Taking the confusion out of cloth diapers

Taking the confusion out of cloth diapers. Chinese pre-folds are the most inexpensive type of cloth diapers. Here, a Kushies diaper wrap, which comes in a variety of colours and designs, hold both the cloth diaper and the liner, which is flushable. Lisa Day

Hoping to do the best and provide the safest life for her child, said she began learning about what foods to feed him, products to use on him and other healthy baby tips.

"When you are having a child you become more aware of how you want to change your life and you look at all these everyday things you never thought of before," she said.

For all the things she did, it wasn't until she was pregnant with her second son, now a year old, that Krivokuca discovered cloth diapers as an alternative to using disposable.

"We were looking into safer disposable diapers, like ones that were chlorine free, and then, just by accident, we stumbled upon cloth diapers and I wondered, 'Why didn't we know about this before'?"

Krivokuca said research showed her that cloth diapering was a safer alternative to the disposables she had been using.

"Only when did we start researching did we realize how much junk was in disposable diapers," she said.

By "junk" Krivokuca means chemicals such as polymers, carcinogens chlorine and SAP (super absorbent polymer gel) found in diapers that many prefer to keep away from their children's bums.

She felt so strongly about cloth diapers she launched her own business called Baby Kay, Chic Boutique for Cloth Diapers and Natural Products, an online store that also features a showroom in her East York home.

Today, Krivokuca helps moms learn about the benefits of using cloth diapers and while this choice is foremost for the safety of children, she said there are other benefits to choosing cloth over disposable.

One reason is environmental.

According to Environment Canada, more than four million disposable diapers are discarded in Canada daily and end up burdening municipal landfills. Krivokuca said the chemicals and excrement in those diapers leak back into the earth.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has been concerned about disposable diapers since they came out in the '60s because people throw poop in the garbage...if landfills are close enough to human dwellings the stuff leaches into the water and it becomes contaminated," she said.

And while that threat is bigger in Third World countries, she adds it is a concern in North America. The WHO is so worried that disposable diaper packages now has labels that say excrement needs to be thrown into the toilet, not in the garbage.

Green-conscious Etobicoke mom Alana Kulczyski said even before she had her 10-month-old son, Neil, she knew she would never use disposable diapers on her baby.

"We wanted to make less of an environmental imprint and...we didn't want to put that (chemicals) next to our baby's skin, we just want to put natural, organic products near his skin," she said.

However, she decided to use gDiapers, a compromise between being the safest for your baby and being environmentally friendly, but with more convenience.

"I looked at them (the cloth diapers) and thought 'That's a lot of work,' so when we were looking for diapers we were looking for something that was somewhere in between," she said.

GDiapers are plastic free with the outside made from cloth. Parents have the choice of using a gRefill liner, which can be flushable and compostable after they're soiled, or gCloth inserts that are washable and reusable.

Kulczyski uses the disposable gRefills that come in packs of 35, which is about how many she uses each week. They cost $14.99 to $24.99 depending on where you buy them. They have one minor challenge.

"We love them, but you have to be super organized because they're not readily available everywhere," she said.

Krivokuca said another benefit of using cloth diapers is the money you can save, with the average cost of disposable diapers, even the cheaper ones, being 25 cents a piece.

"You're looking at three or four years of diapering that's about $3,000 you're spending on disposable diapers per child," she said. "Using cloth diapers, you're looking into saving, per child, about $2,000 and if you have more children you can use those diapers again."

But to some, the downsides of using cloth diapers outweigh the benefits.

Krivokuca said some dislike not throwing away the stinky diaper, coming in contact with excrement and the laundry aspect. But, she said, it only equates to about two loads of extra laundry per week (depending on how many kids you have).

Krivokuca said there are so many accessories today that go along with cloth diapers it makes the experience easier and more pleasant than what you may recall 30-odd years ago.

One gadget is the diaper sprayer. This, she said, looks like a tiny shower head that attaches to the toilet. If your diapers have a lot of poop stuck on them, turn it on and rinse it into the toilet.

"It comes off beautifully and you never touch it. You're basically touching the corner of the diaper, you spray it and you throw it in the diaper pail," she said.

When you're ready to do laundry, you don't have to touch the dirty diaper because there are liners you can purchase to put in the pail that can be washed along with the diapers.

There are also waterproof wet bags you can bring with you so wet and dirty diapers won't leak into the rest of your diaper bag.

But no amount of products will help the smell if you don't do laundry every three days.

So where do you begin?

Krivokuca said with all the products and options out there, it's not complicated once you decide what works best for you and your child. It's a balance of cost, preference and convenience.

For example, the easiest and the cheapest, she said, are using pre-fold diapers with diaper covers. They are easy to use and one box has six to eight diaper covers and 24 pre-folds.

"It will last your child up to 20 pounds and when your child is older you buy one more box so you're spending a little over $300 for two boxes," she said.

For convenience, Krivokuca said there are higher-end, all-in-one diapers that are like disposables in that you just open them, put them on and you're done because the liners are already in there. Another one is a pocket diaper, with the difference being you take the liner in and out.

There are a million colours, styles and product options out there, but Krivokuca said once you figure out what best suits your baby, lifestyle and preferences, it becomes easy, cost effective and better for both your baby and the environment.