WHY USE CLOTH DIAPERS ?

All in all, using Sustain a Bum cloth diapers will have a positive impact on 
your baby’s health, your wallet and on the planet. 

On top of that, your baby will look fantastic in the fashionable and colorful Sustain a Bum cloth diapers!

YOUR BABY’S HEALTH

You could imagine using cloth diapers only for ecological reasons, however by using cloth diapers, you first take care of your child's health.

Indeed, the components of a disposable diaper are kept secret by the manufacturers. Several analysis have shown that a disposable diaper can contain over 50 chemical compounds. They are essentially made of :

• wood pulp (bleached with chlorine)
• plastics (polyethylene, polypropylene, synthetic rubber material, etc. which can all be sources of allergies)
• sodium polyacrylate: a gel that can absorb up to 80 times its weight in liquid which results in dry skin, encouraging the application of creams
• traces of dioxin: they have been found as a result of the chlorine whitening process used in the manufacturing process. Molecules of dioxin are stored mainly in fat cells and can remain there up to 30 years. Dioxin was classified as cancerous by the WHO
• various chemical compound to hide smells with perfumes and can cause allergenic reactions when in contact with baby’s skin
• tributyltin (TBT) – a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals

Given the built of a disposable diaper, it does not let baby’s skin breath. On average, the temperature in the disposable diaper is one degree Celsius higher than in cloth diapers. The elevated temperature could be affecting the testicles development according to doctors.

As the disposable diaper is completely water and gas proof, it leaves no room for the ammonia vapor (residue from urine decomposition) to escape. This encourages bacteria proliferation which can cause or aggravate baby’s diaper rash.

On the other hand, the material used in the Sustain a Bum cloth diapers are less aggressive for baby’s bum. Made out of polyester, they do not have any chemical smell compound, perfume or TBT and will let your baby’s skin breath while remaining waterproof thanks to its PUL outer layer. 

YOUR WALLET’S WELLBEING

Let’s make a quick costs comparison between disposable diapers and cloth diapers:

Disposable diapers
On average, a baby needs to be changed 6 to 8 times per day and a toddler 5 to 6 times. For calculation, we take an average of 6 times per day knowing this number can vary given the family habits, baby’s health, the quantity of fluid baby produces. Also, we estimate that baby is in diapers for an average of 2.5 years.
Altogether, baby is in diapers for 912.5 days and uses 5’475 diapers. In Switzerland, the average price for a diaper is 0.46 CHF on average. Parents spend for each child on average 2’518.50 CHF (1’095 CHF for the COOP “prix garantie” or MIGROS “budget” and 3’558.75 CHF for the PAMPERS active fit).

Sustain A Bum cloth diapers 
The Sustain a Bum diapers are One-Size-Fits-All which means you will be able to use them on babies 4 to 13.5 kilos. The initial outlay for modern cloth diapers may seem large – they may cost you between 450 CHF and 650 CHF initially. To which you can add an average of 250 CHF for the washing machine depreciation, the water, detergent and electricity costs for the 2.5 years your baby will be wearing diapers.
Cloth diaper will cost you between 700 CHF to 900 CHF everything included. 

You can save on average 1’800 CHF per child and more if you reuse the cloth diapers for your baby’s siblings or if you resell them.

In case you were wondering, 1'800 CHF is equal to:

• a really fancy stroller plus some great accessories for your baby
• a new couch
• 2 fitness pass for a year
• 1 macbook 13''
• 2 tickets for New York from Europe plus a couple of nice evenings in some hotels
• 2 new bikes and a trailer to carry your baby
• ... and many other things

THE PLANET

Using disposable diapers, one child will consume : 4 to 5 trees, 25 kg of plastics (made out of 67 kg of oil). They will generate 1 ton of waste, take up to 500 years to decompose or produce dioxine when incinerated. Cloth diapers use few raw material to be produced : 90 times less renewable material and 8.3 times less non renewable materials. They generate 60 times less waste and use 2 to 3 times less water than disposable as a large quantity of water is needed to produce the cellulose used in disposable diapers.