Let me start off by saying that this post is my opinion. I have three children; the first two were solely disposable diaper babies. The thought of cloth never crossed my mind. It just wasn’t a way of life I would have even considered at that point in my life.
Number three was using disposables up until a month and a half old, and the only reason for that was because the cloth diapers I purchased didn’t fit her yet.
I am no way judging anyone for using disposable or cloth or whatever they choose to use. It is your child, use as you wish. I just wanted to share my view on disposable diapers vs cloth diapers.
Disposable Diapers
We were spending $20+ in a case of diapers roughly every week.
Even the smallest amount of pee would result in Lil Miss demanding to be changed (Buggy was the same way too).
Where exactly are these dirty diapers now sitting? They can’t be recycled (although someone really should develop recyclable disposable diapers for those who do not want to cloth diaper).
I will admit, they are quick and easy to use and easy clean up for messy diapers.
Cloth Diapers
If you know where to purchase, you can get cloth diapers for $6 or less a piece. For the entire diapering lifetime of your child. Or if you are crafty and can make your own, even better!
My stash contains roughly 50 diapers at the moment. That is less than $300 for the entire diapering lifetime of Lil Miss. $300 would give me less than 15 cases of disposable diapers. That would last maybe the first 4 months of her life?
Rather than needing to purchase a multitude of sizes and outgrowing a size and being left with unused diapers, these grow with your child. Grant you, there are newborn sizes, size one, size two and one size, but you don’t need newborn through size 6 when you have a giant baby (like Buggy!) I didn’t think Lil Miss would be the peanut that she was so I did not purchase newborn sizes. I have all one size cloth diapers that at a month and a half old, we were able to snap them just right that they fit. As she continues to grow, these will still fit her.
We aren’t having to change diapers every half an hour. The comfortable feeling of the cloth allows us to go longer in between changes which I am thankful for!
They are reusable. Not only for the diapering lifetime of your child, but with proper care, can be reused for future children (whether it be your own or someone else’s).
They are super cute! I have a wide variety of animal print, denim print, solid colors, holidays, designs, etc. Totally customizable!
I will admit, we have had a small handful of leaking, but nothing like the blowout of a dirty disposable diaper (at least not yet!) And the leaking is part of the learning process of learning how to snap to fit just right.
I will also admit that it has increased our laundry load, but I would much rather wash diapers than regular clothes any day of the week. The diaper wash cycle is easy and I would rather stuff 50+ diapers than fold a family of five’s clothes any day!
It also is not as easy of clean up as a disposable, but I feel that the rest of the advantages make up for the mess!
Whether you choose disposable diapers vs cloth diapers is up to you, but these are the advantages and disadvantages that I, as a newbie cloth diapering mother, have found that I feel would have been helpful when I was researching my choices initially.