Are Disposable Diapers Really More Convenient Than Reusable Cloth Diapers?

When I think of convenience, I mostly think of something that saves me significant time or makes some repetitive task considerably easier, like my dishwasher and my washing machine.

For some people, convenience also means using things that can be thrown away. Paper napkins. Plastic utensils. Disposable diapers.

Let's think about that one. Diapers.

Are disposable diapers more convenient? The families who use them seem to think so, but why?

Do they take less time to put on? Mm, not really. There are lots of reusable diapers on the market that are just as quick to change.

Is it easier to put a diaper in a trash can than in a diaper pail? Surely not if you are at home. If you are elsewhere, then that depends whether there is a trash can handy. For me personally, putting a used cloth diaper into a bag to take home and wash is just as easy.

But you have to get poop out of the cloth diaper and not the throw-away diaper, right? Well, not if you are using disposable diapers responsibly. Did you know it is actually illegal to dump human feces in a landfill? That means you should remove the poop from any diaper , not just reusable ones. After all, the sewer system was developed precisely to take care of such things as human excrement safely. Who wants to have another plague come along? Not me.

So it would seem that the only real convenience of using disposable diapers comes down to the one thing you don't have to do; wash them.

If you have a one-year-old in your house, you don't need me to tell you that you do more laundry now than you did before you had the baby. But you probably also realize that you don't have as much laundry now as you did during those first six months. And most likely, laundry isn't the chore you hate most.

Before we call that a win for disposable diapers, though, let's turn it around and look at it the other way.

Are there any inconveniences due to the continual use of throw-away diapers?

Well, there is one. It's a big one. And it's one that I've never seen anyone bring up when discussing the decision to use disposable versus cloth diapers.

It is now much harder for most parents to potty train our children than for past generations.

Our kids potty train later and later on average. Not only that, but it takes longer than you'd think for them to catch on.

Children diapered in super-dry-feeling disposable diapers potty train later than children diapered in reusable cloth diapers. They don't know when they are wetting, because they don't feel wet; even briefly. Because of this, the average age of achieving daytime dryness has about doubled since 1960.

Is changing diapers for an extra year more convenient than setting the stage for easier potty training on a normal child development schedule?

Is running to the mega membership store right now because there aren't enough diapers left in the box to make it until tomorrow at 10AM more convenient than throwing a load of diapers in the washer every few days?

Is spending $85 each month on ugly pseudo-underwear for your child to wear briefly and discard, now many times the original size and weight, into the garbage can more convenient than taking her to the potty and sending the pee and poo through the sewer instead?

So are you really willing to pay good money to keep your child in diapers for an extra year?

There, I've said it.

By choosing disposable diapers for your child, you are choosing to delay a major child development milestone.

Is there any other development milestone that parents routinely delay through their actions??? I don't know of any. And I don't doubt you would feel like an awful parent if you were guilty of any of these...

Surely you wouldn't try to discourage your child from learning to walk?

I've never heard a parent tell their child not to say the alphabet, count to twenty or read a book.

And you wouldn't do things to prevent your child from learning to talk.

Why would this miracle of convenience, disposable diapers, touting such a useful benefit as dry skin for your precious child, cause such an undesirable result? Well, let's take a look at the possible motivation.

	These companies make money from your child's bodily waste.
	They get more money the longer your child is stuck in diapers (have you noticed the bigger sizes have fewer in each package at the same price?)
	And they make even more money once your child starts wearing pull-up training pants (they cost more than standard diapers), even though their product won't actually help your child learn when they need to go potty.

That's 6000 diapers or so! And upwards of $1600 dollars!

You really do pay for convenience, don't you?

Now, I know you're smarter than to give a huge mega-consumer goods company that kind of control over you. The reality is, the longer your child continues to use diapers without wetting feedback, the longer it will be before your child is fully potty-enabled, and the longer you'll be locked into lugging home package after package of trash waiting to happen.

If you're not convinced yet, let me dispell a few potty training myths while I'm at it:

	Potty training doesn't really take a few days or a few weeks for most children under the age of two and a half or even three. According to one scientific study, the average duration of potty training is 10 long months (in case you're wondering, that's a LOT of disposables).
	There are a lot of ways to "mess up" potty training without knowing it. Quitting diapers too soon can easily tack four months onto your child's potty training (I know because it happened in our family).
	Night dryness usually takes many more months after day potty training is completed and 40% of 3-year-olds still wet at night. Dry through the day does NOT equal out of diapers.