Cloth Diapers

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Back when Courtney told me she was going to buy cloth diapers for Topher, I laughed. I automatically assumed that cloth diapers were inferior– didn’t work as well, messy to use and clean and, generally, a pain in the butt (couldn’t help myself!).

As you know, I’ve thought twice about these faulty assumptions. First of all, cloth diapers are WAAAAYYYYY cheaper. Most child-care experts estimate that a baby will go through 8,000 diapers from birth to potty training. At .25/disposable diaper (which is Sam’s Club/economic pack-cheap), that’s $2,000 in disposable diapers. ICK.

The budget-friendly cloth diapering system? $100-200 total. I’ll let you do the math on the savings there. Of course, you have to add in an extra $10-20/month in water bills for the extra laundry you do. But still.

And inconvenient? Hardly. “Safety pins” and “clips” have generally become obsolete. Cloth pocket diapers look and work exactly like disposable diapers, w/ velcro or snap closures instead of tape. No training needed.

Time spent throwing in a load of laundry? You’d spend that much time having to run to the store for diapers.

If you or someone you know is ever planning on having children in the near or not-too-distant future, you should watch this 1 minute video. You might save yourself close to $1800.

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  • Stephanie

    Of course, if you’re going for the chlorine-free diapers, á la Seventh Generation or such, you could spend about $12/35 diapers. For 8K of those, it could be closer to $3k, and you’re still adding to the landfill, even though you’re not ?utting chemicals on your baby’s skin!

    The thought of doing disposables sounded so awful to me a few years ago, because your chances of coming into actual contact with the poop go waaaaaaay up . . . But after doing food service for about 3 years and nannying two kids with diapers (and then helping to potty train the older one), it takes an awful lot to phase me now. So, for the sake of our budget someday, cloth it will probably be! The savings multiply, by the way, when you have multiple kids. You may need to replace diapers here and there when they wear out, but the first kid is probably the only time you’ll need a big diaper investment.