Polyester in cloth diapers

[MommatoGray]

Hello,

I have been using cloth since DS was a month old. I intended to use them from the start but all the ones I had were too big, he was just over 6lbs. Next time I will have some smaller options and hopefully can do it right from the get go. Anyways I have a mix of prefolds, covers, AIOs, and pockets. I have quite a few charlie bananas diapers, in fact they are my favorite! But, I have just been reading about the safety of polyester. And now I feel sick about it, I thought I was doing what was best for him and now I am not sure. Here is the link I was reading:

http://www.diaperpin.com/clothdiapers/article_artificialmaterials.asp 

I am usually so careful about what we put in, on, or around our bodies. I feel guilty for maybe missing this. Anyone have any thoughts about this article?? I was wondering if they were talking about polyester in general or just the recycled version. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

[howdeepistheocean]

Very interesting article. Thank you for posting it. I understood it to mean polyester in general...not only the recycled kind. I have been trying to steer clear of polyester clothing and bedding in general. Thankfully my boys only had a few sweatshirts and pj's I had to get rid of, and a few polyester/acrylic blankets. I am expecting a baby in Nov, and have a big diaper stash...but will probably try to get a few wool covers in each size, and only use my PUL ones as backup. It'll cost more, but my peace of mind will be worth it. Why put that junk even near a tiny infant's sensitive skin.

  I wouldn't feel guilty or bad about it...now you know and slowly make the changes that you can. Most are pretty easy...don't buy polyester pj's for the kids, focus on only cotton and it's not really any more expensive. The expense is in such things as diaper covers etc, but of course you can keep any prefolds and cotton fitted diapers you already have.

   Thankfully my sister agreed to buy anything I buy for 50% of what I paid for it...after I use it...as she is planning another baby too. So in the next five months I'm going to figure out how to slowly accumulate a few..and if I don't have much money, then I'll just buy one or two at a time...Hope you can work something out that works for you!         ~Kristie

 

[osker]

We cloth diaper and were very excited to use BG 3.0s.. we bought a ton.. and since then have become more aware about the polyester, although our original concern was because of hard water and STINK issues. We've switched to stuffing out pocket, polyester PUL covers with unbleached cotton prefolds.  It seems to be helping the stink issue, and it helps me feel a little better about what's on her skin.  We're slowly switching over to wool covers and cotton diapers, and I can't wait until we're totally switched!

[MommatoGray]

Thank you both for your responses. I have ordered some wool covers and I was going to stop using prefolds but I guess I will order some more!! Do you think it would be alright to use prefolds and use the charlie AIOs as covers?? That way the organic cotton is what is mainly touching his skin. what do you think?

And congrats Kristie on the upcoming baby : ) on t

Osker too bad about the stink issues, what a pain! I use the BG at night but we haven't had any problems yets (fingers crossed)! Also where do you get your wool covers??

[osker]

I like etsy.com for hand made covers. Also my aunt generously made us some before E was born. She was thrilled that we were interested in her knitting!

[Logan]

Don't feel bad- it took me 2 YEARS to realize that I was putting polyester diapers on my babies. I started with organic then started using a lot of pockets (BG and Bluberries etc). Then I tried everything under the sun. It wasn't til my daughter started having rash issues at a few months old that I realized that I was essentially using plastic against her most delicate areas. I always found the stay dry fabrics to be very clammy and not stay dry at all. And when my son was a baby I would ONLY dress him in organic cotton LOL. I have to wonder how I totally missed the fact that the cloth diapers he was wearing were polyester until after my daughter was born. Although to be fair we did a lot of EC and so he was in cloth jocks the majority of the time. But still, can't believe I didn't think about it when I was so obsessed with him not wearing anything but organic for his clothes. All you can do is make the decision to change and do things differently. I will be doing all organic nappy materials- mostly cotton with wool covers- for the next bubba. Hemp is also a great alternative and very durable. Be careful of bamboo- I have read a lot of conflicting stuff about it being not very 'natural' at all. Honestly I think there are so many toxins in our homes and environments it is impossible to even quantify/eradicate them all....