Something Stinks

07.08.2010

At the beginning of the year when Rob and I were talking seriously about the possibility of starting a family this year, we gave each other tasks to do (like research) and agreed to regroup and discuss if this is something that we want to do. He decided to work out the finances and if it’s in the cards for us now and one of the things that I decided to look into was diapers and try to figure out a guesstimate cost per month. Being super environmentally conscious, I started with the brands at Whole Foods and compared prices. Let’s just start with the word “ridiculous.”

The 365 brand (Whole Foods’ brand) is priced at $11.99 per bag and 7^th Generation is at $12.99. You get a few more diapers per bag with 7^th Generation. But when you compare the 22-42 diapers per bag that you get (depending on baby’s weight) with regular store brand diapers, the price difference is astounding. Pampers, e.g. for the #3 size, you get 96 diapers for $19.99. Compare that to 38 for $11.99 for the 365 brand. This info really pissed me off because how, especially in an economic state that we’re in now, how do you make an easy choice to be more environmentally friendly? How do you convince someone that all the dyes and non-biodegradable material in Pampers isn’t worth it for the environment (or your baby’s butt) when you get so much more with them?

On top of that, a girl that I tutor discovered (via a science experiment) that the natural brand diapers aren’t as absorbent as the others. So you’re getting charged more for less. Interestingly, Huggies Pure and Natural is more expensive per diaper than 365 or 7th Generation. You get up to 12 diapers less per bag than you would with the Whole Foods brands.

My gripe is with the fact that there’s such great discouragement among companies to go more natural. It also pisses me off that Whole Foods charges so much when I know they could charge less. I used to work for Wild Oats and I know how high the mark-up is on products. I also know that there might be more of a process involved with all natural diapers, but I don’t think that there has to be such a huge discrepancy. I’ll pay more for organic produce because I don’t want to ingest pesticides if I can help it and organic produce will rot faster so there’s a premium placed; there’s more to lose. But diapers themselves don’t rot, so what the hell?

Anyone have any thoughts? What about diaper services for cloth diapers? I’m curious what other moms have to say about the exciting and dirty world of diapers.