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What do I do with the poop? Do I have to toilet dunk?
No toilet dunking is necessary! Yuck! No wonder people are afraid of cloth diapers when this image gets conjured up! Advances in modern cloth diapers have been accompanied by advances in the accessories used to care for them...flushable or washable liners and diaper sprayers are excellent ways to 'deal with the poop'. Chances are you will manage to do it without even getting your hands dirty - though we do recommend washing your hands after changing a diaper anyway! Come on, let's be truthful - even if you use disposables there are times when the mess is simply unavoidable. It's no different with cloth. Am I gonna tell you that you'll never get gross stuff on your hands? Of course not, but that answer won't change no matter what kind of diaper you use. The majority of the time clean up is easy and quick - especially once you get in your cloth 'groove'!
What accessories do I really need?
Cloth wipes are great - we simply dampen ours with plain old water and store them in our wipe warmer! Once they're used you simply toss them in the wash with your diapers - you're already doing the laundry, so no extra work there. Most cloth diapering parents find their diaper sprayer to be invaluable, especially when baby is younger and their solids are not really so 'solid', if you get my drift! Again, flushable liners are also a great alternative or complement to your sprayer for clean-up. A diaper pail and waterproof liner, or a hanging wet bag are a must. Detergent is obviously important - see our wash & care instructions page for specific recommendations. Finally, a small zipper tote bag is perfect for when you're out and about, to store dirty diapers until you can get home. Aside from these items, there are other things that are certainly 'nice' to have, but aren't really necessities.
Are cloth diapers as messy & inconvenient as I've heard?
Chances are, the people who have told you they are messy or inconvenient either used them long ago, or haven't used them at all and are simply basing their opinions on what they've also 'heard'. The modern upgrades cloth diapers have seen in the past decade, and particularly in the last several years, have made them just as easy to use as disposables, with the possible exception of the extra step of washing them. Most cloth diapering parents will tell you that once they got a wash routine figured out that it really doesn't seem like a burden at all - and in fact, most of them would likely tell you that they would never go back to using disposables, especially in terms of the cost savings. Unless you are particularly squeamish, most people find that the 'ick' factor that used to be associated with washing cloth diapers has all but disappeared, and the benefits you reap in using them more than make up for an extra couple loads of laundry each week! Let's face it, no matter whether you decide to use cloth or disposables, you have to deal with poopy diapers...it's a fact of parenting! We feel so confident that you will find that cloth diapers are as easy to use as disposables that we offer for you to try them for yourself for 3 weeks. If you decide it's just not for you, then you simply return the diapers to us for a full refund in the form of your original payment, minus a trial fee of 10% of the value of those items...or the trial fee is waived and you'll receive full credit for those items if you choose to take store credit instead! And really, if you are using our cloth diapers for a couple of weeks aren't you saving at least that much money in foregoing disposables for that amount of time? You have nothing to lose!
Even if I save money buying cloth diapers, won't I end up spending a lot for accessories and washing them?
o Americans
spend about seven billion dollars on disposable diapers each year – most
estimates are in the range of $1,600 - $2,300 per child from birth to potty
training
o The
cost of cloth diapering is approximately $300 - $1,500 per child from birth to
potty training, including the costs for accessories and washing – plus you can use the diapers again with subsequent children, which means you would only be paying for the cost of washing at that point (the average is $1.50/load). Modern cloth diapers are also made with such high quality materials and workmanship that you can even sell them to another family when you're finished with them to recoup some of your cost! o You can also get the most bang for your buck by filling your stash with one-size diapers. You only have to buy diapers once since they grow with your child, and the bonus with one-size diapers is that you will actually be able to wash less often as your child grows older & requires fewer diaper changes per day! o Bottom Line: Cloth is a less expensive option!
Are cloth diapers really better for the environment? What about all the energy being used to manufacture, distribute, and wash them?
Despite some very early studies which stated that the environmental impacts of cloth diapers were just as bad as disposables - it is important to note here that these studies were funded by disposable companies! - more recent independently funded studies have shown that, without a doubt, cloth diapers have less of an environmental impact for a number of reasons. Without going into too much detail here (if you'd like to read more information about this please visit the links provided below), we'd like to make a couple of points about the manufacturing, distributing, and washing of cloth diapers. It is estimated that one child will have 6,000 diaper changes by the time they are potty trained. Therefore, you are looking at 6,000 disposable diapers versus 18-72 cloth diapers per child. Not to mention that, when properly cared for, your stash of cloth diapers can then be used on your subsequent children or sold to another family - negating another 6,000 disposables for each of those children! The vast disparity between these numbers alone clearly indicates the difference in the amount of resources that are necessary to manufacture, package, and transport cloth vs disposables. According to the RDA (see link below), disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste! As for the washing, to give you a bit of perspective, the amount of water used by the average household to wash a full load of diapers every three days has been estimated to equal an adult flushing the toilet 5-6 times a day…oh, if only babies came out of the womb toilet trained!
There are also steps you can take in cloth diapering to further lessen your footprint:
If you’d like to read more information, here are some great resources:
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