Now that my precious 22-month-old has transitioned to panties, I must admit that I am a wee bit teary-eyed folding and shelving our cloth diaper stash. Cloth diapering is probably one of the best parenting decisions I've made thus far. Although we initially had some struggles, I now find myself recommending cloth diapering to new moms. You would think I'm an actual spokesperson for cloth diapering. I'm not. I wish. I can be though. Because I love them that much.
Sitting on my high horse, I often wonder how could anyone not be open to using cloth diapers? And then I remember the frustration. At one point, I hated cloth diapers too. But only sometimes and not often. The reasons why I wanted to ditch the cloth and grab disposables.
- Washing them is time consuming. I felt like I was lugging smelly diapers to the laundry room every other day; however, the loads blended in quite nicely with the never ending piles of laundry anyway.
- The watery breastmilk poop was easy to wash off. Barely any stains, for the poop just glided off those puppies like an olympic figure skater (the imagery, right?). Baby girl was exclusively breastfed until 13 months, but when she finally started eating solids... My goodness--the smell and size of those poops could make a grown man cry. I had to flick chunks off in the toilet, often getting baby feces stuck beneath my cuticles. Yuck.
- Pain in the caboose when traveling. We took the diapers with us on trips and had to put smelly, soiled diapers back in suitcases. I suggest buying disposables for trips. I'm frugal af, so I made the cloth diapers work.
Even with the cons, I never switched to disposables. I committed to cloth diapering and reaped all the benefits. I carefully evaluated all the reasons why I decided to cloth diaper and now that it's over, I can fully give them props. Major props. Dear glorious cloth diapers, here's why I love you:
- You saved our family some serious money!!! Yes, we dropped $500 for all of our cloth diapering materials, BUT that's all we spent in two years!!! If we want to diaper another baby, the same diaper stash can go another two years. I personally know parents who've spent close to $2,000 a year on diapers and wipes. That's $500 compared to $4,000 (two years worth). I'm about that minimalist, money-saving life so that was enough for me to give the green light to the all mighty cloth.
- No diaper rashes. The material is so soft on the skin. My sweet daughter only had one diaper rash and I blame it on sitting in a disposable a bit too long on a road trip. The rash literally went away the day after we switched back to cloth.
- Environmentally friendly--we love us some Mother Earth.
- Faster potty training. My girl was almost fully potty trained at 19 months. We're still working on getting those number two's in the potty, but when she has to tinkle, she signs potty and sprints to the bathroom--partially because she can feel the wetness more with cloth which helped her to say "enough with these diapers!"
- They look snazzy. My daughter loves being naked (or only in a shirt and diaper), but the cloth diapers look like shorts and can easily pass for clothes.
- No rips, no tears. You will get spills every now and then, but they are pretty sturdy (training pull ups, not so much).
- We have tried a few different styles and brands, but our favs were the Imagine all-in-ones. The babe blew through those pre-folds something terrible, but the all-in-ones were sturdy and kept the blowouts to a minimum. In fact, with the all-in-ones, there weren't any blowouts at all. For double coverage overnight, I added a bamboo pad to the diaper. No leaks. No wetness.
The diaper drawer is now full of cloth trainers and big-girl panties, but I'll never forget that they were once filled with magical cloth diapers. Yes, I said magical.