Mention cloth diapers to someone on the street and odds are good that you will hear one of the following: Cloth diapers are gross, they smell, they cost too much, I don’t have enough time to cloth diaper, they are unsafe with all those pins!
However some of those are no longer true in this day and age and some of them were never true! Let’s look at these cloth diaper myths and see what is really true of cloth diapers.
Myth: You have to use pins.
Truth: Cloth diapers have come quite a long way since your grandmother used them! Yes, you can still use the old fashion prefolds and you can even use pins if you truly want to but now you can use a handy device called a snappi to hold prefolds in place. There are also the modern diapers that with the exception of being made out of cloth are just as simple to use as disposables.
Myth: It’s too much work.
Truth: Putting a cloth diaper on your baby can be just as easy as putting on a disposable. Just get a new cloth diaper and velcro or snap it on. Now if you are talking about the laundry aspect then yes, you will have to do a tiny bit more laundry. However, it’s just not that big of a deal.Washing diapers is easy and the best part is you do not even need to fold them.Another thing to think about is that with disposable diapers you tend to get“blow outs” where you end up having to wash all of baby’s clothes and usually the baby. Talk about a hassle! Cloth diapers generally do not have “blow outs”and thus no emergency washing of clothes or babies.
Myth: It’s too expensive to cloth diaper.
Truth: Cloth diapers seem like they cost more when you first look into them. You’ll see one cloth diaper costing about $17 and think I could buy a whole pack of diapers for that cost! However, it’s when you add things for the long run that you see how cheap cloth diapers are! Here’s a little math for you: many disposables are about $.23 each. You might go through 6-10diapers a day and if (big if) your baby potty trains by 2 years old, you will have spent between $1,007 - $1,679. Now cloth diapers cost an average of $17(there are even cheaper ways but let’s go with the average modern cloth diaper cost). Generally, you want at least 24 diapers so if you buy 24 cloth diapers you will have spent $408. Cloth diapers will last you from newborn to potty training for one child and then go on to diaper the next baby, which actually makes them even cheaper. There’s also the fact that you can sell your cloth diapers when you are done using them. What about the water and electricity?Washing your own diapers costs about $400 for 2.5 – 3 years. Tack that price onto the cost of buying cloth diapers and you are looking at $808. Hmm, $808 for cloth or at least $1,000 for disposables.
Myth: Cloth diapers smell.
Truth: Perhaps if you stored your diapers in a bucket full of water they would smell but honestly that is not recommended any more and nobody does it that way. Instead you just store the dirty diapers in a diaper pail or wet bag. You can choose to keep the diapers in a sealed container or an open one. Some find that keeping it open allows the air to circulate and thus dissipates the odor. Others prefer keeping things closed to keep the smell in. Either way,you won’t walk into baby’s room and get knocked off your feet. When I used disposables, you could smell them the moment you walked into the house. With cloth you don’t notice any smell, even if you are standing right next to the dirty diapers!
Myth: They are dirty and gross.
Truth: Honestly, if you’ve ever changed a disposable diaper then you know that changing any diaper can be dirty work. You do have to deal with poop a bit more with cloth diapers but that doesn’t mean you have to get dirty! All you have to do is dump the poop in the toilet. Some use the dunk and swish method, which admittedly can get a little dirty for some. However for those who really want nothing to do with poop then all they need do is buy a diaper sprayer. This handy device is basically a tiny shower head that attaches to your toilet. Removing poop is as simple as holding the diaper by the end and spraying everything into the toilet. Your hands can stay perfectly clean.
There are a lot of myths when it comes to cloth diapers.Don’t give into the myths; they just aren’t true! Do a little research and give cloth diapers a chance!
Brittany is a stay at home wife and mother to three children (5 years, 4 years, & 1 year). You can find more about Brittany on her blog The Pistachio Project, where she writes about being green, natural parenting, frugal living and safer products.
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