Why cloth diaper?

[PrayinFor12]

I've hunted the forums and can't find answers to this, nor can I figure out where to post it:

I see lots of info on HOW to cloth diaper. But I can't find any info on WHY to cloth diaper.

All I know is that they look cute, and they don't fill land-fills. Other than that, what's the point?

[elspethshimon]

These are our reasons:

1. It's more economical (at least it can be, I've known people to go a little nuts but at least you can trade/sell them later)
2. It's better for the environment as it produces less waste
3. Cloth is better for baby's skin than some of the nasty things they put in disposable diapers.
4. It's cute and fun.


What else do you want?

[woodchick]

We use cloth diapers because they save us money. My whole stash is from 2 sources: freecycle (90%) and bought half price from a mom who never used what she had (10%).

So, I've saved on purchasing disposables and I saved by being frugal when it came to building a stash.

Besides, they look cute and don't fill the landfills!

[mossimo12]

I've also heard that babies who are cloth diapered potty train sooner because they can feel the wetness, unlike with disposable. Since we did a combination of cloth and EC I'm not sure it was the cloth alone that helped her potty train by 20 months, but I'm willing to credit the cloth!

Sarah

[pixiepunk]

the environmental benefits are nothing to sniff at. Do you know it takes 500 years for a disposible diaper to decompose in a landfill? that's one diaper. we're talking about a dozen diapers a day for a newborn, about half that for an older baby, on a daily basis for sometimes 3, 4 or more years (yes there are loads of kids still using diapers, especially at night, at age 5 and above - check out the childhood years forum). that's to say nothing of the chemicals they are putting into the environment, the human waste running off into our water supply, and the water, energy and gas it takes to manufacture and ship them.

and speaking of the chemical gel they use in those diapers, there is no way i want that next to my kids skin. it is the same chemical that was removed from tampons because it was linked to toxic shock syndrome. i used to babysit a girl who was in sposies, and she would sometimes get these little balls of that gel on her skin - and i was vigilant about changing her regularly. it totally grossed me out. can't possibly be healthy.

on average, kids who are cloth diapered get *way* less diaper rash than kids in sposies, and also potty learn earlier because they haven't completely disassociated the feeling of peeing with the consequence of being wet.

it does save a ton of money, especially if you do it economically. i've never been concerned with the 'cute' factor of cloth diapers. i buy unbleached prefolds and a handful of covers, i try to keep a few 'easier' dipes in case we're out for the day or someone else needs to change the baby, but i buy one-size pockets so i can use them over the course of the child's time in diapers. and then i resell them when i'm done with them. i made back within $10 of what i spent on cloth training pants when i sold them last year (i bought gently used and then sold them, also very gently used). certainly can't do that with sposies :thumb

you may find this mothering mag article helpful: http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html

also lots of informative articles that answer your question in depth here: http://www.diaperpin.com/clothdiapers/cloth_diapering.asp

[minsca]

I decided to CD because of environmental reasons. Then add the benefit of lower cost, cuter diapers, and hopefully earlier potty training. Plus I don't find CDing that much more work, to me whats an extra load of laundry, with two babies, I have a load or two going almost every day anyways. For me anyways, it's all bonuses and very little negatives.

Anyways here is an excellent article that helped convince me to try CD

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html

[*Aimee*]

Disposables are gross. I didnt want my precious new baby to be wearing owie stiff paper pants. So we did cloth. But now that I'm pregnant I had horrible morning sickness so I switched to sposies for a few months. If my son was even in them for 2 hours with his active play they'd burst and leave tiny gel beads EVERYWHERE. Gross. Chemicals all over my kid? No thanks.

[the_lissa]

Better for the baby. Better for the environment. Better for the wallet.

[PrayinFor12]

The part about chemical beads all over my baby is pretty convincing!

What about this:
I have no washer/dryer. Have you ever heard of anyone getting by with washing diapers in public washers?

[OceansEve]

My reasons:

Cost: Three months worth of disposables cost about the same as what we will use to CD for a year.

Environment: It makes me feel better to know I am not adding to the landfill.

Health: Disp started bursting when she wore them, I read the info on the diaper box and it says DO NOT let them play with them because they could swallow the stuff inside the diapers and even though it doesn't say what could happen, you know it has to be related to something toxic in them. Well duh if they burst she is just as likely to stick her hand on her belly and then in her mouth :angry. Since then I decided we had to start changing over.

As for public washing, I've taken things soiled by dogs (I mean reallllllllly bad) to public laundry so I'd imagine baby diapers would be acceptable.

[hubris]

You could probably search the diapering forum for "laundromat" or "public" and get threads from parents who don't wash at home. I know I've seen many mentions of people CDing without owning a machine. There are also cloth diapering services in many towns.

My main reason for CDing is the environmental impact. Some pro-disposable folks will argue that the waste water produced washing cloth evens it out but what they're ignoring is that the manufacture of disposable diapers uses an enormous amount of water and chemicals. When I wash diapers, I can control what chemicals I'm putting into my waste water by selecting my detergent mindfully, and that water is going into my county's municipal system, which is equipped to handle and treat that waste water.

[elspethshimon]

The part about chemical beads all over my baby is pretty convincing!

What about this:
I have no washer/dryer. Have you ever heard of anyone getting by with washing diapers in public washers?

Yes. It's not easy, but it's doable.

[Justthatgirl]

Yes. It's not easy, but it's doable.

Yup. My mom tells about how back in the day when I was a baby she would lug me and a basket of dirty diapers to the laundrymat "up hill both ways in the snow" kind of scenario. :lol She did it, though. Till my grandma started supplying me w/ those new-fangled Pampers. :wink

[wendy1221]

Speaking of that chemical gel, it doesn't break down at all. Ever. The 400 years it takes for a sposie to break down in a landfill doesn't include the gel. It's water soluble, so it "disappears." It disappears into the water supply. There are claims that it's not in the water supply and that's it's perfectl safe, but I don't believe it. My dh and I are both analytical chemists, so we've looked it up. THey can claim it's not in our water, because there are no analytical methods to test for it in water. You can't prove it is there, and you can't prove it isn't. That chemical also never breaks down. It isn't digested by bacteria or anything the way most things eventually are.

[eclipse]

The part about chemical beads all over my baby is pretty convincing!

What about this:
I have no washer/dryer. Have you ever heard of anyone getting by with washing diapers in public washers?


I don't have a personal washer and dryer, but there is one in my complex, and I use that. It's never been an issue. If I had to go to the laundromat, I'm not sure if I would do it. I've had to take them there on occaision when the washer here was broken, and it was no problem - i would just be concerned about having the time to get there frequently. I wouldn't want to go to a laundromat more than once a week, and you have to have a lot of diapers to last a week between washings, and more than one pail, etc.

[wendy1221]

I used a laundromat for cloth diapers with my oldest. What I did was a cold wash with detergent followed by a hot wash with none, then dry in the dryer on high heat. It did cost a lot, but it was still cheaper than disposables. I used all prefolds w/ him, which did cut way back on the cost, including drying time.

[Rani]

My friend is pregnant (#3 YAY!) anyway. They are pinching pennies so she looked at her records and ran the numbers. With lo 1 and 2 she spent anywhere from 2 to 3K over multiple years on disposables. Her mom purchased the FB set (400 bucks I think) plus a few more that should last thru to when everyone is potty trained...

Besides the chemical and enviro issues, you just can't beat that!

[love2bmom]

Another way to look at it - why not cloth diaper? We're cding our fourth child and I really can only think of one time that I use sposies. When we go to the doctor. No shame - I just absolutely don't want to get any of those germs into my diaper stash. Other than that - I really don't like sposies. Personally, I think they're pretty worthless. I had my son at a doctors appt. last week. He pooped while I was holding him (he's 11 wks today). It was a total blow out! All over his clothes - lovely. Had he been in cloth there would have been no blow out.
All of the other reasons posted are great too. :thumb

[karlugato]

Right now my husband is deployed and it stinks to have to go anywhere with all of the kids. Since I am cloth diapering, I don't have to worry about running out before I have to go to the store and get groceries. Saving car trips has been very helpful for me. If I didn't have a washer and dryer I wouldn't do it though. Unless there was a close laundromat. :)

[pixiepunk]

i've read of lots of mamas washing dipes in a laundromat. definitely adds to the expense, but it's still way cheaper. to minimize the cost even more you could line dry them, especially if you have a nice sunny place outside to do it as sun bleaches out the stains.

i bet if you crunched the numbers, the amount you will save on CD's vs. sposies would add up to a washer and dryer easily. you can always check places like craigslist and freecycle - i see washing machines being given away (or practically, for very cheap) all the time.

if you are washing in a public laundry, and heck even if you're not, it cuts down on your amount of washing *a lot* if you also do EC with your LO. there's an EC subforum under diapering with loads of stickies and good info if you're interested. the more you catch in the potty, the less you have to launder, and most EC'd babies prefer pooping in the potty which means less soiled dipes to deal with. also, to cut down on the ick factor of putting soiled dipes in a public machine, you can get a little hose attachment for your toilet (mine's called a mini shower) that allows you to hose off the poopies into the toilet before you put the dipe in your bin.

[Kitten]

If "prayinfor12" refers to how many kiddoes you'd like to have, I don't think it will take you long to realize how darn expensive sposies will be for a dozen kids, LOL.

[PrayinFor12]

Kitten, that cracked me up! And you're right - that is what I'm referring to. I could handle a "meager" 6 - but no less.

And you bring up a good point. If I get to do this as many times as I want, cost differences will be huge! And, I'll be an expert by #3 so the learning-curve will be worth it.

[ZoeyZoo]

I'm choosing to do it for reasons similar to those mentioned by PPs:

1. Cost. With the one size diapers you can spend a few hundred dollars and have them last through potty training. Even with the most expensive ones you're looking at less than $500.

2. Environment. Someone else mentioned it takes a long time to biodegrade.

3. Health. There are numberous article written about kids potty training quicker, less diaper rash, etc.

Now unlike a lot of the people here, I do plan to use disposables on long trips where I don't want to carry around soiled diapers. Since this isn't often, I shouldn't go through a lot of them. If you don't mind the chemical aspect, you don't have to choose all or nothing.

Also, I plan on using a AIO (All in One) OS (one size) diaper. These can go from 8 lbs to about 35 lbs so they will work until they fall apart basically. Also, the AIOs are the closest to sposies (except you have to wash them). Since my DH will be the SAHD, I want something easy or I know he'll go run to the store for the sposies.

[nextcommercial]

I have a daycare, and I cloth diaper most of them, but two wear disposables, and to be honest.. the disposables smell like a hamster cage. Really, you can smell them even if it isn't poopy.

They are also the only kids who get diaper rashes. My cloth diaper kids never get a rash.

Plus, they are adorable!

[patchynurse]

I read that a babe in disposables generates over 1 ton of solid waste in roughly 2 years!!!! I think the cloth diapers are soooo soft. Who wouldn't prefer that next to their bum? I have managed to get a large stash secondhand which also makes me happy because I am recycling.

[ananas]

Here's my reasons:

Waaaay less expensive than disposables.

Really cute! :D

I couldn't let my child sit in those chemicals that are in disposals. The gel on a baby's bottom when they've sat in a wet diaper for a while...ick. :( Plus, the chemicals in disposables have been linked to cancer and infertility and all kinds of things, and I just can't do that.

Better for the earth :treehugger:

[AlwaysByMySide]

I initially went for them for cost purposes. (DD1 went into cloth at 8-ish months old, and continues to wear the same medium FB's at 2.5 years old.) I think we're down to 15 or 16 in our rotation, at about $16 per (roughly), that's $250 for almost 2 years of diapering.

I have found that I now cannot STAND the smell of disposables when they are even slightly wet. Cloth smells pretty much like....nothing. (Except the one whiff that I get when it's time to wash the whole bag.)

They are cute. Especially with a girl, I love not having to do the "bloomers" thing under dresses.

I think each of my kids has had ONE diaper rash in cloth.

The environmental factors are icing on the cake. I feel like SO much of a better person that I am not filling a landfill on my own with diapers just so my kids can pee and poop.

And something I haven't seen mentioned yet...my daughter knew how to pull off disposable diaper tabs relatively early on. She still can't do the snaps. (Aplix diapers obviously don't work for us!) Which means the diaper stays ON, whether she wants to take it off and play in her poo or not. ;)

[3cuties]

I wanted to echo what everyone else has posted. But emphasize comfort -- they are so much softer and nicer than paper diapers. Also, throwing poop away in the garbage, eww!, that is so bad for everyone.

Just so you can wrap your mind around it, most people wash every 2-3 days. I have enough diapers to go 5 days without washing, I work FH out of the home, so sometimes it is a must. There is never a smell in my house and the diapers always come very clean. Good luck.

[kluella]

I might get flamed for this, but I'm going to pop in as a voice of dissent. I think it's a nice idea to not fill landfills with disposables, but the fact is that the production of cotton is pretty environmentally unfriendly business, so unless you're using organics there will still be environmental impact.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/agriculture_environment/commodities/cotton/environmental_impacts/water_use/index.cfm

So I would say that if the environment is your only factor, you might do more research.

I agree with pp's though that it is supposed to be better for the kiddos and much less expensive (esp. with 12!). My dh will be a sahd with ours and is not even considering cd'ing as an option...so that's that.

[PrayinFor12]

Kluella, thanks for the different input! I knew nothing of the cotton problems. Appreciate the info.

I actually am convinced over just one thing though - those little chemical beads in disposables. I didn't even know they existed until I started asking questions.

I got a semi-normal illness that skyrocketed to severe due to man-made substances I was exposed to. So the bead-issue really means something personal to me.

All you mamas,
Thanks for your help! I now have an irl mama who's helping me understand how to choose/use cloth.

[Barcino]

I am considering cloth for my next so where do I go to learn about it? ;)

THANK YOU!

Nevermind I just saw the other thread ;)

[mchalehm]

The part about chemical beads all over my baby is pretty convincing!

What about this:
I have no washer/dryer. Have you ever heard of anyone getting by with washing diapers in public washers?

I have heard of this. It is definitely possible. That said, I doubt I'd CD if I didn't have a home laundry machine. I just don't think I'm that dedicated. I'd be considering Tushies or something.

[heidirk]

Did you know theymake diapers out of Hemp and Bamboo? Two verydurable fibers growable with little to no enviromental impact!

Now if we could just all start spinning our own thread and weaving our own cloth!

[3cuties]

I might get flamed for this, but I'm going to pop in as a voice of dissent. I think it's a nice idea to not fill landfills with disposables, but the fact is that the production of cotton is pretty environmentally unfriendly business, so unless you're using organics there will still be environmental impact.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/agriculture_environment/commodities/cotton/environmental_impacts/water_use/index.cfm

So I would say that if the environment is your only factor, you might do more research.

I agree with pp's though that it is supposed to be better for the kiddos and much less expensive (esp. with 12!). My dh will be a sahd with ours and is not even considering cd'ing as an option...so that's that.


Saying there will be an environmental impact is not the same as weighing which impact is less. The reality is that everything we do leaves a footprint. But filling less landfills, the intense production of disposables, and the reusable nature make the impact less. Every study I have read compares 1 disposable to 1 cloth diaper and that is not a very apt comparison. I have had my cds not for over a year, 1 cd gets much more use than 1 disposable.

Also, you may be able to convince your DH, my DH is a SAHD and CDs two and soon it will be three kiddos. I know other SAHDs that do it as well. Finally, CDing part time has benefits as well -- if you so desired, you could CD when you are home from work and on the weekends. :)