Why I love cloth diapers

Who ever thought that diapering your kid could be fun? I may be a little odd, but I get excited about diapers. Cloth ones, that is.

I love – absolutely love – that they save me tons of money. Yeah, if you buy the nice ones, the “Cadillac” of diapers, you might pay $400 or even $500 up front for your stash and supplies. It costs money to wash and buy detergent. But if I was using disposables, I’d probably spend $1500 or more (for one kid!) on diapers before I finally got my kid potty trained. Plus I have two boys, so who knows how long potty training might take! I love that I can use my cloth diapers for the kids that follow, however many there might be. Not sure they’ll last through eight kids, but probably through two, three, or four and my savings will be even greater. We’re on boy number two and going strong so far! Love, love, love that.

Know what else I love? Not taking a whole trash can full of diapers out to the curb. (Actually my husband usually does that part, but it’s the idea of it.) No one really knows how long it will take for a disposable diaper to decompose, because it’s likely that none of them have yet! On the website for the Real Diaper Association, it is estimated it will take 250 to 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose. All those chemicals and plastic just sit there – and even grosser – they sit there full of human waste. Now that can’t be healthy! Considering that each kid produces like 5000 to 6000 dirty diapers and that most of the population uses disposables – that’s a lot of landfill space! I love that I’m not contributing to that pile (except for the occasional week of vacation or trip to Grandma’s house.)

I really love that all those chemicals, plastics, strange fibers and mystery gel are not touching my kid’s skin. With cloth, I know that what touches my boy is safe. Not just safe, but snuggly, too!

And there are so many choices. Pretty much any color you can imagine and your choice of snaps, Aplix (Velcro), pins or Snappis… I can choose from prefolds and fitteds to pockets and all-in-ones. Then there’s hemp, cotton, bamboo, velour, sherpa, french terry, microfleece, Windpro fleece. And lucky me! Every couple hours I get to pick out a new one.

I even love that cloth wipes are cheap and clean a kid’s bum soooo much better than traditional wipes. At first I was a little yucked out by the idea, but now I’ll never go back! Even my husband, who was very (very) hesitant at first, was also convinced the first time he tried them. Who would’ve thought?

Yes, it’s true. I love cloth diapers. Some may call it crunchy, but I just call it smart. I think cloth diapering is so smart that I started my own online business. I know there are many parents out there who also believe that cloth diapers are a smart choice. Who knows. Take teh plunge, try some cloth and you might find that you love diapers, too!