One of my favorite topics is cloth diapers. Besides the great savings over disposables, there is the trash issue. I hate the thought of all those diapers filling the landfills. I hate the stench of a garbage can of disposables on a hot summer day. I made my own diapers out of diaper flannel. Size was easily adjusted and 27 years later I am still cleaning with some of those diapers.
Can you imagine the 'welfare' savings if instead of supplying the money for diapers 'they' supplied cloth? The price of a basic washer/dryer, cloth diapers and laundry soap VS Boxes and boxes of disposables over the years. If the mother really hated them, she may look harder for a job or stop having baby after baby. I realize that may not be possible in this economy, but have witnessed so much welfare abuse over the years. Where I live, people seem to have babies for a living. Disposable diapers are considered a necessity.
My sister runs a day care from her home. She has accepted babies with cloth diapers, she doesn't like it much. It's interesting to see how it's the better educated professionals who seem to use cloth. They sure have some complicated fancy cloth diapers out there. By the time garbage day arrives, my sister will have 8 or more full trash cans that smell horrid.
Walmart still sells diaper flannel and I have also seen it at Joanns. I routinely give a dozen diapers for a baby shower and tell the mom they are for 'just in case'. For all the focus on ecology and being green, this issue sure is ignored.
brenda in MI