Cloth Diapers

Eibhlin at 6 weeks in her BumGenius cloth diaper

Saving Money, 

One Change At a Time

For anyone who actually reads my Facebook status updates on a regular basis, the subject of this note will not be surprising.  I can't help it.  I have to talk about it.  It is the one thing that has changed my parenting more than anything else over the course of three children: cloth diapers.  Ewww, you say?  Gross, you think?  Hardly.  A cloth diaper is no more gross than anything else involving children.  In fact, cloth diapering has proven to be easier and less expensive than disposables.  

Let me start by discussing the ease of cloth diapering.  First, the image you may have in your head of big rectangles of cloth (which you have to have a master's in origami to correctly fold) with safety pins jutting precariously close to baby's tender bum all covered in a hot, crinkly pair of plastic pants is wrong.  A modern cloth diaper is not your grandma's cloth diaper.  Though a full description of all of the options would take more time than you have, modern cloth diapers use mostly snaps or hook and loop (generic term for VELCRO®).  Rather than a pair of plastic pants, the diapers themselves are made of fabric that is waterproof on the inside--and if it's waterproof, it's other liquid proof as well! It is as easy to put on a cloth diaper as it is to put on a disposable diaper. 

 

Secondly, modern cloth diapers will contain almost ANYTHING your child cares to deposit into it.  When our baby recently had some stomach issues that produced volumes of  very loose bowel movements, I pulled out a few disposables we had left over from our second child thinking it would be easier for my husband.  After one change, he pulled the cloth out and refused to use the disposables.  Without being too descriptive, disposable diapers tend to allow what I call "pooplosions."  If you're a parent, you've been there--up the back, in the hair, up the front, under the arms, down the legs, etc.  Cloth diapers do not allow this.  Seriously.  I have NEVER had poop leak from a cloth diaper.  Really.  No joke.  Bottom line, cloth diapers are not difficult to use and make my life easier.

 

Now, I know you're thinking "But oh, Kellie, the laundry."  I wash my diapers roughly three times in the week, every two to two and a half days. Rinse cold, wash hot, rinse one more time.  That is the equivalent of two loads.  Even better, I never touch them with my bare hands after I have taken them off the baby.  They go into a dry pail, and when it's time to wash I just dump the pail contents into the washer.  That's easy.  The best part?  I don't ever have to run to Wal-Mart at midnight because I'm out of diapers.  I just throw a load in the wash.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  We also don't ever have to empty a diaper pail or garbage can full of diapers that have been sitting for a week--if you've ever done that, you know how gross that is.  And since we don't keep dirty diapers around in the house, we don't have that "Oh, you have a baby" odor in our house!!  Brilliant!

 

Even better than the ease of cloth is the money-saving aspect of cloth diapering a baby.  I went back and totaled what we have spent on our cloth diaper stash.  I have watched sales and bought seconds when possible, and on the actual diapers I have only spent $362.03.  That's it.  And that's pretty much all I will ever spend for this baby.  Even better, when we are done with our diapers, I'll be able to sell them to a friend or back to the store where I bought them, Cotton Babies (the ONLY place I buy my diapers!!).  I'd love to see someone try to sell a used disposable!  

 

Seriously, though, I can't tell you how much using cloth has eased the monetary stress of having a child.  I don't have to worry about how much it will cost to keep my baby dry and clean.  Consider the chart below--values are approximate and conservative as I don't have an exact total for the first two children (and I have probably estimated low).  I estimated roughly 8 diaper changes per day for a total of 2,920 diapers for a year.  Using the average of 80 diapers per box (some have more and some have less, depending on size), we used roughly 36.5 boxes each year.  At an approximate cost of $18 per box, diapers cost us at least $657 for one year--$1971 for three years.  Again, I think my estimates are low.

If I had started with cloth, I easily could have gotten by having spent no more than $600 TOTAL for all three children, figuring in costs for diaper repair/replacement.  The red on the chart, money spent on pull-ups, was drastically different for child #2, which I attribute to having started using cloth on him just after his second birthday.  He potty trained at two and a half years having never used a pull up.  Cloth diapers allowed him to feel wet, which I think helped him learn more easily.  Child #1 wasn't fully potty trained until she was three, mainly because she didn't care if she was wet because she couldn't feel it.  She was also dependent on pull-ups for nighttime use, while child #2 wasn't.  I wish I had back the roughly $4,000 I threw away on disposable diapering and pull ups.

 

Interestingly, another small expense cloth has saved me is in diaper rash cream.  With my first child I went through tube after tube of the stuff.  This baby is six months old and I haven't even bought any.  (I could go into a long segment on the health benefits of cloth as well, but I'll save that for another time.)  

 

Nothing I have done as a parent has made my life easier than cloth diapering.  I know my baby is clean and dry, her skin is healthy, and my marriage isn't stressed by the constant worry of how we're going to afford diapers.  Even if you are not a parent yourself, I challenge you to consider people you know who would benefit from less stress in their parenting journeys.  Try cloth or tell a friend.  You won't regret it.

 

Please note that I have not received any monetary compensation for all the gushing I've done about cloth diapers or for proclaiming my love of Cotton Babies, but I have entered this writing into a competition where, if I win, I could receive more cloth diapers!!  Here's the link to the contest details:  http://jenniferlabit.com/2011/12/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-to-tell-the-world-about-cloth-diapers/

Leave me a comment!!   (You, too, could win!)