A new baby in the house has a big impact on, well, everything.
Where to begin? First off, I exclusively breastfed. Not only is breastfeeding better for the child (get sick less often even after weening, have fewer allergies, are better socially adjusted children and have more self-confidence, and are not getting corn syrup solids), not only is it cheaper (it's free! ...as opposed to about $2000 the first year), but it's also better for the environment because you're producing the food, not a company, and there's nothing to throw away. I really do not understand why anyone would chose not to breastfeed. I understand it if when you go back to work and you just can't pump (BTW, my pump cost $220 and I sold it for $100).
When you breastfeed, you probably want nursing pads. They're about 50 cents a pair. I some days, I went through 5 pair. That's a fair bit of change over a year (probably over $200) and a lot of waste. I spent $30 on 10 pair of cotton pads at milkdiapers.com, and they work great! I don't need to do any extra laundry, because I can just throw them in the wash when I'm doing a load.
I tried using biodegradable diapers (they looked like Taco Bell napkins!), but after we weren't waking Ian up every two hours to eat, we weren't changing him enough at night, and they leaked all over the place. And then he started getting diaper rash. So it was back to Huggies. I could use cotton diapers, but I think the same thing would happen, and they don't let you use anything but disposable at daycare. Environmentally, I think they're about the same, when you factor in the whole life-span of the product. Do I feel guilty? A little.
I made almost all of Ian's baby food, and probably spent less than half the amount I would have if I would have bought it from Gerber or BeechNut. And that includes the $45 we spent on the Good Grips food mill. It was fun to make; every four weeks or so, I'd take four or five hours and make a bunch of food and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then I'd pop them out, and put them in a bag or reusable container. The food was fresher, healthier (so many Gerber foods are made from concentrate -- yeah, I don't understand either), much, much tastier, and there weren't any glass jars or plastic containers to recycle. I did buy most meat in a jar, and some exotic fruits for him to try, but almost all of it I made myself.
Finally, a couple of simple changes I made. I stopped using paper towels to wipe Ian up after meals. Instead I use an old baby washcloth. Also, we've started buying used toddler clothes and shoes. both of these saves money and resources.
2 comments:
I agree that breastfeeding is laden with nothing but pluses. However, promoting this thinking can be really rough on the many women (like my wife) who can't breastfeed. She was making maybe one ounce per day for the first month. She tried power pumping, supplements and all manner of painful and sleep-depriving methods, all because she felt that she was letting our daughter down somehow. It got to where she would burst into tears whenever she saw one of those "Breast is Best" advertisements. Don't know what the answer is to that issue, but there has to be a way to promote the advantages of breastfeeding without making the moms who can't feel like garbage.
Oh, and nice blog!
:( Yes, I was thinking about those women who simply can't breastfeed when I wrote that up, and I really should have put something in there about that. I really feel for women like your wife. I had to supplement with formula when my son was 11-months-old, and that was killing me with guilt. I can imagine what it might be like to want to breastfeed from the beginning and not be able to. :( It's good that formula exists for those babies whose moms just can't make milk for whatever reason!
What I don't get is those women who don't want to even try.
Thanks for the comment!
Post a Comment