Diaper dilemma

One of my favorite podcasts is “Energy Gang”. (I also love its sibling podcast “Interchange”.) I’ve learned a lot over the years by listening to these smart people talk about green/clean energy.

They are down to earth and fun to listen to, but because they are super-duper knowledgeable (and not to mention they are prominent figures), I haven’t thought I share similar experiences...until yesterday.

The host, Stephen Lacey, recently became a father. He talked about the dilemma of choosing between cloth diapers and disposable ones. He ended up choosing disposables and asked his co-hosts, Jigar Shah and Katherine Hamilton, about their thoughts and experiences.

Jigar became a father a few years ago (I think) and Katherine is a mother of four. They both went through the same dilemma and decided to stick to disposable. Katherine used the cloth ones for her first baby (now 29) and gave up because the urine smell filled up and seeped through the entire house.

When my oldest (also now 29) was born, I tried the cloth diaper route first. I could not bear the thought of sending mounds and mounds of soiled diapers to landfills. We were in a two-bedroom apartment near the edge of Brentwood off West LA in Southern California. We had a washer and a dryer in the unit, but very quickly, I realized I could not do laundry for those diapers, and switched to cloth diaper delivery service.

However...each time I received a bagful of super white diapers in exchange for smelly and yellowed ones, I wondered if that was the right choice. What and how much chemical they use to make them so white? How much hot water or steam they use?

One day, a call came while I was nursing my baby. It was from my friend in Australia to congratulate for the birth of my first baby. I was happily talking with her until my baby started to poo. It ran over my lap then onto the carpet while I was tied to the lined phone. (There were only landlines back then.) Next day I went out and bought a pack of disposable diapers with side guards and never looked back. I remember reading somewhere that both types of diapers are equally bad to the environment and felt somewhat justified.

So, hearing those three clean energy experts chose disposables made me smile. Jigar and Katherine also talked about raising less materialistic children who are responsible and care. They used hand-me-downs, got stuff from garage sales, frequented to library, let the children play outside...etc. I did all of those as well.

Well, even though I feel I am falling short every day, maybe I did alright. At least how I raised my children were not too far from those people who are leading the green/clean energy revolution.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang#gs.wei6r8

https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-interchange#gs.x21zgh