Besides the few “are you crazy” looks I have gotten, I have
mostly felt support for my decision to cloth diaper. In case anyone still thinks I am crazy, this
post is about why I chose to cloth diaper, and what cloth diapering is like
nowadays.
Why cloth diaper?
1. As I shared a few posts ago, I am a tree hugger. I would never actually chain myself to a tree
because I’m way too high maintenance for that but I do want to lessen my
imprint on the earth. The only problem
with this is, you can either use disposables and add tons of waste to the
landfills or you wash cloth diapers and use a lot of water and energy. I’m
picking my poison. So I don’t think
there should be a huge debate about who is better, it’s just a personal
choice. This isn’t really helping my
case a lot though.
2. Have I mentioned
how ADORABLE cloth diapers are? They
come in so many colors. I think Matt could even get excited about buying
them. I’m not a fan of prints though.
3. Personally I think
they seem more comfortable. The ones I
purchased so far are made of soft cotton on the inside. There’s a debate about which method causes
more diaper rashes but I think as long as you change the diaper when the baby
needs it you are probably pretty safe.
4. Cost. I am nothing if not frugal. There is more of a cost upfront because each
diaper costs around $18 but if you take care of them you can use them for all
of your kids. I am buying “one size”
diapers which you can use the whole time the baby is in diapers. It has tons of snaps so it can grow with the
baby. Let’s just say we have 4
kids. If I buy about 30 diapers at $18
each it will cost $540. Then you have to
add energy costs and special detergent. So that might add up to $150. I might
not be completely correct about all the costs but there is a difference. Also, I wont really know how much I need
until baby gets here. Also, we are
technically going to use disposables for the first couple weeks or so.
I suck at math so
I found a chart. The cost of disposable
diapers depends on the size of the diaper; also the baby needs less as he gets
older so the chart I found had a grand total of $2577.35 from birth to potty
training (2 1/2 years) with an average cost-per-change of $0.36. If these calculations are correct and I have
4 kids I will pay $10309.40 by the end of our diapering days. That’s about how much I will pay for daycare
in a year if Matt doesn’t agree to let me stay home. (hint hint Matt)
How have cloth
diapers changed, and why do you presume to know anything about my mama?
The first time I heard that people still cloth diaper, my
first thought was “yuck.” My second
thought was “wow that’s old fashioned, and even though I like old fashioned
things there is a reason people moved away from that practice”
Besides being a frugal tree hugger I am also really
curious. So I did tons of research on
cloth diapers and it took me awhile to figure out what the heck everyone was
talking about. There are so many different
kinds now.
Prefolds: These
are the kind one normally thinks of when they think of cloth diapers. They consist of absorbent cloth folded into a
rectangle that you cover the baby with, and then you secure it and put a cover
over it. For the most part, gone are the
plastic pants and safety pins. Now the covers are cloth (with a water proof
outer layer) and instead of safety pins you have these things called “snappis”
that are a kind of a T shape. They
stretch and grab onto the cloth and keep everything together with claws. The baby can’t remove it. These are the cheapest so I’m going to add
some to my collection.
 |
| Snappis |
 |
| Prefold |
All in One: This
is a cloth diaper that doesn’t need any prepping. You just put it on the baby. It has a waterproof outer layer and the absorbent
layer is on the inside. The downside of
these is that they take longer to dry.
They would be good for babysitters who are okay with cloth diapers
though.
Pocket Diapers: You can get different sizes of pocket diapers
but I like one size (OS) diapers because then I don’t have to buy as many; although
I’m not sure if I can get away with this yet.
Anyways, with a pocket diaper you can use inserts which help absorb
waste and you put them into the diaper pocket.
So you can put two inserts in for night time if you want. So all you have to do is stuff the insert in
the pocket and snap the diaper on the baby.
Then you take the insert out when you wash it and it takes less time to
dry.
Fitted: These are
similar to prefolds, only they are contoured like a diaper and either snap or
Velcro closed. Then you put a cover on
them. These are more expensive than
prefolds but less expensive than pocket diapers.
There might be more kinds but this is quite enough for
now. These are the only kinds I’m going
to use.
How do you store/wash
dirty cloth diapers?
Most likely you don’t want to know all of the details but I
will be washing them myself. Actually I
don’t even know all of the details myself yet, I mean it’s still 5 months
away. I do know that you store dirty
diapers in the trash can and just wash them every 2 or 3 days. Breastfed baby’s diapers can all go in the
wash without rinsing them in the toilet.
Once they eat solid foods there is a sprayer you can attach to the
toilet so you can spray solids off instead of swishing the diaper in the
toilet. So some of it is a little gross
but technically you are supposed to dump all solid waste into the toilet before
throwing a diaper away anyways; it’s just that no one does it.
I’ll have to work out a system for when we leave the house
or travel. I will write an update once
we’ve been using these for a few months.
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