What's good for the planet is good for your baby's butt

Remembering back about Bella in diapers and thinking how, if you bring up cloth diapers, people always want to talk about the study that show that the environmental impact of manufacturing plastic diapers is no worse than blah blah blah.

Even if I trusted the objectivity of a study funded by Procter & Gamble, who make--you guessed it--disposable diapers, I still wouldn't for one minute believe it. Say six diapers a day for a least two years. That makes for 4,380 plastic diapers. On the other hand, you could have 24 cotton diapers washed every four days or 183 times over the same period.

Can anyone believe those impacts equal each other? Wisdom, I always say, trumps suspect science.

Plus anecdotally, and certainly it was true for us, cloth-diapered kids get potty-trained sooner because they can feel when they're wet. Isabella actually asked to start using the potty. That means fewer diapers. Less impact.

But my point here, besides the baloney science the diaper companies try throwing at us, is this: a short time after we got Bella's cloth diapers, for some reason, I decided to put one of the few plastic diapers on her that we had left.

Isabella threw a fit. "I want Bella's new diapers," she screamed. "Bella's new diapers!" Never again would she wear a plastic diaper. For all the scientific studies, the one and half year old told us the truth of the situation.

And by the way, that episode is what finally got my wife on board with the cloth, hassle of having to wash them notwithstanding.

If you wondering why Isabella objected so vociferously, wrap your butt up in some plastic--Saran Wrap, say--and see if you might be leaning towards cloth when the day is over.

Because at least when it comes to my family, I discovered that what is good for the planet is also what's good and comfortable on my baby's butt.

PS Plus cloth diapers are much cheaper. Read some facts about cloth diapering here.

PPS Suppose you're a business. Wouldn't it make more sense to offer to wash your customers' diapers, form a long term, two-way relationship with them, and then sell them everything else child-related, too?

PPPS Read an article on the diaper issue quoting a real expert on the subject otherwise known as, well, me.