If you are like me you may have thought cloth diapering looked like this:
Times have changed. Cloth diapers no longer look like rags and require hours of preparation. Cloth diapers in some cases may even be more convenient than disposables! This is my daughter in cloth, you can see the evolution from the rag to fab:
I believe if people knew more about cloth diapers we'd have more babies in environmentally friendly cloth diapers than in disposables.
I started cloth diapering just a month ago and am already addicted to it! So why should you switch to cloth diapers?? I can list five good reasons to switch.
1. $$ Money $$
Cloth diapering actually saves money! I was spending on average $60 a month on diapers alone, not including wipes. The average baby is in diapers until 2-3 years old. So three years of diapers at $60 a month not including wipes... I bought diapers in the middle of the spectrum, not the cheapest nor the most expensive. Three years of diapers for me would have cost: 60 x 36 = 2160. So we'll say about $2500 for diapers and wipes for three years in disposables. How much are cloth diapers?? Well that depends. Most parents buy about 24 diapers, the most expensive will be $500 and the cheapest around $100 (prefolds with covers). If these diapers are taken care of properly then they will last all the way up until your child is potty trained! There are one size diapers that fit babies from 8 pounds up to 35 pounds. You also have to buy a few accessories to go with the cloth diapers such as wet bags and cloth wipes if you want to be completely green which adds another $50-$100. So if you bought some of the most expensive cloth diapers at $500 for 24 plus $100 for accessories you'd pay $600 for cloth diapers for three years. That's $600 compared to the $2500 for disposable. If you have multiple kids the savings just multiply with each kid. ;)
**Note these prices are different for everyone and may vary slightly. www.diaperpin.com/calculator has a calculator to compare prices.**
2. Better for your baby
Cloth diapers have less chemicals in them than disposable diapers do. Many people argue whether or not the chemicals in diapers are actually harmful or not. There are chemicals that are known to be carcinogens but people argue that they are in such small amounts that it doesn't affect the baby. These chemicals include: dioxins, styrene, toluene, tributyltin, and xylene. Toluene was the chemical in tampons that caused Toxic Shock Syndrome. Xylene when inhaled in a high concentration can cause death. Tributyltin is a pollutant to humans and the environment. Styrene is a carcinogen. Dioxins are toxins that cause cancer. In my opinion I don't care if they are in trace amounts, these chemicals are going up against my daughters skin. Their skin absorbs chemicals straight into the bloodstream more than our skin does. I'm not willing to risk it for scientists to end up going back on their research and declaring it dangerous.
You can look at these two links to read more about it:
BabyCenter Awesome Beginnings 4 children
3. Better for the environment
This one is a no brainer. Cloth diapers are reusable and can even be sold after you are finished with them for others to use. If they tear you there are kits to repair them so that they last a very long time. I know just from the four months that I used disposable diapers I was filling up the trashcan in her room about four times a week!! I can't imagine all the waste that is sitting in a landfill just from those four months...then imagine all the people who use disposables (which is a majority of parents) and that is a lot of trash!! Also did you know??? You are supposed to dump any solids from disposable diapers into the toilet. No one does this that I know. Why are you supposed to do this?? It is illegal to dump human waste into landfills because of potential ground water contamination!! Disposable diapers are harmful for many reasons these are just a few.
4. More fashionable than disposables
As you have seen at the beginning of this article, cloth diapers are actually cute!! You can find many different patterns, which is why cloth diapering can become addicting! You can find cute diapers to go with outfits or buy basic colors that match most of their clothes such as whites, pinks, blues, blacks and so on...
5. No More Blow Outs!
I completely forgot about this reason until recently. Unfortunately I'm still using disposables on laundry day while I save up to make the complete switch over to cloth. On laundry day I really remember why I switched. I was hand washing all my daughters clothes anyway because of blow outs so I figured I might as well try cloth, couldn't be much more work. Breastfed babies tend to have more forceful bowl movements causing them to shoot out the diaper and onto clothing. Because I was cleaning out poo from her clothes almost everyday I figured cloth diapers shouldn't be too much of a difference. Ever since I started using cloth diapers I haven't had one blow out! I haven't had to scrub poo off my daughters clothes once! This means less work for mommy. :)
**All this information has come from only a month's worth of research. I have been using cloth diapers for a month now and LOVE it. If you have any additional information or any comments opposing anything I've said, please share in the comment section. I love to hear other people's points of view. This is a place for mothers to help mothers so let's be respectful whether we agree or not!!**
I started cloth diapering just a month ago and am already addicted to it! So why should you switch to cloth diapers?? I can list five good reasons to switch.
1. $$ Money $$
Cloth diapering actually saves money! I was spending on average $60 a month on diapers alone, not including wipes. The average baby is in diapers until 2-3 years old. So three years of diapers at $60 a month not including wipes... I bought diapers in the middle of the spectrum, not the cheapest nor the most expensive. Three years of diapers for me would have cost: 60 x 36 = 2160. So we'll say about $2500 for diapers and wipes for three years in disposables. How much are cloth diapers?? Well that depends. Most parents buy about 24 diapers, the most expensive will be $500 and the cheapest around $100 (prefolds with covers). If these diapers are taken care of properly then they will last all the way up until your child is potty trained! There are one size diapers that fit babies from 8 pounds up to 35 pounds. You also have to buy a few accessories to go with the cloth diapers such as wet bags and cloth wipes if you want to be completely green which adds another $50-$100. So if you bought some of the most expensive cloth diapers at $500 for 24 plus $100 for accessories you'd pay $600 for cloth diapers for three years. That's $600 compared to the $2500 for disposable. If you have multiple kids the savings just multiply with each kid. ;)
**Note these prices are different for everyone and may vary slightly. www.diaperpin.com/calculator has a calculator to compare prices.**
2. Better for your baby
Cloth diapers have less chemicals in them than disposable diapers do. Many people argue whether or not the chemicals in diapers are actually harmful or not. There are chemicals that are known to be carcinogens but people argue that they are in such small amounts that it doesn't affect the baby. These chemicals include: dioxins, styrene, toluene, tributyltin, and xylene. Toluene was the chemical in tampons that caused Toxic Shock Syndrome. Xylene when inhaled in a high concentration can cause death. Tributyltin is a pollutant to humans and the environment. Styrene is a carcinogen. Dioxins are toxins that cause cancer. In my opinion I don't care if they are in trace amounts, these chemicals are going up against my daughters skin. Their skin absorbs chemicals straight into the bloodstream more than our skin does. I'm not willing to risk it for scientists to end up going back on their research and declaring it dangerous.
You can look at these two links to read more about it:
BabyCenter Awesome Beginnings 4 children
3. Better for the environment
This one is a no brainer. Cloth diapers are reusable and can even be sold after you are finished with them for others to use. If they tear you there are kits to repair them so that they last a very long time. I know just from the four months that I used disposable diapers I was filling up the trashcan in her room about four times a week!! I can't imagine all the waste that is sitting in a landfill just from those four months...then imagine all the people who use disposables (which is a majority of parents) and that is a lot of trash!! Also did you know??? You are supposed to dump any solids from disposable diapers into the toilet. No one does this that I know. Why are you supposed to do this?? It is illegal to dump human waste into landfills because of potential ground water contamination!! Disposable diapers are harmful for many reasons these are just a few.
4. More fashionable than disposables
As you have seen at the beginning of this article, cloth diapers are actually cute!! You can find many different patterns, which is why cloth diapering can become addicting! You can find cute diapers to go with outfits or buy basic colors that match most of their clothes such as whites, pinks, blues, blacks and so on...
5. No More Blow Outs!
I completely forgot about this reason until recently. Unfortunately I'm still using disposables on laundry day while I save up to make the complete switch over to cloth. On laundry day I really remember why I switched. I was hand washing all my daughters clothes anyway because of blow outs so I figured I might as well try cloth, couldn't be much more work. Breastfed babies tend to have more forceful bowl movements causing them to shoot out the diaper and onto clothing. Because I was cleaning out poo from her clothes almost everyday I figured cloth diapers shouldn't be too much of a difference. Ever since I started using cloth diapers I haven't had one blow out! I haven't had to scrub poo off my daughters clothes once! This means less work for mommy. :)
**All this information has come from only a month's worth of research. I have been using cloth diapers for a month now and LOVE it. If you have any additional information or any comments opposing anything I've said, please share in the comment section. I love to hear other people's points of view. This is a place for mothers to help mothers so let's be respectful whether we agree or not!!**