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Are you looking to save some money on Diapers like My Family was? Disposable diapers add up over time. We were spending around $100-$150 a month just to throw diapers away. There are environmental issues with disposable diapers as well.
There are a number of brands out there for cloth diapers, different designs and insert types, also liners. Cloth Diapers might seem a bit pricey when you get started, but over time they will save you a lot of money!
Cost of Diapers?
Let’s start with disposable diapers. So there are many brands out there and they all charge different prices for each brand. Personally we would buy the Luvs brand because it wasn’t too awfully expensive compared to the other brands. Plus they would hold pee overnight so we didn’t have to worry about changing the bed sheets every day.
The price of all brands recently went up due to the shortages and forecasted supplies, but like I mentioned before, we were spending roughly $100-$150 a month on diapers/pull-ups for all 3 kids.
That means we were spending around $1,200-$1,800 a year on disposable diapers alone.
Now keep in mind, you will almost always save money when buying in bulk, so we would buy the biggest box count of diapers they had. It would vary depending on the brand and size. The smaller the size, the more diapers per box.
We spent right at $130 which included shipping and tax for 24 cloth diapers with the inserts. That was plenty for us to use them all day. We wash them nightly or in the morning after our oldest goes to school, so we never run out.
So for right about the same price we were spending on disposable diapers each month, we were able to buy a supply or cloth diapers and now we save that money every month. It adds up over time.
Are there health risks involved with Cloth Diapers?
Well the answer is yes and no. There are health risks with any kind of diapers, cloth or disposable.
The main issues with cloth or disposable diapers will be diaper rash. If a child is left in a wet or soiled diaper, their skin will become irritated.
One noticeable difference between cloth and disposable diapers is that I never had any issues with worrying about patting dry their bottoms with disposable diapers.
With Cloth diapers, you want to make sure you pat dry, or let them air dry before you put another cloth diaper on them. They do hold in moisture, so it will more than likely cause a rash if you do that often.
Another thing to consider is the detergent you wash them in. The baby might have an allergic reaction the the detergent. It doesn’t necessarily mean you did something wrong.
I would always make sure the diapers were changed or at least checked a maximum of every 2 hours.
Are cloth diapers a pain to maintain?
One thing that I don’t like is having to scoop up the poop from the diapers. With that in mind, they do actually sell diaper sheets or net things that allow urine to pass through and solids to stay off the diapers.
I mean in reality you are supposed to get the poop off of disposable diapers before you toss them anyways, but who does that?
No one likes handling poop, especially when its not yours haha
We have used the cloth diaper sheet/net things in the past. The reason why we don’t use them now is because for some reason, for our boy’s, the net would somehow get wrapped around their sack and cause irritation. Sometimes it would get wrapped around everything and cause irritation.
Now this could have been because we weren’t using them properly, but my wife didn’t want to continue using those because she didn’t like the irritation they had.
They did seem to help keep the poop off of the diapers though I will give them that.
What we do now is just put the poop in the toilet, then wash the diaper out, then spray and wash if need be. Usually the regular wash will clean it up fine, but not all the time, that why we have just been spraying them. It saves time.
Can I use cloth diapers when we’re out and about?
Yes you can, some of the cloth diaper manufacturers will also send you a handy little dirty diaper bag. We never used them though. My wife doesn’t like the idea of having to carry around a poop smelling diaper until we get back home to clean it.
Now if we’re just going for a walk, then it isn’t an issue, we aren’t gone long. The kids get changed before we leave and after we get back.
I’m sure there are ways you can avoid the smelly diapers, you can put air fresheners in the bags, or put the soiled diapers in a ziplock bag.