Guilty of Using Disposable Diapers

I exclusively used disposable diapers on my firstborn (don't ask me why...I claim temporary insanity). When my second child was born, my conscience had kicked in and I decided to minimize the use of disposables by trying to use the Elimination Communication method (EC). It worked out rather well. In a nutshell, after careful observation, I was able to figure out when my daughter needed to go to the potty. Then whenever I took her, I would say pee-pee or poo-poo (some people say shhh...or make some other sound). The baby becomes "conditioned" to going whenever the sound is made. In between potty sessions, I used disposable diapers to prevent "accidents."

In the beginning, when I was trying to figure out the elimination patterns of my baby, I used cloth diapers. I finally gave up on the cloth diapers because newborns need to eliminate quite frequently and I just couldn't keep up with the demand. I had bought 12 cloth diapers to start out with...definitely not enough. I was also unwilling to have my baby go diaperless around the house as some people do when using EC. After a few weeks of using cloth diapers, I finally gave it up and used disposable diapers in conjunction with EC. By the time my baby was a couple of months old, she used on average only 2-3 disposable diapers a day. On bad days, I might have used 5 diapers. I also used baby sign language with my baby and made the "toilet" sign each time she showed signs of needing to potty.

My daughter is not quite 2 yet. She is able to talk and tells me when she needs to go potty (my children never quite took to the infant sign language). She still is not totally consistent, but she averages only a couple of diapers a day. I think she will be diaper-free fairly soon.

My son was potty-trained by age 2. He has been pretty-much accident free both night and day. I never had to have him wear pull-ups at night. I also didn't use pull-ups for potty-training because they are too much like diapers. In the beginning, I did use pull-ups when we traveled or went out. He was always good about going so I didn't bother with using the pull-ups after a very short while.

Potty-training early (by age 2 or 2.5 years) is being touted as a way to "go green." It significantly reduces the number of diapers that end up in landfills. The average age at which a child is potty-trained is around 3 years of age...a little earlier for girls, a little later for boys. Nowadays, it is not unheard of for children aged 4 and older to still wear diapers. Diaper sizes now range from newborn to size 7! My son only used up to size 3 diapers.

I read that the average number of diapers used before a child is potty-trained is around 5000. The average number of diapers used weekly by the average 6-month old is 70. Apparently some 18 billion diapers are used in the U.S. annually.

By using EC, I estimated that I used roughly 20 diapers a week for each child. That is a little more than 1000 diapers for the year, and around 2000 diapers by the time my child was potty-trained by age 2.

My third child was born a few months ago. I have been using the EC method with her as well and trying to decide if I would like to give cloth diapers another go. There are many articles and studies detailing the pros and cons of disposable vs. cloth diapers. I think that because using EC and disposable diapers worked so well with my other daughter, I may go that route again.

I might be guilty of using disposable diapers, but I think I have made a good effort at minimizing the amount of diapers that my family contributes to landfills. I also try and dispose of any solid waste in the diapers before I throw them in the trash. This method has worked well for me and I think it is a good compromise between going green and maintaining my sanity.