When I was a little girl I can still remember my mom using cloth diapers on my little sister and being totally scared to change her diaper because I was afraid that I would stick her with the pins or not get all the diaper with the pin.

Now fast forward ALMOST thirty years, and now it is my turn to worry about diapering my baby. When I originally wrote this post, I didn’t personally know anyone who used cloth diapers but I wanted to see if I could make a go of using the cloth diapers. So, I thought that I would research diapers and see what my options were and go from there (no one can accuse me of not knowing all sides of an argument or a debate). So here is what I found:

Today’s cloth diaper is not my mom’s cloth diaper. Cloth diapers are now made to make diapering easy for the everyday mom. There are three prevalent types of cloth diapers:

(1)    Flat: This is the classic cotton square that is folded to fit the baby. You still use diaper pins and water proof outers. But there is now a pre-folded type with extra thickness in the center and contoured which are very similar to the pre-folded type but are contoured more to fit the baby. (These are similar to what my mom used to diaper my sister.)

(2)    Fitted: This is the corvette of the flat diaper! It is contoured BUT has elastic in the legs and waist which reduces leaks. They are also closed with snaps and/or Velcro but still require a water proof outer as well.

(3)    All-in-One: This is the Porsche of cloth diapers. There is a water proof cover built in, they snap or Velcro close and they are adjustable for size. And extra thickness can be added for extra absorbency at night or during the day.

There are also various types and styles of disposable diapers, ranging from simple plastic covered paper diapers to the newest high-tech, cartoon covered, absorbent gel material filled, elastic legged disposables. And these are not my mom’s disposable diapers either.

With so many different choices, how do you choose? Here are some considerations:

Environmental Concerns:

This is usually where the debate regarding cloth and disposable starts. Many people argue that cloth diapers are better for the environment and therefore should be used more. Typically disposable diapers are not biodegradable and can stick around in landfills for years to come, though admittedly there are at least two disposable type diapers that are biodegradable but they tend to run with a higher cost than the usual disposable diaper. Cloth diapers while typically reusable also require more detergent, water and chemicals to grow the cotton to make them than disposable diapers. There really is no winner to this debate, it all boils down to what your real environmental concerns are and what you are willing to do to defend those concerns.

Skin Care & Health concerns:

My greatest concern for my baby is to keep his skin dry, healthy and free from rashes. Diaper rash can have all kids of different causes ranging from prolonged wetness to various chemicals etc.. that may be included in some diapers. There may even be an allergy or medical reason for the diaper rash as well.

Believe it or not there are health concerns for both cloth and disposable diapers. Many disposable diapers have been made with chemicals, gels, fragrances, and many other items that may irritate baby sensitive skin.  On the other hand, cloth diapers can also be made with overly bleached cotton fabric and can cause rashes by not being changed enough or being properly cleaned and sanitized.

Cost:

The cost of diapers is usually the biggest issue for parents. In July of 2008, Diaper Decisions laid out the cost for various types of diapers per change on their website and came to the conclusion that per change the cost ranged from $.36 per change for disposable diapers to $.06 per change for prefolds and covers. The costs vary based on type of diaper but all range between those two numbers. They even included the costs for water and detergent. There is one thing that this study did not include is those new biodegradable disposable diapers but generally the cost of those diapers per diaper is higher than the typical disposable diaper.

Convenience:

As I have been discussing this issue with my friends trying to decide what to do many have said there is no way that they would use cloth diapers no matter how good for the environment they may be. When I ask why, the most common response is that they could not imagine cleaning up the dirty diapers and cleaning the diapers would double their work load and they are busy enough already. Some say that they would be afraid that they would poke the baby with the pins and others say if it was easy enough they would probably use cloth diapers. But one of the reasons we were looking at cloth diapers is that we would never have to worry if we had enough on hand and if we had a one size fits all diaper then we would never have to worry about the size of the diaper either. Also, many daycare facilities and babysitters will not do cloth diapers, so even if you commit to cloth diapering at home if you are not home with your child you still have to have disposable diapers available. Also with disposable diapers it is clean up enough to throw away the diaper and with cloth it is clean up enough to wash the diaper as well as doing that many extra loads of laundry. Throwing away cloth diapers could get VERY expensive. So while you could try very hard it appears that disposable diapers may be much more convenient.

After all of our research we have decided to try cloth diapers at least at home and are trying to decide between Bum Genius 3.0, Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiniesand G diapers, one of the biodegradable options. Any one have any opinions of these?

This post was updated from a post on Carissa’s blog Faith, Hope and Love in October of 2007. Carissa has since made her decision to go with Bum Genuis 3.0 diapers but please leave your opinions of any diapers here for all to see, others are still trying to make their decision!

Photo courtesty of Steph at Adventures in Babywearing.