Since I've had a lot of mamas come and ask me about our choice to cloth diaper, I thought it would be good to have a little series on the blog surrounding this topic. I want to start off by saying that I'm not claiming to be an expert on this topic - I'm just sharing what we have discovered on our own and through hundreds of hours of researching before Rilynn arrived. If you have ever googled things dealing with cloth diapering, you will soon find out that it can lead to pretty heated discussions. Every family should do what works and is best for them. Period.The fact that I am even writing this series is quite amusing to me. I used to be someone that scoffed at CDing (Cloth Diapering) moms. The first time I heard about it, my initial reactions were:
"Ew. Gross"
"They have seriously lost their mind"
"I would NEVER do that"
"I know it can't be THAT much more inexpensive"
And I set off to prove it. I read a ton of articles about cloth diapering. The problem is, if you search "Is cloth diapering really cheaper?" or "Is cloth diapering worth it?" you will find very biased opinions for the most part. Moms who cloth diaper are very pro cloth diaper - and moms who ended up hating cloth diapering basically rip it apart. Some people swore it saved them unrealistic amounts of money, while others claimed the small savings wasn't worth the hassle. One thing was true across the board though - everyone admitted that some money was saved by going with cloth.
Then, a couple months before Rilynn was born I met a few moms who were currently cloth diapering their kids. Upon witnessing my first cloth diaper change, I instantly was drawn in by the adorable, bootylicious diaper my friend put on her daughter. If you haven't seen a cloth diaper in the last two decades, they look nothing like what you have pictured in your head. They aren't the typical white cloth pinned around your baby's bum (although some moms still use this system and love it). Cloth diapers now come in thousands of colors and patterns and they give your baby the cutest little fluff butt you have ever seen.
My friends began to tell me that cloth diapering really is easy and it only has to be difficult if you make it that way. So then I googled "How to cloth diaper lazy" hoping to pull up the easiest form of cloth diapering available. And so began my love affair with cloth diapers.
I'm here to tell you that cloth diapering is easy. It has so many benefits and I am so glad I decided to go for it. It is really scary when you first hear about it - and it's even scarier when you have 30+ diapers staring at you in your pregnant, hormonal face. I honestly felt like I made a huge mistake a week before Rilynn was born. "Am I crazy? Can I really do this? Do I want to do this?"
Oh mamas out there, you want to do this!
I am not anti-disposable diapers (sposies). We use sposies every single night. I went into this thinking we would start cloth around 3 months and I was totally at peace with using sposies until then. But what I discovered between Rilynn's birth and now makes me avoid sposies whenever possible.
Here is the rundown on the benefits of cloth:
1// Cloth diapers save you money
I can testify to this personally. What scares a lot of moms is that with cloth, there is an investment up front. Some moms will claim you need top of the line diapers and you should expect to invest $400-500 to start with. Sadly, I think this scares a lot of families away from cloth. I know I asked myself the question "What if this just doesn't work for us? How can I justify throwing $500 down the toilet?"
The good news is that cloth diapers hold their value if you take care of them. If you choose to invest $500 right away, you would most likely be able to re-sell your diapers and make some of that money back. But what you will find is that a lot of families that are considering cloth are doing so because they need to save money. Chances are those families don't have $500 to invest.
Saying that Ryan was anti-cloth is an understatement. Originally when I was bashing cloth diapering, I naturally was doing it in front of Ryan...which backfired when I suddenly was whistling to a different tune. Ryan thought cloth diapering was repulsive. His main issue fell with putting a poopy diaper in our washing machine. I knew there was no way that Ryan would support me spending $500 on cloth diapers.
I created a cloth diaper stash with over 30 diapers for less than $175. Next week I will discuss in detail how I did it, but I just want you to know it is possible.
In the first two months of Rilynn's life we were spending $80-100 a month on disposable diapers and wipes. That's $160-200 right there. That's when I realized that cloth really would save us money. People may try to argue that you are using a ton more water. If you actually calculate electricity and water, doing extra loads of laundry is a minuscule added cost...much less than $80-100 a month.
Lastly, cloth diapers can be used through multiple children. They also come in "one size" so that you can use the same diaper from birth until they are ready to potty train. These two facts mean that even if you did invest $500, when you divide it up over the months your child will be in diapers, and then multiply that times multiple children (if you plan to have more than one), you really are saving a TON of money.
2// Cloth kids potty train faster
Disposable diapers have chemicals that draw insane amounts of liquid and moisture away from their bodies. Your child is usually pretty fine just chillin in a sposie for an extended amount of hours (hence why I still use disposables at night for Rilynn). Babies will feel wetness sooner in cloth and they will get uncomfortable. Every child is different for when they will potty train, but cloth has been shown to encourage kids to do this faster.
3// Less chemicals. Less rash.
Cloth diapers allow you to keep unwanted chemicals off your baby's bum. On top of that, moms who use cloth frequently report that they rarely see diaper rashes on their kids.
4// No blowouts or gross smell
I was told that once I started cloth, blowouts would be a thing in the past. To this moment, I have never had a poopy blowout with a cloth diaper. I have gotten a few leaks, but that was due to operator error, not the diaper itself. Rilynn has had 10+ poopy blowouts in disposables. Cloth diapers just hold everything in a lot better. Including horrid smells.
This is one of the main reasons I now dislike disposables. The second Rilynn pees or poops, I know it. Her disposable diapers give off this gross smell that I never really noticed or I thought was "normal" before I tried cloth. When Rilynn's cloth diapers get soiled I can't even tell. Some of you may say "That's horrible! How do you know when to change her?" Yeah I know, cloth diapers don't have that magic little line that turns blue when it's time do get a new diaper. You just get in the routine of changing cloth every 2-3 hours. If I check her and she is dry, I just snap the diaper closed. If she is wet, I put on a new one. And for those times when she decides to poop 5 seconds after I change her - I no longer feel like I am throwing money down the drain because I have to re-change her.
5// Very eco-friendlyI purposely put this last. Many green or crunchy mamas claim this as the number one reason they love cloth. If I am being honest (and I want to be), I didn't care that much about how eco-friendly cloth diapers were. I really cared about cost savings and worrying about my sanity if I decided to cloth diaper. At the same time, I believe that we were given this beautiful earth and we should be good stewards with what we have been given. Throwing a ton of disposable diapers in landfills when we know it takes hundreds of years for them to fully decompose, is not being very responsible. So yes, cloth diapering allows you to do your part in being more earth friendly.
So these are all great pros for why you should consider cloth...but what are the drawbacks? There are very few that I have found at this point. I don't consider the extra laundry to be a drawback. I've come up with the simplest wash routine known to man, so washing the diapers doesn't phase me. I will share more on this in future weeks.
One drawback is that you do have to change your baby more often. Not so much that I even really notice it, but I know that I could leave Rilynn in a disposable for 5-6 hours. You can leave your child in cloth that long (i.e., at night), but you have to heavily stuff your diaper or use a ton of layers, something that isn't practical for every diaper throughout the day. But ask yourself, why would you want to leave your baby in a soiled diaper for that long anyways? It's one thing at night, but during the day, it is never my goal to stretch out diaper changes. Would I want to sit in soiled pants for 5-6 hours? No. And I don't want Rilynn to either. Like I said earlier, I change her cloth diapers every 2-3 hours and it really isn't a big deal.
One other drawback is that cloth diapers make your baby's butt fluffy. Fluffy butts are adored by cloth diapering mamas everywhere. And while they look super cute with a tshirt, they make squeezing into bottoms a little more difficult. Usually you have to go a size up, but that honestly does not bother me either. It's just something to keep in mind.
So there you have it - a basic overview of the things that normally come up when considering whether or not you should cloth diaper. Does it still intrigue you?
How did I build an inexpensive cloth diaper stash? What are all the cloth diaper options? What about the laundry?! What is my "lazy mom" cloth diapering system? All of these questions are coming in detail over the next few weeks.
Also, what are your other cloth diapering questions? If I don't know, I'll try and find out! If you leave a question that will be covered in future weeks I will let you know, but I would also like to feature the most asked questions later in the series.
Please note that any comments that hint at a motive of judgment will be deleted. I want all moms to feel free to discuss cloth diapering without being criticized.
