By Liz Gordon-Hancock
Bambino Mio, GroVia, Fill Your Pants, bumgenius, AppleCheeks, and Rumparooz - these are all brands of cloth diapers.
Cloth diapers have had a total revamp. I'm not talking about the big terrycloth squares that you perform a type of origami on, and then use giant safety pins to secure around your baby.
Cloth diapers nowadays come in dozens of different types, materials, shapes and colors: all-in-one, prefolds, envelope-style, pocket diaper with inserts, and choice of snaps or velcro closures and so on.
But no matter which style, there's one common denominator: yes, your baby's butt looks big in them. They’re just more “substantial” or bulkier than disposable diapers.
I used reusable, cloth diapers on all three of my children.
First off, I am really against anything that is single-use. For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase "single-use" - this refers to something which gets used once and then thrown away, such as a plastic bottle of water or the container for blueberries or cookies from the grocery store.
I have to be literally dying of thirst before I buy a bottle of water from a store. A lot of these plastic containers are recyclable, but most of them are marked No. 5 or 7, which are seldom recycled in community recycling programs. If it’s No. 6, it’s a version of Styrofoam and cannot be recycled.
So I am a huge recycling fan(atic).
But that's not actually what led me to cloth diapers.
I entered motherhood living in the UK, surrounded by moms who were all using cloth or reusable diapers. Not just any cloth diapers, but the same brand and type of cloth diaper. So, I just jumped on the band wagon and started. And because I am very concerned about the environment, I continued using reusables because the disposable diapers just created so much more waste.
It took awhile to figure out how long they would realistically last before needing changed, how many inserts (think layers) were needed for best fit and absorbency, and then how to store them, and so on. But hubby and I got into a good groove and made it work.
I know some moms who use cloth diapers while potty training - the wet sensation is more similar to underwear than a disposable diaper so it helps train kids to want to put pee in the potty, not their pants.
Is using reusable diapers more work?
Or course it is, BUT I’m a firm believer that all labor has a reward. Even Sisyphus – a character in Greek mythology, whose labor was to continually roll a boulder up a hill – had some sick abs and biceps to show for his monotonous labor.
Cloth diapers is more of a labor of love: love for your child and for the environment.
The ultimate question is does it save you money? In my experience, if you do cloth diapers full-time for at least one year, then yes, you will save money. Your upfront costs are going to be somewhere between $300-500, depending upon the number and style of cloth diapers you choose, including extra inserts and replacements (and the extra cost of laundry detergent).
However, this is far cheaper than buying disposable diapers until your child is potty trained.
Another mother I know kept a running tally of the number of disposable diapers she used: From the day her son came home from the hospital to the day he turned one, she used exactly 2,900 diapers. Her second son used 2,423 in his first year. She's still buying diapers.
If you’re buying diapers in bulk, they average 22 cents per diaper, so the average cost of diapering her eldest son for his first year is $638. Add her second son, and that’s a further $533. This is only for the first year.
The beauty of reusable diapers is they can diaper more than one child. So for the same upfront cost, you can diaper a second (or third) child, and you have much more incentive to potty train earlier, so you can use your diapers for the next child.
If you're at all interested, here's the top tips for using cloth diapers, whether for just potty training or part or full-time use:
- To use reusable diapers full-time, you need somewhere between 10-12 cloth diapers per day, and since you'll need to wash and dry these diapers, you realistically need 2 days worth (or 20-24 cloth diapers).
- Decide which type of cloth diaper is best for you - there are a dozen different styles. Pick the one that makes the most sense to you. (You need to be able to compile this diaper while sleep-deprived.)
- Yes, you will need to change more often with reusables, especially the more "use" they receive.
- Yes, it is more work - someone will have to remove the you-know-what from the diaper before it can be washed. (Labor of love, remember?)
- You don’t have to start out from day one. Newborns are so small that it’s hard to get any cloth diapers to fit, and with the expense and knowledge that they will soon outgrow any newborn-sized reusable, I just used disposables for the first month or two, before we could get into the reusable groove. Do what works for your family.
- Give yourself a break on vacations and use disposables.
Finally, don't beat yourself up if you can't maintain cloth diapering through all seasons. I gave up using reusables with my youngest when he turned two.
About the columnist
Liz Gordon-Hancock, daughter of Bob and Deb Beer, graduated from BHS in 2000. She attended Ohio Northern University, and received her bachelor's in English Literature in 2004. She is a member of County Line Church of the Brethren.
As part of her studies, she spent her junior year in Wales, United Kingdom, at the University of Wales, Lampeter, where she met her future husband, Robert Gordon-Hancock.
After graduation, she married and moved to London, England. She could hear Big Ben chime the top of the hour from their studio apartment. She commuted on a red, double-decker bus, crossing the River Thames, every weekday for work.
But London was not ideal for raising children, so the Gordon-Hancocks bought a house in Witham, Essex, where they had two children (under free, national healthcare).
After 10 years in the UK, the Gordon-Hancocks moved back to Bluffton to raise their kids in small-town America. They now have three children, Alenah (age 8), Isla (age 6) and Elliot (age 2).
