Babies
The number, type, and variety of baby products available have increased exponentially over the last few generations. Along with new clothes, gear, and utensils, books on raising babies and magazines chock-full of informative articles now line the shelves. This onslaught of information and alternatives comes at a time when parents may already feel overwhelmed. Trying to lead a greener life doesn't have to happen overnight. Parents can take a deep breath, tackle items or concerns one by one, and then get ready to improvise.
Bottle or Breast
Many parents anguish over whether their baby should be fed mother's milk or formula. Breastmilk gives a baby the nutrition nature intended along with important antibodies, but many mothers either don't have the option or don't choose to breastfeed for the twelve months recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 20 percent of U.S. infants were breastfeeding at twelve months of age in 2005.
The Human Milk Bank Association of North America (HMBANA) provides guidelines for milk-banking facilities. Milk banks store and distribute milk donated by wet nurses who have been screened to ensure the quality of their milk. Mothers who cannot provide sufficient milk for their babies can get breastmilk from participating hospitals with a doctor's prescription.
In any case, breastmilk is more environmentally friendly than formula. The production of formula depends on concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFO) of dairy cows and miles and miles of petrochemically based transportation. Some formulas are dairy-free and are based on dairy substitutes like soy. While this eliminates the dependency on CAFOs, it's still a highly industrialized process. There are also concerns that soy may not provide all of the nutritional requirements needed by growing babies.
Moving to Solids
After six months, babies may be ready for some solid food. The first food babies usually get their lips around is cereal. Some parents may choose to make their own baby food rather than rely on store-bought baby food.
Cereal either can be purchased in a box or made at home. Generally, when cereal is purchased, all that's required is adding a little milk, formula, or water. Homemade cereal is a little more time-consuming, but it can be made in batches and frozen for easy use later. Ice cube trays can be used for freezing baby food; each cube measures out to be a serving size of approximately one ounce. There are also commercially available baby food freezing trays that are compartmentalized with lids. When making rice or oat cereal at home, the grains must be ground and cooked, unlike commercially made cereal that's already cooked and dehydrated before it's purchased.
If you are looking for baby-food recipes and don't know where to turn, check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com. This Web site contains recipes for your baby's beginning cereal and even more recipes for different stages up to one year. The site also has help articles on other food-related issues and answers to frequently asked questions.
From cereal and oats, parents can move on to feeding baby other foods like vegetables, fruit, and yogurt. Some foods, like bananas, can be mashed with a fork, while other foods, like sweet potatoes, may need to be ground in a food processor or a baby-food grinder. Vegetables will need to be cooked before you grind them. As with cereal, foods can be made ahead of time in batches and frozen as individual servings in reusable trays. Making baby food at home eliminates the single-serve containers used to sell baby food and the environmental impacts from manufacturing and transporting all those little jars.
The Diaper Dilemma
Which kinds of nappies are best for babies and the environment? Some children are allergic to the dyes and fragrances in disposable diapers. Others may be sensitive to cloth diapers if they aren't changed quickly after they're soiled or if they're not washed well between uses. Diapers washed using a diaper service can reduce the potential for diaper rash when compared to home-washed nappies because services tend to use extremely hot water over chemical disinfectants.
Marion Donovan was more than a mother to her children — she was a mother of invention. While staying home to raise her children, Donovan developed the prototype for the disposable diaper. In 1946, she made the “Boater,” which included a shower-curtain covering lined with a cloth diaper insert. She patented the product, but it still took decades for the disposal diaper to gain popularity.
Disposable diapers are made from cellulose and plastic. It's estimated that in the United States the manufacturing of disposable diapers uses up to 80,000 pounds of plastic and more than 200,000 trees every year. It's a highly industrialized process that results in the discharge of wastewater into rivers and streams and the release of dioxin into the air.
Dirty diapers make up about 1.3 percent of all the solid waste going into landfills today, and they're full of human waste that contains germs and viruses. When cloth diapers are washed, the solids are flushed down the toilet and treated with other waste at a proper wastewater facility. Landfills are not designed specifically to handle biological waste; however, when operated correctly, all liquid draining from a landfill is collected and disposed of at a wastewater treatment plant. More than the contents of the diapers, the volume of diapers and the ability to reduce any component of the waste stream going into a landfill is the concern. If diapers are incinerated, the chlorine bleach they contain is converted to dioxin, another mark in the negative column for disposables.
But then again, cloth diapers have to be washed and dried, which uses a lot of water and electricity. While the amount of water needed to wash one dirty diaper can be considered negligible, its impact on water use and waste-water discharge can be significant when large quantities of diapers are taken into account. Diaper services enjoy water savings because large numbers of diapers are washed together, requiring less water per diaper. Where you live impacts the cost of a diaper service. In areas where there is a high population of people who use a diaper service, the cost will be lower. In remote and more rural locations, the cost will likely be higher because delivery trucks will have to travel longer distances. In some areas, the cost of using a diaper service is lower than using disposable diapers; in other areas, it's more expensive. Diaper services have suffered from the rise in disposable diapers and negative advertising from the disposable diaper manufacturers, and as a result there are fewer services. However, as more parents become concerned with the environment, diaper services are back on the rise.
Many parents compromise when it comes to diapering, using cloth diapers at home but opting for disposables when traveling and at night. Parents can opt for biodegradable and even flushable disposable diapers and inserts that draw urine away from the baby and make dumping solids much easier. Some biodegradable diapers are made with chlorine-free absorbent materials that don't contribute to the production of dioxin. Check the packaging for more information.
Cloth diapers have come a long way over the years. Pins can be used but are no longer necessary. Parents or caregivers can opt to use form-fitting covers with Velcro straps or all-in-one diapers that have Velcro straps right on the diapers. Parents can even choose between organic cotton and hemp. Diaper covers come in cool designs, making cloth a fashion statement. For additional information on cloth diapers and other accessories, check out www.clothdiaper.com, www.cottonbabies.com, www.mother-ease.com, and www.softclothbunz.com.
