GREEN DIAPERS

Wow!! Did you know that there are four million, seven hundred ten thousand places to look on Google for Green Diapers? Now, I know that Green Diapers are becoming enormously popular because of the fact that our landfills are being overcrowded with disposable diapers that will never, never, never in a million years decompose. Did you know that? Well, what I didn’t know is that there is a huge movement out there by new parents in the world-at-large who are trying to remedy the environmental issue of too many indestructible diapers filling up the landfill holes in the earth. There are thousands of parents who are joining the Green Diaper Revolution. Are you one of them? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

The Pro-cloth Anti-diaper-rash crowd will have a small battle yet because of the fact that some pediatricians are recommending that the absorbent gel material found in most of today’s disposable diapers draws moisture away from the skin area, thus helping to promote a healthy diaper area. Thus, less diaper rash. For this reason some physicians today are actually prescribing the use of disposable diapers to prevent diaper rash. My mother would have advised me that keeping baby dry and clean would prevent diaper rash, and she would have said it with such power and eloquence that I would have cowered before her and would have minded her every word (which I did). As for my four babies, who now have babies of their own, there was never a case of diaper rash. And, of course, my grandmother would have said: “that’s because there wasn’t anything else but cloth diapers at the time and cleanliness.” Did your mom or your grandmother say something like this to you?

An advocacy group called The Real Diaper Association, says that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used in the United States. The EPA tells us that 27.4 billion disposable diapers translates into more than 3.4 million tons of waste dumped into landfills. That’s pretty overwhelming. When you think about it, producing that number of plastic diapers utilizes enormous amounts of petroleum, chlorine, wood pulp, water and who knows what else that comes out of the earth, or grows on the earth. Some companies who manufacture plastic diapers argue that the water and energy required to launder cloth diapers actually cancels out the costs of petroleum, chlorine, wood pulp and water. Nothing cancels out the cost of petroleum! The sooner we realize this, the better off we will all be. This is a conundrum for the young parents of this day. I know that your hearts and minds are torn between the desire to be environmentally protective and to be the best parent you know how to be. We will be so happy to hear from you about your concerns and how you solve these deep problems in these troubling times. After all, the babies arriving now are the hope of the future. It is my belief that their parents are also the hope of the future. Write to us your solutions to these problems. We’d love to hear what you have to say.

My love to you all from Gramma Bugpuddles