There are many benefits in using cloth diapers:
If you are having a single child using disposable diapers, you can expect to spend > RM3000 on diapers only. With cloth diaper, your cost could be as low as RM660 for one baby. If your second child is reusing the cloth diaper from sibling, that could be even greater saving.
Disposable diaper RM0.80/pc, 6pcs/day, 2 years |
Cloth diaper RM55.00/pc, 12pcs/2 years |
Saving | |
1st child | RM3504 | RM660 | RM2844 |
2nd child | RM3504 | RM0 (reuse from sibling) | RM3504 |
Total(2 children) | RM7008 | RM660 | RM6348!! |
In the old days, diapering makes you think of the white square cloth that needs to be folded into some sort of triangular shaped and uses big pins. All this has changed! Using cloth diaper is just as easy as disposable diaper. What's more, cloth diaper is much more comfortable on your baby.
On average a baby uses up to 7000 diapers. All these end up in the landfills and is estimated to take up one third of the landfill thrash. It can take a few hundred years for them to decompose. The solids on disposable diapers get into the soil and water in the landfills. This poses an environmental and health issue to us. The process of manufacturing a disposable diaper involve cutting down more trees and the use of chemical including bleaches add quite an environmental impact.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle(3R's). Cloth diaper is a logical choice for a better environment.
Let's talk about our children's health and the mounting evidence about the synthetic chemicals and their by-products that can be found in disposable diapers. The Real Diaper Association has the following information on disposable diaper. Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S..[1] Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.[2] Disposable diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbancy tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome.[3] In May 2000, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published research showing that scrotal temperature is increased in boys wearing disposable diapers, and that prolonged use of disposable diapers will blunt or completely abolish the physiological testicular cooling mechanism important for normal spermatogenesis.[18] Whether or not some of the information are speculative should not allow us to ignore the possibilities. Our children are NOT guinea pigs. The cloth diapers of today are incredible - plush, absorbent without chemicals. They are soft against your baby’s skin and free of the many chemicals contained in disposable diapers. They have gravitated away from plastic toward Nylon Polyester which is breathable, but leak-free to allow heat to escape, and the baby's skin to breathe.