Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Cloth Diapering: A Beginners Guide-Reasons We Went To Cloth

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So I'm about a week and a half into cloth diaper and I LOVE IT. I really can't believe that I waited this long. I was so worried about the time it would take, but it's really really so easy. So this will be a long series of posts, but I didn't ever really find a good Beginners Guide while I was doing ALL my research. I thought it would be nice if I posted some basic information for anyone out there who is interested.

First my reasons why I decided to cloth diaper. First, I felt hesitant about the idea of disposable diapers. I didn't like the idea of chemicals on my baby all day long, especially in such a sensitive area. Plus, I hate wearing pads-so why would my baby like it for 2-3 years straight?? Second, the money savings is something you can't ignore. Most sites say people will spend between $1500 and $2000 in diapering one child from birth to potty training. We wanted to do our own math to make sure it was best for our family. Here's what it added up to:

I estimated we change him (at 13 months) about 7x per day.
His diapers come in packs of about 30 diapers, so a pack will last about 4.25 days (OUCH!)
So with a 30 day month, it is about 7 packs!!
I coupon for my diapers (Huggies) so I normally can get them for the average of $6/pack.
7 packs a month * $6/pack=$42, throw in $5-$10 a month for wipes and it's about $47-$50 a month. That's not even including diaper genies or other fancy stuff some people do.
Estimating we potty train around 30 months, that is 17 more moths of diapers. 17*$50 is $850.

I gave myself a budget of $200 to start CD, so immediately we save $650. If we would have started at birth it could have saved us even more. Also, with our next baby, we can use the same diapers, so that's even more of a savings. Just imagine, a family of 4 children would spend about $8,000 in diapers!

There are many other reasons to CD, another of mine is to be more environmental friendly. I have to admit, for being a 'granola mama', we're not much of a green family. We care, but it's just not high on our priority list. Oddly enough, the more 'natural' you go, the more 'green' you become. Now the thought of adding all those dirty diapers to the landfills makes me cringe. We throw away so many! So this reason has become my 3rd on the list. Of course the cloth diapers are so cute, and so soft. Also if you want to be more domestic-well this is a great way to feel like a 40's mom.

If you're worried about time or difficulty I will tell you from this full time working mom-don't worry. It's easy, barely takes any time, and feels so good to be doing it!

Next Post: Choosing Your Diapers

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