As a cloth diapering mom, I get the occasional question from some friend or acquaintance: Is cloth hard to wash? Don't they smell bad? Why use cloth, anyway? Disposables are so much more convenient...etc. etc. Today's blog is in a series of pros and cons...
Pros for Cloth:
*cheap
*reusable (even from baby to baby)
*kinder to baby's bottom, for a couple reasons:
--no harsh chemicals (it is not even recommended to soak cloth diapers in bleach anymore like they used to do)
--fewer incidences of diaper rash, as they are more breathable than disposables (especially when used coverless), and you can change cloth more often without the worry of wasting money.
*innovations in cloth diapering have made cloth diapering your baby almost as quick and easy as using a disposable.
*cloth diapers are cute, cute, and cute. You will want to show off your diapers at every oppotunity!
*cloth diapers can be adjusted for higher absorbency, especially nice for when baby starts sleeping through the night without a diaper change.
*poop from an exclusively breasfed baby (no solids or formula) is liquid enough that the whole diaper can be thrown in the wash as is-- no need to rinse or dunk.
*cloth diapers are less likely to leak newborn poop; blowouts are better contained in a cloth diaper cover than a disposable.
*many cloth diapering parents claim cloth diapered babies potty train sooner, though it's no guarantee.
Cons for Cloth:
*you have to wash them.
*out of the house, dirty cloth diapers must be carried around with you until you get home to put them in the diaper pail.
*slightly more difficult to change, particularly in a public setting
*they take up more space in a diaper bag
*solid or semi-sold poop must be dumped in the toilet (though technically, you're supposed to do this with disposables, too) and sometimes you will have to dunk and rinse the whole diaper, getting your hands dirty in the process
*slightly less sanitary, but nothing soap and water can't fix
Pros for Disposables:
*lighter and less bulky to carry around.
*diaper changes are typically quick and easy.
*slightly more sanitary than cloth, since the pee is all absorbed into the absorbent core of the diaper.
*diaper is thrown away after using; no need to carry it around with you.
Cons for Disposables:
*they are expensive. the typical household using disposables will pay well over $1000from birth to potty training for one child (and that's assuming they potty train before age 3)
*they leak alot (this was the original reason I switched to cloth when my first baby was 5 months old)
*diaper rash is more common in disposable diapered babies.
*disposable diapers contain chemicals which can cause severe reactions in some babies.
*when a disposable diaper is full of pee, it sags and looks really gross-- in my own personal opinion. not cute at all.
*they smell bad.
It always bothers me when I hear parents compaining about the cost of disposable diapers, and think that it is a necessary expense of raising a baby today. Because it isn't. There is a much cheaper option out there, and yet so many people fail to even consider using cloth. Somehow, it has aquired a negative stigma among modern parents. I know, because I was one of those parents when my first baby came along. I couldn't picture myself using cloth, it seemed gross and old-fashioned and so inconvenient.
Now, though, I realize it is hardly any of those things: cloth is no more gross to me now than a disposable; innovative cloth diaper designs make cloth diapering today anything but old-fashioned; and as for being inconvenient, they may be that at times, but not most of the time. And when I do use the occasional disposable diaper for "convenience," I realize something that most parents using disposables fail to realize: paying for disposable diapers is not a necessity, it is a choice; and if you choose the convenience of disposables for your baby, you will pay heavily for that convenience. If that's okay with you, then go ahead and fork over your money. But don't complain about it, because there is another option, and it's not a bad one, either. As for me, I'd rather save my money for something that won't just get thrown away and sit in a landfill somewhere.
Why do I use cloth? Why wouldn't I?
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Sorry Sylvia, I have to disagree on this one! I agree they are cheap and reusable, but all the other reasons either didn't apply or weren't true for me!
ReplyDeleteWhy I chose to use disposable diapers:
1. Sanitation- I knew there would be plenty of clean ups by the time potty training came around, and I wanted nothing to do with the soaking, rinsing, and constant HUGE amount of laundry. To me, the tradeoff in bills was not running my washer and dryer constantly- one day a week only.
2.My son did everything fairly early- including solid foods- ate everything off the table before one year.
3. My son had almost no diaper rashes.
4. No leaks
5. Not much sagging with the diapers I used.
6. My son decided he was ready to potty train at two.
Thanks for the nice layout of pros and cons though!
And I'm glad its worked for you. =)
Certainly, disposables might work out fine for some people. I was happy to be using cloth with baby #1 because he had _massive_ blowouts in the disposables that would get all over his clothes, the floor, walker, couch, bed...With baby #2 I had already planned to use cloth, but the few times I used disposables when he was a newborn, he had horrible diaper rash; rarely a problem when he's in cloth, though...It has made perfect sense for me to use cloth, at least for the first year of diapering (we did use disposables quite a bit with Gabe after 12 months because he struggled so much during changes and he was soaking through his diapers so fast we were changing him what seemed like every half-hour). Even our older son wears cloth at night, though; anything else he will leak out pee all over the sheets by morning.
ReplyDeleteFeel very grateful your kid potty trained so early!
We have considered using cloth for the rest of our children, however many that may be. Mainly because we now have a washer and dryer. I used to nanny 2 kids in cloth. It takes getting used to. I still don't know if we will. But it's totally possible. I did see a spreadsheet comparing the costs, including water, electricity, etc. and per this person's calculations, it was cheaper to do cloth. Even with all the washing.
ReplyDeleteJulie, if you get to the point where you want to do it, let me know and I can give you a lot of good information to help things go more smoothly. For now I'll just say, if you're serious about cloth, _don't_ buy the Gerber diapers. They work great as burp rags, not so great as diapers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for "following" me :D