Some people just look at me like I am nuts when I mention that we cloth diaper our baby. I find that these people typically fall into one of two categories. They are either people who remember the hassle of cloth diapers back before disposables or people who have never heard of anyone cloth diapering their baby in this day and age.

I am not going to lie, I fell into the latter category about a year ago. A friend of mine was pregnant and she mentioned to me that she was planning to cloth diaper her baby. My first thought was “gross.” I didn’t want anything to do with washing poop out of a diaper. I laughed it off at first and thought that it probably would be something she tried and hated. But once she had her baby, she actually told me that she liked it and that it wasn’t that hard. At that point, I decided to do some research.

Eventually, I made the decision to try cloth diapers and then to start using them nearly full time. Here are a few reasons that our family and many others choose to cloth diaper.

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1. IT IS CHEAP!

According to Investopedia.com, the average cost of a disposable diaper is 20 cents. So every time you put a disposable diaper in the trash, you are throwing away 20 cents. Even more if you opt for more natural options like Honest Company or Seventh Generation. Babies are estimated to use 2,500-3,000 diapers in their first year. That is about $600 worth of trash! Multiply that by the 2.5 years that your baby will be in diapers and you are spending about $1,500 on diapers alone. This does not include wipes or any other diapering costs.

Cloth Diapers cost an average of $10 per diaper and can be reused over and over. Most cloth diapers today are “One-Size” which means they will adjust to the size of your baby as he or she grows. The recommended number of cloth diapers per child is 24, so that is only $240! You will need a wet bag, which is a waterproof bag that you put your dirty cloth diapers in. You can find those for about $10. You will also need to factor in the cost of washing your diapers every 2-3 days. Overall, it is a fraction of the cost of using disposables.

You save even more if you are able to use your cloth diapers for multiple children. Believe it or not, cloth diapers also retain resale value. There are several Buy/Sell/Trade groups on Facebook where you can resale diapers that have been well cleaned and taken care of.

2. DISPOSABLE DIAPERS CONTAIN HARMFUL CHEMICALS

Most parents don’t realize what they are exposing their children to when they put a disposable diaper on them. Most disposables contain known carcinogens called dioxins, which are a byproduct created when the materials of the diapers are bleached white with chlorine. Dioxins are regarded as highly toxic among scientists. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to dioxins may cause skin reactions and altered liver function, as well as impairments to the immune system, nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive functions.

While dioxins are the most toxic, there are a multitude of other harmful chemicals found in disposables. I will probably do some more formal research in the future and make a full blog post on this topic. But for now, I encourage you to read this article from Live Strong, which explains the effects these toxic chemicals can have on our babies.

3. PREVENTING DIAPER RASHES

Speaking of chemicals found in diapers, some actually cause diaper rashes. Many diapers contain fragrances and dyes that can irritate your baby’s most sensitive areas. The chemicals that pull moisture from your baby’s skin can also pull away too much moisture, resulting in skin dryness and irritation. Cloth diapers can be a great solution for these problems.

Our baby girl has never had any problem with diaper rashes in her cloth diapers.

4. NO MORE BLOWOUTS

My daughter has never had a single blowout in cloth diapers. We did use disposables for about a month and still use them when we leave Mila in the church nursery because we don’t want it to be an inconvenience for the volunteers. Every time she has had a blowout, it has been while she was in a disposable diaper… and boy, has she had some blowouts.

Most cloth diapers are well made, and keep everything inside the diaper. I love this because we have lost a few of her outfits to blowouts. I would much rather deal with poop inside of a diaper than poop all over my baby, her clothes, the car seat, our furniture, etc.

5. LESS WASTE

I am not super “green,” but it is pretty remarkable when you think about the amount of waste that disposable diapers create. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 20 billion disposable diapers are dumped into landfills each year, creating 3.5 million tons of waste. What is even more alarming is that it is estimated that a disposable diaper takes 500 years to decompose in a landfill. Can you imagine how much waste we would eliminate if more people used cloth diapers?

6. THEY AREN’T AS HARD TO USE AS YOU WOULD THINK

Depending on the type of cloth diapers you use, it isn’t that much harder than using disposables. Most people picture cloth diapers as the ones you see in old cartoons with diaper pins. While some people still use that type of cloth diapers, there are more modern cloth diapers that are very similar to disposables without all the harmful chemicals.

I use pocket diapers, which have a pocket for you to slip an absorbent insert into. After the laundry, I just stuff the inserts into the diapers and they are ready for use. The diapers go on baby just like a disposable would, except most of mine snap on. When I take her diaper off, it just goes in a wet bag instead of a trash can.

This biggest difference is when your baby starts eating solids or is formula fed, you do have to rinse off the poo before putting it in your washer. But, they make diaper sprayers that attach to your toilet so you never have to touch the poo. If you exclusively breastfeed your baby, you don’t even have to rinse the diapers. They can go straight into the washer. It’s really not that bad.

7. THEY ARE SO CUTE

This may be more of a bonus than a reason why we cloth diaper. I just love how cute cloth diapers can be. They come in a variety of colors and prints that make the task of diapering fun. I enjoyed filling my diaper stash with cute prints to put on my baby girl and I enjoy picking the next cute diaper to put on her.

Conclusion

Are you on the fence about cloth diapering? If you are, I hope that knowing all of the benefits of cloth diapering will help you make your decision.

If you aren’t into cloth diapers, that’s okay. I simply hope that this will help you understand why so many people are choosing to cloth diaper their babies. Many families are bullied for choosing to cloth diaper their babies by people who just simply don’t understand. Just know that no one would take the time to wash diapers if they didn’t have a good reason to. Whether they are doing it for financial, health or environmental reasons, please respect their decision to diaper their baby the way they feel is best for their family.