I've been asked about cloth diapering a lot, so I decided to just do a blog series so that I can point people to this instead of typing out the same response over and over again. Hopefully this will answer any questions you have and demonstrate why we feel cloth is best!
Who and When: Ethan has been cloth diapered since he was one day old, as soon as we got him home from the hospital. For #2, I think we'll just bring cloth to the hospital so that s/he won't ever have to be in a disposable.
Why: I cannot pinpoint the time when I decided to cloth diaper. As long as I've seriously thought about having babies, it's just always been something I wanted to do. Thankfully, I was met with no initial resistance since my in-laws cloth diapered all of their kids. However, my own family wasn't too sure about it. In fact, several of my family members just shook their heads when I mentioned it and said I would give it up within two weeks. Yeah, not so much. My parents still push disposables sometimes, especially whenever they might be changing diapers, but if I have anything to say about it (which I do), Ethan will never again feel a disposable on his butt! Sorry for that tangent, but all that's to say it's something very important to me, and something I did even though I didn't have 100% support.
First of all, it just makes sense for the comfort of the baby. Instead of having chemical-soaked paper and plastic on your sensitive areas, you have cloth. Cloth diapered babies almost never get diaper rash. Ethan has yet to get diaper rash and only gets irritated if he takes a surreptitious poop and sits in it.
Secondly, it's quite a money saver! Since our diapers are one-size, I will most likely never have to buy another diaper, even for future kids! My entire investment (including accessories, pail, and the laundry detergent that lasted the first 9 months) was $719.07. I definitely could have done it cheaper, and if I'd done originally what I now wish I'd done (more on this later), I would have only spent $519.07. Either way, since the average family pays roughly $1000/year just for disposable diapers (not counting diaper genie, wipes, etc.), that's a huge savings! Even if I added up whatever extra I might be paying in utility bills, I doubt it could match the $4000 it would cost to diaper just two kids for two years.
Finally, there's the environmental aspect. Disposable diapers take up a great deal of landfill space, not to mention the introduction of toxic solid waste. All diaper users are legally supposed to flush solid waste down the toilet, but when you're already throwing out the diaper, "What's the point?" Cloth diapers keep that waste out of the trash. Opponents often argue that cloth diapers waste water, but, in reality, the manufacture and use of disposable diapers wastes 2.3 times more water than cloth! So for Ethan's future, both health-wise, economic, and environmental, cloth diapers are the way to go!
Stay tuned for parts II and III!
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