To some, the idea of using cloth diapers may seem archaic and backwards. Or it may just seem like it would be too much work. I admit - I was definitely in that pool of thinking at first. Having a good friend who's been using them for 5 years and having used them for over a year myself, I can vouch that they really aren't that bad. Admittedly there are days when I'm annoyed with dunking the diaper in the toilet or having to re-adjust my laundering routine. Overall, however, I've grown to actually love using cloth diapers on my baby. And I don't seem to find myself more annoyed than any other parent I know of who uses disposables when it comes to diapering.
I chose to start using cloth diapers almost right away after my son was born. We put him in disposables for the first month and then plunged into cloth after that. I put in a lot of research before he was born to learn about cloth diapers and decide which type I wanted to purchase. There are many, many options of cloth diapers from prefolds (the standard square or rectangle piece of cloth that typically comes to mind) which must be used with a separate cover to what are called All-In-Ones (a prefold sewn into a polyurethane cover) that you just throw on the kiddo, Velcro or snap on, and go. I chose to go with the most economical choice (the prefolds). My first purchase of cloth diapers included 24 prefolds, 2 snappis (they hold the diaper together), and 6 covers. When my son was about four months old I made my second purchase of 24 larger prefolds and 6 larger covers and 2 more snappis. Along the way I also purchased a few extra absorbent liners to place in the cloth diaper for the night time as well as 4 All-In-One diapers. All-In-Ones are more expensive (at least twice the cost of prefolds). I found some used, however, on craigslist and gave them a good disinfecting wash when I brought them home. I just wanted to try a different type of diaper out and see if I preferred them over the prefolds.
So far I have spent approximately $280 on on all my cloth diapering materials. I also use re-usable cloth wipes (this was my husband's suggestion). I purchased a couple packs of cotton detailing rags from the car section at Wal-Mart for $3 each and cut them up into wipe-size strips. They have lasted me 15 months and counting. Most of these materials I'll be able to use for my second and most likely my third child as well. I may have to replace a few covers here and there, but the prefolds will probably last us forever because they're so well-made.
Since cloth diapers have to be laundered, there is also an expense for the water and energy required to do so. It's possible to wash cloth diapers by hand, but I have no desire to attempt this. I own a used washer and dryer which cost us $125 for both. I don't include that in my cost for diapers because I would have purchased those regardless.
When I decided to write this post I hadn't actually crunched numbers to determine exactly how much we were spending per month on laundering our diapers. It seems that utilities are higher here than where we moved from, so I decided it was time to know for sure how much we were really saving by using cloth diapers. This wasn't easy. In a nutshell, I figured out how many gallons of water my washer used per wash cycle, I multiplied that three times since I do a pre-wash, a regular wash, and a rinse, and then I multiplied that by 15 since that's the approximate number of washes I do per month. Then I multiplied that by cost- per-gallon of water. Cost per gallon is easily obtained by dividing your water bill by number of gallons used. This told me that we spend approximately $6 per month for the water used to wash diapers. To determine how many kilowatts per hour we used to launder our diapers, I recorded our kwh reading prior to starting a load of diapers. As soon as both the washing and drying were finished, I recorded the kwh reading again. Then I recorded it once after the same time interval it took to launder the diapers had passed, except without running the washer or the dryer. I then subtracted the difference between the two time intervals and determine that was how many kwh it took to launder my diapers. If I were to be more precise, I would do this over again several times to get a consistent figure. It came out to 3 kwh. I multiplied that by how much each kwh cost and then multiplied that by 15 (number of loads a month) and it comes out to about $6. So it cost us approximately $12 per month to launder our diapers.
So over the course of two years, I will have spent approximately $568 total on cloth diapers. In addition, I keep disposables on hand for any time we're traveling, at church, or away from the house longer than a couple hours. I probably spend approximately $5 a month on disposables. Sometimes less, sometimes more. So total cost for diapering my baby for 2 years comes out to around $688 to $700. We're looking forward to that price going down on our second kiddo since we won't have to purchase a whole new lot of cloth diapers. I've read estimates that diapering a baby in only disposables for two years can be in the ballpark of $1200 to $2000 depending on what kind of diapers you're purchasing.
- They're cheaper.
- They help you be more self-reliant. I don't feel like I'm a slave to always looking for deals on diapers.
- Some babies experience less diaper rash in cloth.
- They're better for the environment.
Cons:
- They require a little extra work.
- Laundering can get tricky because you have to use certain detergents that won't ruin the cloth.
- They require a decent amount of research before you plunge to make a purchase.
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