We have been cloth diapering Mary Abilene since about two weeks after birth. We CD for a variety of reasons; its 70% economics, 20% health, and 10% environmental. We love it!
Economics: By far the cheapest option in cloth diapering is prefolds with covers. I have spent a total of $174.92 on cloth diapering, including 25 prefolds and 5 covers. I will have to buy more prefolds when she is about 18 pounds, at $1.50 a piece. Those "regular" size prefolds will last until she is potty trained. There is a comparison at
www.diaperdecisions.com for all kinds of cloth diapers vs. disposables. The chart shows that for prefolds and covers, over the time a child is in diapers, on average you would spend
$381.00 (Yes, this even takes energy cost for washing and drying into account). For disposables, you would spend
$2577.35!! Clearly, the savings of cloth diapering are astronomical and can not even compare to disposables.
(I would post the charts, but they just don't fit on my blog.. so check it out)
Health: Have you ever thought about what's in a diaper? Obviously there are dyes, since they mostly come with some sort of cartoon character on them (like the baby even sees it). There is some sort of thing inside to make it gel, and there is a generous amount of chlorine to make them nice and white. There are dye free, chlorine free diapers.. but they come with a cost. So just add another couple hundred to the $2577.35. But what is that stuff to make them gel? A few months ago millions of Pampers Swaddlers with "Dry Max" technology were recalled because babies were getting narly diaper rash and chemical burn. CHEMICAL BURN! Pampers denied it up and down.. but you can't argue with burned hinies.
Environmental: I don't have to explain the diaper/landfill problem. Think about how many diapers a child goes through in their life, then multiply that by how many children are in America.. in the world. That's a lot of poo!
It was a little tough cloth diapering a newborn. At first the bulk just looked ridiculous, and we didn't put her in cloths until she was about two weeks old. That is when I ordered preemie prefolds to use instead of the infant prefolds. It was $10 for 10 of them, and they were so small and thin, they worked perfectly. She started to pee through them at about 6 weeks, then we switched to the infant. We never looked back at the disposables! Cloth diapered children are also potty trained faster and easier.. what a bonus!
Also, if you are going to cloth diaper, the next logical step is cloth wipes. I use BumGenius flannel wipes in a wipes warmer, and make my own solution. If you can sew at all, you can just get flannel, cut it into little squares, and sew the ends. I use the Prince Lionheart cloth wipe warmer. The warmer is great, but their wipes are terrible. I then make a solution of water, coconut oil (anti-microbial), and baby wash, and pour all over the rolled up wipes in the warmer. Its a snap! Using disposable wipes with cloth diapers just doesn't make much sense, and trust me, the flannel wipes are so cozy, Patrick says we should replace our toilet paper with them! (And the wipes and supplies were factored into my dollar quote above).
Resources:
I got all of mine from
www.cottonbabies.com
There is a great cloth diapering website:
www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com that has a wonderful "Cloth diapering basics" page. It explains all the different types of cloth diapers so you can choose what is right for you. She also has a great page on dispelling the myths of cloth diapering like "I don't have time." or "That's too much laundry". She explains how to wash, types of detergent (which is important for absorbency), etc. I would encourage everyone to check it out!
