| Compare | Cloth Diaper | Disposable Diaper |
|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | More - You will be buying more diapers in the beginning. | Less - You will be buying a few diapers at a time. |
| Overall cost | Less - The one-size diapers usually fit up to potty training. You can also get some of your money back by selling the used cloth diapers. There is additional cost to washing diapers, but total cost would still be significantly lower. | More - You will be buying boxes of disposable diapers for 1-4 years. |
| Absorbency | Less - This can be argued but, in general, cloth diapers are less absorbent than disposable. However, you can put more absorbency on a cloth diaper by using different materials or types. | More - In general, you don't need to change diapers as often as cloth. |
| Ease Of Use | Less - There's a learning curve to using cloth diapers. Different types have different levels of ease of use. The type that is most like a disposable diaper is called an AIO (all-in-one). | More - There's only one way of putting on a disposable diaper and it's quick. |
| Time | More - Cloth diapers need more of your time. | Less - Disposable diapers take less time to use. No maintenance needed. Just buy, use, toss. |
| Environment | Good | Bad |
| Bulk | More - I haven't seen a cloth diaper that's as trim as a disposable. | Less |
Cost
Depending on the type of cloth diaper you're using, each could cost between $6 to $20, more if you're going to get one those "limited edition" WAHM (work-at-home-mom) diapers. The number of diapers depend on how often you change baby and how often you do diaper laundry. Let's say you change 7 times during the day and use 1 overnight. That's 8 diapers. When I had just 1 in diaper, we used to do laundry every 4 days. That means you need 32 diapers, plus 8 more to use during laundry day. That's 40 diapers x $12 (for example). That's $480. That's actually above average. There are those who do laundry every 2-3 days, so they need less diapers. There are also those who use prefolds or flats with covers - those are even cheaper, about $100 for that many changes. You can use those same diapers for 4 years, even hand them down to the next baby. Note that one-size diapers usually don't fit until 12 lbs, so the first few weeks' use of diapers are not included here. I'm going to include cost of additional laundry here, let's say $10 a month. That's $480 for diapers and $360 for utility bills for 3 years = $840.
For disposable diapers, assuming the same number of diaper changes in a day, you'll need 240 diapers in a month. Let's say each diaper averages $0.30 per piece (I'm no expert here since I only used disposable diapers on my first child until he was 4 months old, but in that short time, I knew the price goes up as you go up in size). That's $72 a month. If baby doesn't potty train until 3 years old, that's $2,592 for one child.
Absorbency
Disposable diapers can hold a lot of fluids.
Absorbency of cloth diapers varies depending on type of diaper and whether you add absorbent layers. For materials, there's cotton, microfiber, bamboo, and hemp, in order of absorbency. For types of diaper, fitted diapers are more absorbent than AIO or pockets (I will be creating a post about different types of cloth diapers soon).
Ease of Use
Disposable diaper - To put it on, grab one from the pack, put it on, and tape it up. When done, take it off and throw it in the trash.
Cloth diaper - Before you put it on, you might need to put it together (if you're not using an AIO). Put the absorbent piece over the waterproof piece, then put it on baby as you would a disposable. When done, you may need to rinse it if it has poop (I also rinse if it's just pee), then throw it in the diaper pail.
Time
Disposable diaper - You only need to take the time to buy it from time to time, maybe once a month on average.
Cloth diaper - You don't throw it in the trash when you're done. If you like rinsing everything (like I do), you have to do it after every change, or rinse a batch once or twice a day, before putting in the pail. If you only rinse poopy diapers, then you have to rinse that off when you have one. Then there's the time needed to wash and fold every few days.
Environment
Disposable diapers - If you take the numbers above when we calculated cost, 240 diapers a month x 36 months = 8,640 diapers in the trash and landfill.
Cloth diapers - 40 diapers that will eventually make it in a landfill.
Bulk
Disposable diapers can hold a lot of liquid without sacrificing trimness.
Cloth diapers can be trim, but not as trim as a sposie. They also can get more bulky the more absorbency you add.
Others (Can't help it, this section is pro-cloth!)
Smell - Disposable diapers have a distinct smell, even when still unused. To cloth diapering mamas, we call that the smell of chemicals. Then there's the smell of dirty diapers lingering in the trash and the bedroom until trash day. Cloth diapers have no smell when clean. Poop gets flushed in the toilet, so you only have to deal with pee smell until laundry day (if you don't rinse it out after change).
Feel - When you've been using cloth for a while and you see a sposie, you might cringe at the thought of putting plastic on your baby. It even crinkles!
Cuteness - Disposable = white. Meh. Cloth diapers come in all colors and prints. You'll even see some with capes or ruffles. This is why CDing moms love showing off our babies' diapers. ;)
So that's my initial take on Cloth vs Disposable Diapers. Do you have more to add? Just put it in the comments section!
No comments:
Post a Comment