Why use cloth?

Table of Contents

Cost

While cloth may take more funds up front, in the long term cloth diapers save a significant amount of money over disposable diapers.  For my older sons, who took a while to potty train I estimate I spent around $4000 EACH on disposable diapers and pull ups.  They were both well into three years old before they trained.  The son I have now, will cost around $800 to diaper (well its working out to a little more because I test brands on him, but the testing is part of the business -- his base diaper stash doesn't cost more than $800). 

This is a photo of Max. He is 6 years old and he is standing next to only one month's supply of disposable diapers!!!  Behind him are similar racks filled with cloth diapers, that would diaper several babies for their whole diapering careers!

The cheapest cloth diaper solution is pre-folds with snappi's or pins for closures and a cover, like a wool cover.  This essentially is what I used for my first over 20 years ago.  Its not the most convenient, but if you want to keep costs to an absolute minimum then this a good option.  And you won't see prefolds for sale in my store (maybe I will stock some hemp ones at some point to be used as night time inserts) because I believe cloth diapering has come so far that I don't want to go backwards and use pre-folds.  If you are bound and determined to use pre-folds, get good quality ones, as the cheap ones won't even last one pee with many babies.  Pre-folds in my household get used to clean up baby messes that are NOT diaper related.

Fitted diapers and a cover can be the next cheapest option, although some fitteds can be quite expensive because they can be made of wonderful luxurious organic materials.  Its a two part process, but can be very affordable.  In general you will use several fitted diapers to one cover.  You only wash the cover when it becomes soiled.

Pocket diapers tend to be the next option on the price scale, and finally all in ones.

Lets say you wanted to use the simplest to use, but one of the most expensive diapers I sell on my site.  A $25 AIO (All in One).  If you decide to wash every two days, and you change your baby about 10 times a day, then at most you will need around 30 diapers.  Simple math puts this cost to be around $750.  Way cheaper than disposables!

Baby Health

Did you know that disposable diapers have been found to contain trace amounts of a carcinogen called DIOXIN?  In addition they contain other chemicals to improve the absorbency and to make them smell better.  For many babys in disposable diapers, diaper rash is a common event, I know it was with my previous child.  I put creams on with nearly every change with him.

Cloth diapers in general tend to be made from natural fibers.  My son in cloth diapers, and my daughter 20 odd years ago, rarely had diaper rash.

The Environment

Disposable diapers make up at least 15% of municipal waste! (Not hard to believe when you look at that picture of Max above). They represent the third largest single item (after newspapers and beverage and food containers) in the municipal waste stream.  A cloth diaper can use used over and over again, and generally can be passed on to other children born to the family or even sold second hand on sites like diaperswappers.com.

I have been asked the question, what about the water required to wash cloth?  Did you know the manufacture of disposable diapers uses more water than laundering cloth diapers?  And also consider the fact that the water from washing cloth diapers is considered relatively benign, while the waste water from making disposables contains "solvents, sludge, heavy metals, unreacted polymers, dioxins and furans."

And what about the energy required to care for cloth diapers?  Disposable diapers consume 70% MORE energy than the average cloth diaper.

 (source:  Lehrburger, Mullen, James, Diapers: Environmental Impacts and Lifecycle Analysis, January 1991).

Disposable diapers also take more energy to make.  In a study by Ginny Caldwell (Cloth vs Disposable Diapers) she states that it takes 5 times the energy to produce a disposable diaper over a cloth diaper.  (And you only need a few cloth diapers compared to disposables).  Over 3.4 billion gallons of oil and hundreds of thousands of trees are used to produce disposable diapers every year.  When you compare this to the fact that many of the fabrics that go into making cloth diapers are made from renewable and sustainable resources like cotton, hemp and bamboo ... its very simple math.

Studies show:
"The average child uses close to 5,000 diapers" (1)
"It takes 440 to 880 pounds of fluff pulp and 286 pounds of plastic (including packaging) per year to supply one baby with disposable diapers." (2)

(1) John Krauser, Associate director, Ontario Medical Association, Letter to the Toronto Board of Health, April 12, 1991.

(2) Environment Canada, Reusable Cloth Diapers, 1990

Convenience

While disposable diapers are convenient, cloth diapers are also thanks to new product designs and great accessories.  Putting the diaper on the baby is similar thanks to great new closure systems.  You do not have to poke around with pins.  For example, many diapers use a velcro material as a closure.

You do not need to pre-soak or rinse off or dunk diapers as many people think you do.  Check out my FAQ's on laundry care and dry pail.  I have also written several blog articles on Cloth Diaper Care.

And when you are out and about, wet bags are great for storing soiled diapers.

Potty Training

Disposable diapers try to have "dryness" as a key feature.  And I believe this feature is the reason why my two oldest sons took forever to train.  It was only when I put them in underwear and let them feel the wetness and discomfort that we progress with training when they were three.  My daughter who was cloth diapered, trained soon after she turned two.  And she took next to no effort.  Cloth allows your child to feel the discomfort of being wet.  For younger infants, there are fabrics that you can use in cloth diapers that give them a dryer feeling if you wish.

In general, cloth diapered toddlers will train sooner.

Other

Above is the main things, but here are some things I have noticed as I have used both types of diaper.

Less stink with cloth!  Yes its true.  The method I use for wash and care of my diapers has next to no stink.  Refer to my washing and dry pail FAQ's for more information.  That old disposable diaper pail I used for my previous child stank so bad, the master bathroom where we stored it, always had to have its door shut.  I was constantly buying different air fresheners to try and disguise the stink.  And when it came time to empty the thing and take the bag to the trash, the smell would trail through the house as it was taken outside.

We don't overfill our trash can.  When we used disposables often our trash can would over flow on trash day.

They are so much cuter!  My son has diapers in wonderful colours, patterns and fabrics.  In the summer time when we wear just a diaper and shirt, I am constantly getting comments on how cute his butt looks :)

Easy to use. Between using cloth the first time and this time, they have come so far.  They are so easy to use!  You have a wide choice in closures and styles.

No blowouts!  With my two older boys, so many outfits were ruined with poopy blowouts, especially up the back.  Poop leaks were almost a daily event.  With cloth, I can count on one hand the number of times we have had poop leak.  And that was thanks to user error, as in I didn't do something right when I put the diaper on.  I would like to say I have less clothing changes, but my son drooled alot when he was smaller, so I cant :)  But I can honestly say we dont have clothing changes due to poop accidents :)