Why do YOU use cloth diapers?

[ilovegod123]

I hope this type of curious post is allowed! I had my first baby 4 months ago. I’m an environmentalist so before she was born I put together my stash, eager to cloth diaper. Then she was born and her skinny bum didn’t fit her cloth stash, so we used disposables. She’s only now fitting into the cloths but I’m finding myself...grasping for why I should move to cloth diapers.

I committed to doing all cloth this weekend to get into the habit and here’s what I’ve been mulling over re: my expectations vs my experiences:

• they’re better for the environment! But then I read this study by the UK environment agency in which a life cycle analysis comparing cloth, diaper service, and disposables found no discernible environmental difference between the three. Cloth diapers generate less garbage, but require more energy and water. And I live in a coal-fired electric location, so cloth might actually turn out worse here than in the UK.
• they’re cheaper! But it’s not a red hot deal. The diapers I bought cost ~$13 each. Costco diapers are $0.17 each, so to break even I need to use each diaper 77 times. With my stash of 24, that’s 1,848 uses to break even. I’ll probably hit this just past the 1 year mark. So they really only start to pay back after using them for a year, and we haven’t factored in the cost of hot water, detergent, or my time washing/hanging/folding them.
• they’re all you need! Except, not really. We need to use disposables at night (baby sleeps 10 pm - 7 am) and for when we travel or camp for the weekend. So I’ve still got a diaper pail trash bin in the nursery, as well as the wet bag.
• poo isn’t that bad! Except, it kind of is. My washroom isn’t near the nursery so I’d have to walk the poo diaper across the house to scrape or spray. Instead I’ve been using grovia liners which make it infinitely better but aren’t perfect (and add to the cost). We’ve got a formula fed baby, which might be making it worse (although her ebf poops of two months ago were also yucky)
• they’re better for baby! But...are they? She’s never had a diaper rash in disposables. In addition to diaper rash, cloth diapers bring with them the possibility of yeast or fungal infections, which honestly is enough on its own to make me second guess cloth diaping.
• they’re easy! They’re not hard, but they’re certainly more work than disposables. That’s not even debatable.

I’m so curious what keeps everyone coming back to cloth. I’m secretly hoping you can convince me to stick with them instead of kijiji’ing my stash before I use them. Right now the biggest benefit is I love how cute the patterns are, but I’m not sure that’s compelling enough to keep me hooked. What keeps you on the cloth diapering wagon?

 

[mchava4]

@ilovegod123 If you buy them used (aka "pre-loved") you save a lot on the up front cost, and they still work just as well as long as they were taken care of. You start to see the savings really really soon if you do that. I bought a bundle of 24 all-in-one style diapers for $225 and have not looked back. I only use a disposable at night. Saves tons! It was a nice feeling to return the boxes of disposables we had stocked because she didn't use them and we never opened them up.

I made these fleece cloth diaper liners to go in mine as well, to keep her feeling more dry. So easy.

 

[gracebwthme]

@ilovegod123 I cloth disappeared my first child from 1 month-2 years, and my second just turned a year old. I keep meticulous records of how many diapers I wash each time, and so far, in 3 years of cloth diapering, we washed 6000 diapers! That’s about 15 diapers in the wash every 2 days in that first year and then it trickle down to 8-10 in that second year. We do use a disposable at night on my second child because I just couldn’t find a solution for night time cloth for him like I did with my first.

I keep track of gallons of water used, detergent amount, electricity consumed, natural gas to heat there water, sewage costs, taxes, etc. and so far we’ve saved $800 or so, and that’s with a stash of 30 all in one diapers, which tend to be the most expensive. I would have been fine with 20 diapers, had I known. I don’t use liners because then I have to make an extra trip to the trash can and stink up the kitchen, I’d rather get rid of it all in the toilet.

Everyone around me thought I was nuts for wanting to cloth diaper, but then they realized it’s really not much work for them (they throw the dirty diaper in a bag) and I quickly rinse off poop and throw it in the washing machine!

I can think of so many positives, from not having to run to the store because we’re low on diapers, to not locking away liquids (pee) in diapers that would never make it back to the earth (but if you compost, as in your case, that would work!!). My kids only had a handful of diaper rashes and they recovered quickly. My niece in disposable had more diapers rashes, I think. It just depends on the kid. Change them quickly and get them used to feeling dry

The amount of resources needed to create the raw materials, chemicals for processing, packaging, transportation, then transportation again to the compost yard... it’s really a lot.

In the end, do what’s right for you. It sounds like your already have all of your supplies though, so give it a try and see if it works for you!

 

[trickydardian]

@ilovegod123 We went in for environmental and cost saving reasons.

On the environmental front, almost all of our cloth diapers are second hand. I think this greatly tips the scales in favour of cloth vs disposables. We also opt for 100% renewable electricity so don’t feel too bad about the electricity aspect of washing, not that we noticed a difference in our usage when we are and are not washing diapers. With a newborn we found ourselves washing far more frequently anyway so by combining the main wash for diapers with the other baby items, it didn’t amount to as many extra loads as it first seems.

Second hand also made the cost argument very compelling for us. We have spent less than $350 total on diapers, including accessories like wet bags, washing baskets, cloth wipes, etc, which is enough for day and night use for one child. Washing costs are on top of that. It is easy to fall down the rabbit hole of adorable diapers in limited edition prints, and I have purchased a couple myself too (which really pushed up the total cost of our stash), but cloth can also be very affordable upfront.

We also had rashes with disposables when we’ve used them but not cloth, but that maybe is luck or very child specific. My preference is also for full time cloth so we don’t need to deal with disposing of disposable diapers at all because the smell really is a thing, plus I am uncomfortable about all the plastic bags used to hold them.

I do think if you already have cloth diapers or have a good second hand option available, it really doesn’t make sense cost or environmental wise to try to rationalise using disposables. Consuming disposables creates demand for the manufacture of more and requires further purchasing, using something reusable that you already have available to you does not. There are of course other aspects to consider, time, ease, health, access to washing facilities, etc which may make disposables a better choice for some families regardless.

 

[kwesi]

@ilovegod123 I could be wrong and totally making this up but I remember being told that that study was sponsored by Pampers...

I thought I would give you a different take on why I use cloth. I never intended on using cloth - ever. Even at the beginning of the year I remember discussing why on earth with everything you have to do as a parent why you would make your life harder by using cloth. This was in February and my daughter was 9 months old. Then lockdown happened. The panic buying happened and I refused to panic buy - which meant I was struggling to get nappies. My sister who has a little girl 9 months older than mine decided to try reusables and I thought 'Well why not, I'm in the house anyway let's give it a go'. As much as I never understood the appeal of using cloth - using disposables never sat with me well. I recycle everything in my house and then I just throw plastic nappies in the bin for landfill? Anyway I tried reusables and I was hooked. They are so super cute. The washing isn't that bad and I actually enjoy using them. I enjoy hanging them out to dry, I enjoy sitting down at night in front of the TV and stuffing them. I feel better about my decision to use cloth, my baby seems to have less nappy rash. In all honesty if lockdown hadn't happened I don't think I would of gave cloth a go and now I'm never going back.

I do use disposable liners though which helps with the poop. And I never had to deal with newborn poop. And I went through lots of brands/types of nappies until I decided what I liked and what I didn't.

 

[ilovegod123]

@kwesi Since it’s a government study, I’m sure they’d have to disclose any industry alignment. But I bet pampers has done their own study somewhere, or referred to this one.

I hear ya on the scarcity. I was really glad we had cloth diapers when things got crazy, although diaper shortages only lasted ~ a week where I am. Feels good to know we can diaper her come what may though, good point!

 

[heavenlymetal]

@ilovegod123 Mainly I can’t deal with the amount of garbage disposables cause. It’s unconscionable to me personally, regardless of the actual energy offset. Also, those studies never factor in additional babies or giving away/selling your stash to another family when your done, etc. However the real clincher for us was the constant blowouts in disposables. That almost never happens in cloth. Lastly is all the gross chemicals they use to make disposables, I don’t want that on my baby! Hope you fully transition to the fluff side, its better here

 

[kjp4au]

@ilovegod123 Since you're in the UK, have you ever checked out The Nappy Lady? There are tons of advice and options there, and they've been very helpful. They can also help you choose which style of cloth diapering would be best for your circumstances for free (plus they give you a reusable discount if you choose to buy from them).

Personally, we're going with flats and covers, and the initial cost is less than £200 for the flats (terry towels x24), covers (x5), boosters (x2 because we'll only use them at night) and liners (x10) and this is for every other day washing. This is to last until the baby is potty trained.

With regards to energy costs, we did have to shell out some money for a new washing machine and dryer (but since we've moved into a new house with no white appliances anyway), we went with the best options for energy saving. Plus we're lucky enough to buy a house with lots of open spaces for drying.

Once baby outgrows the nappies, we can use the terry towels for other things (always handy having towels about), and the covers we've chosen tend to be sturdy and we can always donate/sell them on if we're not having any more kids.

Had a quick read through the study you linked, and whilst the sample size of disposable nappies were in the thousands, they could barely get reusable sample sizes in the hundreds. Considering the wide range of options for different nappy systems, plus of course the difference between brands/methods of washing and drying the nappies, I don't think that study is conclusive.

Link to The Nappy Lady for more info: https://www.thenappylady.co.uk/news/cloth-vs-disposable-nappies/cloth-nappy-myths.html

Lots of other articles there which were really helpful to help us decide to go with cloth diapering and the how of it.

 

[ilovegod123]

@kjp4au Thanks for the reply! I’m actually in Canada and already purchased an assortment of pocket and AIOs from NAmerican brands. I’ve already got the diapers, but after 3 months of disposables the case for using them vs selling them seems less clear than it was before having my baby

 

[kjp4au]

@ilovegod123 Ohh, right. Sorry I misread last night.

But yeah, The Nappy Lady has fairly good resources for saying Yea or Nay to cloth diapering (though obviously more on the Yea side).

In the end, it's all about how your family feels about which diapering way is more comfortable/convenient for you. My partner and I are the only ones in our friend circle who cloth diaper (that I know of), and everyone's priorities are different and that's okay too.

 

[afmtv]

@ilovegod123 Def environment. Try to buy used as much as possible. I’ll practically pay just as much as new (with shipping, my time to replace elastics, etc) for used. Even for fleece liners, I’ve purchased $3 blankets from Goodwill, even though I’ve heard they’re $2.50 new at Walmart.

I’m expecting again soon and am doing a newborn rental program for the “resuse” aspect.

 

[ilovegod123]

@afmtv Love this. Good work mama!

 

[je5usfre4k]

@ilovegod123 We go through 12 inserts a day, And wash 20-24 at a time (every other day, when the stash runs out.) we use some disposables when it’s laundry day or when we’re out.

Cloth helps potty training, because they recognize the wet feeling better.

We’ve been only needing one box of disposables per size so far.

Overall, we are about breaking even on cost, but will re use for future kids. I just appreciate that there’s less Non biodegradable waste in landfills.

 

[willd35]

@ilovegod123 My main reason was why spend money on something that is going to be immediately thrown away, with the first one ever made still in the landfill. We did use disposables for the first 3 weeks and at night till I figured out a good system for my heavy wetter that sleeps 12-14 hours. Now we don't have any disposables in the house. It was also a blessing during this pandemic when there was a diaper shortage. I don't have to stress that I will run out of diapers or wipes. I do laundry every 4 days (about 20-30 diapers) but I have enough diapers that I don't have to stress to fold them right away (Hubby and I spend 30 minutes a week doing this together and spending time together). I also made all my inserts so that was a huge cost savings. Even with the extra cost of water and hydro that came to an extra $4 (but an extra person is going to do this regardless of what kind of diapering you do). Laundry soap I go through it a little faster than normal but again same thing an extra human will do this. I have never had a poo explosion with cloth unlike my friends who have them all the time with disposables which equals less bathes and cleaning car seat and such.

 

[adamc]

@ilovegod123 It felt better to us than having a bunch of trash in the landfill. After we started using disposables though my husband decided he actually didn't care that much about cloth after reading the study you posted.

We don't have a huge stash (we have like 7 thrifted pockets, 6 that were a trade with a friend for covers I bought that just didn't work out for us, and then 10 new) and it is working for us just fine. I replaced elastic in the thrifted ones and felt good about 'reviving them'. We are doing a mix of disposable and cloth now and so far it's a system that makes us both feel good.

It honestly just makes me feel better to be throwing less away and the pockets are easy enough that it doesn't feel like a huge sacrifice.

 

[ilovegod123]

@adamc I really feel you on this. I think we’ll end up doing a hybrid using both too. There’s such pressure in parenting to overcommit to things (“Exclusively breast feeding”, “we are cloth diapering”, zero screen time, baby led weaning...). Like this is not a religion, it is literally cleaning up shit. There’s no perfect pupil way to do it.

 

[gracebwthme]

@ilovegod123 Do what works for you. No parents have the answer to everything, they just figured out what works for them, their situation, their kids. Every kid is different, every family is different.

I agree with you, I don’t like it when people try to make others feel inferior for not doing things completely one way or another. It’s not realistic and people won’t stick with anything if it’s too strict. It’s good to try different methods and see what works for you. Find the right balance for you!

Good luck!!

 

[jesseessej]

@ilovegod123 I’m a special snowflake and like being fancy. Seriously. I often like doing things the hard way just because. I also just like the idea of cloth, find it easier on poop monster’s butt, I already use cloth menstrual products, and I fee like it’s cheaper in the long run.

 

[ilovegod123]

@jesseessej Love it lol. Own that fancy status

 

[ttyler]

@ilovegod123 That UK study is dumb lol. The factors they base it on don’t make any sense. Sounds like they’re trying to make people feel better about themselves for using disposable...
I, and many others, buy our diapers used and then use them for multiple kids. There’s zero way that’s not MUCH better for the environment.