Disposable diapers are the norm for Americans today so most of us don't consider what they might be doing to our babies. If you use disposable diapers, those little pieces of paper and plastic will be directly touching your baby's skin for up to three years! Let's see what we are wrapping our babies' bottoms' in.

Dangers to baby:

1. Disposables are more likely to cause diaper rash. 

2. How the chemicals in diapers affect children in the long-term has not been studied in depth.

3. Disposables may keep your child from being diaper trained until later than needed.

4. Disposable diapers have been linked to choking accidents, testicular problems with boys and respiratory problems.

Environmental Issues:

1. The average child will go through 7,000-9,000 diaper changes from birth to potty training. If those are disposable diapers they will all end up in the landfill.
2. Even the so-called "biodegradable" diapers need a certain amount of heat and oxygen to decompose that traditional landfills do not provide.
3. Disposable diapers take around 500 years to decompose in a landfill.
4. Non-organic disposables contribute to the poison/pesticide run-off problem with mass production level farming.

Personal Issues:

Would you rather wear paper or cloth underwear?

I am currently in the process of switching to cloth diapers and am still using many disposables while I build up my cloth supply. I recently purchased a package of Luvs and a package of Parent's Choice disposable diapers. I have to say that they were by far the worst disposables I have encountered.

I did not love my Luvs experience! The Luvs diapers smelled like VOCs when I opened the package. I thought about sitting them on the porch to off-gas before stacking them at the changing station! These "leak-proof" diapers are filled with tiny beads that soak up the liquid in the diaper. Besides the dangerous chemicals these beads are made of, they may be helpful in keeping baby dry. They may be helpful if the beads were to stay in the diapers and not on my baby's bottom where they showed up each time I changed him! In the interest of "reduce, reuse, recycle", I will be giving the rest of the Luvs diapers I have to someone who has no problem using them. My first thought was just to throw the whole package in the garbage. Because that is where they are going to end up anyway, they might as well be used first.

Parent's Choice Diapers are definitely not this parent's first choice! The Parent's Choice diapers are the Wal-Mart brand. They feel like a mix between scratchy paper and plastic bags. My husband couldn't figure out how to put this diaper on our son because the tabs are stuck together in an odd place and you have to really pull them to separate the tabs from the fabric on the inside of the back of the diaper. Once you pull the tabs off of that part of the diaper and stretch them out (if they didn't pull all the way off of the diaper, rendering it useless) then you have the task of trying to get them to stick to the front of the diaper. The tabs on all of my Parent's Choice diapers where misshapen and were not affective in securing the diaper. I'm not against saving some money by buying store brand products if you need to but in this case, you get what you pay for.

If you have to use disposables, shell out that extra few bucks and get the Huggies Pure and Natural Disposable Diapers. They are made of organic cotton and are very soft with excellent construction.