Why, oh why?

The biggest question Ben & I have been getting since we bought Nell's Natural Baby is why cloth diaper?  There is an excellent article on the site titles 'Cloth Guide' to help answer the question, but let me lay it out in simple terms & then I'll tell you why we decided to swith to cloth.

Your baby ~ Disposables contain: 1.) Dioxin, a chemical the EPA lists as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. 2.) Tributyl-tin (TBT), know to cause hormonal problems in humans 3.)  Polyacrylate, can cause skin irritation, severe allergic reaction, vomiting, staph infections & fever

Your money ~ save $1000-$1500! In the first 2 years, you will spend approximately $1800 on disposables. Even using a high end modern style, you can easily get by on $600 with cloth.  

Your environment ~ 1 ton of waste

Disposables generate 60x more solid waste, use 20x more raw materials & take an estimated 250-500 years to decompose. 1 child in disposable diapers = 1 ton of waste in a landfill

These are the main reasons, and we switched for all of them! Carson has terrible diaper rash. Even with cloth diapers I fight it, but it is better with cloth - probably a victim of the polyacrylate. Every time I change a cloth diaper I think "there goes 0.25 into our bank account"! Everytime I change a disposable (which I still do sometimes) I think "250 years later & this will still be rotting somewhere".

So, although the question is easy to answer, it was not one single thing that caused us to use cloth diapers. The fact that they are just so darn cute is just a bonus! =)