We had a short but wonderful trip to Quebec to see our first grandchild, Nicholas, who was only a week old when we arrived. It goes without saying that he is the most marvelous, beautiful grandchild ever born -- no bias here. We held him and cooed sweet nothings in his tiny perfect ears.
At a week old he is fairly focussed in his life tasks. He sleeps a lot (yay yells his mom from the Eastern Townships) and he eats well and he eliminates what he eats with gusto. The tendency is to keep poopy diaper photos out of the albums, but clean-up is a major aspect of a newborn's life.
What to choose in this day of disposables? In Isaac and Rebekah's case they decided on fairly high-tech washables. The absorbent part looks a lot like the diapers of yesteryear but the outer part is a marvel of design. We offered to pay for these environmentally friendly diapers and they researched them with all the earnestness of buying a new car -- more maybe.
We found it interesting that their municipality refunds half the cost of the diapers if they are reusable. Why? It keeps all that non-biodegradable disposable stuff out of the landfill. They showed up at the town hall with a proof of purchase and the $300 price tag magically became $150. It worked for us!
We were pleased that Becky and Ike made a choice which they see as consistent with their environmental and religious convictions, even though there is more work involved. We were impressed that the municipality gave an incentive to do the right thing.
I have no idea whether Clarington also does this, but do you think it is a good idea?
25 years ago, Toronto had this incentive. We got half back on the diapers, plus some sort of tax break, don't remember what it was, to long ago!. It is a great idea and I hope most places do something to help out.
ReplyDeleteOh, the temptation to use a few puns....but I will resist and simply say I fully support this initiative.
ReplyDeleteWild.
ReplyDeleteGood for them. My recollections of the twins' days in diapers is (understandably) blurry, but we sadly didn't opt for the bio-option.
Call it a crappy choice on our part. (Yes, roger, I'm that guy.)
PS - Here's another quarter.
Not to one up Ian, but our twins were diapered in clothe 21 years ago. (I am sure they will be thrilled to know I have announced this)There was a service in Durham that came to our house to pick up the 'crappy' and drop of the 'fresh'n'rosey'. (We found it psychology difficult NOT to clean them ourselves, but this was how it worked)I do confess though, that although I was quite proud of my speed and skill with giant safety pins, I used disposables alot when they got a little bigger and little harder to hold still.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a fantastic idea and back in the day (over 35 years ago with our children) we used cloth diapers with plastic pants because of the high cost of disposables. We never thought of it as the right thing to do for the environment, disposables were quite new on the scene and the research hadn't been done as to how biodegradeable they were. Our grandchildren wear cloth diapers and there is so much more to them than just a strip of flannel that could be folded different ways as the child grew. I applaud parents who make the effort to use "real" diapers, it is the "right" thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI applaud Issac and Rebecca. 13 years ago I attempted to use cloth diapers, however I found I was always washing more than just diapers. Sheets, clothing etc, as it all just seemed to "get wet". It didn't last long, but perhaps my problem was that I hadn't done enough research. I think it's wonderful that the municipality in the eastern townships, encourages this.
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