Cloth Diapers

Disposables

Environmental Impact

Diapers are often made of completely biodegradable material such as cotton, hemp, and fleece.  Minimal extra use of water and soap in laundering. Water is a renewable resource. 

Sixty times more solid waste and twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp from trees are consumed are used of disposable diapers than in cloth diapers.  25 million trees per year are consumed alone.

Cost

Estimated to save up to $1000-$2000 per child over the period of a child’s diaper use.

Continuous daily cost before the child potty trains.

Convenience

Velcro and snap fastening cloth diapers are just as easy to put on and take off as disposable

Changing is a simple.  Take off the diaper, flush liner with stool, place diaper in a diaper bin.

When you go out, you’ll want to bring along a wet bag.   You have to bring diapers where ever you go anyways so bringing along wet bag isn’t a big deal.

Cloth Diapers are most often not covered up with outer clothing making a quick change faster than with disposables.

Since disposables are meant to be covered, this typically makes changing more difficult because of the need to remove extra clothing to get to the diaper.

Style

Cloth diapers are the entire rave.  They are meant to be seen!  The cutest styles using designer fabric and colors are available to mix and match with any outfit.

Meant to be hidden.  Considered unsightly. 

Care

Washing and drying after each use is about as simple as a regular load of clothing

No care necessary

Skin care

In hospital studies and in our own experience, cloth diapers reduce the number of rashes baby gets. 

There may be many reasons for this.  One suggested is baby is less comfortable in a wet or soiled diaper and usually “lets you know” earlier reducing the time the waste is against your baby’s soft skin.

Disposable diapers may contain trace elements of toxic chemicals. Dioxin, which in various forms has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases, is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process used in manufacturing disposable diapers, and trace quantities may exist in the diapers themselves.

Sodium polyacrylate is used to absorb liquids in diapers, which absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome. No studies have been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years.

Link:

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html

You may also be familiar with brand hunting, which is the process of finding that brand that won’t give your baby a rash.  In our first two kids we used disposables exclusively. One of the major brands consistently caused rashes on our kids. For each kid it was a different brand. We had to switch till we found one that didn’t result in a rash. 

Potty training

Babies adorned in cloth tend to potty train earlier than those in Disposables. 

Leaks

Cloth diapers can be just as leak proof as disposables if not more so.

Stylish diaper covers hold the wet in and Cloth Diapers in general handle blowouts significantly better then disposables. 

Blowouts are pretty common especially with runny stool resulting in difficult and messy changing situations (sometimes in difficult places) and stained clothing.

Choice

Cloth diaper technology is diverse.  Various diaper styles, fastening systems, fabrics, liners create a great range of products that provide a host of consumer options.  Finding a diaper that is “perfect” for you is therefore more likely.

Disposables are mostly the same.  Some brands fit better than other’s based on an individuals body shape/size.