Unorthodox Diapering Step 1

The Truth About Cloth Diapers

Step 1: convincing my husband that cloth diapers aren't lunacy

Maybe I just have to do everything the hard way- I'm pretty sure that's what my husband would say, but I like to think that I chose cloth diapers because of all the hidden perks. Like: saving $1,500 a year per child, the non-impact my diapers are having on the landfills, the fewer harsh chemicals that my son's bottom comes in contact with.

Honestly, the 3k+ in savings was what did it for my family. Everything else was just an extra perk. My husband was NOT sold on this idea at first. He was pretty sure I'd gone loony-tunes with pregnancy, "A new baby is hard enough why are you trying to make it harder on yourself?"

Maybe I need a little back story to help you understand why I even began to wander down the cloth VS disposable road. I've worked full time and supported myself since just a few months past my 18th birthday (which was towards the beginning of my senior year in high school). My independence is something that I highly value. It's ingrained in me that it's no one's responsibility to provide anything for me and I'm completely accountable for providing for myself. Pregnancy and having a child of our own meant a maternity leave which would put the burden of providing for our family completely on Joe, my husband. We had also talked at length about child care and decided that we didn't want to pay a large chunk of our income to have someone else do what we wanted to do our selves- take care of our son. So, now I wasn't only facing a 6-12 week maternity leave but possibly not working at all or only working part time beyond that. I realize it sounds like a privilege to stay home with your kids and rationally I know that taking care of the kids and keeping a home IS a full time job. None the less, I was overcome with guilt that I would no longer be pulling my weight and a question lingered in my mind, "How could we say good-bye to my much needed income?" 

Budgeting for a household is complex, and I've learned there's more than one way to improve your financial situation: increase your income or decrease your expenses. Having a baby is not a very effective way to decrease your expenses (You can say that again!). When you're discussing how expensive babies are the first thing you bring up is: diapers. I began researching ways I could do work at home to seriously decrease the expense burden of our new family member. Choice #1 was breastfeeding over formula (I'm sure there will be a post dedicated to that topic so for now I'll just point out that breastfeeding is the more economical choice), choice #2 was cloth diapering, choice #3 was homemade baby food, and choice #4 was homemade house cleaning products, and more recently I've added homemade cosmetics.

Like I stated before, Joe was not on board with cloth diapers in the beginning but I convinced him to let me purchase a small starter set and give it a try. When the products arrived I gave him a demonstration (A teddy bear was my test subject with Logan still in the womb) and requested a list of his protests so that I could counter them with solutions.

Joe's list of cons:

• Changing a diaper will be more complicated
• We'd be putting fecal matter in our washing machine
• We'll have a pail of dirty diapers that can't go outside to the trash and will inevitably stink up our house
• Higher initial costs
• Time involved with washing the diapers
• Traveling with baby would mean totting around soiled clothes
• Explaining how to use them to other caregivers

(I'm sure, "I don't want to because it sounds weird and it involves learning to do something that I'm not really interested in learning" was an unspoken protest)

Carly's Solutions:

Changing a diaper will be more complicated- I'm not sure this was a valid protest for Joe since I would be doing 90% of the diaper changes. Humoring him, I explained that the diaper change experience doesn't have much of a difference: Take off the dirty, put on the clean. The clean diapers would be assembled when I do laundry, the dirty ones will go in the diaper pail. This is especially true with the cloth diapers of today. The water proof diaper covers snap or Velcro at the hips for easy changing- just like disposables. The cloth inserts are pre-folded and fit nicely inside the covers. Occasionally I add an extra step when the diaper cover isn't soiled and instead of changing both pieces I just exchange the cloth insert for a fresh one. Actually I'm not sure that's even an extra step, its still: take off the dirty, put in the clean. :)

We'd be putting fecal matter in our washing machine- Honestly, this was a concern I had too. Baby poop and my favorite jeans did not sound like a good combo. I did my research on disinfecting diapers and the washing machine, the information was NOT easy to find! I know I cannot be the only one with this concern... You should never ever use bleach on cloth diapers, it effects the absorbency of the diapers and is very bad for little baby bottoms. Actually, most cleaners are very bad for baby bottoms. But this adventure led to my discovery of the disinfectant powers of tea tree oil and vinegar. Check out what National Geographic says about vinegar as a disinfectant here: greenliving. Now every load of diapers gets washed with a 1/2 cup of vinegar and 3 drops of tea tree oil. Joe read some information about a 5% solution of vinegar killing 99% of germs and was convinced. (Posts about the many ways I use vinegar and how to clean your washing machine coming soon)

We'll have a pail of dirty diapers that can't go outside to the trash and will inevitably stink up our house- Since I'll be at home most of the time I don't see any reason why I can't keep up with the extra 2-3 loads of laundry a week. We keep the dirties in Munchkin's Arm and Hammer Diaper pail which contains the smell pretty well. The baby poo gets flushed immediately (with the help of disposable diaper liners) which means there's not as much poo sticking around the house than when using disposables- inevitably LESS stink. Joe was satisfied with that solution.

Higher initial costs- Really? The initial $300 to buy everything we need until we potty train (for not only this child but also any children we decide to have in the future) is nothing compared to the$1,500 a year per child for disposables. That's not even a real protest.

Time involved with washing dirty diapers- An extra 2 or 3 loads of laundry that I don't even have to fold is the least I can do to help us save money if I'm not working.

Traveling with baby would mean totting around soiled clothes and explaining how to use them to other caregivers- We agreed to use disposables part time for when we're out and about or when someone else has Logan over to visit. When Logan and I venture out alone I bring a roll of baby powder scented plastic bags to stow away soiled cloth diapers in. Some of our favorite Aunties and Nonies have offered to use the cloth diapers despite how unusual they seem these days. Clean cloth diapers do take up more room in the diaper bag, especially when you have to hang onto the dirty duds you've already used, so the majority of the time when we leave the house Logan is wearing his 'paper panties'.

After that long discussion we agreed that cloth diapers were in our future. 

After the fact we found some pros that we didn't discuss during our decision making process. It turns out that babies wearing cloth diapers potty train an average of 6 months sooner and have reportedly fewer diaper rashes. Neat, huh?

If you have any questions please leave a comment, I'm happy to help you find answers!

Also see: 
Step 2: Pick your diaper

Step 3: Have a system in place for storing and washing dirty duds