I recently read a blog post about why someone chose not to cloth diaper and figured I should explain why we chose to do it. Everyone seems to think it’s a lot of work and weird, but it works for us!
Before I got pregnant, I had only heard of cloth diapering in passing. I have a cousin who does it, and that’s about it. Honestly, I hadn’t put much thought into it. However, when I got pregnant I started reading all kinds of pregnancy blogs and they were pretty much all on the cloth diaper wagon. I did a lot of research and decided that it would probably work for our family.
The next day, Hunter came home and had heard how much money cloth diapering saves on NPR. Anything the boy hears on NPR is pure, unadulterated truth to him so he was completely sure that our baby needed cloth diapers. The only problem I saw with this was the initial investment. I figured I’d need at least 2 dozen diapers to start with, costing around $500. As a school teacher and a cupcake baker, we didn’t have that kind of money all at once. Enter baby showers! Everyone wants to get you something, so ask for something useful! I use these diapers everyday, over and over and over. I hadn’t really thought about it but they are probably the most used baby items I received!
While I’d love to say that we chose cloth diapering for environmental reasons (it definitely plays a part!), the big appeal was the money saving. A lot of people argue that you end up paying more on your water bill and that it reduces the savings, but with a front loading, energy saving washing machine, we haven’t seen more than a few dollars difference.
Okay, but the real question people always ask me… isn’t it gross?? The answer to that will probably change once we start solids at 6 months or so, but for now…no. Breastfed babies have poop that really isn’t that hard to deal with. Yeah, I have to reach in and pull the insert out of the diaper, but it’s not a big deal.
It’s not a lot of extra laundry either–I do a load of diapers every 3 days and we’re set!
We started using them at 4 weeks and I haven’t looked back. Bumgenius 4.0 are our diaper of choice (although I haven’t tried any others and would be interested in comparing).
Chloe playing in her bumgenius diaper
Another benefit is that Chloe is much, much happier in them. I still use disposable at night because the doctor warned me that she’s more likely to get a rash in the cloth overnight and I’m starting to notice the complete opposite. I think sometimes she ends up with a chemical rash from the disposables. So…tonight is her first night wearing cloth the whole time. Hopefully, we won’t see any leaks.
Overall, I’m really glad we went this route. There is absolutely nothing cuter than a baby with a fluffy bum. Another plus is that in the summer she will totally look like she has bloomers on when she’s just in her diaper! They come in such fun colors and prints, too. I really think she needs this one in the lovelace color for summer (Mom?).
Some pics from the day:
Ready to take over the world.
Caught red handed with her blanket over her face and her thumb in her mouth. Probably her favorite position.
Chloe Makes Three 
I actually never understood the cloth diaper phenomenon but its always been a topic of curiosity, so thank you for sharing! I definitely will do the same when I’m a mommy one day 🙂
I did a lot of research on cloth diapering when I was pregnant and I was surprised how many options there are and how far cloth diapering has come. I, probably like a lot of people, was mostly familiar with the packs of cloth diapers you can pick up at Target and other places. You know the ones that are just squares of fabric that don’t look like much. Who knew that cloth diapering nowadays is so much more. Not to mention fashionable, there are definitely some super cute designs. I think that it is great that it works for your family.