Eco-friendly Disposable Diapers and Wipes - Worth it?

[Kitten007]

So I have been thinking of going a little more green and trying out Disposable Eco Diapers and Wipes because I might need to. Are they really better for the environment?

DS2 seems to not like anything made by Pampers.....we had to use the 2-3 swaddlers (too tall for 2s and too small for 3s) and things were okay (still a slight contact rash) till we added the Pampers wipes.....now he has a rash wherever the diaper touches. (We went back to Target wipes still a slight contact rash.) Now I am wondering if he needs something without any chemical, scents, etc in it. Should I go the Green route to help him?

**The rash looks red almost like an allergic reaction to something. Not like a butt area diaper rash. Tried other diapers, but not sure if it is the diapers or the wipes.

What Eco Wipes and Disposable wipes would you recommend?

Thank you so much for the help with this!

[brittone2]

Any chance it is yeast?

DS was super sensitive to all commercial wipes...newborn, unscented, sensitive skin versions, etc. We considered cloth dipes while I was pg but I was skeeved out at the poop going into the washer ;) Once we realized how sensitive DS was, we bought cloth wipes, and used them w/ just plain water. And they were awesome :thumbsup: So much more effective...you can clean up a big mess with just one cloth wipe many times vs. a bunch of disposable wipes.

We washed the cloth wipes obviously, and that got me over the mental hurdle about poop in the washing machine. We tried cloth dipes and ended up CDing 2 kids (with hopefully one more on the way being CD as well).


Not sure if you'd consider cloth, but if nothing else commercially made works for you it could be something to try.

I don't know how the ingredients differ but you could try 7th Generation wipes.

[dragop21]

Any chance it is yeast?

DS was super sensitive to all commercial wipes...newborn, unscented, sensitive skin versions, etc. We considered cloth dipes while I was pg but I was skeeved out at the poop going into the washer ;) Once we realized how sensitive DS was, we bought cloth wipes, and used them w/ just plain water. And they were awesome :thumbsup: So much more effective...you can clean up a big mess with just one cloth wipe many times vs. a bunch of disposable wipes.

We washed the cloth wipes obviously, and that got me over the mental hurdle about poop in the washing machine. We tried cloth dipes and ended up CDing 2 kids (with hopefully one more on the way being CD as well).


Not sure if you'd consider cloth, but if nothing else commercially made works for you it could be something to try.

I don't know how the ingredients differ but you could try 7th Generation wipes.


this was my experience, almost to a T! when I realised that you didn't necessarily have to dump poop off into toilet, it could go straight in washing machine, I realised, even I could cloth diaper! my mom still doesn't believe me though, that you don't HAVE to clean off poop. I would rather clean up raisins off the bottom of machine than poop any day of the week. though with this baby, I am going to pull out the liners when he starts solids :)

[SnuggleBuggles]

I just can't seem to tackle our mountain of regular laundry (currently a load is sitting in both the washer and dryer and both have been there over a day now!) so I haven't used my cloth diapers yet. I use Earth's Best, Seventh Generation, Whole Foods and G-diapers (EB are my favorite). I feel better about using them because their are fewer chemicals next to ds2's skin. They also work very well. I don't factor price into it, figure it all evens out since he was breastfed and I didn't have to pay for much. :)

I think they are worth a try. I'd go with the EB ones. I find them to be the most absorbent. It can at least help you start to narrow down the sensitivity to experiment.

Beth

[Pattie_Pampers]

So I have been thinking of going a little more green and trying out Disposable Eco Diapers and Wipes because I might need to. Are they really better for the environment?

DS2 seems to not like anything made by Pampers.....we had to use the 2-3 swaddlers (too tall for 2s and too small for 3s) and things were okay (still a slight contact rash) till we added the Pampers wipes.....now he has a rash wherever the diaper touches. (We went back to Target wipes still a slight contact rash.) Now I am wondering if he needs something without any chemical, scents, etc in it. Should I go the Green route to help him?

**The rash looks red almost like an allergic reaction to something. Not like a butt area diaper rash. Tried other diapers, but not sure if it is the diapers or the wipes.

What Eco Wipes and Disposable wipes would you recommend?

Thank you so much for the help with this!

Oh goodness! I hope your son is doing better. As a mom of two myself, I can certainly understand your frustration. My name is Pattie and I work for Pampers in Consumer Care. When you have a chance, please call us at 1-866-586-5654. We'd like to get more information regarding your LO's experience with Pampers Wipes.

[twowhat?]

If you've ruled out yeast/other reasons for the rash, then yes it is worth trying different brands of disposables. No, the eco-friendly ones will not necessarily be the ones that work. And no, I personally don't think eco-friendly ones are THAT much better for the environment. They may produce less hazardous waste to produce, but people are gonna toss those dirty diapers in a plastic bag, and that plastic bag is gonna sit amongst all the other plastic bags in the landfill, festering forever. Unless you plan to COMPOST your eco-friendly disposable dipes, I don't think it's worth the extra cost if you are only doing it for the environment. So...if cost is a factor, I'd start trying different brands of diapers (Walgreens, Kirklands, Target, Huggies, etc) to find one that works for your LO. For us, one of our babies was allergic to CVS, Walgreens, and Target diapers but does just fine in Kirklands.

Edited to add: don't go overboard with wiping...we found out from our ped that was part of our rash problem. I was wiping with EVERY diaper change, being anal (no pun intended) about getting things clean. Turns out all that wiping was just breaking down the skin. He told me not to wipe for pee diapers (just put another layer of cream on), and to wash with warm water for poop diapers. That helped a TON. Now I keep a bowl of warm water and a bulb syringe on the changing table. For pee diapers, I just rinse and dab dry with washcloth, or skip rinsing entirely depending on the chaoticness of the rest of the house. With poop diapers I gently dab off what I can, squirt some baby shampoo on (which I mix with water in a foam pump), gently rub the foam on, and then rinse it all off with a bulb syringe filled with warm water. Dab dry with washcloth, cream, and diaper. And yes, I can do it all without making a mess but at first I kept a folded up towel underneath to catch any excess water.

[heatherandlouis]

We like G Diapers and nature babycare for disposable diapers and love seventh generation wipes.

[Kitten007]

Thank you all so much!!! My DH surprised me yesterday and went to BRU and got DS2 Seventh Generation, Earth's Best, and Nature Babycare diapers AND wipes! We put DS2 in the Seventh Generation diapers and used the Seventh Generation wipes and this morning most of the rash is gone! He decided we should clear up the rash...then put him back in the Swaddlers...see if rash comes back, and if nothing then try the Pampers wipes again. Hopefully we can narrow this down.

Thank you all for the feed back on the Eco baby items! If we find out he hates the wipes or the diapers, I might just have to start using the Eco diapers and wipes if he is just too sensitive for regular brands of diapers and wipes.

So far it sounds like the Earth's Best and Nature Babycare are my best bets on diapers!

[AnnieW625]

We were really happy with the 7th Generation diapers. We used those starting with DD at just over a year because she got horrible diaper rash from the Cruisers (never had an issue with the Swaddlers). We used the 7th Gs until DD was 2/1/2 and they slightly changed the style of the larger sized diapers. For 6 mos. after that until DD was PT'd we used Kirkland or Natural Baby Care diapers with no problem, but we much preferred the 7th G. Best deal on them is by the case w/auto ship from Amazon.com; 30% off the list price at the store:).

DD is allergic to A&D Diaper Cream, and so I found that Butt Paste was the only one that worked well for us. Desitin was okay too, but Butt Paste really worked the best. We also started using Cetaphil exclusively as her baby wash at the suggestion of her pediatrician and that worked too.

We were lucky as far as wipes went because we could use them as long as they were unscented.