I'm not advocating for sposies here, but I thought I'd address some of these, as DS was sposied for his entire diapering career, and DD has been cd'ed since birth. So obviously, I've switched to the cd bandwagon, so no need to convert me.
"Now can we count all the diapers that the tabs rip off of?"
This is true, and mighty annoying.
"Can we count the ones that fell on the ground and got wet and are not useable?"
Again, also true, and equally annoying. Also count among these the ones that got the sippy cup or whatnot spilled on them in the diaper bag.
"What about the added increase on your trash bill? Many moms I've met have to add an additional trash can, or two more if they have twins!"
We don't get charged directly for trash pickup, so ours didn't increase. But DH did get tired of bagging up the diaper trash and taking it out to the curb.
"What about diaper rash cream? I bought a total of ONE tube that I didn't even use all up in 2 1/2 yrs of diapering. Can other disposable users keep up with that??"
Yes. DS rarely if ever had rashes in his sposies, and no more so than DD in her cloth.
"Extra trips to the Doctor for really bad rashes cost money for co-pays, etc."
Never.
"What about all those poopy blow outs????"
This is true, and also mighty annoying. And it was a nice surprise to me when DD in her cloth never had a blowout. I thought it was a breastmilk poop thing, but it turns out it's a diaper thing. That's definitely been nice!
"How many new outfits ruined due to stains from poopy disposable blow-outs do you count?"
We had blowouts, but no outfits were "ruined". They just got put in the wash with everything else and came out clean.
"What about the washing of those poopy stains, detergent, stain remover???"
Never special-treated poop stains on clothes, so no increase there. And I had to put detergent in the washload anyway
so no increase there.
"These are real costs regardless of the fact that no one mentions them or adds them into the final cost of cloth versus disposie."
You bring up some good points. But along with hidden costs, what about:
- wear and tear on my washer and dryer
- increased detergent use to wash the dipes (plus any TTO or vinegar or baking soda or whatever you use)
- increased water usage
- increased energy for washer/dryer
Of course these costs are minimal, but so are many of the costs you bring up with sposies. My point is that there's hidden costs with everything. I didn't covert to cd for cost reasons (either obvious or hidden) but for environmental reasons, and I have no intention to switching back to sposies.