Cloth Diapering (Part I)

The diaper debate...cloth v. disposable seems to be a hot topic in parent-land.  People have very strong opinions one way or the other.  I'm going to share what we're doing and hope you'll share your opinions on it as well.

It seems as if there's a trend of people going back to cloth.  I approached the topic much like I did with labor and delivery decisions:  I was skeptical and wanted to know what the big deal was.  Well, I learned quite a few things and a couple facts stood out as being important to me.  The environmental impact that disposable diapers leave on our earth is insane.  Even if we could cut down on that impact a little bit, it was an interest to me.  Also, everyone talks about the price of cloth being so much cheaper.  Well, I think it depends on what type of cloth diaper you plan on using.  If you're going to use the prefolds with a cover, then I think this is absolutely cheaper.  If you're going to use the fancy schmancy cloth diapers, it probably is still slightly cheaper than doing disposable, especially if you plan on using them for siblings.  Finally, babies who wear cloth diapers tend to get less diaper rash and potty train sooner than kids in disposables.

The downsides that were important to me:  the time it takes to use cloth (the laundry, care, etc.); the fact that you have to change the baby's diaper much more often (this is also somewhat of a good thing for baby at least, not so fun for mom and dad who have to get up through the night to change the diapers); the upfront cost of buying all of the diapers.

I won't go into more details than that...some other bloggers have done a fantastic job explaining the pros and cons.  If you're more interested, take a look at Julia's post on why she and her husband chose to go cloth.

We weighed our options and looked into both cloth and disposable diapers.  We decided that with our lifestyle the way it is right now, we want to try to go the cloth diaper route.  Baby girl will be home with us the first 6 months, so we really do have the time to devote to trying it out.  She won't be in daycare until she's about 6 months old.  It makes sense for us.  We'll likely still have a stash of disposables for when we're traveling or when cloth diapering just won't work.  But cloth diapering has come such a long way that it seems more manageable than it used to be. 

So yep - we're going to try the cloth diapers.  I will go into more detail about cloth diaper shopping - how we're choosing the right cloth diaper, and where we've shopped for them in another post.  Stay tuned!