Cloth Diapering vs. Disposable Diapering
Cloth diapering scared the daylights out of me when I was first introduced to it nearly 3 years ago. The thought of all of the additional work with laundering the diapers and the fact of having to clean out dirty diapers made me want to run. I didn’t know if it was for me or not but I was leaning towards the “not for me” answer. Fast forward to today and I am a happy, cloth diapering mama of two little ones. Why did I do it? Let me tell you what convinced me.
When I became pregnant with my now two year old son I realized how much I wanted to make this a better world for him. I realized there were numerous things that could be changed with just a small action. This is what started me on my “green mission”. After some research I discovered that cloth diapering was better for not only my son, but for the environment and for our finances.
First, let me touch on why it’s better for my child. Outside of the environmental impact, disposable diapers contain chemicals that are not good for baby’s skin. Some of the chemicals contained in disposable diapers are linked to hormonal problems and cancer. Newborns have extremely sensitive skin and their skin absorbs whatever you put on it. That was my number one reason for not wanting to use disposable diapers on my baby.
After looking into that aspect I also found information about disposable diapers and how many are in the landfills. . It’s estimated that more than 27 billion disposable diapers are used each year. Those really add up over the years and if we use more cloth reusable diapers we can truly make a difference! No one knows for sure how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but based on what I’ve read, it is estimated to be between 250-500 years! If those estimates are true, every disposable diaper that has been used to date is still sitting in a landfill somewhere. After learning these facts, I couldn’t stop thinking about just how many diapers are still sitting in a landfill just in the years since I was born. Those thoughts led me to the question of just how much money my husband and I could save if we didn’t have to buy disposable diapers. This is what helped to convince him to make the change with me!
The question of whether or not cloth diapers really save money can be controversial. I want to tell you MY experience with this and the numbers that helped convince my husband and me that this was really what we needed to do. I am going to give you the cost comparisons for the diapers we use versus the disposable diapers that we would have to buy. Again, this is MY experience.
My story: We diaper two children, a two year old and a 5 month old. Each child is changed on average of six times daily. Each child we estimate will be diapered for approximately 2.5 years.
6 x 30 days = 180 diapers per month per child
Disposable Diapers â¬â We would buy these at a local bulk warehouse. I have checked and the price break down is $0.24 per diaper. This calculates into:
- $43.20 monthly
- $518.40 annually or
- $1296 for the 2.5 year estimate for ONE child
We have two children and plan on having one more so…
Our total cost for disposable diapers would be $3,888
Cloth Diapers â¬â Cloth diapers can be washed and used over the span of multiple children. I am going to break down the costs of the diapers I use and the other items we need.
- I like the pricier cloth diapers so I will average $20 per diaper. I would say a good number of diapers to have would be approximately 25 which would cost $500. You can get them cheaper, so this cost can be reduced by half if necessary.
- Wet bags â¬â You have to have a place to store the dirty diapers before laundering them. We have two large wet bags, each cost approximately $20. Wet bags total $40.
- Diaper Sprayer â¬â this is not required to cloth diaper, you can definitely cloth diaper without one. I did not have one for the first 17 months of cloth diapering, however, it is nice to have. We splurged and bought one for $40.
- Cloth diaper safe detergent â¬â We have an HE washer and can get 90 loads out of a $15 bag of detergent. We do approximately 3 loads of laundry per week meaning the detergent would last about 7 months. I will estimate 2 bags per year, $75 for the 2.5 years of cloth diapering.
- Water â¬â Yes, your water bill will go up a bit. We haven’t really noticed a difference but for the sake of figuring, I’ll add in $10 per month. $300 for the 2.5 years of cloth diapering.
- Over the span of 2-3 children you will most likely have some diapers that need to be replaced. I have not had to replace any yet (almost 2 full years into cloth diapering) but I will add in another $150 just to be safe.
The total cost for cloth diapering 2-3 children for us will be approximately $1105
Now for the final comparison in our home: $3,888 for disposable diapers and $1105 for cloth diapers. Cloth diapering our children will save us over $2700; it saves over 15,000 disposable diapers from the landfill and keeps so many chemicals off of our children. For us there is no question which is better! As I said earlier, I am nearly two years into cloth diapering and I love the choice we made.
~ April - Mama on a Green Mission
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April is a regular guest blogger for Maggie Bags.
You can read more posts from April on her blog Mama on a Green Mission.
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