Mama’s who are considering cloth, or who have already decided to make the switch, often ask this question as they weight the pros and cons for their family. The main reasons I choose to use cloth are as follows:
The average baby is in diapers between two to three years and uses approximately 8,500 diapers (based on 8 diapers a day for 3 years) and creates 1 ton of waste. On average, each diaper will cost you about .35 (based on .19 for infants and .41 for toddlers). So for every child that uses disposable diapers, parents will usually spend between $2,000 – $3,000. Unfortunately, when the baby is potty trained you can never use them again.
I started with disposals when my daughter was born and continued to use them at night for my first few months of cloth diapering. So I like to bring up a couple additional points supporting the use of cloth diapers:
*Fewer to no “blow outs”. This saves you time getting stains out or money on ruined clothing. Cloth contains these messes a lot better than disposals where blow outs just seem to slide right across them.
*Cheaper generic diapers can leak and you end up using more of them. I stuck to Pampers and Huggies when my daughter was born but them experimented with some generic brands and realized I was using twice as many diapers because they didn’t absorb as much or as well.
There are a LOT of websites and resources that outline other arguments as to why cloth is a wise choice. The Real Diaper Association outlines many reasons why cloth diapers are a healthier choice for your family and budget, complete with references.
The best way to clean cloth diapers is to pre-rinse them off in the toilet using a Hand Bathroom Bidet Sprayer. So convenient and if you are trying to help the environment (and your pocket book) you can give it a double whammy by virtually eliminating toilet paper use at the same time as you benefit from using it on the diapers, by using it on yourself. I think Dr. Oz on Oprah said it best: “if you had pee or poop on your hand, you wouldn’t wipe it off with paper, would you? You’d wash it off” Available at http://www.bathroomsprayers.com they come in an inexpensive kit and can be installed without a plumber. And after using one of these you won’t know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we’re talking green and helping the environment without any pain. One review: http://jonathanandandrea.blogspot.com/2009/04/spray-it-or-scrub-it.html
This is all so true. Just today I was telling a friend that I was so glad I use cloth for those moments (like I had this afternoon) when she poops in a fresh diaper. How sad it would be to throw away a diaper I just put on!