Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Cloth Diapers- My New Love


Cloth? Who Knew?

Oh dear...I've become a hippie. I don't know when it happened but it did. You know, I used to scoff at friends and even total strangers who did crazy things like wear their babies or use cloth diapers. Well call me a hypocrite because I've finally transformed, and I love it!

I have been cloth diapering Roxas for the past weeks or so and I am completely taken by it. I am still using disposables every now and then but I've already noticed that I have a clear preference for one over the other. Before actually trying it there were so many things that turned me off of them. For one it can be incredibly confusing! There are about a million (ok more like 5 or 6) types of diapers to choose from and depending on what kind you look at they can be insanely expensive. I had looked a little bit when I was pregnant but gave up rather quickly. A lot of people are grossed out by them too, but I guess I'm just not the type to get grossed out very easily since this was never an issue for me. It's another story when it comes to daddy-he isn't too hip on the baby bodily fluids thing.

 Thanks to a friend I was able to get together a decent starting out collection of cloth diapers for a little less than $200, and that was with a smidge of splurging on cute prints because...well...I needed them. With the amount of diapers I currently have I am only doing laundry every other day, and I could stretch it longer if I really wanted to. It is insanely easy too, it takes me maybe a few seconds longer to change Roxas's diaper using cloth over a disposable.

I haven't mentioned the best part though: the money! Now I'm not a "saver" or a "couponer" or a "haggler", I never got that gene from my dad (mr. dealmaker there) so saving money and cutting cost has never been my strong suit. With me leaving my job relatively soon I have been looking for any possible way to cut costs around here and going cloth has turned out to be a great savings! By combining the disposables we have from the baby showers and the cloth we have now we will never have to buy a pack of [insert disposable brand here] ever again....yeah...think about that! The average cost to diaper a kid from birth to 3 1/2 years in disposable diapers is $2,862.72. Holy cow. Truthfully I don't care much about the whole environmental aspect of cloth diapers but I DO care about the financial aspect. Did I mention we are saving nearly three THOUSAND dollars...per kid...yes please! We have, to date, spent right around $250 on diapering costs for Roxas, maybe $300 if you want to round up and estimate high. That cost is nothing when you compare it to the two thousand whatever amount I mentioned before. Even if I go nuts and spend another oh say $1000 (I could totally do it too) on cloth diapering stuff over the next year or two...We are STILL saving money! Yay! Even factoring in having multiple children in cloth...yup, you guessed it...still saving money. Actually we would be saving even more money.

Anyways I have to say I've been converted and I'm in love with the new cloth diapers. I use the disposables at night and every so often during the days. Just last night I couldn't peg what the weird smell I was detecting was...and I realized it was the disposable diaper! Now, I know what you're thinking...no, it wasn't poopy. It was just a weird smell, I can't describe it but it was odd. I've also noticed Roxas seems slightly more content in a wet cloth diaper than a wet disposable. He tends to freak out when he is a little wet in the disposable but will go quite awhile in a cloth or only fuss minimally. Now I just need to keep myself reigned in and not buy every cute little cover I see. I also don't want to put clothes on him so people can see his cute diapers now. Now I'm off to research placenta recipes...ok...so I'm not that much of a hippie...yet.

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