There are the inevitable dubious looks. "You're doing...what?"
Sometimes there is a polite, "Oh...how...nice."
And of course, there's the..."Ewwww! That's disgusting/so much work/horrible!"
Occasionally, there's the, "Oh, really?"
I like the last one, because you get a chance to explain that you're really not nuts, and it really IS hygenic.
So why do I cloth diaper? Well, let's start with why I *don't* cloth diaper. It's beyond expensive - so expensive, it's not even funny! This website estimates disposable diapers, for the time your baby is in diapers, will cost over $2500. $2500! I mean...wow. To put it in perspective, we initially invested in prefolds. For the life of your baby for prefolds and covers, you can spend less than $200. And that's pretty sweet. And let's be honest...it's a diaper. At some point, disposable or not, it's going to get gross. Welcome to parenthood.
But even if you're not keen on folding squares of cloth around the babe (which really - isn't as hard as it sounds, but let's say you just don't want to) and you go the fitted route, which we ended up going. And we went the luxe route. Oh yes...we're a goodmama famiy. At $35 a pop and 30 for the babe, that's still only a grand. Add in some covers, be it as cheap as fleece (say, add another $30-$50) or nicer, as in knit wool (add in another $50-$100...more if you want to go super luxe...)...and you can still cloth diaper en luxe for less than $1100.
People then want to talk about energy and water costs - to me, it's a wash, because I've found I end up doing more baby laundry in disposables because of blowouts when I've never had a cloth blow out...but even then, there's no way you're going to use $1400 in energy costs.
But beyond cost, there's the environment, too. I'm not going to delve into this too deep because really...can you argue it? Disposable diapers fill landfills, and they fill them with not just plastic that doesn't break down, but human waste that people are supposed to flush out of the diaper before tossing it - but they don't. Yep, you use water washing your diapers...but I at least would have used that water on extra baby laundry. Cloth for the environment, hands down.
And - my prime motivator - it's better for the baby. My skin is super sensitive and I always had problems with the chemicals in sanitary pads. I couldn't imagine how rashy disposable diapers were going to make my baby. Her butt gets bright red in disposables. Easy call for cloth!
But as an added bonus...cloth diapers are just much cuter than disposables. Hey, I'm a sucker for fashion!
But despite all these bonuses, a lot of people still think it's nuts. "You put poop?! In your washer?!"
Ummm...yes? I'm sorry, but having kids means at some point, unless you throw out clothing, there is going to be poop in your washer. (And if there isn't poop...there will be vomit, which isn't any better. And in the newborn days...there's a lot of both!) If anything, I think cloth has taught me a lot more about how to wash sanitarily. If I can get poop out of a diaper, leave it stain free and smelling good, what *can't* I wash well?
"But isn't it a lot of work? It's so much easier just to throw it all out..."
It really isn't a lot of work. I really don't even notice it anymore...it's another load of laundry every few days. Even if you don't dump the poop out of the disposable before pitching it, cloth really isn't much more work. When I change a diaper, the cloth wipe and diaper go into the wetbag (this is a waterproof bag), where it stays until laundry day. On laundry day, it's a cold pre-wash with a cup of vinegar, a regular hot wash, and another cold rinse.
That's it.
No, really...that's it. If I want to go the extra mile, I toss the wetbag in too. And when we're out, the dirty dipes just go in a travel sized wetbag...where they wait until wash day.
Oh yeah, and then you fold them. Then you can take cute pictures, like this one:
So really...is cloth that bad? This crunchy mama says...nope.
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