Cloth Diapering – Not as Scary as it Seems

I did lots and lots and lots of research, including constantly pestering my friend who uses cloth diapers, on cloth diapers while I was pregnant and in the first couple months of mommydom, but I still found it utterly confusing and daunting when it came down to choosing what kinds we’d use.  In fact, I was so confused, that I kept delaying purchasing cloth diapers.  I also was starting to get cold feet, wondering if maybe it was just too hard to do it with twins.  When it came down to it, though, the cost of disposable diapers was starting to kill me, so I bravely went for it and it’s been great.  Here are some responses to common questions from the skeptical, including almost everyone in my immediate and extended family that heard we were going to use cloth diapers:

1. Ewwww, isn’t it gross to wash dirty diapers in your washing machine?  Well, yes, it is.  It’s also gross that your baby has poop explosions in his clothes, spits up on them, pees on them, etc.  If you threw away every piece of clothing, blanket, stuffed animal that had pee, poop, or spit up on it, it would get pretty expensive.  So, given that you’re not going to do that, washing some cloth diapers is no more gross than doing your regular laundry.
2. I have so many other things to deal with.  Isn’t it so much easier to use disposables?  I agree that using disposables for the first couple months was very convenient since these were our first babies.  I was already doing a lot of laundry since the boys were spitting up a lot, but by 2 months, that wasn’t as much of an issue.  Also, by then, we had more or less figured out parenting basics (changing diapers, bathing, getting a onesie over a baby’s head without traumatizing him), so adding some diaper laundry wasn’t that big a deal.  Now that we’re in the swing of things, using cloth diapers isn’t any harder than disposables.
3. Yikes!  Cloth diapers are so expensive.  At about $20 each, cloth diapers do seem expensive, but if you think about all the disposables you’d buy over 2 or 3 years, it’s actually way cheaper.  It’s just a big expense up front.  We spent about $400 for cloth diapers for two babies that will last from now until they are ready to be potty trained.  We had been spending almost $100 a month for disposables.

Some other perks to cloth diapers:

1. There are SUPER adorable prints.  I know this is a ridiculous reason to use cloth diapers, but it’s a lovely perk – cute little baby bums.
2. Cloth diapered babies have less diaper rash (we definitely noticed this) and are usually potty trained earlier (I’ll let you know if this turns out to be true).
3. We have had no poop explosions in cloth diapers!  This is a P-E-R-K perk!  Seriously, we have had some very, very big poops that were completely contained in a cloth diaper.
4. People think you’re cool.  Where we live, it’s not that uncommon to use cloth diapers, but even so, when people see/hear we’re using cloth diapers, they’re often impressed.  It’s kind of like having twins!

So, there it is.  It’s not so scary to start cloth diapering.  You can do it too!

Stay tuned for cloth diaper reviews.