"So no matter what your diaper inclination..."

What about those of us who use gDiapers?

**Author's comments**

Kaz,

We're big fans of gDiapers -- I thought of putting them in the piece, and decline for a couple of reasons. As you're probably aware, they've earned a Cradle-to-Cradle certification from MBDC, meaning that their diapers were evaluated for human and environmental health impacts throughout its lifecycle and its potential for being truly recycled or safely composted, and passed. That's pretty great; however, as a forward-thinking, quasi environmentally benign product, I didn't want to try to compare them to the two most common types of diapers, who, generally, have spent less time worrying about the Cradle-to-Cradle implications of their product, and, for which, Carbon Clear had crunched the numbers and figured out the carbon footprint.

TreeHugger tries to not place value judgements on different sorts of environmental solutions (e.g. Cradle-to-Cradle is better than carbon neutral or Carbon Clear does more important work than MBDC, or vice versa) and I felt like trying to squeeze gDiapers in there would have implied such a judgement; we want to provide everyone with a wide variety of options, allowing you to pick the solution that most closely fits your lifestyle, ethos, ideals, etc. That way (we think), you'll be more inclined to engage in more positive lifestyle choices that benefit the environment and our world.

So, we're glad you're using gDiapers. If you're concerned about the carbon footprint left by them, I'm sure Carbon Clear would be interested in helping you offset them; even if you picked either disposable or reusable (since gDiapers have components of both) you'd be doing nothing but contributing more resources to alternative energy and more carbon-eating trees to our world, and you can't go wrong with that.

Thanks for the comment!

CD

Diapers are expensive enough, why would you want to pay more for them by offsetting? It seems you need to be rich to be "green", unless you go with the diaperless option of course.

**Author's comments**

You bring up a good point, and one that we're quite familiar with here at TH (before I get started, diaperless parenting is a good option, though not always practical for things like group daycare and other social events). There is a fine line between investing in the future and trying to "shop our way to environmental health" (which green guru Joel Makower noted was a huge eco-myth in our interview with him. We happen to agree.) Here's how we think about it: all consumers, be they young, old, rich or poor, are concerned about where their money goes. Nobody wants to pour it down the drain and everybody wants to derive maximum benefit from wherever they're spending it. It's a matter of priorities, how you value your money and where you place yourself in the grand scheme of things. Offsetting something like your child's diapers costs between £8 and £10 (about $15-$18) for two and a half years; this breaks down to about one penny per day. If that one penny is worth more to you in your pocket than it is on the global alternative energy market and going toward a cleaner, greener place for your kids, then keep it. To answer your question "why would you want to pay more?" -- Because you care enough about making the world a "greener" place to prioritize your life so you can spare one penny a day.

This may seem like a silly semantic argument to some, but we feel that this example is scalable to nearly any situation, and that's why TreeHugger exists: to provide easy, (mostly) cheap ways to go green (or greener), and to show that everyone can engage in behaviors already part of their routine, and make them greener as well. You don't have to be rich to be green; you just have to prioritize, be smart about how you spend money and remember all of our lifestyle choices affect everyone else.

CD

The idea that your baby should $#|% in the diapers and have you clean it off the tender skin is rather shocking, it is almost symbolic of de-evolution, creating a problem so industry can solve it.

Google: “Diper free” or “EC Baby” I am a convert.

Here is a start.

http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

http://www.natural-wisdom.com/

This is the defector option in India and China, so it is just a mater of socialising that defines your actions.

At first I had an image of tree hugging hippy parents going dipper free with poop and wee all over the house, and was reluctant to even consider it. My wife did a lot of research after first presenting me with the idea. When I realised normal people can do this too, I took up the challenge. And I need not say any more, over 95% of poo goes in the toilet, and I now pity those parents who know no better.

It is actually easier than you think, not a huge mind shift, there are obvious wins, like going when the baby wakes up, going 15 min after nursing, going when you change positions - like getting out of the car. (don’t over do it as babies are people too and will protest if you don’t empathise ;-)

Couple that with “baby wearing” and you and your baby are as close as nature intended and it is easy to get the other in-betweeners.

It fits well with the attachment parenting style described by William Sears.

I'd like to know how many parents continue the diaper-free method with their second child...keeping track of when you last held the child over a potty is probably phenomonally more difficult when you are tending multiple offspring.

And I am fairly certain that daycares are unanimous in requiring bottom coverage.