Oh, boy, DIAPERS. People warned me about this. (This means you, Glenda!) To cloth or not to cloth; that is the question. And the answer is, cloth diapers are better in many ways but maybe not as great as advertised. They are definitively better for the environment – studies showing that disposables and cloth are equally bad for the environment have been funded by disposable diaper companies. Good articles on the benefits and history of cloth diapering are here and here. Unbleached diapers – whether cloth or disposable – are better for babies’ bottoms because of the dioxin (this is the same deal as with menstrual pads). Disposables can be more convenient because they are all in one piece (the absorbent cloth, fastener, and waterproof cover) which is quicker and easier to change, they do not require a large initial investment, and they do not require extra loads of laundry (although they do require extra loads of garbage). On the other hand, cloth diapers can be more convenient in the long term – after your sizable initial investment, you only pay laundry costs so cloth diapering ends up much cheaper overall, children in cloth diapers potty train from six months to years earlier than children in disposables (Pampers just came out with a diaper that fits 5-year-olds), and depending on your diaper system the convenience can rival disposables (they make all-in-one cloth diapers now that you can just velcro on, basically a cloth version of a disposable diaper).
What people told me is, don’t feel guilt about doing disposable (subtext: everybody does it). This is true – fewer than 1 in 10 households use cloth diapers, and many cities no longer have cloth diapering services (including Rochester, unfortunately). Not only that, but unlike in the 1980s – when cloth diapering was a symbol of the environmentally conscious – nowadays they are more likely to get you mocked.
So, what have I learned? That initial cost is daunting, especially for the more convenient systems. It’s about $250 for the initial outlay of cloth diapering accessories: a diaper pail, 2 washable pail liners, 2 washable wet bags for dirty diapers on-the-go, a small supply of diaper fasteners, a few washable changing pads, a large supply of washable baby wipes, a sprayer hose that hooks to the toilet to spray down poopy diapers (as opposed to the old method of dunking and flushing with a good grip on the diaper), and a roll of flushable diaper liners.
Contrast that with the initial outlay for disposable diapers: a diaper pail, garbage bags, bulk disposable baby wipes, and a few washable changing pads, totaling around $100.
Then there are the diapers and covers themselves. You need about 12 a day to start, so if I figure on washing every 3 days or so, that’s 36-48 diapers. If you get all-cotton diapers you also need a waterproof cover to go over the diaper and some cloth inserts to stick in the diaper at night, when babies go longer between changes. If you get all-cotton diapers, you also have an initial cost to prepare the diaper – you must wash and dry all your diapers 3-10 times so they quilt up and get fluffy and soft, and so all of the oils in the unbleached cotton are removed (oils reduce absorbency). The cost of 48 newborn cloth diapers, 8 covers, and the laundry at our local laundromat for 6 wash-dry cycles of 24 diapers at a time is $150, enough to last around 6-8 weeks. We’d probably pay the same amount again twice more as our baby grew.
Contrast that with the initial outlay for disposable diapers: bulk newborn chlorine-free diapers for $56, enough to last around 1 1/2 weeks.
Of course, that’s the cheap cloth option – for more convenience you can pay much more. But even the cheap option has a more significant outlay, a total of $400 as opposed to $156.
As another cloth option that is more convenient, say we got pocket diapers (similar in convenience to disposables) instead and decided to do laundry every 2 days. We’d need 24 diapers plus inserts, which is $400 as a package deal online. After the newborn size, you can buy a pocket diaper that is “one size” and fits from about 10 pounds through potty training (35+ pounds). If we got 24 of those plus inserts, that would be about $500, $900 total for the cloth diapers for one child. Or we could mix and match – do the cheap newborn option and then do the pocket diapers, for a total of $650. That seems to make the most sense to me.
In conclusion, I can see how cloth diapering would be much cheaper over the long run, but it is still crazy how much diapers cost. A perfect gift, for those going to Molly’s shower, would be a one-size pocket diaper, which run about $20 each. Any brand is good because I would like to try a variety. Somerville is lucky enough to have the Diaper Lab (right across the street from our apartment), where you can go see the diaper before you buy. The in-store prices are comparable to what I have found online. Diaper inserts are often sold separately, and would make another great gift. (As a side note, I have been warned to stay away from the all-in-one or AIO diaper because they take forever to dry – pocket diapers, once stuffed with inserts, work the same way but don’t take as much time to dry).
Too Much Information, huh.
