If you can diaper a pug...

This is my essay I'm submitting for a contest here: http://bumessentials.blogspot.com/2010/07/saving-planet-1-diaper-at-time-contest.html
I'm sure they want a true environmentalist (which I admittedly am not) to win, describing the horrors of disposable diapers. However, I am not that person. So I'm just being honest. I, of course, am rewarding YOU with many pictures. For instance, here are my current cloth diapers (unfortunately, my BumGenius 4.0's won't be here for a few weeks)
And just so you know what they look like opened up, this is a BumGenius One-Size opened up. Note how it looks just like a disposable diaper--no safety pins and origami folds!
And here is the essay:

New to Cloth—What lead me to cloth diapers

I am a first-time mommy-to-be. When I got pregnant, I was blissfully ignorant on the raising of babies. I’d never thought about breast milk versus formula or diapers or even baby cribs. I’ve had a rude awakening to the choices a first-time parent has to make. I’ve always maintained that the decisions I make should be what fits best for the family, but also ultimately must be the best fit for the baby. The easiest of these decisions has come with the choice of cloth diapers.

My friend at work, Emily, is five weeks ahead of me in the pregnancy department. Luckily, this means I get to learn from her what scary decisions and purchases I need to make, with a five-week window to catch up. One day she started in on the cloth diapering lecture, and I felt painfully uninformed. Now, I was aware you COULD cloth diaper, heck, I think all our parents tried to use safety-pins and covers for our first few weeks. But ultimately for ease and convenience, they all switched to disposable. Honestly, I didn’t even know cloth diapering could be an option—I do a lot of sewing with pins and needles, and I stab myself quite a bit. I figured that was not the best fit for the family or the pin-cushion baby-to-be. Then I started my own research. I didn’t realize how usable cloth had become. Diapers that looked like diapers—diapers that worked like regular diapers—diapers that didn’t pass for dust cloths! So, when I realized it could actually be an option, I decided to weigh the pros and cons.

Now, being women, I think a lot of mommies have a unique experience that we can all relate with when it comes to diapers: Those wretched pads we wore in middle school. That’s exactly what I think of when I think of diapers. Sure they wick away the moisture. Some even zap the smell. It’s all wrapped up in a tidy little disposable package. I never once thought about the environment when I was in maxi-pad mode. What I DID think about was the discomfort. My skin stuck to the lining. Sometimes I’d get a really fancy perfumed product and end up with a lovely skin irritation. As I got older I tried a lot of methods to just rid myself of that discomfort—discomfort that I was doing to myself. Now as women we even get lectured on the importance of cotton panties to avoid infections and irritations. As a mommy, I’d be forcing that same discomfort on my newborn who couldn’t exactly speak up for herself and say she didn’t like that so much, either.

So I did more research. I wish someone did “Truth” advertising on how disposable diapers are made. Disposable diapers tote they can retain up to 15 times their weight in water. They do this not by using absorbent natural materials, but using polymer made of sodium acrylate, potassium acrylate, or alkyl acrylate and wood pulp (well, wood pulp is natural, but when I need to wipe up a spill in the kitchen, I don’t think about using wood pulp). Then they don’t leak by using polypropylene to keep baby dry and polyethylene to keep liquids in. I didn’t even realize it, but some of these products can also be used to make plastic chairs and the lids to Tic-Tac boxes. And that’s what I’d be putting up against my baby’s very sensitive new bottom upon entering the world. Basically I’d just be wrapping my baby in plastic bags from Wal-mart and a plastic chair. Sure, disposables have come a long way to make them more breathable, more comfortable, and of course, cute and leak free and you can even spend extra to get it with no dyes to feel extra organic. I spent a lot of time in high school avoiding my chemistry class, but when I look at the chemical compounds of these ingredients, I have terrible flashbacks. That many chemical componds is not organic. Hearing that basically in the right proportions I can use those same ingredients to also make dishwasher safe tupperware or parts for my car doesn’t help. That’s what I want my baby to wear for up to three years of her life? And to think I’m having fits about having to use maxi-pads after the baby is born. It just doesn’t add up.

So what goes into a cloth diaper, then, would be my next, skeptical question. I’m not a die-hard environmentalist. I leave the water on when I brush my teeth. I keep the television on when I’m cleaning and not even in the same room. Sometimes I even, gasp, litter. I don’t recycle. My carbon footprint is probably huge. So I’m not lecturing that we’re killing the environment with diapers, and my own diapers from baby-hood are probably STILL in a landfill undecomposed so I can’t really point fingers. I can look the other way. But when I look at the alternative, that my baby’s bottom can either be pressed up against chemical-based plastics or ingredients like micro-fleece—made from cotton—I start to see this as a pretty easy decision. Even just to the touch, the difference is huge. Put a disposable diaper up to sweaty skin and put a cloth diaper up to sweaty skin and feel the difference. I don’t stick to the cloth diaper. Sure, cloth diapers aren’t perfect. I mean, those water-proof covers and plastic snaps came from somewhere other than a plant. But I’m also going to be able to wash and reuse those products, instead of throwing 3000 of them away in one year.

Maybe this makes me an environmentalist. Maybe this makes me one of those tree-hugging hippies, and I’m on the slippery slope to an electric car and solar panels to run my sewing machine, but I don’t think so. I’m a realist. If I checked all the tags on all my clothes right now, they’d all have one thing in common—cotton. If I rummaged through my underwear drawer, I’d be hard-pressed to find anything BUT cotton. I didn’t buy those things because I was feeling particularly organic or earth friendly. I bought them and use them because they’re comfortable. Maybe babies don’t have good memories so they can block out all the terribly embarassing parts of being an infant—your parents have to wipe your poo and pee multiple times a day, everyone looks at you naked, and you’re inevitably dressed in mortifying outfits that we adults find insanely cute. But I’d hate for my daughter to also have three years under her belt of discomfort soley because it’s just easier to throw her diapers away. So when faced with the choice of diapers, I’m making this decision just as I make my own underwear decisions—cloth is comfortable. She isn’t wearing it based on it’s melting point, or ability to be microwave and dishwasher safe. She’s wearing a diaper for comfort, and I can’t think of anything more comfortable than cloth.

So... that's about all I could come up with. Like I said, I had visions of making this more heart-bleeding environmentalist, but that just ain't me! But, to prove to all the naysayers that these aren't any harder to use than disposables... (and don't panic, all of these have to be washed first anyway)... if you can diaper a pug...
He looks so sour in the picture. He was running around quite happy in the diaper until I grabbed him for a picture. He even was doing tricks in them. You know... I'm sure there'd be a market for puppy-training reusables... ;)