When my husband and I first set out on becoming parents, we agreed on two major things: raising our kids as naturally as possible and saving as much money as we could for them to go to college. Aside from those reasons, I have come up with a few reasons why we love cloth diapering (and one thing we don’t love) and why I won’t ever go back to full-time disposables.
- We save on average $1800 a year by using cloth, and our water bill stayed around $40/month. With 2 kids under 3, the dirty diapers really do pile up, but at least they aren’t sitting in a landfill. Which brings me to my next point…
- We aren’t throwing diapers in the trash. Human waste breaks down, but the plastic that most disposables are made from don’t, thus causing more unwanted pollution. Call me a hippie if you want, but I want my grandkids to see how beautiful the earth we live on is someday.
- Cloth is more absorbent. I vividly remember the awful mess Little Man’s disposable allowed when he was a month old. After we switched to cloth, I never had another poopsplosion to worry about since it’s a better fit and totally customizable to any size baby.
- I have sensitive skin and so do both of my babes, but the only times they’ve ever had diaper rash were the times when we needed to use disposables.
- I will never run out of diapers. I wash diapers about every two days, so while they may be unstuffed and sitting in the basket, they are clean and ready for reuse.
- Cloth diapers are so cute. Some moms can go overboard, but if you are planning to use cloth from birth to potty, (roughly 2.5 years) then you need around 30 diapers total. We have somewhere between 40-50 adorable cloth diapers.
- Potty training is easier. This one gets debated a lot but considering my oldest is out of diapers and not 3 yet, I think it rings true for us. He already understood being wet or dirty by 1 year old, so when I started sitting him on the potty whenever I would go at 18 months, he had an easy time correlating the two.
And finally, the one thing I don’t love:
Cloth diapers are more hands on work. From the washing, stuffing, wearing, rinsing: it’s almost a never ending cycle. But if you compare it to loading two kids in the car, driving to the store, paying for more diapers that you’ll throw out, and doing that twice a month, to me it’s not that bad.
Whether it’s an Alva or a Grovia, we have loved cloth diapering our two kids, and I recommend any new mom try it out to save some money!
