The Great Diapering Debate

Cloth or Disposable

By Guest Blogger Ruby from the Sweet House Life Blog

 

The Scoop on Poop

Disposable Blowout

When I first think of cloth diapers versus disposable diapers one word comes to mind.  Poop.  Let’s be honest here, every baby does it, not every diaper contains it.  Speaking from my own experience with cloth and disposables, I have only had one true poopexplosion using my cloth diapers, and that, unfortunately, was because of user error.  The poop exploded up her side and all over her pretty pink onesie.  It was gross.  So gross, I never wanted it to happen again.  Then, enters our weekend of disposables….. we decided to take a suitcase full of disposables on a weekend to the grandparents’ house (I was truly scared to travel with cloth at this point).  All was going well, smiling baby, giggling grandparents, tons of pictures, and then you hear “OH NO, grab a towel.”  In baby-land, that can mean two things, either you got blasted with spit up, or pooped on.  Unfortunately for grandma, it was the latter of the two.  There was poop everywhere, all over my daughter, grandma, her blanket and even her socks.  It was sick. What might you ask then is the difference between the disposable poop and the cloth poop?  Well, it happened four other times JUST that weekend…. that, my friends, is the difference.  One poop explosion, when we’ve been using cloth for over nine months, versus four poop explosions after using our disposables for a mere 3 days.   Needless to say, we now travel with cloth EVERY single time.  Also, after hubby received the other three blowouts, he was a cloth believer ;). 

                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 say you spend about $450 on your initial diapering costs.  This would include a package of enough Softbums diapers to get your child from birth to potty training, a diaper sprayer, some detergent, and your wipes and wipe solution.  This might seem like a large amount, and it is, up front, but me oh my it will save you in the longrun. 

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!

 

And really, who can resist the cute factor?

5 Tips for Gaining Support with Cloth Diapering

As a parent you have probably spent your entire nine months of pregnancy preparing for the arrival of your baby making sure that everything is perfect when they arrive. You’ve researched cloth diapers and decided that you are ready to make the commitment.

Now, how do you convince your partner, spouse, significant other, childcare facility, and others to make this commitment with you? After all, you don’t plan on changing ALL those diapers by yourself do you?

5 Tips for Gaining Support with Cloth Diapering

1. Determine what motivates others. While your spouse might be motivated by the cost savings your childcare provider might be motivated by ease of use. Let that motivator be your focus when explaining to them why you are choosing cloth diapers on your baby.

2. Consider a name change. Call them reusable diapers, modern cloth diapers, or call them by brand name (i.e. Soft Bums) when introducing them to others.

3. Show them off. Having a sample diaper on hand to explain how they work can help ease most people’s fears about cloth diapers. Remember that most people still haven’t seen all the new varieties of cloth diapers that are available.

4. Remember to talk about how easy they are to use. They are just as easy as disposable diapers.  Debunk the common myths like having to swish them in the toilet.

5. Ask them to consider a trial period. If you are approaching a childcare facility or caregiver about cloth diapering and you receive any hesitations have them consider a trial period. Chances are that after they see how easy they are to use they won’t object.

Whatever you do, remember to make things easy for everyone involved. If you are going to be putting your baby in day care you probably don’t want to use pre-fold’s with snappis and covers when you can use Soft Bums all-in-two system instead. If your husband is going to be responsible for changing a majority of the diapers (in our dreams right!) you probably don’t want to give him a diaper with 30 snaps on it when you could give him one with Velcro.

My personal story:

When I told my husband I wanted to use cloth diapers he looked at me like I had 6 eyes. He felt a little better once I bought one diaper and showed him how they worked.  After a year of cloth diapering he has accepted them as well as can be expected.  I have to keep reminding him how much money we've saved this year and that usually brings a smile back to his face. 

When we were interviewing caregivers we had a few diapers available with us and explained how they worked. Here is a sample of the conversation with them: “We use modern cloth diapers like this on our baby, are your familiar with them? Let me show you how similar they are to disposable diapers.”

Don’t get frustrated, stay positive and try not to get defensive.  People just want their concerns to be heard before they make the commitment with you.

Want additional support? The Real Diaper Association has several pamphlets developed that you can use when introducing cloth diapers to your friends, family and caregivers.

Consider Cloth Pamphlet

Day Care Tip Sheet

This is a guest post by Calley Pate, author and owner of The Eco Chic blog. Calley is an environmental consultant by profession and eco-mommy blogger. She has been cloth diapering her daughter for just over a year.