Not Your Mama's Cloth Diapers

When I tell some people we use cloth diapers I get an odd reaction. Usually what they picture are pins, square cotton cloth and plastic covers. Oh man. That is not the cloth diaper of today. Audrey wears one-size pocket diapers by Oh Katy. They consist of a shell made of water proof material and micro fleece that creates a pocket for one or two micro fleece inserts. There's a series of snaps that adjust to fit her at any size and gussets around her thighs to keep everything secure. Nothing like any generation before.

My sister-in-law Melissa introduced me to cloth diapers when we visited after our niece was born. Using cloth had never crossed my mind but I immediately knew I wanted to use them. When she visited us in Hungary shortly before we left I racked her brain for any tips and advice she could give. There's lots of brands and styles out there so I definitely wanted to choose the right one for us. We didn't start cloth until we were in the States because I doubted our Soviet-era washing machine was up for the task and we didn't want to deal with hauling them back, anyway. Having Audrey in disposable all the time reinforced why I wanted to use cloth. Especially since she was a newborn, she went through diapers like mad. Granted, most cloth diapers are for babies over 8 pounds so we would have had to wait a while to start but it was so frustrating to change her diaper and then have it soaked right away (sometimes even before we got the diaper on). We literally threw away money. The average family spends at least $3,500 on diapers over a two year period. $3,500! And that's if the toddler is potty trained by then. If they're late, it keeps adding up, and fast. When I read that I couldn't believe it. That's a good start on a university-fund in just the first two years of life. When we were finally able to get cloth diapers we spent $200 on 12, which is enough to get us through about two days between washing when she's changed every 2-3 hours. A few more would be nice but what we have is definitely sufficient. We do use disposables at night, though Audrey might be ready to be in cloth. We also use them if we're going to be gone for a while at a place where a change would be difficult. So that's about 7-10 disposables a week, which costs less that 40 cents. Using cloth does mean I spend more time doing laundry, but it's a small price to pay. Adding three loads a week doesn't make much of a difference. But that's also part of why I'm a stay-at-home mom: it gives me the time to do things that save money so I don't need to work.

We also use cloth wipes. They're not expensive to buy but I made my own by sewing two pieces of flannel together. I picked out cute fabric that matches her nursery colors. Adorable! We use a cleaning solution (I call it bum spray) that's all-natural and protects against diaper rash. It's super easy to simply roll up the wipes with the diaper and wash them all together.

Cloth diapers and wipes are one of those rare occasions where what's best for the environment and what's best for the wallet converge. We do what we can to protect the environment but with organic food and products being rather expensive we're limited on what we can buy. But by using cloth we're not adding garbage to landfills that takes over 500 years to decompose. And we are richer for it. Win-win.

Cloth diapering has been a great experience for us and we definitely plan to use them for all our kids.