Peak Oil Diapers

Since we are less than two months away from welcoming a new addition to our family, my focus on sustainability research has expanded to include how to make raising youngins’ a sustainable practice.

Most parents of newborns can point to a single type of item that causes them the most grief -- diapers. A baby typically goes through 8 – 12 diapers per day in the earliest stages of its life, which really starts to add up in time and money. If using disposable diapers or a cloth diaper service, it can cost over $2500 from birth to potty training. Laundering your own cloth diapers costs roughly half that amount when factoring in costs for water, soap, and the diapers themselves.

Aside from being a bane on the environment, disposables can be dangerous to children. Disposable diapers have been shown to cause severe rashes, headaches, choking, and (in extreme cases) fever and vomiting. In addition, disposables are the sole cause for most diaper rash; a Procter & Gamble study showed an increase in incidences of diaper rash from 7.1% with cloth diapers to 61% with disposables.

Of course, Peak Oil changes the perspective of this argument even a bit further. Unless you stockpile enough disposable diapers to last for all current and future children, at some point you will be forced to find another option (also remember you’ll have to throw them away somewhere). So what are the best methods for covering our babies’ bums after Peak Oil?

Before the impacts of Peak Oil strike, there are many types of reusable diapers from which to choose. Cotton, hemp, and bamboo are the most common types of cloth used for fashioning diapers, but each has their drawbacks.

Cotton is typically one of the most pesticide-intensive products in the world (although organic options exist), and it has poor absorption properties when compared to other cloths.

Hemp cloth is very absorbent, very strong, and comes from a more sustainably grown plant. However, all hemp must be imported to the U.S. as it is (effectively) illegal to grow the plant in the states. Most hemp diapers sold are actually a mix of cotton and hemp.

Bamboo cloth is described as soft, silky, and absorbent. There are concerns about its sustainability as some bamboo growers cut down old-growth forest to make room for their crops, and the processing of bamboo into a fiber can be toxic. Bamboo diapers are also usually mixed with cotton.

Making your own hemp or bamboo after Peak Oil could be pretty troublesome, however, as both crops require skill to process into fibers fine enough for a baby’s behind. The process for hemp is found at this link (midway down the page). Processing bamboo into clothing is a more closely guarded secret, as near as I can find, but the process is generally same for most types of plant fibers.

What about growing your own cotton for making clothing? It’s certainly possible, but it requires quite a bit of effort to harvest and process the cotton. Crafting your own cotton gin (or finding one) would have a major impact on processing your cotton efficiently.

Wool is another viable diaper option. Our usual impression of wool is of a heavy, itchy fabric, but it can be made quite comfortable if properly woven and maintained. Wool is very absorbent, breathable, and even has anti-bacterial properties -- meaning wool diapers don’t need to be washed as often (for urine soiling), merely dried.

So, the best post-Peak Oil diapering option is to use whatever soft fabric is most convenient for you to produce, and then learn how to knit it into diapers. A good forum for knitting diapers is provided by the Diaper Hyena.

For a good blog on eco-friendly diapering, try www.betterforbabiesblog.com (thanks to Mindy for the link).