I don't personally know anyone that cloth diapers. Everyone I know uses disposables. I have read countless blogs of moms who cloth diaper. Those blog mommas ( Mckmama Sherry at Younghouselove and Katie at Bower Power) all cloth diaper and love it. I have read their many...many...many blogs on cloth diapering. I have crunched numbers. I have done a little dance in the rain in an Indian headdress. Okay...maybe I didn't do that last one...
But I have come to the conclusion (okay...I'm only about 95% sure), that Matt and I will be cloth diaper parents.
I know...I know. People will probably think we're crazy. I'm not necessarily doing it for the environment aspect, I'm solely considering it because of money. Disposables can cost upwards of $200 a month. That is a whole lotta dough. And if I end up being a full time stay at home mom we won't have an extra $200 a month, especially if I end up going back to school (that's for another post). The cloth diapers we're considering are about $300 (for enough diapers for 2ish days). You do the math. After a month they will have almost paid for themselves!
If we decide to cloth diaper, we won't cloth diaper 100%. I've heard the hardest part of cloth diapering is when you go on vacations or overnight places (which I know we will do since Matt's mom and sister live in Chicago). So during those times we would use disposables.
If I don't end up staying at home full time with the little bean, we'll go the disposable route. Who wants to change a cloth diaper at a daycare or babysitter?
What are your thoughts on cloth vs. disposable?
If you breastfeed, you might need to purchase more or do laundry more often because they poop a lot! I remember when Luke was solely nursing, and I had to change his diaper every hour because he would (ok don't laugh lol) "shart" (ok I'm totally laughing haha such a funny word) and there would be like just enough poop to need to change it.
ReplyDeleteYou should also consider the cost of needing extra detergent, a higher water bill, etc for doing a load of diapers every 2 days (not to mention the 2-3 loads a week on just regular baby stuff!).
I personally don't have a preference on cloth vs disposable. I use Pampers for Luke because they have always worked for him--they are one of the most expensive on the market, but if you can find good coupons/deals it's not too bad. I know the Walmart and Target generic brands are way cheaper, and if your baby doesn't have a problem with them, those are also an option.
Good luck!!
If we did use disposable it'd be Pampers...they're my favorite. We're already going to be doing more laundry anyway, so I figure what's one more load. And our water is included in our rent so we don't have to worry about the bill getting higher (which is another reason we're considering the cloth).
ReplyDeleteI say go for it! We briefly used some with Callie, but we were cheap-o and didn't put money up front so it was a short phase. I think I would like to cloth diaper if I could do it over again. It's really not that big a deal. The only thing I'd say is that you'll probably want to use disposables just for about the first several weeks when baby poops a TON. It will make those early sleepless nights and days more bearable. Also, we used Walmart brand and they are super cheap and worked fine for us.
ReplyDelete