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We were graciously given a two-week supply of disposable diapers from some very generous friends, and so for the past week we have been using them. After months and months of cloth diaper laundry, it’s been very eye-opening for us to take a break and use disposables!
As a self-proclaimed hippie, it is to be expected that I am all about cloth diapering. As a new mom who is still sometimes having difficulty believing that this little person is truly mine and I’m not just babysitting for a really long time, I wanted to talk some brutal honesty about the differences in diapers.
First, the pros:
- The cost. I LOVE that I can use these diapers for any future children we might have. You definitely can’t say that about a disposable!
- The cute. Guys, cloth diapers are absolutely adorable. And on Etsy, they are even cuter. Like all the Harry Potter ones. I can’t help myself. I need them all.
- You always have them. You don’t have to run out in the middle of the night after realizing that you just used the last diaper.
Now the cons:
- It’s a lot of laundry. We do laundry 2-3 times a week, and you have to do a short cycle first to clean off all the gross before adding in the other clothes (unless you have enough cloth diapers to fill an entire full load, we have about a half load’s worth).
- Sometimes it takes awhile to find a brand that fits your child’s specific build properly, and the process can be frustrating. When we first started cloth diapering, we were lent a bunch of cloth diapers by some friends, but they didn’t fit Tristan’s long skinny legs very well. He was always leaking and we almost gave up on cloth diapering altogether until we tried a different style that was more customizable to thinner babies.
- If you’re easily grossed out, cloth diapers probably aren’t for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to scoop mess out of diapers before I could put them in the wash. The pro for the disposable diapers is definitely that you only see that once.
Every once in awhile, it is very nice to have a break from tons of laundry. In general for our family, the pros of cloth diapering outweigh the cons. Though the investment seems like a lot, once you do the math and realize how much money you save by not having to purchase diapers regularly (especially if you have more than one in diapers at once!), the cost per diaper goes down drastically. Even for the Harry Potter diapers.
We’re on baby number three in the diapers I bought used when Lucien was born, and just replaced those prefolds with hand me downs from my sister-in-law. And now we have really absorbent rags! I’m trying to transition to wool covers because my babies all have sensitive skin, but for pul covers thirsties are a definite favorite.
It’s so nice to find diapers that work well for each baby! I’ve looked into wool diapers (there are some really cute Harry Potter ones), but I heard something about a lanolin soak and it looked a bit complicated for my taste. 🙂