Reasons to Cloth Diaper
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I am biased I know, but I have three reasons I cloth diapered. I will share them with you.
Cost of Cloth diapers vs Disposable diapers
This one is kind of obvious I think. Do you really think that it is better for the environment to add a few extra loads of laundry, or to throw away millions of disposable diapers a year? Pro-disposable advocates have for years used the water argument. The say that the amount of water used to wash cloth diapers is as hard on the environment as the production and disposal of disposable diapers. So, how about some numbers…
It is estimated that every year 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills. Also did you know that it takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers that just the babies in the US use. Now I know some disposables are presented as biodegradable, but in order for this process to work they must be exposed to the sun. This does not happen since we cover our landfills. It can take several hundred years for them to decompose, and some parts of them never do decompose.
As to the claim that we are wasting water with flushing the waste and washing cloth diapers, the water that we use to flush and to wash our diaper is sent into the wastewater plants and then treated. It is then much more environmentally friendly than dumping untreated soiled disposable diapers into a landfill.
So we agree they are better for the environment. How about your baby?
In our lifestyles today we are becoming more and more aware of the chemicals and such that are being added to everything around us. Our food, our water, our kids’ toys, and even our pesticides and fertilizers. We are demanding that we want more organic lifestyles. We want things to be healthier and better for us. Why then should this not carry over to the diapers we put on our baby’s bum? It doesn’t make sense to me to buy organic health foods and then use a disposable on your baby. There are a few things that are added to disposable diapers that are not very healthy or natural, and can cause awful rashes. Dyes, sodium polyacrylate (the super absorbent gel), and dioxin, which is a by-product of bleaching paper, are just some things found in disposable diapers. Sodium polyacrylate, which has been linked in the past to toxic shock syndrome and allergic reactions, is no longer allowed in Tampons but is still used in disposable diapers. The CPA (Consumer Protection Agency) has had reports regarding disposable diapers include chemical burns, noxious chemical and insecticide odors, babies pulling disposables apart and putting pieces of plastic into their noses and mouths and choking on them, plastic melting onto the skin, and ink staining the skin. That sounds just dandy huh? I put cloth diapers on my babies because I knew exactly what was going on their bum, and I knew exactly what was in the diapers. I also had total control over what was used on them in the cleaning process. Did you know that disposable diapers do NOT have to list their ingredient lists? They don’t want you to know what they put in them, what chemicals you are bringing into your home and putting on their precious little bums. Did that all sound like mumbo jumbo? Well if it did, then this last sentence is all you need to remember from this section. In the end, cloth diapers worn and changed regularly are simply better for your baby’s adorable little behind.
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So if that all isn’t enough, what about the cost? Is it really cheaper to cloth diaper?
Cost of Cloth Diapers VS Disposable Diapers:
Disposable diaper estimates run between $60 to $80 a month depending on the brand of choice. That is between $750-$960 a year for diapering one child… how many of you have or will have more than one in diapers? I did! I have 6 kids. That is $7,500 to diaper all my kids! Can you imagine that? Did I just want to throw away that much money? You better believe I did NOT!
So how much will a stash of cloth diapers cost you? And do you really save money?
There are so many brands of diapers out there and the the cost differs. From cheap Prefolds at $12 for a 6 pack to Fitted’s that will cost you upwards of $25 a diaper. I make and sell Cloth Diapers and my diapers are in the middle of the range of the cost of Cloth Diapers. My diapers cost about $22 a diaper. We will use the cost of the Nifty Nappy™ to figure out the cost of a stash.
- 20 diapers = $440
- 3 woolie wrap covers = $75
- 2 longie wool covers = $40
- diaper pail = $3 (Ace 2 gallon bucket)
- Diaper sprayer = $29 – $40
- TOTAL: $580-$600
This was my stash minus the diaper sprayer, which I did survie all 10 years of cloth diapering without! I know that that seems like a lot! BUT it is less than you would spend for one year of Disposable Diapers. AND you can diaper that child through all diapering years with that stash. PLUS other children that may follow! The “care of” does add a bit of a cost. The extra batches of laundry a week and the extra electricity. I just convinced my sister to use cloth diapers and she is on her last child. She now wishes she had used them the whole time. She says that she honestly is NOT doing more laundry with cloth than she was doing before. She says my cloth diapers contain messes that used to blow right up and out of the disposable diapers. She has to wash the baby’s actual clothes less because there are less blowouts which in turn has made her baby clothes last longer also.
I diapered two kiddos in cloth with 20 diapers washing every other day. I also used the same set of diapers for my four youngest children. I did one wash in hot water and then hung them out to dry as much as possible cutting down on the cost of drying… since the sun is free! So to me the cost difference was a big part in my decision to cloth diaper.
So what do you think? Would you consider it now? I know that it seems a little overwhelming, but there is lots of help to be had. There are amazing cloth diapering mamas on twitter and facebook that would offer support and advice. I would love to help you join in the wonderful world of cloth. So take a minute and consider how much better cloth diapering would be for your family and your baby.
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