Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 311 posts

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#171

Post by abustamam »

jswelker wrote: post #143
abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

That math does not match my math with my kids. Does that factor in the price of water and electricity and detergent? And are you comparing to store brand diapers or the luxury name brand ones? The price difference is literally 5x for some sizes.

I haven't run the numbers that deeply.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#172

Post by abustamam »

gazook89 wrote: post #100
abustamam wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good to know! Makes me feel a bit better. We do have a bidet but it's a toilet seat bidet so we may need to rethink our system.

It won’t ALWAYS be nice little rollers. And it depends on diet. Right now with 1 year old it’s a lot of smears but with a good shake they peel off and into the toilet, sometimes helped with the spray wand. We also use a cheap synthetic fleece cloth liner, too. We just got a couple yards of it from fabric store and cut it into strips. The poop mostly hits that, and since it’s synthetic it slides off well.

That's a good suggestion!

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#173

Post by abustamam »

kannanvijayan wrote: post #94
abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

We used cloth diapers for our son for about 8 months, and then it just got to be too much of a hectic nightmare washing the poop cloths between work and other issues. So we did disposables for about two years. We were having a hard time getting him trained off of the diapers, until one day we just decided to follow some advice we'd heard and took them off and let him go diaperless on the floors (thankfully wooden)..…

> let him go diaperless on the floors (thankfully wooden).. and he trained in a couple days.

This terrifies me! We have carpets. Some tile, but also some carpets. I guess it's not too different from when the cats have an "accident" though, just bigger messes.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#174

Post by abustamam »

pc86 wrote: post #89
gus_massa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like $3 per day (a coffee). Most diapers only get pee, but cloth diaper are more difficult to use, let's add 2 extra minutes, 4 or 5 times per day. No solids means "not hard rock solids", they still make a nasty stinky brown paste. Hopefully only once per day. But that diaper MUST be partialy hand-washed, don't put it as is in the washing machine. At least a partial hand wash and then go with the rest to the w…

I don't care if anyone uses cloth diapers but the cloth diaper evangelists always seem to take a page out of the people who say "renting is always bad" or "leasing a car is always bad." Focusing on the (completely legitimate) negatives associated with the thing they don't like, and completely ignoring the (no less legitimate) negatives about the thing they like. I don't see it anywhere here, which is refreshing, but…

I don't like those people either.

If people ask I do tell them I use cloth diapers but I (at least hope!) don't make it my entire personality.

Maybe I'd be surprised if I asked my friends and co-workers what my personality is though.

Cloth diaper usage seems like it could also correlate highly to being vegeterian or vegan, who have the stereotype of that being their entire personality.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#175

Post by thatfrenchguy »

abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

Hard to say how much money you’ve saved because running the washer and dryer is not free though :)

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#176

Post by UncleMeat »

em-bee wrote: post #105
UncleMeat wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can try it. Parents should try what they want and there is a huge amount of "you must do it this way or else" material that just produces unnecessary stress. My observation is that there is limited research showing that this actually works and that the amount of extra effort required to constantly be observing the baby for these cues makes the already extremely difficult task of caring for a baby just more diffic…

the amount of extra effort required to constantly be observing the baby [...] makes [...] caring for a baby just more difficult you learn a lot more about your baby than just elimination cues by observing it. i'd argue that that effort is not difficult at all and has a lot of other benefits. see attachment parenting. you are right about "you must do it this way or else" producing unnecessary stress though.

It is true that you can learn a lot by observing babies. Observing them constantly so that you don't fail to miss these cues is a bigger task.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#177

Post by the_gastropod »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #166
the_gastropod wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think as a general rule: a reusable thing is more environmentally friendly than a single-use thing (especially when the reuse cycles are high). Yes, there are exceptions. But you’ve got the bizarre case to make here, if you want to suggest single-use diapers (that also use water, require transportation, are fabricated, packaged, etc.) are a more efficient use of resources.

I don't think it's that crazy. It's fairly well documented that a reusable cloth shopping bag has a break even with plastic shopping bags at around a 100-200 reuses, something most people won't reach. With diapers, you have wash water, electricity, and a gas dryer in the mix. Then you have people in this thread talking about services to pickup and wash them for you. How many trips car trips is that- 2 a week?

1. Id guess an average cloth diaper gets reused more than 100x

2. Think about the mass differences you’re comparing here. A standard plastic grocery bag is about 5 grams of material. A standard cloth bag is around 250. Cloth vs disposable diapers are approximately the same amount of material. This is the “gotcha, vegan! Iceberg lettuce is less efficient on a CO2 per calorie basis than beef! Eat more steak to be greener” type of argument.

3. You’re doing the thing contrarians often do of only counting one side of the ledger, while hand waving away the other. Disposable diapers require water, tree growing, tree cutting, tree transport, tree processing, bleaching, transport, packaging, product transport, disposal transport, disposal processing, etc etc. for each time a diaper is used. Really think about the full cradle-to-grave cycle of these things. Reusables must be washed, yes. But they, importantly, don’t require any of the other steps, which is, y’know, extremely significant. It’s not even remotely plausible single-use diapers are more resourceful than cloth ones.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#178

Post by giardini »

gus_massa wrote: post #84
abustamam wrote: post #5

We're using cloth diapers for our daughter (6m). She's still exclusively breastfed so no solid poops but so far I estimate we've saved over $100/mo by this decision. The story may change when she starts on solids but I recommend everyone to try out cloth diapers, just make sure you have a routine and system in place to make it less overwhelming (we have two diaper pails next to the changing table, one for disposable…

That's like $3 per day (a coffee). Most diapers only get pee, but cloth diaper are more difficult to use, let's add 2 extra minutes, 4 or 5 times per day. No solids means "not hard rock solids", they still make a nasty stinky brown paste. Hopefully only once per day. But that diaper MUST be partialy hand-washed, don't put it as is in the washing machine. At least a partial hand wash and then go with the rest to the w…

Quick trick for processing dirty cloth diapers:

After changing and settling the child, take the dirty cloth diaper to the bathroom, open the toilet, drop the solids into the pot and flush. Grasp the two ends of the diaper, turn it inside out, and dip the middle of the diaper (where the solids were and where some may remain) into the toilet water several times to rinse it further. Flush. Squeeze out the diaper and drop it into a diaper pail to be washed later. Wash hands. Once done, dirty diapers in the pail can be washed at your leisure.

Hope this saves you some time.

I'm from a large family. I watched my parents change my diapers and years later changed my younger siblings' diapers.

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#179

Post by s1artibartfast »

the_gastropod wrote: post #177
s1artibartfast wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's that crazy. It's fairly well documented that a reusable cloth shopping bag has a break even with plastic shopping bags at around a 100-200 reuses, something most people won't reach. With diapers, you have wash water, electricity, and a gas dryer in the mix. Then you have people in this thread talking about services to pickup and wash them for you. How many trips car trips is that- 2 a week?

1. Id guess an average cloth diaper gets reused more than 100x 2. Think about the mass differences you’re comparing here. A standard plastic grocery bag is about 5 grams of material. A standard cloth bag is around 250. Cloth vs disposable diapers are approximately the same amount of material. This is the “gotcha, vegan! Iceberg lettuce is less efficient on a CO2 per calorie basis than beef! Eat more steak to be green…

I think it's plausible that cloth diapers are worse per use than disposable ones due to the mass industrialization of manufacture and resource intensity of cleaning.

You are right that we have to look at the full breakdown of the cradle to grave resource cost.

A washer and dry cycle is about 5 kilowatt hours, which is about the average household energy consumption in China or twice that in India.

Financially, in California it's about $3 per wash for power before accounting for water, soap, ect.

Let's say you got 10 diapers per day and washing every 2 days. That's 15 cents and 250 watt hours per diaper use.

American use a lot of electricity, so washing diapers would be about a 10% household increase

Re: How Big Diaper absorbs billions of extra dollars from American parents

#180

Post by doctorpangloss »

joenot443 wrote: post #33

Have any parents tried Elimination Communication? Basically teaching your baby to inform you that they’re ready to go, and taking them to the toilet immediately. This is something my partner wants to try when we eventually have kids. Something I’d never heard of until last week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

all the negativity aside. it worked well for my older son, the second is almost old enough to try. both my wife and i have full time jobs, and we were working while he was potty training using andrea olson's EC book.

there's all sorts of stuff you can do with your kids. i don't have anything more insightful (or cringe) to say besides, it's cool you are thinking about this now haha

Post reply on HN