Diaper Doubters

I get curious stares from folks when I take my 5-month old into the toilet at restaurants, and occasionally a brave person will step in to tell me that they have a better place for me to "change" my baby's diaper. I will thank them, then explain that he's actually using the toilet. The responses vary from skeptical to judgmental, but I smile and carry on. Regardless, people tend to ask, "Does it work?" The answer is yes. But since I'm hardly an expert, I've been collecting some resources for those who want more information from other parents who've tried EC.

James Woodford's article from The Sydney Morning Herald: Woodford was a skeptic but ultimately came around as his wife potty trained their fourth child using EC. (It's never too late to start!)

A portion of the article that I wholeheartedly agree with.

"Intrigued mothers, friends of Prue, tried the same method with their babies and also discovered it worked. As she explained, "What do you reckon the billions of mothers who can't afford nappies do?"

"Must be messy?" one interested father asked me, man-to-man.

"Not as messy as changing nappies."

And that's the real beauty of it: it's not messy because the mess goes straight into the dunny. It's not time-consuming, because there's no gruesome, nose-pegged wiping of rolls of fat and dimples. It's not complicated and it can't be more stressful for a baby than having daks full of do."

I dread the times when I miss DS's cues, because cleaning a diaper is so much more unpleasant than sending the waste straight into the toilet.

The web site Treehuger has quite a few posts on some eco-friendly diapering options, including infant potty training. Treehugger links to Adam Stein's post on Terrapass calculating some of the numbers of diaper waste. I found this idea interesting, but probably unlikely:

"I suppose a powerful economic incentive might be to give parents some kind of break on pre-school or daycare costs if their kids are potty trained by age 2. But it’s a bit difficult to imagine the government program that would result, and all too easy to imagine the pushback from those who don’t want the government involved in toilet training in any case."

From the Treehugger post about diapers/nappies, a list of companies trying for the hybrid biodegradable diaper/nappy:
Greenfibres offers flushable diaper liners.
Baby's Organic Nursery has cloth diapers with flushable liners.
Naty offers non-chlorine, recycled material diapers and claims to be "working towards a 100% natural disposable nappy."
Ecoquest plans to launch a diaper line.

"After considerable investment over a number of years, EcoQuest has successfully developed a new disposable nappy which, at the conclusion of six months independent scientific testing, achieved more than 90% of its maximum theoretical value for biodegradation."

Diaper Hyena offers a wealth of information about diapering of all kinds.