Many people now adays aren't into cloth diapering. I really wish more would start doing it. We made the switch in Oct 2009 and it is so much more beneficial to our family in cost, beneficial to the environment, and the biggest thing is it is beneficial to our children, who no longer get diaper rash or irritated skin from the chemicals in disposable diapers.
For those of you who are thinking "I don't have time for folding and pinning those old fashion diapers" you really need to check out the various diapers available now, there's a WHOLE NEW WORLD of clothing diapering.
Differences:
COST:
If you have children you know that buying disposable diapers can cost $50-80 a month, meaning you spend $600-960 a year in diapers. So if you have more than one child, you are spending a LOT of money each year on disposable diapers.
If you buy cloth, yes there is a start up cost, but this depends on where you are buying your cloth diapers. I joined a website, it is a great website for buying and selling cloth diapers, has a forum for chat, and many other things on the site as well. Diaperswappers www.diaperswappers.com this site is great when you are starting out cloth diapering. You can buy gently used diapers, of many different brands test them out see what you like and then go from there and buy the ones you like most.
Some of you may want to use a cloth diapering service so that you do not have to wash your own diapers, however you can save a TON of money if you wash them yourself. Not only that you can monitor what they are being washed in.
CHEMICALS:
Disposable diapers all have chemicals in them. Unless you spend the money and get the non-bleached non-chlorine diapers, which cost almost double what regular disposables cost. So not only are these chemicals touching your childs skin and can easily cause diaper rash and redness on them. These chemicals are also placed into the ground when the diapers are transported to the dump.
With cloth diapering, you can buy non-bleached prefolds (the old pinnable style diaper), or you can buy a cloth that is natural such as bamboo velour, cotton, or fleece. These are less likely to irritate your childs skin, they are softer, and do not cause diaper rash from rubbing.
STYLE:
Disposable diapers can have cute designs and different shapes. But the new world of cloth diapering brings you to an all new sense of style! You can have diapers with princesses for your little girl, bugs and frogs for your little boys...get real fancy and get them made with your childs name on the butt...turn tshirts into cool prefolds!!! There is so much style in these...and thats just the diaper! There is also a whole world of style in covers. From wool longings, fleece soakers, nylon covers with Dr. Suess on them, you can put yours or your childs personality all into their diapers. They are just too cute.
CONVENIENCE:
Disposable diapers have always seemed to most to be more convenient, just take them off and toss them into the garbage. Putting them on is a sinch.
But now with the new cloth diapers available, you have those that snap or velcro just like a disposable does. Some now have multi-layers with PUL (a water proofing layer) so they do not need covers so you put them on and go...some prefer fitted diapers with the covers. It all depends on your preference.
END OPINION:
In my opinion these in nothing better than cloth diapering. The options are plenty, of style, design, materials, ect. You are saving the environment so much since you are not contributing to landfills your ample dirty diapers used in a year. You can monitor the chemicals you are using to wash these diapers and therefore save your childs skin that horrible reactions caused from these chemicals such as diaper rash. We personally use a wide variety of cloth diapers, a little bit of everything; prefolds, tshirt prefolds, indian prefolds, fitteds, AIO's (All in Ones), pockets, vinyl covers, fleece covers, fleece longings, knitted longings...there are sooo many options! Do the research yourself, save the environment, your babies skin, and MONEY...
If you want more information on cloth diapering check our Diaperswappers...everything you could possibly want to know is there :)
Until Next Time.
Mom of Many
Great rundown on the basics behind cloth diapering! I've been cloth diapering since around the same time as you (August/September of 2009) and I absolutely love it. I've fallen in love with doing it (and making them!) It's become quite the hobby for me! There's SOOO many benefits to it, and if your baby is anything like mine (severe sensitivity to sposies) then it's even more motivation to do it! I'll admit, when I first started, I HATED the idea of cloth diapers and thought I would hate doing it... but now? I'm addicted!!
ReplyDeleteSamantha (from www.tshirtdiaper.com)
P.S. I wrote an article on the breakdown of the BARE MINIMUM costs for the major brands of disposable diapers over the diapering years... it's quite interesting!