It's so great. Not only is it easy and great for the environment, but we are saving a boat load of money. Let's pretend my youngest was in disposables for a second. 2.5 years @ $80/month = $2,400 in diapers that stink, don't work well, leach chemicals on baby & will end up in a landfill. That seems awfully expensive!
Now, let's say that same baby had one heck of a diaper stash. 36 all-in-one diapers like these. These are the most similar to disposables, super easy to use. For the sake of argument, I'm going to pick a very spendy diaper. That would rack up to about $800. Let's say that you also need newborn diapers (most one-size diapers won't fit newborns). That tacks on another $500. So we're at what? $1300? For the entire lifetime of these diapers. That's a $1,100 savings so far. Yes, I said so far. It gets better. You can make back a lot of your investment. Yes, cloth diapers are sold used, a lot! I'm going to be on the low side and say that you'll get 50% back. So now you've spent $650 and saved $1,750 and the world a whole lot of space.
So exactly how much space? I'm being generous in favor of disposables here for fairness. Let's say that every baby is changed just about 6 times a day for a course of 2.5 years. I don't know about you, but most babies I know are changed much more often than ever 4 hours and I know many kids over 2.5 that are not yet using the potty. I am also not including training pants (Pull Ups, etc.) in this example. So what's that look like? I couldn't find a good graphic, so I made one. You might want to click on it to get a better look. Each diaper stack is 25 diapers.
Consider also that these diapers aren't used yet. Disposable diapers weigh many times their own weight when soiled.
If you don't use cloth, I encourage you to consider it. They are easy to use, easy to care for and you will be eliminating harmful chemicals from both your baby and the Earth that will be home to your child and future generations.
You may even consider a hybrid diaper option to get you started. These systems generally consist over a reusable diaper cover and the option of either a disposable insert or cloth insert. It's a great way to get your feet wet and give cloth a try.
Check out the posts below for some more broken down and in-depth information on the logistics of it all and answers to commonly asked questions.
To get you started, check out this Handy Printable Guide covering all of the bases. This is great for including with shower gifts or handing out to friends and family interested in cloth.
#ClothDiapers: The Good, The Bad - The Honest
Video Overview of Diaper Types
Overview of all Cloth Diapers
How Many Do I Need
Prepping Cloth Diapers
Washing Cloth Diapers
DIY Cloth Diaper Detergent
Stripping Diapers
Ammonia?
What To Do With Solids
Cloth Diapering a Newborn
Using Cloth at the Hospital
Prefold Tutorial - Pictures
Prefold Tutorial - Videos
All About Wool Covers
Washing and Lanolizing Wool
Storing Diapers
Cloth Wipes
Night Time Diapering
No Stains - Line Drying
Selling Diapers
Snaps or Velcro?
Cloth Diaper Safe Rash Creams
Curling Velcro Tabs
No Sew T-Shirt Diapers
Want to know how the brand you're considering stacks up? Check out this great Cloth Diaper Spreadsheet organized by the ladies on thebump's CD board. There you can read reviews of all sorts of brands and even add reviews of the diapers you've tried!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm happy to help :) You can use the contact page, or email me.
16 comments:
I love this post :)
I found your blog on an award site (the one where we were supposed to vote for our favorites) and I saved it, because my husband and I are always looking for ways to be more resourceful and "green", but also ways to save money and keep the health of our family as top priority.
Cloth diapers are something we'd like to try with our 4th baby (if we have one) but I know next to nothing about them, so I've been researching all your post on them :)
I always thought they were way more expensive than regular diapers, but I guess that would be with a diaper service?
oh, I also meant to say, this was an awesome and helpful post -thanks!
Thanks ladies!
I looked up a couple of diaper services, one on the East Coast & one on the West Coast. The cost is def. much more like that of disposables and you won't get any of that back. One was around $2000 for 2.5 years the other was around $2,500 for 2.5 years. That also doesn't include purchasing a pail/liner/diaper covers that you like.
I think for a busy family a diaper service would be a good choice. It's going to run you about what disposables would and at least it's healthier for you, your baby and the environment.
love this! I'm reposting in on fb for my friends to read! Thank you!
Hi there! I'm your newest follower! :)
If you'd like, you can follow me back here:
http://giveawaysandlife.blogspot.com/
I love this! We've been CDing since our LO was 6 days old...we are old school with unbleached cotton prefolds and covers. We use a couple of pocket dipes with an added hemp insert for overnight. And organic bamboo fleece wipes. CDing is SO easy, economical, eco-friendly, and one of the best parenting decisions we've ever made. LO is nearly 6 months and we've started infant pottying...so we rarely change a poopy diaper anymore...it's AWESOME!
thank you for this comprehensive resource!
Great post! I think the spreadsheet is a little biased but I loved your post! Thank you : )
This is a nice summary with great resources! I have been cloth diapering my son for his whole 16 months, and I absolutely love it. I am always looking for good information to share and to compare notes. Glad to have found your blog :-)
Another thing to throw into your equation is the fact that MOST parents who use cloth ALSO use cloth wipes, therefore, not spending the $8/bag for those "disposable wipes". We're cloth diapering our 4th baby...never knew about cloth beforehand. With all of my other kids, I couldn't use wipies often because their bums would get irriatated, so we always had facecloths & water handy! We used to spend $8/bag every WEEK...$32/month, $384/year, $960/birth to potty training! WHAT?! CAHHHRRAAZZZYYYY!
I was just going to point out about the cloth wipes. You can save even more money by using those (plus they work so much better than disposable wipes.) Also, babies that are in cloth ususally have less diaper rash and potty train sooner ;)
Great point ladies! Thanks for mentioning it. I forgot how much wipes can cost. We love our cloth wipes.
We just started CD last week...for the past month I've buried myself in blogs trying to prepare myself. This post just made me feel soooooo good about our switch! Thanks!
I am a cloth diapering new mom and love it. It happens to be the budget breaker for how I get to be a stay at home mom. If we did disposables there would be no way I could be home and watch our daughter grow. Thank goodness for cloth!
I love cloth diapering and have used them for 4 months now with my son. But the last month or so I noticed the end of his penis was getting rubbed raw. My doctor said to try using cloth only in the day and then disposable at nights. That helped a little but his penis still looked irritated and would even bleed a little. So the doc then said to go to disposables all day and night, after 3 days straight, his penis looked a lot better. I am so bummed that I have to stop using cloth diapers! I felt so good about them.
Is anyone else in this situation? Thanks - any help or advice is needed.
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