When I found out I was pregnant with this baby (Dacian) I knew that I wanted to cloth diaper. At this point I was thinking the old school folding cotton diaper with the rubber pants. I was comfortable doing that and knew that we would save a lot of money. I remember my BFF telling me about G-Diapers long before I was pregnant. I looked them up. I wasn't exactly impressed. So, I start researching and came accross GroVia. I was really hyped about trying them. Seemed really simple. Then my BFF got wind of this and sent me a link to the Best Bottoms website. And wow! This looked like exactly what I would make if I were to make a cloth diaper.
I continued on my journey of research and came accross even more brands and styles. I kept going back to the Best Bottom Diapers. I haven't wavered since.
I know you are probablly still very hesitant on cloth diapering. It can seem to be dirty, messy, too much time, too much laundry and what not. And forget all the stuff you might come accross on amonia smells, stripping, leaking, trying the right one for your baby. That will just make you give up before you even start. This is my arguement for cloth diapering.
1. You will save a ton of money.
Freddy and I have estimated our savings over 3 years with Best Bottoms that we will save over $2,000. The initial cost for us was just about $400. I decided to go with the hemp inserts as they are more obsorbent, thinner (by a lot), and hypoallergenic. So our initial start up cost was a bit more then you might have if you go the microfiber inserts. What is an insert? That is that cloth thing you snap into the cover that obsorbs all the pee and poo. Just like a regular disposable diaper.
Our stash consists of 8 shells (covers in vanilla {white}), 31 small hemp/organic cotton inserts and 4 overnight soakers.
Even with the cost of laundry soap and doing an extra small load of laundry every other day we still come out to over $2000 in savings over 3 years. That's right. 3 years!
2. It really is easy.
Most people think that cloth diapering is gross because you have to deal with poop. Um, you have to do that anyway with a disposable diaper. Do you not plan on cleaning the poo off your baby's butt? There are blow outs no matter what kind of diaper you use or how you decide to feed. Messes happen. Deal with it. You should NEVER EVER EVER throw human waste in the trash anyway. You are supposed to empty the poo out of a disposable diaper into the toilet before you throw it away anyway. Seriously, how disgusting is it to know that you have 6-10 poop and/or pee filled diapers sitting in your trash can next to or in your kitchen. How about in your baby's room? Really?! You might think that is okay but a cloth diaper pail with the same stuff in it is gross? In comparison it isn't so bad. Before your baby starts solids the poo is water soluble anyway. If you feel so inclined you can rinse it off with a sprayer or just rinse it off in the washer. No biggy. I wont get into how to wash the diapers as there is plenty of info out there to be found.
There are diapers out there called All In Ones (AIOs). This is pretty much the cloth equivelant to a disposable. If you still feel really grossed out, go with one of those. Easy peasy.
3. Less diaper rash.
Yep. That's right. Cloth diapering can and has been proven to reduce the currency and severity of diaper rash. How is that? Well, think of it this way. Disposable diapers have many chemicals in them and are made of plastic and other composites to make them more obsorbent while staying nice and trim. Great idea. NOT!
How many of you noticed that your little one has peed. But, you don't change it right away because the diaper can still obsorb more? I don't know of a single parent that isn't guilty of this. Now. just imagine you sitting your happy little butt in a diaper for hours that is wet. Or how about you just sit in a bucket of amonia. I know, drastic comparison but, not really. The chemical reaction that ensues with amonia from pee and the chemicals in the diaper create a pretty corosive environment. That's not even adding in the poo. And bam! Diaper rash. There are multiple different kinds of diaper rash and I am not saying that all are caused by disposable diapers. I am referring to the one you get from not changing the disposable as soon as you should.
Cloth diapers guarantee that you change the diaper more often with no chemicals in them so you get less of that irritation. Again, there is a lot of info out there to be found. This is only my thoughts.
The main thing that really got us cloth diapering is the savings and less of an environmental impact. Since, it takes 500+ years for a disposable diaper to biodegrade that got us thinking on how we can lower our impact on the environment. I know that I can use the inserts for cleaning when the baby is done using them or I can resell them. Also, if for any reason they should get tossed, I know they will biodegrade in a lot less time with no impact on the environment then a disposable diaper.
One of the perks about cloth diapering is that you can get really cute styles of covers to compliment your lifetyle or baby. Here are some of my favorites.
I will probablly have a lot more to say late on about cloth diapering. I will say to definately give it a shot. No better way to be an EcoGothMom then to cloth diaper your little prince or princess.
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