5 Reasons to Cloth Diaper Your Baby
Let me start off by saying that cloth diapering is amazing. I absolutely love it.
Of course there are some downsides (hello 3 extra loads of laundry a week), but I wouldn’t go back to disposable diapers even if you paid me.
If you’ve got a baby already or one on the way, let me give you some reasons to choose cloth diapering. Other moms probably have other reasons, but these are mine.
Without further ado, here are 5 reasons to cloth diaper your baby.
1. Save Money
You would be shocked at how much money you can save by cloth diapering your baby.
Julia Scott from Mint Life estimated that cloth diapers cost around $584 during the first year of your baby’s life (including cost to wash and dry them) whereas disposable diapers cost around $800 for that same year.
And that’s just the first year! After that, the cost goes down every year since that amount includes the initial purchase.
Plus, if you use the same diapers for several kids, then the savings just keep compounding until disposable diapers are blown out of the water.
When you hang your diapers to dry on the line, the price difference is even greater.
Of course the upfront cost is greater with cloth diapering, but if you know you’re going to do it, you can start saving for it during your pregnancy. Or, you can buy as many as you can at a time if you’re going to size up your baby rather than use adjustable diapers.
2. Healthier
There are so many terrifying things in disposable diapers that I can’t even get into all of them. Dawn Gifford from Small Footprint Family has an incredible article that goes into some of the dangers of disposable diapers.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- Disposable diapers contain around 50 chemicals which can be absorbed by your baby’s skin.
- They contain a chemical called Sodium Polyacrylate which can cause severe allergic reactions. This chemical was once in tampons but was banned because they caused Toxic Shock Syndrome. If your child eats even 5 grams of it, they could die.
- Dioxin is another chemical found in disposable diapers. It’s banned completely in nearly every country but the United States because it’s been linked to various types of cancer.
- There are also phthalates, chemicals known to disrupt hormones and were therefore banned from use in teething rings and children’s toys. For some reason, they’re still found in their diapers.
- Several heavy metals can be found in disposable diapers, including Tributyltin, which is known to be absorbed by the skin and cause hormonal problems. It’s also suspected of causing sterility in boys.
All in all, cloth diapers are significantly healthier for babies. There’s no telling just what dangers are lurking in disposable diapers, but I want to keep them as far away from my baby’s butt as I can.
3. Better for the Environment
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there are TRILLIONS of pieces of plastic floating around the oceans.
Disposable diapers are only a part of the problem, but why wouldn’t you want to do your part to reduce your impact on the environment? After all, we only have this one planet to live on, so shouldn’t we be trying harder to keep it healthy?
Even on land, disposable diapers have a negative impact. The vast majority of them end up in landfills where the plastic can take hundreds of years to break down. All of those chemicals created by trash in landfills is leaching into the ground, the water, and the air.
Cloth diapering is something that all moms can do to do their part in helping make this world a healthier place to live in. I know I want the world to still be around when my daughter is ready to start exploring it.
4. Convenient
Cloth diapering is incredibly convenient. I always know that I have diapers. I don’t have to deal with the panic of running out of diapers and sending my husband out on a diaper run after he’s had a long day at work.
If it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, I do.
We used disposable diapers for the first month of our baby girl’s life because my parents were bringing cloth diapers to us from the States (we live in Nicaragua where mailing packages isn’t really an option).
Because I didn’t want to use more than necessary, we only bought a package at a time and kept hoping they would last until my parents arrived.
So, once or twice, I got down to just a couple diapers and it was terrifying! Now that I have my cloth diapering system figured out, I never have to worry about having clean diapers.
This is especially great because we don’t have our own transportation, so it’s sometimes a hassle just to go out and get groceries. If we also had to worry about diapers, it would be a huge source of stress.
Just one more story and then I’ll get to the final point. Once I didn’t bring enough diapers and inserts when we were out for the day, and then baby girl went number 2 in the diaper that was supposed to last her the final part of our day.
Taking a deep breath, I put her back in the slightly damp cover from earlier, but didn’t have an absorptive insert. So, I folded up the extra pair of leggings I always keep in the diaper bag for emergencies (this certainly qualified!) and tucked it in.
It worked! We made it home and once the pants were washed, they were good as new. And, nobody will ever know they once saved the day by doubling as a diaper insert.
Now, onto my final reason for cloth diapering my baby!
5. Cute and Fun!
Ok, so this one isn’t as deep of a reason, but it is one of the reasons I love cloth diapering and think you should, too!
Of course you could get a bunch of plain, boring cloth diapers if you wanted. But, you can also get lots of different fun colors and even patterned materials. It’s awesome!
If you color coordinate, you don’t even have to put pants on your baby. Just take them out in a shirt or dress and matching cloth diaper!
I have, on occasion, picked out my daughters clothes for the day based on what diapers were coming up next in the rotation.
I have also, on other occasions, dug through my clean diaper stacks to pick out the perfect diaper to go with the outfit I have for her to go to church or wherever.
Basically, cloth diapers can be absolutely adorable, and disposable diapers are boring. I mean, would you rather your baby have fun, brightly-colored diapers or lame white ones?
Final Thoughts
Now you know my main reasons for cloth diapering: it’s better for our wallet, our baby, the environment, our lifestyle, and our fashion sense.
If you want to know how much I love cloth diapers… One of the reasons I’m excited about having a baby boy someday is that I get to buy some new cloth diapers for him. Since I have quite a few pink and purples, I’ll *need* to buy some little boy ones.
But, right now I’ll just enjoy having one baby in cloth diapers.
Here are the cloth diapers I have for my baby girl:
We also use cloth wipes for most of the reasons above. Although half of our wipes were made my my awesome mom, we also got these cloth wipes as a baby shower gift:
