Why cloth?

If you had asked me just a couple of years ago if I was going to cloth diaper my youngest, I would've wrinkled up my nose in disgust and probably just given you a resounding 'eeeewwww'. I vividly remembered the days of the orange bucket with lid in my family's bathroom and the way it smelled of bleach every time my mom opened it to toss my younger sisters diapers in it. This is after she swished and swirled it in the toilet.

Long gone are the days of bleached white flatfolds, pins and plastic pants that wrinkled and crinkled with every move baby made. Welcome to the Era of 'Cute'.

What has changed? I would say, everything. Cloth Diapers have undergone a revolution in past years, a revolution that is changing the way many parents think of the age old way of diapering their child.

So, why should I choose cloth for my child?

Because...

It's convenient.

They're always at hand. After storing your dirty diapers in a dry pail by the washing mashine or in your bathroom, simply empty said pail into the washer, rinse on cold, wash with very little detergent on hot, another rinse or two and off into the dryer they go. Not much different then running a load of towels. No more nightly runs to the nearest store to buy diapers because you just ran out.

It's not any different from using disposables.

Many people show disgust of the thought of having to dump the solid waste into the toilet before placing the diaper into the pail. But aren't you supposed to do the same with disposables? Actually, yes. I was surprised when after (disposable) diapering 3 children I finally realized that it was printed right on the package.
Depending on the style of diaper you use, cloth diapers can be almost identical to disposables. You place the diaper under your child, bring the front up between the legs, fasten it and voila. You have just cloth diapered your child. Sure, there are many different styles of cloth out there, some are waterproof, some need a cover. But all in all, it's very similar to using 'sposies'.

It's cheaper.

The average cost of a jumbo pack of disposable diapers is currently 12.-. That's per pack, and we all know that one Jumbo pack can last you a week if you're lucky. Over the course of one year, including baby wipes, that's 780.- in diapers. WOW!
The average Toddler starts to show interest, or is actively using the potty by age 3.

3 Years, 780.- per year.

That's an astounding 2340 Dollars! This means in the approximately 9 years that I had children in disposables, I spent just over 7000 Dollars in Diapers. Talk about down payment on a house!!

The initial cost of cloth diapering can seem overwhelming. After all, we're talking 14.00 to 20.00 per diaper, and highly sought after diapers made by Work At Home Moms (WAHMs) can be even higher. 18 to 24 diapers will usually get you through 2 days. That can translate into 360.00 to 480.00 per size. It can also be much cheaper. 2 dozen Prefolds and a few Snappis and Covers can get you started on your path to cloth diapering your newborn or orlder baby in as little as 80.00.

You will of course need to get new diapers as your child grows. But once you've hit the 'medium' range, usually around 15-18 lbs, you can count on being in that size for quite a while, often, depending on diaper brand and sizing, through pottylearning.

Ok, but that's still quite a lot of money.

Where are the savings you were talking about?
Well, considering that you will spend close to 2500.00 in disposables over the course of each child, and only about 800.00 (if even that much) for your cloth diapered little one, the savings are substantial. And this is only ONE child. You can reuse these diapers again when your next little one enters the world.

Fine. You've made your point. But this is our last baby. We're not having more...

Ok. Cloth Diapers actually have resale value. Yep, you've read right. People will buy your used diapers. As a matter of fact 'Ebay' used to be the place to go to find inexpensive, brand name cloth diapers for very little. 'Ebay' has now disallowed the sale of used diapers, but there are many Parenting Forums on the net, like the Hyenacart Forum with its FSOT (For Sale Or Trade) Section and Spots' Corner.

It reduces landfill waste.

Let's go back to the 52 packs of disposable diapers per year you will go through. At an average of 20 diapers per pack, that's 1000 diapers a diapering parent adds to the ever growing landfills on a yearly basis. 3000 diapers per child. And lets just say the diaper weighs approximately 1 lb when you toss it. That's

3000 lbs

added to your household waste over the course of diapering your child.

These are just some of the reasons why Cloth Diapering has become more and more popular over the past few years. I hope that I was able to at least interest you into looking at Cloth Diapering as an alternative method to diapering. But before I let you go to browse the internet for Cloth Diapers (as you probably will), I want to add one more thing...

Disposable Diapers are not as 'biodegradable' as you may think. The average disposable diaper can take up to 25 years on your landfill to disintegrate. This means that by the time your child has its first child, your diaper is just now disintegrating!

And that's definitely something to think about!