The Cloth Diapering Post

Cloth diapering is a decision Steve and I made a long time ago. I know that seems like kind of a weird decision to some people. We don't really consider ourselves particularly "hippy" like many people think you have to be to cloth diaper. I mean we recycle but we don't buy all organic food or compost or anything that takes effort like that! ha ha! But, for us, cloth diapering makes a lot of sense. I thought I would give some insight into that decision and the plan we have. Later I hope to give updates after the baby comes and we start to use the diapers. I hope it will be a success story! :)

First here are some pictures of adorable babies in cloth diapers just to start the post. So cute!

So where did this idea to cloth diaper come from? Well cloth diapers have been around forever. I think I was actually raised in cloth...things have changed but the basic idea is the same. I found out too that a lot of my friends who are having babies are using cloth diapers now. Which is really neat! Also, when I was a nanny several of the families I worked for used cloth including the one I worked for over a year. So I'm somewhat familiar and experienced with using cloth although I would not consider myself an expert at all and I am still very nervous about it! So based on this experience, Steve and I decided to use cloth with our new baby. We made this decision for a lot of reasons. First, the cost. Cloth diapers are a higher initial investment but pay off in the long run way more than disposables. And we are cheap people! ha ha. After all, money doesn't grow on trees!! :) Here's a good website that breaks down the costs. http://www.diaperdecisions.com/pages/cost_of_cloth_diapers.php According to that website, the diapers we are using are the All in One (AIO) diapers. We actually will only have to buy one size since they are made to grow with the baby. So the initial cost for the diapers is about $538. (Actually it was $0 for us thanks to our super generous family and friends.) The cost of washing the diapers at home is estimated to be $36-$122 per year depending on your washer. So the total cost of cloth diapers on the high end is about $660 for the first year and $122 for every year afterwards. On that same website they list the cost of using disposable diapers for just one year is approximately $2577.35! And that's just for the first year!! You'd have to rebuy them for every additional kid, whereas you can use your same cloth diapers for all children you have in the future. So really, once the initial investment is made in the cloth diapers all you really have to pay for is laundering them which really isn't much more than adding 2 to 3 loads of laundry a week to your normal schedule. So, for us, the money savings was a big factor!! The second reason we wanted to do cloth was the benefits to the environment. Now we aren't necessarily tree huggers but...We just both feel like if we can decrease the amount of diapers that sit in landfills, that's a good thing. Here is some info about the effects on the environment:

Based on a report from the Women's Environmental Network, The Real Diaper Association reports:

• Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer product in landfills today.


• A disposable diaper may take up to 500 years to decompose.


• One baby in disposable diapers will contribute at least 1 ton of waste to your local landfill.

Those statistics are pretty scary! Not that using disposables is a bad thing, but Steve and I just feel if we can reduce the waste in the landfills and save money that's a double win for us! Here are some more articles about the effects on the environment. here here Another reason was just the amount of chemicals and not natural things in diapers these days just was not sitting well with us. Thinking about all those things on my newborn baby's bum was not a happy thought. Here's some info on that: A baby can be sensitive to the ingredients used in diapers. From Kimberly Clark's 2005 Annual Report: "Superabsorbent materials are important components in disposable diapers, training and youth pants and incontinence care products. Polypropylene and other synthetics and chemicals are the primary raw materials for manufacturing nonwoven fabrics, which are used in disposable diapers, training and youth pants, wet wipes, feminine pads, incontinence and health care products, and away-from-home wipers."

Those chemicals on my new baby's sensitive skin just don't sit well with me either. Not that we won't ever use disposables. We will probably have to use them for our newborn for a few weeks depending on how big he is at birth. But if we can decrease the amount of time he spends in them, that is great!

Another reason are the benefits to the baby. Cloth diapered babies have less diaper rash than babies in only disposables. Also in cloth babies will feel wet whenever they use the bathroom as opposed to disposables that use chemicals to take away the moisture. That way the baby will be more likely to want to potty train sooner due to not wanting to be sitting in we diapers all the time. We have seen this is the case for our friends using cloth diapers and I hope it will work for us as well!

So those are some of the main reasons Steve and I have decided to take the plunge into cloth diapering. Even though I have experience using cloth, I am still nervous about how it will work for us. We have made a plan to hopefully help us adjust to using cloth but this post is already too long so I will have to write another one about our cloth diapering plan.

Here are some of the adorable cloth diapers we have received at our showers: So cute! Can't wait to get our new baby's bum in those!! :)