When we began planning for the child who was soon to enter our lives, Joseph and I realized that we had a lot of things to research – nursery furniture, strollers, carseats, etc. In the process of doing this research, we learned more than we had expected about a topic that we had not previously thought much about : diapers. I had always just assumed that everyone used disposable diapers. The words “cloth diapers” conjured up images of my grandmothers, safety pins, and rubber pants. Defintely not something I would want for my baby!
However, my opinion slowly began to change. Joseph and I try to live an eco-conscious lifestyle, and the idea of throwing away hundreds of diapers every month just didn’t fit well with our philosophies. We did some more research, and realized that the environmental impact of disposable diapers goes far beyond the ~250 years that they will be sitting in a landfill. Trees are cut down to make the paper products in the diapers, petroleum products are used to process the raw materials, manufacture the diapers and transport them to stores, and other potentially harmful chemicals are used in the manufacturing processes (such as products used to bleach the paper fibres). Suddenly, cloth diapers were starting to look a lot better!
Doing some more research, we realized that cloth diapers worked out to be significantly cheaper than using disposables. Although there is a significant “start-up cost” (most people find it to be around $300 – 400), we estimate that we will save ~$1500 during the time until potty training. This doesn’t include the fact that we can use the cloth diapers for more than one child! Even if you factor in a small increase in the cost of utilities each month (to launder the diapers), cloth diapers still come out to be quite a bit cheaper than disposables.
But, my brain screamed, what about the “ick” factor? What about all the extra work it takes to do all that laundry? Is it really any more environmentally friendly if I’m going to be using more water doing laundry? Well, after weighing these questions, we eventually decided to just jump in with both feet and give cloth diapering a try.
Well, it turns out that cloth diapers have come a LONG way from our grandparents’ era. There are now many different options for how to cloth diaper your baby. After some careful research, we settled on a couple different options. We started with a Bummis kit – 24 prefold diapers with 6 waterproof covers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the covers were absolutely adorable, and the kit appeared easy to use. We then decided to transition to “one-size” (the diapers adjust to fit babies from 8 lbs. – 35 lbs.) pocket diapers when the baby got a little bit bigger. I started to acquire a “stash” and set up everything I needed for cloth diapering in the baby’s room.
D-day arrived, and our little girl was welcomed to the world on January 9, 2011. We brought her home and started using our carefully prepped cloth diapers when she was 2 days old. We were pleasantly surprised that it was really easy to use the prefold diapers with covers! I was even more pleasantly surprised that it didn’t feel like much of a burden doing the extra laundry – it wasn’t even as gross as I had been thinking it might be. Diaper leaks were extremely few and far between, even with some incredible poo-splosions from our sweet angel. We realized that we love using cloth diapers! Anna is nearly 3 months old now, and we estimate that we have prevented ~800 diapers from going to a landfill (using some rough math, this equates to ~300 lbs. of trash). She has never had a diaper rash and looks ultra-cute wearing her pink diapers!
There are lots of great websites out there with information about cloth diapers (www.diaperpin.com) and shopping (www.gigglelife.com , www.caterpillarbaby.com and www.sogreenbaby.com) . I have been ordering cloth diapers online, and always get excited when new “fluffy mail” arrives!
If you have a small child in your life, consider cloth diapers. They’re a great alternative to making a weekly run to the store for another pack of Huggies, and have many environmental and health benefits. Check them out!
Thanks so much for this!
We have a little one on the way and I automatically discounted cloth diapers as being too messy and too much of a hassle. You have totally made me rethink this and I’m going to look into the cloth option more carefully.
Good for you! I couldn’t do it. I was just too grossed out by it all. Of course our daughter was eating solid foods when we adopted her. Trust me. The poops get bigger. And stinkier. Good luck!!!
Great post! I’m a huge fan of cloth diapers and have been using them on my son (now 9 months) since he was two weeks old. He’s on solids now, which means a little more diaper maintenance, but sleep better at night knowing I’ve diverted 100’s of kg’s of diapers from the landfill! I’ve never considered it to be ‘icky’. Babies are messy creatures and eventually, you’ll be peed and pooped on regardless of your diaper choice 🙂
To anyone who’s considering cloth or thinking about switching over – it’s by no means a hassle. Babies add extra laundry whether you use cloth or disposable, so what’s one more load every 3 days? If anyone tries to pull the ‘uses up water resources’ line, just think about how much water goes into processing single use diapers. They start off as trees!
A great way to get into cloth diapers is using a diaper service. They cost about the same per week as buying name-brand disposables and if you live in or near a large town or city, there is surely one nearby!