To Cloth or Not To Cloth

The moment I found out that I was pregnant, I knew that there would be many important decisions that I would have to make before the baby was born. What formula would I use if breastfeeding didn’t work out? What detergent would I use to wash the baby’s clothes? Would I use regular diapers or cloth diapers? These are a few of the many questions that I found going through my mind throughout the nine months of pregnancy. While I admit that some of the decisions that I made before my baby was born were not always the best, my decision to keep my baby in cloth diapers is one that I would recommend to all parents. As someone who cares deeply about the environment and also saving money, cloth diapers were without a doubt the way to go for me. The following are a few of the advantages that I found in using cloth diapers.

Cost. This is probably the greatest advantage in my book! After comparing prices of regular disposable diapers and cloth diapers, it was evident that I would save money by putting my baby in cloth diapers. Washing the cloth diapers would beat making weekly trips to the store to buy diapers that would just end up in the trash can. If you are looking to save some money, cloth diapers are definitely more cost efficient that regular ones.

Environmental impact. If a baby can “potty” in a diaper and it not leak a bit, how good do you think this can be for the environment? Not good at all. It can take hundreds of years for a diaper to decompose. Times this by the thousands of diaper your baby will use throughout his toddler years and you’ve got a huge environmental problem. Cloth diapers help reduce the problem.

Once I made the decision to go strictly with cloth diapers, I was faced with another dilemma. There are tons of different brands of cloth diapers available. How would I ever be able to choose the one that would be best for my baby? After researching, reading reviews, and getting advice from other parents that I knew, I decided that the bumGenius brand would work for me. I used this brand until my baby was potty trained. The great thing about this brand of cloth diaper is that it is one size fit all. I purchased several of the diapers when my child was born and was able to use them until he was old enough to learn how to use the potty.

If you are considering using cloth diapers there are likely a few questions looming in your mind. Is cleaning the diapers hard? No. With disposable liners available for purchase, clean-up is relatively simple. The amount of clean up that you will have to do depend on you. Is it difficult to deal with in public places? If there is one disadvantage to cloth diapering, it would be this. You will have to find a way to deal with “messes” in public places. I found it useful to carry around small trash bags for those little emergencies that always happen in public. The disposable liners also were very helpful.

While using cloth diapers may not be for everyone, it was a wonderful experience for me. Pregnant with my second child, I will without a doubt choose to use them again. If you have never used them before, I highly recommend that you do. It will save your money and help save the environment too!

Olivia Nicholas is a writer and blogger. She is always happy to share her passion for life and experiences through her work, and in her spare time works as a freelance writer for Storkie.