Tag: diapers

Footloose and Diaper-Free

  • Diaper-free parents say that their baby shows them signs when a bathroom break is needed. They call the dialogue "elimination communication." (Photo by Jessi Ziegler)

When most Americans have a baby,
the parents decide whether to use
disposable or cloth diapers. But
Julie Grant reports that there’s
another trend: no diapers at all:

Transcript

When most Americans have a baby,
the parents decide whether to use
disposable or cloth diapers. But
Julie Grant reports that there’s
another trend: no diapers at all:

Having kids without diapers might seem kind of far out. So,
who better to tell us about this then Willow Lune, of
Berkeley, California.

She remembers when her son was 3-months old. They
were at her mother-in-law’s house. Her husband took the
baby to the bathroom – and accidentally left the door open.

“And his mother came in and saw him holding our son over
the toilet. And she said, ‘what are you doing?’ And my
husband said, ‘well, he’s going to the bathroom, just like you
do.’ And it took her about a minute, and she said, ‘that’s so
cool.’”

Lune and her husband said it was normal to see babies
without diapers when they were traveling in Tibet and
Thailand. So, when their son was born, they decided to try
it. He’s was going to the toilet on his own by age 1 and a
half.

Now Lune teaches classes in Berkeley and other areas
around San Francisco.

She says diaper-free little ones can wear crotch-less pants –
or might not wear anything from the waist down.

And it’s up to the parents to pay close attention – or risk
having to reach for the cleaning supplies.

“There might be a little wiggle, or sometimes just the staring
at you. There’s just little subtle clues that they actually give
you from the time they’re born. So it’s our job to look at that,
listen for that, pick up on that. And then respond to it.”

Turns out, there’s a name for this little dialogue between
babies and parents. They call it elimination communication,
or E.C. Instead of using diapers – and then training them to
go in the toilet a few years later – Lune says parents can just
pay attention. They can show babies from the start what to
do when the need arises.

Lune says one of the reasons she and her husband do this
is because they are concerned for the environment.

Pampers and Huggies clog up the landfills. The other major
option – washing cloth diapers – takes more attention from
parents. But doing that can use a lot of water and electricity.

Jennifer Williams lives in the San Francisco area. She has
three children – all under age four.

Williams is also concerned for the environment. And she
wants to pay close attention when her 6-month old daughter
goes to the bathroom. She even uses cloth diapers.

“Even just with cloth diapers, you have to be way more in
tune to what’s going on with someone’s body. Where –
she’s in disposable right now – I’ll just forget about it for five
hours. You don’t have that option with cloth. Unless you
want to give her a horrible a rash. So, the whole EC thing is
really interesting, because you really have to be in touch with
what’s going on physiologically.”

But Williams works full time. Elimination communication just
is not practical for her family.

“Yeah, I mean, because you really do have to be available to
whenever the baby has to go to the bathroom. With one
baby, when I was home on maternity leave, I probably could
have done it. Once you have more than one running
around, it just doesn’t fit. Maybe I’m lazy. So be it.”

Supporters of the diaper-free lifestyle say it’s actually easier
then potty training kids when they’re older. And they say
parents don’t have to do it all the time. They can try it when
they do have time to pay close attention.

For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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The Dirt on Diaper Duty

  • She's cute, but what about all those diapers? (Photo by Mark Brush)

There’s a reason more than 90% of American parents choose disposable
diapers over cloth. Nothing beats the convenience of disposable
diapers. But what about their effect on the environment? Reporter
Mark Brush has two little ones at home and decided to take a closer
look at the question:

Transcript

There’s a reason more than 90% of American parents choose disposable
diapers over cloth. Nothing beats the convenience of disposable
diapers. But what about their effect on the environment? Reporter
Mark Brush has two little ones at home and decided to take a closer
look at the question:


My wife and I didn’t hesitate in our decision about diapers. We went
with disposables from the start.


(Sound of baby crying)


Raising kids can be hard work. The convenience of disposable diapers
was just too much to pass up. But what does that decision mean for the
environment? I mean, if I do the math, we’ve got a three-year-old who’s
out of diapers. And a one-year-old who’s going through three or four a day now. Over
the years, we’ve dumped about 5,480 diapers into a nearby landfill.
Five thousand four hundred eighty. Going with disposables can’t be
good, can it?


Well, as it turns out, the answer is pretty darned complicated. There
have been several studies done on diapers and the problems they create.
Most recently, a study was done on diapers by the Environment Agency in
Great Britain.


It compared disposable diapers with cloth diapers washed at home, and
cloth diapers from a diaper service. In the end, they said, there were no clear
winners. So disposables aren’t so bad, right?


Well, not so fast, says Greg Keoleian. He’s the co-director of the
Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. Keoleian
says it all depends on where you live:


“In evaluating life cycle results you should look at local conditions.
For example if you’re in an area where water is scarce, like let’s say
Arizona, then you want to weigh that factor more heavily in your
decision.”


Keoleian says since I live in an area where landfill space is short,
and where water is plentiful… I might want to consider cloth diapers,
so, I bring the idea home to my family:


(Mark:) “What do you think, Andrea? Do you think we should try cloth
diapers?”


(Andrea:) “No.”


(Mark:) “Why?”


(Andrea:) “‘Cause you might have to send me to the Looney bin.”


(Eli:) “Well, Mom, then you don’t have to through them away.”


(Andrea:) “That’s true, you’ve got a good point.”


(Eli:) “You only have to wash them.”


(Andrea:) “Yep, that’s true. And you know what, my Mom and Dad always
washed all of our diapers. She was a better woman than I am…
(laughing)”


(Sound of baby crying)


But today, the choices are different than they were for our parents. It’s not just about cloth vs. disposable anymore. There are tons of different choices. For instance, I went down the street to our friend
Melissa’s house.


She and her husband have a two-year-old. They’ve tried out a bunch of
different diapers including one you can flush down the toilet. The
point of the G-diaper, Melissa says, is to treat the waste – rather than simply throwing
it in your garbage can:


“So then when you go to change him… you take it out… and then you put it
in the toilet and they give you a swish stick. And then you swish it
as it’s flushing – therefore you won’t clog up your toilets. Now, I did
notice that when I used these in public restrooms and I didn’t have my
swish stick I would kind of clog up the toilet sometimes… it all
depended on the toilet. So for going out, the G-diapers for me didn’t seem
to be such a good idea because I hated clogging up the toilets (laughs).”


Melissa says after problems like this, she eventually switched to a kind of disposable diaper
that’s supposed to be better for the environment.


Now, if you really want to think outside the box, there’s another choice that might come in handy. It’s a practice called Diaper Free: No diapers. Parents help their infants go to the toilet when nature calls. Erin LaFreniere is a sort of local expert on the Diaper Free method:


“Diaper Free is a little bit misleading because people think you’re not
wearing a diaper, oh that must be horrible, how can you deal with the mess, that’s not sanitary. And really, diaper
free really means not being stuck with diapers all the time.”


LaFreniere says parents still use diapers, just not as often. They
learn how to pick up on their infant’s cues, and when it’s time they
take them to the bathroom. She says cutting back on diapers is a side
benefit. For her, learning how to communicate with her baby was more
important.


But, I don’t know. I can’t imagine the diaper free idea going over well at home. I mean, our lives are really busy and it’s hard enough for us to keep up. Disposable
diapers are just too convenient.


I guess it’s like a lot of decisions people make in their lives:
convenience will often trump a slight benefit to the environment.
And experts I talked to said if we take a look at all the impacts we have on the
environment, diapering is pretty low on the list. So, my wife and I can do right by the environment somewhere else in our lives.


For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

Related Links

Commentary – Image Is Everything

For years, advertisers have used the great outdoors as a marketing
tool. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston
thinks it’s time we starting selling something else.

Transcript

For years, advertisers have used the great outdoors as a marketing
tool. But Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston
thinks it’s time we starting selling something else:


I saw the most amazing commercial on television last week. The whole
thing was a series of video clips of wild animals and their offspring
playing in their natural habitats. There was a really cute shot of a
baby hippo playing with its mom in the water. And then it showed a
baby elephant struggling to climb over a tree lying on the ground.
All of a sudden this big maternal trunk swings down and wraps itself
around the baby elephant’s backside and gentle lifts it over the
tree. It was adorable.


Then there were baby seals frolicking on the
ice and fox cubs playing in a field. There was no voice over on the
commercial – just the sound of Bryan Adams voice singing “Forever
Young”. It was beautiful. The final scene was a mother lion sitting
proudly, looking straight at the camera, while a lion cub nestled in
her front paws. It really took your breath away.


The image of the lion and her cub faded and was replaced with a
package of Pampers disposable diapers. An announcer voice simply
said, “Forever Young”.


I couldn’t t believe what I was seeing. Disposable diapers are
arguably one of the most environmentally damaging products we’ve come
up, and here we are using wild animals to sell them.


But it doesn’t matter because it looks good. It’s like this other
commercial for a sports utility vehicle I’ve seen lately. The truck
meanders in slow motion through a pristine forest, while a giant
grizzly bear stands on its haunches and sings opera. The entire scene
is bliss. And then you realize that that wildest thing SUVs drivers
are likely to see is the mall parking lot on a Saturday morning.


But it doesn’t matter because image is everything. That’s why SUVs
are the hottest selling item right now. As long as looks good and
projects the right image well then let’s buy it.


Forget about the fact that all these hot convenience items are
ripping up the planet. They make life easier and they make you feel
great. Who cares if we destroy the environment in the process? We can
always create a new world with the magic of computer animation and
some marketing wizardry.


Or – maybe we actually use all this marketing know-how to clean up
the mess we’ve made. I think it’s time we started selling that idea.


Host Tag: Suzanne Elston is a syndicated columnist living in Courtice, Ontario.

Therapeutic Diapers

Each year in the United States, about four-hundred thousand fulltermbabies will be treated for jaundice. Since a baby’s liver and otherorgans aren’t fully developed, they often can’t process a substancecalled bilirubin (billy-roo-bin). The bilirubin causes a yellowishtinge to the skin and is usually treated with phototherapy.Now, one woman has found a way to speed up this process. The GreatLakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports: