Diaperless Babies Seen As Earth-Friendly Solution

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 4/22/04 | Marc Morano

[kattracks]

(CNSNews.com) - As environmentalists celebrate the 34th annual Earth Day, some in the green movement are now advocating "diaper-free" babies to help save the planet.

Citing concerns about plastic disposable diapers clogging landfills and the amount of washing and detergents that cloth diapers require, many environmentalists are taking a page from tribal cultures and seeking to eliminate the use of the baby diapers altogether.

The green movement is now promoting diaperless babies as a "retro, cutting-edge, environmentally friendly scheme" to mothers throughout the industrialized world.

The green movement already has declared war on the modern flush toilet, declaring it an "environmental disaster," and has instead pushed waterless "dry" toilets as an earth-friendly solution.

Former Vice President Al Gore joined the board of a waterless urinal company late last year to further the dry toilet cause and to help avert what many environmentalists believe is a looming international water crisis.

"There is a way to have a baby and NOT use diapers," says one website advocating diaperless babies. Parents are urged to get in tune with their infant's body signals and hold babies over toilets, buckets and shrubbery or any other convenient receptacle when nature calls.

One advocate suggests bringing a "tight-lidded bucket" along to serve as a waste receptacle when mothers take their babies out in public.

'Primitive worship'

But Robert Bidinotto, publisher of ecoNOT.com and a critic of environmentalists, dismisses such notions as "primitive-worship."

"Incredibly, some environmentalists actually prefer that the foul messes we normally capture in diapers and landfills, spill instead onto our linoleum, carpets, and even our children," Bidinotto told CNSNews.com.

Noting many greens' opposition to flush toilets and now baby diapers, Bidinotto said environmentalists' have a "strange affinity for bodily wastes," and he believes they have become "obsessed with toilet issues."

'Be the first in your neighborhood'

Umbra Fisk, advice columnist for Grist Magazine , a major environmental e-publication, has joined the diaperless baby effort.

Responding to a reader's question in the Feb. 12 issue of Grist Magazine about how to handle baby waste in an Earth-friendly manner, Fisk fully endorses the diaper-free movement as a "retro cutting-edge environmentally friendly scheme." Fisk urges parents to "be the first in your neighborhood" to go diaper free.

"People around the world who have no access to diapers manage to raise children, and a small group of parents in diaper-rich countries have decided to follow their lead. Around here, it's called 'elimination communication' or 'diaper-free,'" Fisk wrote.

Fisk argues that changing times mean parents no longer have to change diapers.

"The concept is logical and simple: Infants give recognizable signs of imminent peeing and pooping; it's possible to learn your infant's signs; infant pee isn't frightening; and if you train your kid to ignore their outputs, you'll just have to go back and retrain them when traditional potty-training time arrives," Fisk explained.

Another diaperless baby advocate, who identifies herself as Natec, wrote a how-to manual for prospective mothers of diaperless babies titled, "Elimination Timing: The Solution to the Dirty Diapers War." The manual, which used fictionalized names and characters, describes Natec's motivation to go diaper-free after the birth of her son.

"When David was born, I started to think about the kind of world I was making for him to grow up in. The thought of garbage spewing and sprawling landfills filled me with horror. And right along with this horror were those little mother's helpers, disposable diapers...rotting, but never really going away in all their plastic glory," Natec wrote.

Natec maintains that plastic diapers "can take 500 years to decompose." Natec is not impressed with so-called "biodegradable" diapers, because they "may contain more plastic to compensate for the weakness of their materials."

Although green advocates estimate that diapers account for only between 0.5 to 1.8 percent of landfill space, they nevertheless consider that troubling.

"One percent of billions of tons is worth worrying about. If we don't think about how to address that one percent, which one percent will we address?" asked Richard Dennison, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense group, as quoted in Natec's how-to manual.

'Evil empire of Western parenting'

Concerns about landfills are not the only reason some parents are going diaperless.

Scott Noelle, editor of the Continuum Concept website and a father, explained why he eventually stopped using diapers on his infant daughter Olivia, in a web essay titled "Going Diaperless."

"In my mind, diapers became the symbol of the Evil Empire of Western Parenting in which babies must suffer to accommodate the needs of their parents' broken-continuum culture: a controlled, sterile, odorless, wall-to-wall carpeted fortress in which to live with the illusion of dominion over nature," wrote Noelle, on the website livingharmony.com.

Despite his concerns, Noelle continued to use diapers on his daughter, despite the fact that he "felt like a monster and a fraud."

Noelle finally chose to go diaperless and looked to traditional cultures for inspiration. "How I longed for a simple, dirt-floored, baby-friendly hut like that of a Yequana family," he wrote.

Natec agrees with Noelle that modern society has a lot to learn from the traditional ways of life.

\ldblquote...[M]any of us have not, until recent years, given credit to the mothering skills of more Earth-centered, i.e. 'primitive" cultures,' she wrote in her how-to manual.

"When you think about it, there have been millions of years of human beings and only a few thousand years with any references to diapers," she added.

But Bidinotto of ecoNOT.com bristles at what he considers the glorification of a "primitive" way of life by diaperless baby advocates.

"These people have no idea what primitive life is really like. Their preferred alternative to today's 'controlled, sterile, odorless' environment is a world of filth and disease, where countless millions died in plagues and epidemics," Bidinotto explained.

Shopping with a diaperless baby

Ingrid Bauer, author of the book "Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene," writes on her website natural-wisdom.com that the key for parents interested in going au natural is parent-infant communication.

"Observation and close bonding interaction help the parent to understand the baby's signals, body language and timing rhythms," Bauer writes in the frequently asked questions section of her website

"Some common signals that indicate a need to pee in a young infant are: squirming, "fussing," tensing the face, frowning or having a look of "inner concentration," she wrote.

"When the baby has to go, the parent holds him or her in a comfortable position over an appropriate toilet place and makes a cueing sound (perhaps a gentle "sss")."

What's the parent of a diaperless baby to do when out shopping? Bauer offers this solution.

"These parents may rely on using public bathrooms, or bring along a container such as a tight -lidded bucket," Bauer wrote.

Bauer calls freedom from diapers "responsive infant-care."

"This gentle and ancient practice is the most common way of caring for a baby's hygiene needs in the non-Western world," she writes.

Bidinotto rejects any notion that industrialized nations should mimic the traditional cultures.

"The only thing that we moderns have to learn from primitive cultures is what they themselves learned. They learned that life is much better with modern conveniences, such as diapers. And in fact, most primitive peoples can't wait to get and use such conveniences," Bidinotto explained.

"But now environmentalists want to sentence millions to the filth and drudgery that our ancestors were so eager to escape," he added.

See Related Articles:
Flush Toilets Called 'Environmental Disaster'
Introduction of the Flush Toilet Deplored at Earth Summit

E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.

[Samurai_Jack]

eww

[Redcloak]

Stories like this make me want to club a baby seal over the head.


...using an environmentalist as the club!

[Cindy]

Don't those eco-weirds ever feed their babies a jar of baby spinach?
Oh my gosh, who wants diaperless babies around when they get ready to do their #2.

[Adder]

Sounds like a load of sh$t to me.....

[Socratic]

Basic sanitation must be too complex a concept for some to grasp. The germ theory must be just a conspiracy of Western white males to make their fortunes off the sale of diapers and toilet paper.

[csvset]

Former Vice President Al Gore joined the board of a waterless urinal company late last year to further the dry toilet cause...

{crickets chirping}

[American_Centurion]

They can just move to that garden of 3rd world eden Africa and they will have no choice but to follow the ways listed here.

[cajungirl]

I have to admit, in the summer in the deep south , in heat without ac, it is not uncommon for babies to go diaperless. But newborns? ONly when they have diaper rash and going au naturale is curing for that. But out shopping? Gee whiz, are these people nuts. And whose shrubbery are you gonna hold the little baby over,,the neighbors in my neck of the woods might just shoot you.

[sweetliberty]

What a nice compliment to the mothers who don't shave their legs and underarms. < /sarcasm> Hope they don't plan to take the little darlings in public.

[kissmyconservativebutt]

Don't they know that diabers break down (degrade) now after a very short period of time. I swear that liberals are all on drugs.

[sweetliberty]

"who wants diaperless babies around when they get ready to do their #2."

Trust me; this will NEVER catch on.

[CDHart]

I hate to think what the carpet would look like!

Carolyn

[not-alone]

Hope they don't plan to take the little darlings in publicor to visit Grandma

[woofer]

I hate to think what the carpet would look like!

Free-range babies?

[mhking]

They're on drugs.

And I'm sure they're floors are loaded with brown spots.

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Voter#537]

No wonder they are called the GREEN party.
I can remember the baby after spinach.
I don't like that memory
Thank GOD for diapers, plastic or what ever was around! ! ! ! !

[T'wit]

>> I hate to think what the carpet would look like!

> Free-range babies?

LOL!

[azhenfud]

Chinese infants = split pants, no diapers.

[NewHampshireDuo]

No wonder they are called the GREEN party. I can remember the baby after spinach.

Yes, definitely gives new meeaning to the green movement.

[Bonesaw]

Diaperless babies? No thanks, babies can be disgusting enuf with diapers... i mean a diaperless baby is probably worse than a dog in the house

[T'wit]

> I hate to think what the carpet would look like!

Get a nice yellow carpet. We all SO love yellow carpets, don't we? Then invest in ten gallons of salad mustard. Pour the mustard all over the new carpet. Spread it over the carpeting and work it in carefully with a push broom. Let carpet dry (a few nights in a motel should be enough). Vacuum carpet. Voila! You're ready to bring baby home from the hospital!

[AK2KX]

"How I longed for a simple, dirt-floored, baby-friendly hut like that of a Yequana family," he wrote.

That's what the greenies want for all of us.

[Ol' Sox]

"In other news, shares of Pergo and Armstrong, makers of laminate and tile flooring went through the roof..."

[azhenfud]

"Don't they know that diabers break down (degrade) now after a very short period of time."

They're worried a soiled diaper will remain intact longer than themselves...This is too funny!

[AmericaUnited]

Next thing you know they'll claim that "human waste" is polluting the earth, and that every "earth responsible" person should shove a cork up their butt to save the environment.

[ThanhPhero]

Among the Vietnamese refugees who settled here in the 70s and 80s I noticed that infants never cried in church. In fact children never seemed to cry at all. That changed over the years as the new mommies were more Americanized. I found out why the babies did not cry when I spent the summer in Viet Nam last year. Outside of Sai Gon, at least, mother does not put her infant down, except when he is asleep. There are no diapers. Instead there are cloths which are kept handy and problems are dealt with as they occur. The child never suffers any sort of diaper rash and is nursed as soon as he begins to evince hunger. This goes on for many months and the children simply never learn to cry. It is a great way to raise a child but is not possible in this society or any other modern society except for the wealthy who are the least apt to have any patience for it. The enviros are dreaming and their dreams can come true only with the realization of their primary dream of driving all of mankind back to subsistence level.

[Arpege92]

UnFriggenBelievable!!!!!

[sgtbono2002]

So once yoiu get the kid broken to go on the newspaper you leave in the corner , what do you do with the soiled newspaper?

[wgeorge2001]

These people live in delusion and despair and are worse than amoral atheist liberals in the democrat party who are pro-baby killing. Seems they intend for the state to regulate all mankind's life on this earth.
Lord Jesus, oh Father of lights, keep us from the cruel judgment of left wing liberalism in it's destructive delusion.

[MortMan]

Parents are urged to get in tune with their infant's body signals and hold babies over toilets, buckets and shrubbery or any other convenient receptacle when nature calls

Since when is a "shrubbery" a "receptacle"?!? When the dog uses the shade of the shrubbery around my house, the remnants get scooped and tossed far away from the house and the five human noses that live there!

[Adder]

I've changed many a diaper and, until the child is older, there is no "signal" to a pee fountain in the middle of a change or a bath.
If we all lived in the bush, thats one thing. But we do not.
Not adressed at all is the fact that life expectancy in their African Eden is around 40....its pushing 80 here. Probably because we keep wastes from infecting our environment and we don't have neighbors shooting each other for going in each others bushes.

[Trailerpark Badass]

"How I longed for a simple, dirt-floored, baby-friendly hut like that of a Yequana family," he wrote.

Well, who doesn't? Although huts seem rather to reinforce the "illusion of dominion over nature." One would think that if Mother Gaia wants us to have shelter, she will provide us with a nice, stone-floored cave, or at least a ditch or gully.

[wgeorge2001]

"Next thing you know they'll claim that "human waste" is polluting the earth, and that every "earth responsible" person should shove a cork up their butt to save the environment."

Though you mean this in jest, these delusional atheist liberal communists probably use ideas like your's for their consistent attacks against mankind. These people will believe anything, near as I can tell.

[Domestic Church]

Foisting this is forced birth control on a culture(talk about a deterrent to childbearing!) No sane mother in the US would attempt this.

[plinker's2sense]

Greenies must experience the "exploding baby" to know that diaperless will never work.

[reg45]

Next, they will ask us to teach babies to use litter boxes just like kittens do!

[Huber]

The good news is that there is no way that diaperless kids will be allowed in day care. Who knows, this might lead to more stay at home moms!

[Izzy Dunne]

that every "earth responsible" person should shove a cork up their butt to save the environment.

Now THERE's a plan that could work. Everybody who feels that way should do it.

The rest of us would have a body-disposal problem, though...

[reg45]

The E-whacks (environmentalist wackos) would like it best if we had no babies at all.

[ladylib]

How about blueberries?

[mtbopfuyn]

Not adding to the over population of the world would be even more Earth friendly.

[Proverbs 3-5]

What a bunch of crap!!

:)

[ZinGirl]

He wants to live in a dirt-floor hut? What's stopping him? Here's a map to get him into the 'house hunting' mode.

[mombonn]

Environmental whackos are the offspring of parents who advocate dropping babies on their heads daily for the first two years of life.

[Old Grumpy]

"Sounds like a load of sh$t to me....."

Howl! Sounds like it to me, too!

[mtbopfuyn]

Next thing you know they'll claim that "human waste" is polluting the earth, and that every "earth responsible" person should shove a cork up their butt to save the environment.

Save the corks! Suzanne Somers said during her diet book tour that following the diet, she hadn't done #2 in years.

[Rightly Biased]

Other than the baby poo that will get EVERYWHERE its a great idea.

I hate enviromental wackos.This makes me want to drill for oil on algores forehead.

[DustyMoment]

No kidding, these idiots need a solid understanding of history to understand that unsanitary conditions such as they are promoting are the cause of various epidemics that swept Europe in the Middle Ages. Yellow fever, and bubonic plague are among the wonderful diseases we can expect to see make a strong resurgence if anyone actually does this.

These enviro-nazis are in serious need of a brain transplant. Earthtone Al Gore's endorsement of this nonsense is proof of how deranged they all are.

[Schnucki]

Next thing you know they'll claim that "human waste" is polluting the earth, and that every "earth responsible" person should shove a cork up their butt to save the environment.

There will have to be a free speech exception for environmentalists, though. ;-)