Why We Cloth Diaper

In light of the this week's news that there may be a disposable diaper shortage, I figure now is as good time as ever to begin writing about cloth diapers. I plan on doing several posts about this topic, however, for today I'll just tell you a few reasons why we decided to do cloth.

Chemicals. Once I became pregnant, I started to make a conscious effort to avoid unnecessary chemicals. Unless you're living in the time of caveman, it is extremely difficult to be chemical free, but from where I'm standing, if I can keep a little bit away from my baby, I'm winning.

Health. Know how many diaper rashes Kaleb has gotten? Zero, nada, zip, none. The only thing that goes on his butt are coconut oil and cloth.

Cost. I have a pretty great diaper stash. I have a combo of different types of diapers. Some are daddy/babysitter friendly, some are complicated, some are meant for overnight, some are expensive and some are cheap. Bottom line though, I can easily go 5 days between washes (depends on the amount of poop!) and it cost me $500. Yes, $500 to diaper my baby until he's potty trained and depending on how well I take care of them, my next baby.  (In comparison, we spent around $200 in 3 months of using disposables). Now this does not include cost of laundering, but even included, it is still considerably cheaper.

Environment. It takes somewhere between 100-500 years for disposables to decompose. That is X amount of years of poop and chemicals and who knows what leaching into our soil. Yum.

Cuteness. Admit it, they are pretty cute.

K showing off his newest diaper.

Next up: Cloth Diapering Myths