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Sunday, October 30, 2011

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Why Every Mom Needs a Wet Bag

As a cloth diaperer, the travel size wet bag is a quintessential diapering accessory, yet many moms who use disposables don’t know what one is! I believe every diaper bag should have one, and my nose has a compelling reason.

While hosting a playgroup at my house last winter, another mom came to me with a folded up, stinky, poop-filled disposable asking where she should put it. It was my first time meeting her so I thought a lesson on proper poop disposable might come off as unfriendly. She had already tracked snow through my house so when she offered to bring it to the garbage can outside my first thought was that our new wood floors couldn’t handle that. I told her to put it in my kitchen garbage can, that I needed to take that garbage out anyway after everyone left; she happily obliged as it was out of her hands.

Fast forward to the summer, better weather, another playgroup at my home, and a different mom…with the same predicament! Again, my first-time meeting her, and I got stuck with her kid’s poopy diaper. This really got me thinking, don’t these moms realize they need a wet bag so that they could be responsible for their kid’s poop!? I think the biggest problem is lack of education that excrement belongs in the toilet for health reasons. But any time I’ve been out and about without easy access to a toilet, that poopy diaper goes in my wet bag and gets dealt with at my house. I have a Planet Wise wet bag which I love and one from a WAHM which I rotate in my diaper bag.

Out of curiosity, I checked three packages of disposables to see if and what they say about disposing of poop:
Low-end (store brand diapers): A quick note in all the fine print to be “considerate and sanitary when disposing of soiled diapers. Rinse or shake diaper contents into the toilet.” I’ll accept that.
Middle (Huggies): No message about disposing of poop separately, but they did take precious package space to tell you not to worry if gel-like particles are all over your baby’s skin! Not acceptable.
High-end (Seventh Generation): A lengthier message about proper poop disposal and keeping human waste out of the landfill, separated from the legalese and other info. Acceptable, and I like how they mentioned poop doesn’t belong in landfills.

I’m sure the percentage of people who buy disposables and actually read the entire package is close to zero, but in all the money spent advertising disposables you would think those companies could take a second to educate the public. Even more reason why wet bags (and a quick poop disposal lesson) make great shower gifts!

Ann J. is a cloth diaper fanatic and mom to a 21-month-old girl with the cutest diaper butt on the block!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

When I used disposables I put my wet or poopy diapers in a plastic bag in my diaper bag and disposed of them in my own home.

Fast forward to mostly solid poops .... yeah those were nasty smelling and they took up so much room in my diaper genie. I was tired of smelling the funk every time I opened the lid and tired of it fililng up so full due to POOP. So I started plopping the poops in the toilet. No more smell and I could fit more diapers in the bag. And this was still when i was using disposables, not cloth.

Danielle said...

Wet bags aren't JUST for diapers too...think of the child who you THOUGHT was potty trained, but has the occasional accident at the WORST time ever. Also great putting spit up clothes/burp rags into. And of course the swim party essential! I'm going to be buying wetbags LONG after our family is diaper free!
Yes...EVERY mom needs a wetbag!

jennymariee said...

I was as inconsiderate as any other when I diapers my first in disposables. Never knew i should flush the poop and didn't think about the gross factor when out at family's houses. Now that I cloth diaper my second, I of course flush when I can and/or use my wet bag to take care ofthings back at home. I just wish I would have read this even as sposie mommy!!!

Kesrya said...

We are a 100% cloth diaper family, so we never had to worry about why poop doesn't belong in landfills. But I've heard many cloth diaper moms and cloth diaper websites mention this little known "fact", but have never heard where this information comes from and why it doesn't belong there. What makes it different than any other trash? And how do we know this? I'd like to educate disposable diaper moms - but I also don't like to pass along information that I heard from someone who heard it from someone who ... etc.

ReInventing Lolli said...

Great post! I think every mom should have a wet bag whether using disposables or cloth. It's not kind to dispose of a filthy diaper at someone else's house, especially a poopy one. Would be even better if more of the disposable moms would start using cloth :)