Cloth is unbelievably easy!
Jan 21 '00
As an environmental educator who was specializing in pollution prevention and waste management issues, I researched the cloth vs. disposable topic very carefully. Basically if your child wears diapers it makes an environmental impact and the alternative (not wearing diapers) is down right scary! I had an opportunity to talk to Bill Rathje (dubbed by National Geographic magazine as the nation's "garbologist") and he agreed with my findings that both diapering choices were about equal in impact.
So I still have to make a decision. Both my sisters had tried cloth for a while but found that when their child was around 1 year old they had leaks. They both passed their diaper wraps down to me. Since I had a start anyway, I decided to go with cloth for money reasons. I had diapers and wraps and I was ready for baby to arrive.
The first problem was baby was under 6 pounds and all my supplies were for an 8 pound and up baby. We had to use disposable for the first few weeks. During those weeks, we had horrible leaks with the diapers and my daughter continually had a horrible diaper rash and was fussy. During that month, I spent almost $60 on disposable diapers.
Finally my cloth diapers fit and I made the switch. I was rather nervous about it since we had so many problems with leaks in the disposable. The first benefit to cloth diapering was that the leaks stopped! The second benefit was that within 2 days her diaper rash was gone, totally gone. The third benefit has been found over and over in the almost 3 years I've been cloth diapering, the cost. My average diapering expense is about $15/month and that includes laundry costs.
My friends all said that cloth diapering was so much more difficult than using disposable, but I had not found that to be the case. Maybe I spend 20 minutes a week washing and folding diapers, but it would take me longer than that to get in the car and drive to the store to buy diapers. And I remember the midnight runs my sister or her dh had to make to the all night drugstore to buy a package of diapers.
Others say the odor is horrible. I've never noticed any odor, except for occasionally for a few minutes after changing a diaper following a bowel movement.
Others say that it's horrible dunking the diaper into the toilet and carrying a pail full of water and diapers through the house to the washing machine. In almost 3 years, I think I've dunked about 4 diapers into the toilet, so that's not all that bad at all. And I don't fill my diaper pail with water at all, instead I use a "dry pail" method. This way I toss in all the "wet only" diapers and then shake the solid material into the toilet and then toss that diaper into the same pail. Then when the pail is full I'll wash diapers.
As for types of diapers, I may have made an "old fashioned" choice by using cloth diapers, but I'm still a woman who loves her modern convinces and cloth diapering has kept up with that. I use mostly diapers that are classified as All In One (AIO) diapers. AIOs are diapers that are made with a water proof exterior and an absorbent interior. They can have elastic legs and either a Velcro or snap fastened waist band. Or they can have snaps to insure a better fit around the legs. AIOs are much more expensive, but they are just as easy to put on a child as a disposable, but are reusable.
And saving the best for last, I'm expecting a second child and my new diapering cost (excluding laundry costs) will be... maybe $50 through the life of the child. Less than I spend on disposable for my first child. My best estimate for diapering cost for 2 children, including laundry costs, is $8/month. You can't beat that.
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Epinions.com ID:
ahiggs
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Member: Angela
Location: Nebraska
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 56 members
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