Should New Parents Consider Cloth Baby Diapers?
An increasing number of new parents are choosing to forgo disposable diapers and use cloth baby diapers instead. When disposable diapers were first introduced, most parents jumped at the opportunity to simply throw away dirty diapers instead of having to wash cloth diapers over and over. But with growing concern over how much landfill space disposable diapers take, many environmentally conscious parents are choosing to revert to the old traditional cloth diaper.
Using reusable cloth diapers is a different routine than disposable, but most parents adjust to the routine after a short time. Washing is a main issue when dealing with these diapers. Some advocates of disposable diapers feel that washing takes up more time than using disposables. But if you consider the time it takes to dispose of diapers, and how many trips to the trash a parent needs to take to get rid of the smelly diapers as soon as possible, it takes about the same amount of time. Using cloth as opposed to disposable diapers for the life of a baby is definitely more cost effective. Cloth diapers are a little more than a dollar each, so two hundred reusable diapers would cost roughly the same amount as about 900 disposable ones. If a baby goes through 10 diapers a day, the disposable diapers end up costing about $800 a year (assuming rock bottom prices on the disposables).
Most children are in diapers for at least three years. Even taking into account the amount to wash cloth diapers, they are still far more cost efficient. Also, parents who have more children won’t have to purchase new diapers for each baby, they can simply use the old ones. While disposable diapers may be slightly easier for a parent to use regularly, the costs (both monetary and to the earth) of reusing cloth make it an option that many parents are choosing.
Parents have to make the choice based on their lifestyle: are they willing to do a little extra work to save some money and help our environment, or is convenience more important with a new baby to take care of? Many parents will opt to do some of both; use cloth diapers at home, but use disposables when out and about for convenience. There are many factors to consider when choosing between cloth and disposable diapers, and different people choose differently depending on their lifestyle. Visit cloth baby diaper and cloth prefold diapers for more information.