machine in their home or apartment building, this is
simple. It's not hard, it's not gross, and washing machines really are convenient
enough that it doesn't take much time. As for the toxicity of your detergent,
natural baby care advocates actually recommend vinegar over soap or detergents,
as it will clean fine but won't be harsh on baby's bottom. Vinegar! How's that
for inexpensive and biodegradable? And while I haven't seen any tests done, there
is no way that washing your own diapers is a bigger problem for the environment
than supporting the plastics industry, the chemical deodorizer industry, and
filling up landfills with disposables.
In fact, it's easy to make your own
trifold diapers using organic cotton (cheaper as cloth than buying pre-made
organic cotton diapers) and old towel scraps as filler. Then you just need a few
cotton diaper covers to hold them on and you're set for the first year. Get the
materials and sewing machine and it really isn't that difficult or time
consuming, since it's all simple straight sewing lines and cuts.
What do other cultures do?
As Timothy Jean (my partner) and I were talking about dealing with
our baby Indigo's poop and pee, we found ourselves wondering about diaper culture
on a deeper level. Not all societies have diapers, right? What do they do? Some
use very "natural" ingredients to line baby's wraps, say moss or grass or things
like that. Sounds romantic, but not that appealing to me.
We heard a story about
some places in Africa where the moms just know when their baby will pee or poop.
They hold the baby away from them and let the child go! In fact, it's considered
such a standard skill to know when your baby has to eliminate that mothers are
teased and chided for not being in tune with their child if they get peed on only
7 days after the baby is born. How out-of-touch our parenting must seem in
comparison!
In China, babies wear pants with a hole or slit cut in the crotch.
When they have to pee or poop, their parents hold them out and let them go on the
ground. Granted, this wouldn't go over well on the streets of Detroit, but itŐs
useful knowledge.anyway.
Of course, in countries where there isn't as much
concrete as here, pee can soak into the ground, where it might actually improve
the soil. Imagine that! Pee as a helpful ingredient, not as a nasty "toxin".
"Diaper Free?"
We were thrilled when a friend of ours met some people in the
States who weren't using diapers for their children. She told us with amazement
of how they would hold the baby over some grass and make a "Pssssss" sound and
the baby would pee! We were sold on the idea and were lucky to find a newly
published book about it: Diaper Free! by Ingrid Bauer, www.natural-wisdom.com.
We've been doing this for the past 8 months, starting when our baby was 2 months
old. We're not strict adherents to the work of going "diaper free". Our baby
still wears diapers a lot of the time, but we've learned to work together so that
she pees or poops in a bucket at least half the time, saving us half the diapers
and washing. Apparently other people are able to easily attain diaper-free
status, never or only rarely using diapers.
We were surprised at how rewarding
this process has been. We were communicating with our three month old, which
created a wonderful sense of connection. While going diaper free would be easier
if we lived in the country and spent a lot of time outdoors, we haven't really
had a problem with it in the city. We use the toilet or our diaper pails (used 5
gallon food buckets), and she's as happy as can be.
While this isn't a standard
practice at Dancing Rabbit, it may become one. Sol and Cedar, also former members
of DR who are expecting and now live at nearby Sandhill Farm, are preparing to
try this with their baby too. And it's certainly an approach to an ecological
"problem" that is very much in line with DR's style: don't accept the standard
compromises--look for new solutions that are win-win, and help build human
connections to boot!
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