“They came knocking at my door asking for money to buy disposable diapers. I didn’t give them any. If they used cloth diapers like I did, they wouldn’t need disposables,” the mother of many children exclaimed. Having put in her time wrestling wiggling children into a diaper as she poked a diaper pin in place, then washed out dirty diapers to dry on a line before folding them to fit the growing child, she had no sympathy for the struggling young couple begging for help to get disposable diapers. If they had asked for a dozen cloth diapers, she might have understood and purchased them a package. She could not however see what business a limited budget couple had assuming that their child needed the luxury of disposable diapers.
Extremely limited financial circumstances with tiny babies, crawlers and toddlers tweak hearts and open purses. And it should. We need to protect the health and well being of future generations. But there is a limit and the recently initiated quest of a national disposable diaper manufacturer to collect over 20 million disposable diapers to cover every little bottom pushes the envelope too far.
The Internet website for the drive features sad stories of mothers who simply could not afford the modern day disposable diaper for their child. The reasons vary, but ultimately they all conclude, “if it weren’t for the diaper bank, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Really?
Have we become so entrenched in our disposable society that we have forgotten the techniques and skills of our mothers and grandmothers – including the simple skill of using a cloth diaper? Not the designer cloth diapers that cost several hundred dollars to buy and maintain, but the old-school soft cotton diapers that our mothers and grandmothers used. Reusable, inexpensive cloth diapers. Wash it out in the machine or scrub it clean in the tub if a machine is not available and let the air dry it – that kind of cloth diaper. For centuries new moms used cloth squares folded into rectangles or triangles on their babes.
A diaper is a necessity, a disposable one is a luxury.
To hand out packages of disposable diapers does not help the recipients resourcefully find a sustainable solution. Or as the Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” For impoverished parents of babies the proverb becomes, “Give them disposable diapers and you keep a baby dry for a couple days. Teach them how to use cloth diapers and you cover the child until time for potty training.”
An Internet search reveals that for $12 to $18, young families, or anyone truly trying to help them, can purchase a dozen cloth diapers. With daily washings, a couple dozen packages could suffice. Then make sure the family knows how to use them. Anyone can deal with cloth diapers as the following scene from “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt shows.
McCourt, the oldest child in a poverty stricken family, tells of his mother’s debilitating depression when McCourt’s twin brothers were still in diapers. Concerned neighbors came to their apartment, saw the crisis and took charge of the situation, cleaning up the children, feeding them and then “they showed us how to take care of the twins, how to wash their bottoms and how to wash diaper rags,” McCourt wrote.
Before leaving one of the women asked how old he was. “I’m four going on five,” McCourt replied.
Because they knew they could not be there to change every diaper, the women looked at the big brothers and confidently included them in the solution to the family problem. Not ideal, but a solution the competent housewives considered do-able.
The new campaign “Every little bottom” builds on the premise that no one mention the alternative of providing cloth diapers to impoverished families. But then, what else can one expect from a campaign originating in the offices of a major manufacturer of disposable diapers? Why would they establish a fund and an education program to show those in need how to stretch their budget and address their child’s needs by using the old fashion version of cloth diapers? The kind of cloth diaper that leaves a kid very much aware, “Hey! I’m wet and uncomfortable. Change me!” That’s the kind of diaper that encourages a parent and child to consider toilet training as soon as possible, to be rid of the extra work and that wet feeling.
The kind of diaper that does not go to the local landfill after one use.
Sure old fashion cloth diapers require energy and effort but they insure that even the poorest of families will be able cover every little bottom that comes their way.
Plus, this is the kind of diaper that afterward becomes a cleaning rag or dust cloth once every little bottom begins to wear cloth pull-ups called underpants.
That’s what the mother of many children was talking about when she declined to help purchase another package of disposable diapers – a practical solution to a perpetual problem.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org.)