Cloth or Disposable
By Guest Blogger Ruby from the Sweet House Life Blog
The Scoop on Poop
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| Disposable Blowout |
Why do cloth diapers tend to hold the poo in better? I believe it has to do with the back elastic on the cloth diaper. It has the ability to be snuggly up against the baby’s back and conform to their actual curves, thus holding in the diapers contents. With the adjustable leg openings, Velcro closure, adjustable absorbency, and back elastic, you have a diaper that fits perfect every single time.
All About the Benjamins
Let’stalk about my husband’s favorite part of cloth diapering, saving all those benjamins!!! I’m not going to lie, as the budgeter of the family, I love it too. Want to make yourself feel good? Write down all of the things you do to save money in one column with the associated costs, and then in the other column write down what it would cost you if you decided not to save that money. Ahhhh, instant gratification. Cloth diapering will just add to that amazingly satisfied feeling.
Let’s assume that the average family using disposables will consume about 63 diapers a week (9 changes in a day). Each disposable diaper costs about 27 cents (I used a package of Huggies on Amazon.com). Therefore, disposables are costing roughly $68 a month, $816 a year, or $2,040 in 2 ½ years, and remember, this is conservatively speaking.
Now, there are some slight continuing costs associated with cloth diapering. Our water bill has gone up between $4-$6(using an HE washing machine), we hang dry, so we haven’t seen an increase in our electricity, and about once every four months I have to buy detergent which is $13. Overall, a continuing cost of about $100.00 a year. So from birth to 2½ years, it would cost roughly $700. At this point, many of your items can be used for more children as well, thus giving you an even greater savings. I don’t know about you, but in my mind $700 > $2,040 (however you want to do your math ).
“So, It’s Just Like a Disposable”
Now, one thing that people who aren’t into cloth diapers always say is, “disposables are just so much easier.” My response? Well, let me show you how easy cloth is. I take it off of my child’s bum, use a cloth wipe, wrap the snapped in insert and wipe up together and throw it in a wetbag. When the wetbag is full, I dump everything into the washer, and wash it. When it’s done, I hang it up. If it’s poopy, I spray it, so add 10 seconds onto my diaper change time. I suppose I don’t understand the difficulty of it. The interesting thing that a lot of people don’t know is that if you read up on disposable diapers, it actually states that you are supposed to flush the poo down the toilet. It isn’t supposed to go into a landfill (I wonder how many people actually do that). So, if you truly used a disposable diaper in the way that it was intended, it wouldn’t necessarily save you any time during the diaper change process.
One thing I love is when I have a disposable diaper using friend babysit my child (this EXACT situation has happened three different times). I go to show them how to use my Velcro cloth Softbums, and I do it by demonstrating on my baby. Once I show them (in all of 5 seconds) the next thing out of their mouth is “so, it’s just like a disposable.” Why yes, it is just as easy to put on as disposables, and I always want to throw in there “but yet my child won’t poop all over you,” but I generally refrain.
Remember that story from the first paragraph? Our weekend with disposables? Well, we had to stay in disposables for a while after that because my sweet little one had contracted a yeast infection from them (doc said it was likely the Ph level difference in the diapers), and we couldn’t use the cream with our cloth diapers. Therefore, we were stuck using disposables for an extra week. That being said, when we were nearing the end of the everlasting yeast infection, my husband was changing a diaper as I was sitting in the nursery, and he asked me “when can we go back to cloth?” My response was,“soon, why?” and his most AMAZING response ever was, “because it’s easier.” Enough said.
So,when you have a friend or loved one say, “why choose cloth?” you have your gunsblazing and your facts ready! It’s just obvious, cloth wins everytime!
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And really, who can resist the cute factor?
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