I Heart Cloth Diapers

I used disposable diapers with our first son and really didn't ever think about cloth diapers until it dawned on me that, when we had our second son, we would then have TWO kids in diapers, with no foreseeable end, since Little Dude had not even turned two yet when JR was born. For me, the journey to cloth diapering started as an inquiry to saving money.

And I was really shocked at just how much I could save.

It is 35 dollars for 204 Walmart diapers. That makes it 17 cents per diaper. You can get the BumGenius 3.0 cloth diapers I have (and recommend the most for ease of use) for around 10 dollars a piece when you shop at www.diaperswappers.com or you can look for discounts on them at mom4life.com. Mom4Life.com is where I got most of mine on a deep discount and a coupon, so just keep your eyes out and occasionally she has gently used ones you can buy on super sale as well.

Plus for ever 3 you order, you get 3 more dollars off your total-and if you use the link in my ad space I make 1% of your subtotal and all proceeds from that will be going to the March Of Dimes in memory of my friend Heather's little girl,Maddie.

OK, back to the math. For cloth diapers, you will need about 12-20, depending on how often you do laundry. I suck at laundry doing, so I actually have 21, so that is $210 for used ones, $357 for brand new ones. And you are done. Now you only have to factor in the low cost of an extra load of laundry Which, by the way, you DO have to run the diapers once on hot and once on cold, so two extra washes per load of diapers. I do mine once a week.

On the same token, 4 disposable diapers a day adds up to $4.75 a week. I know, not much, but now, remember your child will be in diapers at least 2 years, if not closer to 3. And most kids that are potty trained during the day aren't dry at night until closer to 3 and a half. SO, in 58 a weeks-a little more than a year-you have spent an equal amount of money as a cloth diapering mom that bought expensive used cloth diapers. If she bought her cloth diapers new, then it will take 75 weeks of use to spend the same amount in disposables-or about a year and a half.

Only now you have 1 more year, plus pull ups (which I think are counter productive to potty training), plus diapers a night.

AND by then, you may be thinking of having another child. With cloth diapers, your second, third, fourth, and so on child is pretty much free, just the cost of the water for washing.

With disposables? Well, you are back to spending at least 300 a year for every year they use them-per each child. We would have been spending around 600 for the first year we had both Little Dude and Jr in disposable diapers, so it was a no brainer to invest in the cloth diapers.


The 21 I have are actually too many, and I really could get by with 12 now that my son is only using 2 a day. I have the pocket diapers, so I have inserts that go in them that I change when he only pees. He only poops once a day now, so I usually only go through one cover a day. Each BumGenius diaper comes with set of inserts, too. And this is one of the more expensive cloth diapering options.

For 24 dollars you can get 24 pre-folds, and then for about 4-10 dollars a piece you can get a variety of covers to use with them-the most expensive being water proof or adjustable in size, the cheaper options not. And you can find crazy cute covers on etsy. Love!

So going that route, (which I have done and found to be pretty easy but definitely bulky and a skill you must practice to get the folding right), you could end up spending less than 100 dollars and be done with all your diapering needs. I do have some prefolds-and I suggest trying those out before you invest in the more expensive kinds, just to make sure you feel committed to cloth diapering. I chose to go the BumGenius route because they were the most like regular diapers, and there is no folding involved, with makes my hubby and in laws happy.



Also, when all is said and done, potty training has been a breeze, because the kids HATE the feel of wet cloth next to them. JR is currently asking to pee on the potty rather than his diaper, and I haven't been pushing too hard on really training yet because:

*he isn't even two yet
*I'm going to have three kids touching stuff in the public restrooms now, and I'm not excited about those emergency trips in the first 6 months of training.

Any questions on cloth diapering? Let me know, I'm happy to share everything I have discovered so you can see if it works for you.

OH and one thing I can't live without? My diaper sprayer. You MUST have one. You can get it for 30 dollars from mom4life.com and I think the price was the same everywhere. It is super easy to install (I did it without my hubby around and didn't cause a flood. I KNOW I am proud, too!) and gets all the mess off the cloth diapers super quick and easy so you don't have to actually touch anything. Nice.