Why I chose to cloth Diaper

So I have been getting many questions from people about why I have chosen to cloth diaper since I put up a status on Facebook asking people some questions concerning cloth diapering. I know some of you are looking at me thinking I'm totally crazy, and that's okay. Before you ask though, and jump to conclusions about cloth diapering, hear me out about why I chose this alternative.

1. COST
Yes, I'm aware that the upfront cost of cloth diapers are expensive, but in the long run cloth diapers are far less expensive. Lets break down the cost of a box of diapers per day including diapers, disposal, and cleanup. 14.97 for the box of diapers that roughly will last you 5 days plus 1.35 for a .09 tax rate (according to Tennessee) lets assume that you need to buy another box so add 3.26/ day onto that total. That brings the total for diapers alone for one week to 22.85. Wipes are an additional 6.50/week (assuming you use a lot of wipes, this is one box) and tax on those wipes are 0.59, bring your total for wipes per week to 7.09. Disposal is another issue, so lets tack on about 2.00 (this is conservative and based on a guess/ day cost). The total cost to diaper a child for a week is 31.94.

As you can see from the above caluclations (using generic brand diapers from Wal-Mart and assuming you child has no allergies) that the cost to diaper a child is expensive. Now lets look at the cost of cloth diapers. The start up cost for cloth diapers (the fancy, adjustable kind) is 237 for 18 diapers. Tax is 21.33 on 18 diapers, bringing the total up to 258.33. Now lets divide this by 30 and we get 8.61 for an average month to diaper your child. Remember, that as time goes on, the cost per day does decreases, as you are using the diapers over and over again. For a 96 oz container of All Free and Clear it costs 12.00 plus 1.08 for tax making it cost 0.14 per oz. A small load of laundry takes 1 oz of this liquid, so this brings the total up to 4.09/ month to wash one load a day. For 28.36/ month for wipes (using above calculations). So for a total of 41.06 a month you can diaper a child. that sure is a heck of a lot of savings!

2. Safety
Research has shown that the stuff inside disposable diapers that make them extremely toxic to children and pets. I have two dogs. Odin has a nasty habit of getting into the trash if something smells intersting or he has never smelled before. The last thing I want to do is be running my dog to the vet in the middle of the night because he has swallowed the stuff from inside of a diaper by chewing it up. Not to mention the tabs have been known to cause choking in children and pets. Call me paranoid, but you can never be too careful.

3. Enviromental impact
Some would say this is silly, but my diapers and child's waste will not be sitting in a landfill. Instead it can be sent to a waste water treatment plant and keep those nasty chemicals from leaching into the land.

4. They are healthier
Reusuable diapers have a lower instance of diaper rash as well as allergic reactions. Knowing what I know about my husband and myself, skin allergies will potentially be a big problem. Both of us have allergies and this seemed like a good way to avoid this problem.

So as you can see it was a pretty simple choice for me. Yes there are cons too, and as I have said on multiple times, I am not going to be a diaper snob. If someone gives me dispoable diapers I will use them. I'll be very greatful for the gift and be happy to use them. I am also practicle about diapers and know that there will be sometimes that I will have to use disposable diapers (traveling, church, when I run out of cloth) and know that flexiblity is important in parenting an infant. I have to do whats best for my child and this is what I felt was best for mine. Again I know there are people out there that don't always agree with it, and think its silly, but the pros far outweighed the cons. Its something I have thought through and have researched a lot.

I also know there will be some people out there that will feel the need to try and convince me that what we have decided is silly, and maybe even stupid to them, but I ask you to consider it from my standpoint. At the very least if you have questions, just research it a little bit more and learn about cloth diapering, you might be surprised about what you can learn. And you might be surprised to learn that its not as difficult as it once was. :-)