Making the change to cloth diapers

When I was pregnant, I briefly considered cloth diapering but decided against it because we would be putting Noah in daycare, and I figured they wouldn’t want to deal with the mess.

A few months into the whole parenting thing and I was ready to revisit the idea. Our childcare situation was more conducive than we thought it would be to using cloth. I talked to Bobby about it a few times, and he said he wasn’t all that excited by the thought of it but that he would support whatever I decided.

I did some research, talking with a few friends who use cloth. Pretty much everyone had great things to say. So I started looking up info on the different types of diapers. It was overwhelming at first because there are a ton of different options.

Thankfully a couple of different friends suggested I visit a local store that stocks cloth diapers and talk to the owner, who is very knowledgeable about CDing. So I did, and she was a big help. After hearing about the types of diapers she carried, I asked her which diaper she would pick for her own child. Without hesitation, she said Bum Genius 4.0. So I snagged a couple to give it a trial run.

Less than a week later, I was ordering a full set of 24 diapers online.

Thankfully I was able to find a pretty decent deal (Buy 5, get 1 free from Planet Bambini. I definitely recommend them because Stephanie was a joy to deal with!). All total, I’ve spent a little less than $400 on cloth diapers and supplies with a few additional things (pail liners, extra garbage can, extra wet bag and possibly a toilet sprayer) I’ll likely add in the near future.

I’ve enjoyed cloth diapering Noah so far. Of course, I don’t have to deal with it on weekdays, but the weekends have been good.

So what led me to the decision to cloth diaper? There were a few factors:

• Saving money over time. This was one of the biggest incentives for me. I added it up, and with the total we’ve spent on cloth diapers, it’ll take about six months of not having to buy disposables to pay for itself. Considering Noah will be in diapers for probably at least 18 months, plus we can reuse these for any subsequent children, I’d say the investment is going to be well worth it long-term.
• Potty training benefits. Our pediatrician told us that some cloth diapered babies will potty train as early as 15 months. That would be wonderful!
• Personal feelings about it just being better for Noah. I certainly don’t look down on anyone who uses disposables, but I think this is a better fit for our baby. I think there’s a part of me that wants to make up for the fact that I was unable to breast feed for nearly as long as I would have liked. That’s been a very emotional thing for me, and it may not make sense, but I think there is some sort of connection in my reasoning.

The benefits to the environment really were not a factor in this decision. They are a nice added benefit, but that alone definitely wouldn’t have been enough to convince me.

Cloth diapering hasn’t been all unicorns and rainbows (because poopie cloth diapers are possibly one of the nastiest things known to man), but I do like it, and Noah seems to be very comfortable in them. We are not fully transitioned from disposables, but we are working on it!