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Cloth Diapering 2.0 – Let’s Try this Again!!
Because Cloth Diapering 1.0 was a FAIL… in the sense that I never even bothered despite all my research on it. After the baby was born, I was too tired to focus on cloth diapering. The idea of adding another thing to the laundry was not appealing at all. Plus I was really turned off by how bulky cloth diapers seemed to be, especially compared to a teensy tiny newborn!
Now that Noelle is 9-months, I want to try again… and so far so good! My friend Katie has been cloth diapering her newborn and I was convinced to give it another shot. A fellow blogger mom friend of mine also had lots of great tips to offer. It’s actually been a lot of fun – who woulda thunk. Plus I feel so much better knowing my baby’s booty is in something soft and plush vs. something scratchy and rough. I wasn’t a fan of the tiny crystals that appeared on her bum every so often from the chemicals in the disposals.
Here are the upfront costs from my initial purchases:
Not too bad right? Here’s my stash:
I got used Bumgenius’ so they were only $20 for 4 (normally $100+ for 6). I bought one of each brand to see which ones I’d prefer. I heard from many moms that their biggest regret with cloth diapering is going all in with one brand and not searching around. With 26 inserts and 8 covers I got triple the amount of inserts than I did covers. Usually it’s the inserts that get dirty, but you can use the covers over and over until a blow-out or leak happens.
I also invested in a diaper sprayer too. It’s something you attach to your toilet so when you get a poopy diaper you just blast the poop right off into the toilet without ever having to touch it.
Once I opened all my cloth diapers, I threw them in my top-loader washer (top loaders are better for washing cloth diapers)…
- Run the prewash cycle on COLD with NO detergent.
- Then do another regular wash cycle on HOT with one scoop of Charlie’s Soap or whatever you use.
- Then do one final HOT rinse cycle with NO detergent.
- You can throw the inserts in the dryer on a tumble-dry low heat setting.
- Line dry the covers, preferably outside in the sun. The sun has great bleaching powers!
Noelle just started wearing her cloths today so I’ll share more about the process and which diapers are my favorite once we get a rhythm down!
Cloth Diapering
This might sound crazy to some of you, but… my husband and I are thinking about cloth diapering! Or at least a hybrid where we’ll cloth diaper when she’s at home, and use disposables when we have to go out somewhere. My husband was even more enthusiastic about this idea than I was (and he was the one who suggested it!). But guess who gets to do all the work? Yep, that’d be me.
Cloth diapering isn’t what it used to be, where you just get a rag cloth and safety pin your baby in it. It has evolved into this mult-million dollar enterprise featuring different varieties of diapers, in all sorts of designs and colors. After a bunch of research, I think I’m most interested in using prefolds and all-in-ones. What the heck is the difference? Read this post that breaks down all the different cloth diapering systems!
Also, the cost difference between disposable diapers and cloth diapers are tremendous! I broke it down in a spreadsheet (I don’t know what I’d do without excel) and the savings from the time they’re an infant to a toddler are easily over $1000. This includes the cost of water and electricity too. Tack on another kid or two, and the savings double/triple because you can keep on using cloth diapers over and over again once you buy your initial set.
I used one of the higher-end cloth diaper brands to estimate the budget and it’s still a lot cheaper than disposables. If you choose to go the really cheap route, shave off another $200 from the estimate. Savings galore!
These aren’t just arbitrary numbers that I decided sounded good, so how did I come up with these calculations?
- I made the assumption that the average child will not start potty training until they’re 2 years old, so these calculations are 2 years’ worth of diapering your child.
- I calculated out the 2 extremes of cloth diapering. The very upscale vs. the dirt cheap. It seems that most women do a mix and match of the two so your cloth diapering costs will be somewhere in the range of $250-600.
- I didn’t calculate out the cost of laundry, but a 240-load box of Tide Detergent will set you back $45. Assume you did a load of cloth diapers every other day at $0.75 a load (to account for water + electricity). That’s a total of $11.25/month x 2 years = $360. For 2 years you might need 2 boxes of detergent. That’s a total laundry expense of $450 on top of your other cloth diapering expenses.
For Disposables, these were my assumptions:
- I assumed that newborns up to the first 3 months will average 12 diapers per day.
- That number decreases to 6 diapers/day for the remainder of their 2 years.
- I assumed that with every diaper change you’d use 3-4 wipes and that’s how I calculated the number of wipes needed.
I’m going to give cloth diapering a shot! Maybe not in the first month when I’m adjusting, but once I get the hang of things I’ll make the transition from disposable to cloth and see how it goes. To make cloth diapering cheaper, you don’t have to buy brand new everything. I found someone on craigslist who was selling her barely used, upscale BumGenius diapers and some prefolds for cheap. If I like them, I’ll slowly add more to my cloth diaper collection.
Other options are websites like DiaperSwappers exist where women sell/trade their diapers.
This website – Everything Birth – lets you sample a bunch of cloth diapers for the low price of $9.95 before you decide to buy. If you decide it’s not for you, simply return it!
I know cloth diapering is almost a stigma because of what we think cloth diapering is – a big hassle, gross and disgusting, etc etc. But times have changed and I’ve learned so much about it in my research that I’m much more open to it now than I was at first. I totally thought cloth diapering was an ancient art form done by old grandmas!
