Cloth versus disposable: the fight goes on

In the perennial--and to new parents, fascinating--debate over disposable diapers versus cloth, add a good article in the Boston Globe. I'm still a cloth advocate, but a hypocritical one, because we're now using disposables on our second child. The decision wasn't entirely ours--our daycare won't use cloth--but then again we aren't even using cloth at home now.

One line from the Boston Globe article made me snicker, mostly at myself. Turns out that Seventh Generation, the leading "ecofriendly" disposable, whose diapers come in an inconically natural brown color and which my baby wears, dyes them that color for branding purposes. Doh.

One of the reasons I'm skeptical of studies that purportedly find cloth vs. disposable a toss-up is that it seems factors that favor cloth get left out. Such as the possibility that multiple children can use the cloth diapers--they last a good while. Also, the author left out of her article the issue of disposable diapers encouraging later toilet training (because they hold so much liquid away from the child's skin that the child doesn't learn to find soiled pants unpleasant).

Anyway, check it out and decide for yourself.