Intro to cloth diapering

 

So before we even got pregnant my husband and I had discussed wanting to try cloth diapering. I know what you're thinking but hear me out. 

Some of the reasons we wanted to try cloth diapering: 

1. The overall cost of disposable diapers- this is honestly the main reason it costs roughly $1000 per year per kid to use disposable diapers. We knew we would be going down to one income once we became parents and we were looking for ways to save money so that we could continue to live our lifestyle on one income.

2. The environment- this is important but being honest money was more important to us in this decision. Still a disposable diaper takes 500 years to breakdown. Thats insane to me. Plus we wanted to reduce the sheer amount of trash that we were producing each week. 

3. They could be reused with additional children- thus increasing the savings overtime 

4. Breastfed poop is water soluble- so if you are exclusively breastfeeding the diaper can go right into the washer and it will dissolve. This is great when you are first learning how to cloth diaper. 

5. Potty training- people have said its a lot easier to train with cloth diapers because they don't wick away the moisture. I currently cannot comment on this because at the time that I am writing this my baby is only 6 months old. But I'll keep you posted. 

My baby's first cloth diaper- it looks so big on him! The look he is giving my husband is the best!

Ok here are the biggest comments I get when I tell someone that we cloth diaper plus my response:

1. What about the poop? What about it? I guess this just doesn't phase me like it does others. First of all my husband and I are both nurses so I feel like it helps a bit. Second of all- not trying to be the bearer of bad news but if you are the primary caregiver of a baby you are going to have to deal with poop on a regular basis. 

2. Isn't that so much extra laundry? Not really- we do laundry about every 3 days so it's only about 2 extra loads a week. The difference is quite negligible on our water bill- I don't even notice it. Plus there is no folding- they come right out of the dryer and straight into the drawer 

3. Aren't you worried that you are going to stab them with a pin. Nope- cloth diapers have come a long way- you can use the older methods with saftey pins but the ones that we purchased have snaps instead of pins. 

4. Doesn't that restrict their movement and physical development- Nope this is simply not true. Babies have been in cloth diapers for thousands of years and have all developed gross motors skills with no hinderance. It's true that cloth diapers are a little more "fluffy" but my child hit all his gross motor skills on time with them. 

5. Don't they develop more diaper rash?  Nope. In fact many babies tend to get more rashes from the chemicals in disposable diapers. 

6. They don't absorb as much as disposables and you can't go as often between changes- this is true and is something to consider. Even the best cloth diaper can only last a little over 2 hours. 

This is one of my favorite cloth diaper patterns 

So when I was first pregnant and started researching cloth diapers it was super overwhelming. There are so many acronyms and different types of diapers and inserts that I believe that is the first barrier to entry. I'm trying to simplify it for you: 

Three main types of cloth diapers: 

These are the 3 main types of modern cloth diapers. You can do a lot of the older methods (called pre-folds and flats) but honestly I haven't done much research into them because I knew I wanted to do a more modern style with the cute prints. 

1. Pockets: These tend to be the most common diaper, they are typically fairly cheap and come in a large variety of patterns/colors. They have a pocket in between the waterproof fabric and the baby to insert absorbent material 

Pros: Cheap-often what people start with, easy to wash and dry 

Con: there is an extra step with laundry- you have to physically stuff the inserts into the pocket. This can be time consuming. 

2. All in ones (AIOs): This is the cover with the water proof material and the absorbent insert sewn into it- thus "all in one" 

Pros: Very user friendly, especially if you have a partner who is hesitant. You just take it on and off like a regular diaper. The insert is already in the diaper you don't have to stuff it

Cons: Tend to be more expensive. They also take longer to to dry because the insert is sewn into it 

3. All in Twos (AI2s): This is a waterproof cover with snaps on the inside. You can snap the insert into it and then take it out for laundry 

Pros: Easier for laundering because you can separate the insert from the cover. If the baby only peed and it didn't soak through to the cover you can put in a new insert and re-use the cover thus saving money on how many covers you need.

Cons: Tend to be more expensive that pockets (but less than AIOs), you do have to snap in the insert but it's not as time consuming as pockets. 

We chose to go with AI2's because it seemed to be the best of both worlds for us. 

My drawer set up for inserts and covers for our all in twos 

Main types of inserts: 

Here is a great chart for the different type of inserts and their pros and cons. 

Many people start with microfiber because it is cheap and absorbs quickly, but as your baby grows they will begin to leak through the microfiber and you will have to use something else. Part of learning to cloth diaper is playing with the different types of inserts as your child grows and learning what works best for them. 

Things to consider:

1. You do not have to use cloth diapers 100% of the time to save money. Although I would recommend aiming for at least 60-70% of the time just to get a return on your investment. We chose to use disposable diapers at night because we didn't want our baby waking unnecessarily in the night because he was wet. This is also typically when most of the leaks happen and we didn't want to deal as much with that. We also use disposables if we are out for the majority of the day (more than 2 hours) or if we are on vacation. 

2. A big barrier to entry besides the confusing lingo is the upfront costs- babies are expensive and cloth diapers can be very expensive to start with. We were able to purchase the majority of our supplies "pre-loved" through Facebook marketplace- this saved us a ton of money. 

3. Another barrier to entry is that you need to come up with a "set-up" for where you want the dirty diapers to go. We have a large trash can that has a large wet bag and a trash bag in it so that we can throw trash in the trash bag and cloth diapers in the wet bag. When it is time to wash the diapers I just take the wet bag out and throw it in the washer. 

4. It's a commitment it does take more thinking and effort than using disposables. We knew that my husband was going to home with the baby on a daily basis and therefore we could commit to using cloth majority of the time. If you are constantly running around, gone every day with your baby then maybe cloth isn't for you. 

5. Most covers are made for babies to be at least 10lbs so newborn babies often don't fit into them right away. You can purchase newborn size ones but honestly this just didn't make sense for us financially because they wouldn't be used for very long. Plus newborn poop in the first week is tarry, and then changing colors- I wasn't sure how well it would do in the washer. We started officially cloth diapering at 5 weeks old. After the amount of diapers that newborns go through I was eager to bust out the cloth. 

Crunching the numbers: 

We bought two separate peoples "stashes" of Facebook Marketplace. 

Stash 1: $125 

Stash 2: $150 

Additional Inserts: $80 (used gift cards so it was technically free for us)

Total spent on cloth diapers: $355

Calculating what we would've spent had we gone all disposable: 

1-4 months roughly 55 diapers a week

4-6 months roughly 48 diapers a week

Roughly 180 diapers per pack $35 (we get the costco ones because they seem to be the best quality for the best deal). A box would last us roughly 3 weeks if we only used disposables for months 1-6. This would roughly cost us about $280 for disposable diapers 

Because we use disposables at night and when we are out we have used 3 boxes of costco diapers so roughly $105 

Based on these calculations we are set to break even in cost at roughly 7.5 months and then save money after that. This is definitely a "long game" that you have to commit to to see a return on your investment. We would've broke even earlier if we didn't use disposables at night and out but we also knew we would be able to commit to it more if we made it easier on ourselves and did it this way. 

But how do you wash them???: Check out this post when I dive into that topic: https://craftytravelgirl.blogspot.com/2023/03/how-to-wash-cloth-diapers-and.html