#1: One of my main reasons is cost.
This is a very popular reason, maybe tied with the natural benefits of it being greener than disposables. I have twins, thats double the love but double the cost as well. I can't breastfeed due to some things in my past and knew that coming in. So I knew we would be spending some big bucks to feed the babies so I started thinking of ways I could curb some of the cost of two babies and cloth diapers was one of the first things that came to mind. I did use disposables for the first month because they were so small and lets be honest here, there were two new people who needed a lot of attention that I needed to adjust to. So since January 3rd I have changed anywhere from 14-18 diapers a day, if using disposables I would prefer Pampers so that would cost about $25/ every 5 Days. So doing that math it comes to about $380 until the end of March. I spent around $850 for my entire cloth stash. So we are almost halfway to making it back and it's only been 3 months. Now I did look at our water bill and it's gone up between $15 & $20 a month since December when the boys were born but that also includes their regular laundry that we are having to wash plus the water needed to mix with formula. I made the laundry detergent that I use for the diapers and I believe I spent around $30 for those supplies, and it should last me at least 6 months longer than it already has.
#2: They are so dang cute!
I mean honestly, would this picture be as cute if they were in disposables? This is one of my not as popular reasons!
#3: I've seen what disposables can do.
I have a background that required me to change a lot of diapers and I have seen the rashes that happen when babies are in disposables. When I was debating to cloth or not to cloth I questioned a friend that had done them with her son and she said he only had a touch of a rash once in his 2 years of cloth.
That was a major selling point for me. I had a little girl once who kept getting these rashes that looked like chemical burns and no matter how often we changed her or what kind of creams the parents tried it didn't really help.
#4: I don't mind laundry.
I know I know, "What is she thinking" but honestly laundry sort of helps me keep a zen about me. I have time to focus some of my OCD by sorting, folding and such and I honestly have worked diaper laundry into my daily routine with the boys. I make the stuffing/folding part happen in the morning while the boys have their tummy time and I sit on the floor and we talk and play together while I'm doing it.
#5: I'm a hippie at heart.
I went to Appalachian and lets be honest here if you spend anytime in Boone you come out with a little hippie in you even if you didn't have it going in!
With all of that said some people are probably thinking "Still it's a lot of work and not for me" and that's fine the good news is that everyone is allowed the right to choose how to raise their own children.
There is a learning curve to it and it takes everyone involved a while to get to where they are comfortable changing the babies and making sure they are tight enough so they don't leak out everywhere.
My spousal unit didn't have a hard time adjusting because before our boys he hadn't ever changed a diaper so he just went with what I taught him.
When the boys were smaller (under 8.5 pounds) I used the "old fashioned" prefolds and covers. I LOVED THESE and sort of wished I still had some. They were harder but I found that I could fold them to catch things better. Hands down this is the cheapest option in cloth diapering. This is a picture of one with the cover on. I don't have one of the boys with just the cloth part.
Now that they are over 8.5 pounds we use the one size diapers that will grow with them until they are potty trained! In the pictures below you can see that they are on different snaps to make it work for different sized babies!
They also make velcro which I only had 2 of during the newborn stage because they have the ability to learn to unhook that more so than the snaps!
If you have any questions about cloth diapering I will gladly answer your questions or at least help point you to a source that hopefully can answer them if I can't answer them! If you cloth leave a comment letting me know your main reasons!
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