Hi, I’m Emily and I’m a crunchy mom.  At least, that’s what people say when they hear I’m vegan, I breastfeed until my babies choose to wean, I cloth diaper, I delivered two of my three kids without an epidural, etc.  Guys, I just love farmers markets, that doesn’t make me crunchy, does it?  At least I wear deodorant and I shave my armpits…

Don’t worry, (except, have you seen the chemicals in deodorant!? eek!) I’m not too far gone down the crunchy rabbit hole.  Okay, I accept my crunchy title but let me just discuss some of my quirks.

Cloth diapers-

Y’all think I’m doing this for the health of my child?  Well, that’s a bonus of cloth diapers, look up the chemicals they use to make that gel stuff in disposables (carcinogenic!).  But my original motive, and biggest perk, of cloth is that I am no longer spending $80-$100 a month on disposable diapers.  That would be anywhere from $960-$1200 in the first year alone!  I spent around $300 on amazon to get my original stash of diapers and inserts, (we use pocket diapers).  $300 compared to spending and spending to keep up with baby poops!?  Yeah, I’ll be crunchy for that kind of savings.

Incidentally, did you know how long it takes for one disposable diaper to decompose?  I’ll fill you in, 500 years.  

500 years, guys.

That is not the kind of Earth I want to leave to my children.  Seriously, we will be overrun by dirty diapers.  That’s so gross to think about, when you could just use cloth diapers and keep your baby’s butt softer, healthier and happier.

But let’s talk about the amount of resources it takes just to create the worlds’ disposable diapers in just one year.

200,000 trees

3.4 billion gallons of fuel oil

If you have a Prius for its environmental impact, but use disposable diapers, you can just think about these stats now.

Another crunchy mom said once that we vote with our dollars everyday.  I choose to vote for a healthier tomorrow, as much as I can.  I don’t want to leave a world with diapers overflowing landfills or no more forests because we need to keep up with the demand for disposable diapers.

Cloth diapers are not difficult, you’ll find what works for you.  I use a trash can with a lid and keep a liner for the diapers in it.  In a few days, when it’s filled, I just wash the diapers.  What do I do with the poop?  It usually just falls out into the trash or toilet, I rinse the more stubborn baby poo.  It’s really not that gross, I mean, I made the kid, I feed him with my breast… What’s the big deal?  And who doesn’t love adorable baby butt in a cloth diaper!?

I will be discussing some more of my crunchy quirks in the next few months, so keep checking in with Newsymom.com!