@ilovegod123 FTM, never cloth diapered (or any other diapered), but here’s my two cents if you like.
I’ve been around babies that have been exclusively disposable-diapered, and I’ve seen them in diapers till they were three, have a hard time potty training, and struggle with rash (which might not be a disposable-specific problem)
On the other hand, where I grew up, babies are mostly bottom naked the first few months of life or in very thin, breathable, mostly repurposed/upcycled cloth, they know when they are wet, and are usually trained to be out of diapers by the time they walk, which coincides with when they usually start on regular solids.
Uncommon perspective, but we wouldn’t leave adults to sit in their own body fluids if we could help it, but often that’s what we do with babies and diapers as it’s convenient for the pace of life we’ve set ourselves. I would personally prefer to train my baby early to eliminate on their own, it is super common in my culture. Additionally, it has the advantage of being environmentally friendly - because much much fewer diapers overall, cloth or disposable.
So where does cloth come in? Ideally I’d use thin cloth fabrics with muslin folds inside that are meant to absorb, not contain. That means I would go through more cloth every day, changing for every pee, but because it’s so thin, I can wash the cloth by hand with dettol and a bar of laundry soap, and linedry. The hardest thing would be establishing the routine.
Then I can use regular cloth diapers or disposables for nights and outings. But if coupled with regular elimination cue-based training, it is possible to not use a whole lot of these guys, so the net environmental impact will be far far less.
At least, that’s the theory.
But it has been done, so I’m hoping I can do it too
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Pulling a new person into the planet is willy nilly an extra drain on the world’s resources - to that extent. So there will be environmental costs. I don’t believe in all or nothing solutions, but being mindful of small decisions, doing things in a self-reliant way as much as possible, these are ways to reduce impact in my experience.
Elimination communication or even using cloth based diapering that requires extensive personal effort on part of the caretaker is of course dependent on one’s personal circumstances. Not all parents have the time and energy to invest in this. But I’m starting to think that a little loss of worldly productivity is a good thing in a sense if one can personally afford it. To that extent, I don’t tax the environment, and in the meanwhile, raise my child more mindfully.
Of course, as with all parenting soapbox discourses, YMMV