Comments on: Are You Spending Too Much on Diapers?

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:38:24 +0000

Hi Amber,

Wow, $0.16 per diaper for Seventh Generation is great! I too love the convenience and prices at Amazon. Do you do one of the subscribe and save clubs? Haven’t delved into that myself.

Thanks for writing in,
Amy

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:36:56 +0000

Hi Terri,

I was interested in hearing your experience with cloth diapers. I love that you never had blowouts — that’s amazing.

Did you see the guest post by a veteran cloth diaperer on my site? http://www.frugal-mama.com/2010/10/a-veteran-cloth-diaperer-reveals-her-secrets/

I bet you would agree on a lot of her points!

Thanks for stopping by,
Amhy

By: Amber Stroyer

Amber Stroyer — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:12:07 +0000

I know this post is old but I have to comment on the Seventh Generation. I was using a cloth diaper service because we live in an apartment with shared laundry and they were organic but were giving my daughter a rash at only 3 weeks old. So I decided to switch to the disposable which I used with my first daughter and rash gone! So..for now it’s disposables. Cloth was costing us about .25 cents per diaper at 80 diapers a week. Now we order from Amazon, the seventh generation size 1 and they come out to .16cents per diaper. So, maybe you did try them and I wish I could have told you this info when you wrote the article but that’s ok, we are saving over $20 a month and right now with the way the economy is and living in Southern CA it’s a great thing to save money and help the environment a little, certainly not as much as cloth, which I hope to go back to some day!

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:37:57 +0000

We have used disposable cloth liners in our house and they work great. With some brands, if your child just pees in the diaper you can wash them and reuse them. We now use a fleece liner in our diapers and you can just pull it out if it has poop in it and swish it in the toilet and the poop just falls right off and then you can wash them and reuse them and it saves you even more in the end with money

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:32:03 +0000

At one point I had 3 kids in cloth (2 1/2 year, 1 1/2 year and newborn). I love using cloth and wouldn’t go back to using disposables. Cloth has changed so much over the years, they make it easy to cloth diaper. With the newborn I only used prefolds and covers during the day and pocket diapers at night and the older two I only used pocket diapers. The intial investment in the diapers can be as little or high as you want, it just depends on what brand you go with or style, but also, when my kids are done and potty trained I can sell the diapers and make back some of the money back. We don’t deal with diaper rash either. In the last 9 months we have spent $20 on disposables and that was because we were moving and we were waiting on a new washer/dryer to arrive. Best thing yet, is we never had a blowout with newborn poo and the worry about it ruining clothes.

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Savings Experiment: Diapers | BUSINESS GUIDE BLOG — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:42:41 +0000

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By: Savings Experiment: Diapers | FINANCIAL ADVICES BLOG

Savings Experiment: Diapers | FINANCIAL ADVICES BLOG — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:49:21 +0000

By: How Breastfeeding Saves Money: Interview with Andi Silverman of ‘Mama Knows Breast’ — Frugal Mama

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:14:00 +0000

[...] sheets. Maybe you redecorate the baby’s room. And then the clothes. And then the diapers and toys! It’s unbelievable how those costs pile [...]

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:21:23 +0000

Thanks for writing in, Angie. I did feature a guest post from a cloth diaperer, since I unfortunately don’t have experience. Here is what she says: http://www.frugal-mama.com/2010/10/a-veteran-cloth-diaperer-reveals-her-secrets/

By: angie

angie — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:56:59 +0000

I have to agree with the cloth diaperers! They are really good. I used disposable with my first and switched to cloth for my second. I am a working mom and cloth works for me! It is simple. I have tried many kinds, but I prefer the pocket one-size diapers. I found ecobritches to be really nice. I think you can only buy them online at http://www.ecobritches.com, but shipping was free when I ordered.

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:39:57 +0000

Satre and MakingTime: I’m really enjoying reading your thoughts about cloth diapers: the ups and downs and the cost analysis too (in NYC anyway).

I have heard mixed ratings about the liners, which for me, would be essential since most poo around here is not solid.

But if they did work, then cloth would have a whole new appeal to me. Can anyone else chime in about disposable cloth diaper liners?

By: MakingTime

MakingTime — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:31:27 +0000

I’m jumping in late here, but wanted to share my 2 cents on cloth. I used cloth almost exclusively with my first child – even when traveling (as long as the trip was either short or had sufficient laundry facilities). I really liked cloth. It does just feel better. And I did not find the laundering difficult, especially in the breastmilk-only phase, when you can (no kidding) just put the diapers in the laundry with no preparation and they will come out clean. (That said, if I was doing my laundry in a laundromat, that would pretty much rule out cloth diapers for me – you could look into a service that delivers clean diapers and picks up the dirties once a week; I found that cost comparable to disposables and the convenience is unmatched.)

I always did a pre-rinse and then washed on hot. Diaper manufacturers will tell you not to use bleach (or very much detergent) and I never have. Getting them quite dry, either in the sun or in the drier is sufficiently germicidal, I think. The sun does do a great job of fading stains, though.

My only complaint with a little baby is that mine have always had trouble going to sleep with a wet cloth diaper on. Since it seems like they are always going to sleep at unpredictable times, nursing to sleep, and peeing all the time, especially while nursing, I find that aspect difficult for the first few months of life. For that reason, I am currently using a mix of cloth and disposables with my second child. I’m hoping to go to mostly cloth soon, as her sleep patterns regularize and I can put her in a disposable for sleep (my son slept in cloth and many people have their children sleep in cloth, I just have come to a personal middle ground on this issue!)

My son is almost three and has been in disposables only for months now. We moved and used disposables “temporarily” during that transition, then he’d kind of outgrown the diapers we had for him and it seemed like he’d be potty trained “any day now” (now it’s looking a loooong way off, though). Plus, he poops a LOT. Several times a day. And it’s not solid. So, cleaning smushy toddler poop off cloth diapers multiple times a day just kind of killed it for me. If he had normal toddler poop, something I could shake off into the toilet once or twice a day, he’d definitely still be in cloth.

I have never tried the disposable liners, but may look into it with my second child (she poops much more rarely than my son and I’m guessing I will be able to know when it’s going to happen).

By: satre

satre — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:17:45 +0000

Cloth diapers break even in terms of cost in NYC. When we lived on 34th St. I did a cost analysis for the cloth diapers we used with our daughter. It turned out that the cost of doing laundry offset the savings over 3 years making them turn out to be basically even.

Then I did a cost analysis for if we actually lived somewhere where we could have our own laundry machines and it turned out that we would break even from the cost of buying the machines to wash the diapers. Of course, we could also wash other clothes too, but it was discouraging.

The advantages were all those mentioned before so we went with cloth, but always had to have backup disposables for the occasional babysitter because most people are clueless how to manage cloth.

When we moved to the upper east side, we tried using cloth with our newborn son, but quickly found that the laundry machines in our building were wholly inadequate to get them clean, so we reluctantly switched to disposable. Fortunately we had a friend who wanted to buy all the cloth diapers we had stocked up and we didn’t lose all that $$.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:25:03 +0000

Hannah and Al: It’s very refreshing to hear positive experiences with cloth diapers. I had no idea that there were disposable liners, that the diapers don’t leak, and that they eliminate the need for diaper cream. These three factors make cloth a lot more attractive, not to mention the environmental advantages.

The part about the bleach is an issue, however, plus all the water (and labor) in washing them. But I guess no method is without its downsides.

Thanks so much for weighing in!

By: Al

Al — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:55:55 +0000

My experience is similar to Hannah’s. I used cloth diapers with both my boys. I never had a problem with leaks or diaper rash, and those diaper liners are wonderful. It doesn’t take long for a smart mom to figure out what time of day to line the diapers. The downside of cloth diapers is the same as disposable diapers: environmental. Whereas the disposables fill up landfills, the cloth diapers take some chemical warfare to clean up. Of course, you can use green detergents and Borax instead of bleach, but then you’ve got to hang the washed diapers to dry in the sun to get the germ-killing effect of bleach. I always loved hanging out diapers. It’s sort of meditative activity. Unfortunately, hanging out diapers in the sun isn’t always an option in the city. So I guess you’re back to bleach. Still, bleach is what many cities use to purify water for reuse, so perhaps the environment effect isn’t such a huge impact after all.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:48:08 +0000

Hi Amy,
I’ve been using cloth for almost 2 years on my 3rd child and love that option. Not only have I saved a lot of money, but I feel I’m making a good choice for the environment and my child’s health (no icky absorbant gels/chemicals against my child’s skin all day). The cloth diapers breathe, so baby gets less diaper rash (no need for Desitin!). Also, my son seems very comfortable. Would you rather wear a paper diaper or a super soft organic cotton velour one, for example? If you are into the cute factor, there are many colors and prints to choose from. I love cloth! I wish I’d tried cloth with my older two.

To be extra frugal, you can resell you used cloth diapers on sites like diaperswappers when you are done and recoup a good portion of the upfront investment (which can be as little as a about $200, or as much as you want to spend)!

What do you think the downsides of cloth are? Laundry & pooop? The laundry does take some extra time but isn’t crazy assuming you have easy access to a washer/dryer. Yes, you have poop to deal with but the cloth diapers very rarely leak (maybe 3 times in 2 years!), so I never deal with poop blowouts on clothing. That saves effort laundering baby clothes and trying to get poop stains out.

There are also very thin flushable liners that you can lay in the diapers, and then just plunk the whole thing in the toilet. That solves the issue or rinsing/swishing before putting the dirty diaper in the pail.

It’s worth giving cloth a try!