Raising A Family

I chose to use cloth diapers for our last child. It started a little like this. When she was a few months old it started to really bother me to throw diapers away. Every time I took a diaper out to the trash can, I would imagine this gigantic pile of diapers sitting in a garbage dump somewhere. I know that’s not how it literally is, but if you think about it there are millions of diapers rotting under the earth. And they can’t rot completely so part of them will stay forever. I didn’t want this to be the earth my sweet baby would grow up to call her own.

So with the encouragement of my husband and very generous mother in law (who offered to help pay for my first set) I started doing research. I read about almost every cloth diaper out there. It almost got addicting to see how much people loved to cloth diaper. It felt like there was a whole new world of cloth diapering parents out there. After doing my research, I was convinced that if I were to stick to it, and have my husband participate, I needed to use something simple.

I finally chose a very popular pocket diaper. Fuzzi Bunz seemed very easy to use and easy to clean. I was getting excited. Paying an initial price of about $14.95 a diaper was a little hard to swallow at first, but you really do save money in the end. I bought my first set and it was all over from there. I had a great experience using cloth diapers, but it definitely is not the same as using disposables.

Before you rush out and spend the money on cloth diapers let me share some of my thoughts about the experience. Some pros and some cons. Most of the cons are about inconvenience more then anything.

Using cloth diapers makes less of an impact the environment. I did just a little bit to make our world a better place. They were also cheaper in the end which is a plus. Who doesn’t like to save money? I even sold her diapers as she grew out of them. There was no need to run to the store to grab diapers. I just had to throw a load in the wash. They were very cute!! (I just had to throw that one in) And one last thing, and this could be argued, is that if you notice I’m talking about my experience in the past tense? That’s because my daughter started showing an interest in potty training at 17 months. We haven’t used a cloth diaper in over 2 months. Was it the feeling of wetness you don’t get with a disposable diaper? Who knows for sure, but I like to think it was.

Now for some cons. I don’t have too many, but there are a few things I need to mention. First, although I used one of the most convenient methods out there it was still a little more time consuming. You have to wash them, you have to stuff them, and they take about ummm 5 seconds longer to change. There is also an initial cost that doesn’t always fit into the budget. You can start out with just a few though and wash more often. It’s hard to travel with them. This is especially hard on long trips when a washing facility is not available. I will admit I used disposables when we were away from home for longer than a day. And finally, believe it or not there are some people out there that will think you’re from the stone age. Be prepared to get some crazy questions and comments.

To sum things up, I loved cloth diapering. It was rather easy and it paid off for us. I would encourage you to do some research and think about it before you start. There’s no need to spend the money on diapers that will just sit on a shelf.

Oh yeah, one more final thing. For some strange reason buying the diapers can get addicting. So if you’re really in it to save money, be careful.