Our decision to be more conscious of buying "green" things really started with the fact that we are about to become parents. Even before I became pregnant, Joe gave me a copy of The Complete Organic Pregnancy which got the wheels turning. Then while on a trip to Babies R Us, it was our goal to pay attention to where things are made, and what they are made of. It was a very eye opening experience. After all the mess with the toys from China, it became clear that most manufacturers aren't looking out for the consumers, so it was up to us to look out for ourselves. While I am not quite to the level of switching to solar power and driving a car fueled by recycled vegetable oil from McDonalds, I think it's reasonable to start with just changing the simple things that aren't going to cost a small fortune.

Enter the topic of diapers. There is the cloth vs. disposable debate, which was pretty easy for me to decide. While cloth seems the most eco friendly choice (which is also up for debate), it wasn't the way to go for us. All the leaking, not to mention laundering, is just not practical for our lifestyle.

So this leaves disposable diapers as the choice for us. But I was glad to hear that there is more than just the convention Huggies or Pampers to choose from. First of all, conventional diapers are bleached with chlorine. Why? So they appear clean by being white. Second, according to a study by Anderson Laboratories, mice exposed to the VOC (volatile organic compounds) from conventional diapers had asthma like reactions (source: The Complete Organic Pregnancy). (There are more in depth explanations of these things, but this is how my non technical brain regurgitates what I've read.)

These may not seem like reasons to stop the average person from using conventional diapers, but it gets better: the Seventh Generation Diapers that we chose to go with are chlorine free, AND cheaper than Huggies. Yep, we purchased them online from Amazon.com and it was actually cheaper to go with the chlorine free diapers. So even if the differences seem minor, if it is cheaper to err on the side of caution, why not? As an added bonus, the Seventh Generation are a nice light brown instead of filled with little cutesy cartoons. I think the simple brown is much cuter than Winnie the Pooh.