Everyone new mom has to come to multiple big decisions before their baby comes. One of the big decisions for me was the diaper decision. In my circle of friends and the area where I live, it is a discussion of whether one should use disposable or cloth diapers. There are pros and cons for each. So before my little man came I had to make the decision for myself.
So the first option I looked at was disposable diapers. The biggest pro to this one is ease of use. You just throw them in the trash, they are easy to put on the baby, no washing of them. Secondly, they are convenient. You can purchase them at any store almost. You can travel easily with them as they just get thrown in the trash. And lastly, you don’t have to change them as often as clothe diapers because they tend to wick the moisture away from the baby’s bottom. So the biggest con for disposables are the cost. It can really add up fast within the first few months. The other con for most people are they are not environmentally friendly.
I honestly thought I was going to go the disposable diaper route when I was halfway through my pregnancy with my little man. It just seemed why too convenient. And when looking at the huge change of being a mom why not go the easiest route.
The other option that I looked at was, of course, cloth diapers. The biggest pro to cloth diapers was cost. It is a little more up front then disposables but in the long run it is much cheaper especially if you have multiple children. Some of the other pros were you always can have some on hand you just have to wash them. They are environmentally friendly. It can help with sensitive babies and diaper rashes. A fun pro is that cloth diapers tend to be much cuter then disposables. Now the biggest con is the effort it takes to wash them just about every other day. Also, there comes a point when you have to wash off the diapers before putting them in the pail. Another con is if you get a wiggly baby or one that dislikes diaper changes it can be hard to get on and off. Learning how to use them can be difficult too.
So as I was leaning towards disposables I did look at the cost of using a diaper service to do the laundry of cloth diapers because I really wanted to give them a try. But if my favorite reason was the cost effectiveness of cloth diapering then using a service to launder them defeats that purpose. Average cost that I found was at a minimum of $100 per month to get them laundered.
The surprise change was when my husband came home after serving at the Ladies Friendship Dinner two months before David was born and said we should cloth diaper. He had talked to a experience dad of three who clothed diapered and he said it was so worth it. Both for the money and for the children. So my husband encouraged me to look in to it. So I made the decision to go for cloth diapering.
Now that might have been a hard decision but it is amazing the many different cloth diapers out there on the market now. To start us off I went with the traditional prefold with snappis and waterproof diaper covers. I will review the ones I choose and which ones I like. I have done more experimenting with pocket diapers and all in ones too. I will continue writing blogs to go through what I have learned because this one would be way too long if I did it now.
My last comment is be aware that if you try cloth diapering you might want to give up after just one day but give it at least a weeks time before deciding. I was surprised at how good I got after just a week but halfway through day one I was ready to give up. I didn’t start cloth diapering with my little man even though we had the items until he was 7 weeks old because we traveled and moved in his first six weeks so we used disposables at first.
What has your experience been with diapers? What made you finally make a decision either way? Do you like what you are doing?
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