What are the major pro/cons of diapers(regular) and cloth?

Question

Like i said, in which case a certain person named "lost" didn't read, i dont plan on having a child until im financially set but in the situation i do become pregnant earlier than i want, what would you guys suggest: cloth or regular diapers?

Answer 1

Many people are very misinformed about the work involved in using cloth diapers. Please know that it really doesnt take much work to use cloth in fact I would say the time and effort is very comparable to what it takes to get in the car and go to the store and find the right disposables and haul them home. Instead of throwing our daughters diapers into a garbage we throw them into a blue pail we keep in the changing area (by the way no smell not something I can say about disposables) and a few times a week I run them through the washing machine and hang to dry (my decision to reduce the wear and tear on the diapers I want them to last thorough all my kids but they could just as easily be put in the dryer). The biggest advantage for us is that we will save tons of money that we cant save for her college fund or to do extra fun activities with her and at the same time we are less inpact on the enviroment.

Here is the information we put together for our family:

Why Cloth Diaper?

1- Cost

An average baby is in diapers for about 3 years (36 months) and uses an average of 7 diapers a day through that time (more as a newborn and less as a toddler) about 7500 diapers changes in 36 Months.

Disposable diapers average $0.40 a diaper. Diapering the average baby in disposable will then costs about $85 per month or about $3025 per child over 36 months

Cloth diapers are completely reusable but have to be bought ahead of time. If a newborn uses about 12 diapers a day and a parent washes them every two days and air dries (machine drying speeds up cloth disintegration) to prolong the diapers lifetime. You need to have about 36 diapers on hand in order to allow for some diapers to be available while the others are in the wash. A cloth diapering system with 36 diapers costs about $720. With an average of 24 changes per washload for a total of 315 loads in 36 months. Laundry costs are estimated at $1.12 per load including detergent, water and electricity or $353.80 over 36 months. So the total cost of diapering a baby in cloth diapers is about $1075 per child over 36 months.

Disposable - Cloth = Savings
$3025 – $1075 = $1950

2 – Environment

Everything we do has an environmental impact. The difference in the environmental impact between disposable diapers and cloth diapers is enormous. The amount of negative effect that cloth diapering has on the environment is minimal. But there is an impact. Rinsing and washing of diapers uses water and puts some detergent by products into the environment. However disposable diapers have a much larger environmental impact. If one baby can be diapered for 36 months in a total of 36 cloth diapers that used and reused many times. If that same baby is diapered in disposable it will take about 7500 disposable which can only be used once and then thrown out. It is believed to take 450 years for disposable diaper to decompose.

3 – health

Some medical professionals’ caution that nothing is known about the potential health risks of the chemicals used in making disposable diapers and the effect of chemicals off gassing but disposable diapers. This includes potential links to increased risks of Asthma and SIDS. Also because cloth diapers are more breathable cloth diapered babies as less often affected by diaper rash and other skin aliments.

4 – Toilet Training

Babies raised on cloth diapers usually make the transition from cloth to toilet trained more easily and quicker then babies raised in disposable diapers. This is because cloth diapers allow babies to feel some wetness.

Answer 2

I love using cloth diapers. I prefer fuzzibunz because for me, they are the easiest option. They are pocket diapers - you can stuff them with pretty much any absorbant material (including hand towels in a pinch), the size is adjustable, and there are no pins involved. In the long run they are cheaper, especially if you plan on having more than one child. If you go with FuzziBunz, for example, the same size diaper fits newborns-6mo old babies. You can make one large investment and never buy diapers again for 6 months, or just buy everything up front and never buy diapers again. :) Personally I prefer washing a load of diapers every day or two than smelling nasty disposable diapers until trash day. Disposables smell worse than cloth. Plus, cloth diapers come in cute colors and designs. ;) I often use them instead of bloomers when my daughter wears a dress.

Answer 3

Wow!! Talk about an odd perspective...

Cloth diapers *are* regular diapers. Paper diapers have only been around for a little over a generation. *Everyone* used cloth before that (if they used diapers at all--there are other alternatives, too, you know).

I would suggest cloth over paper. Cloth diapers are better for a baby's skin. Nothing is more gentle on the skin than 100% cotton. If you use a diaper service, cloth is more convenient that paper, too. You never have to dash to the store to buy them, lug them home, or worry about running out. If you wash them yourself, it may be more trouble than paper, but you *still* don't have to dash out to buy them (etc.). And it's a lot less expensive and doesn't have that odd chemical smell. Your baby will just smell like a *baby*! (And that is really wonderful.) And her/his butt won't feel like plastic.

When it comes right down to it, cloth are better for the baby. Paper *may* be more convenient for you (although it's mostly perspective, and you *are* supposed to clean off dirty paper diapers before you dispose of them). Which would *you* rather wear--real underwear or paper?

Answer 4

I recommend disposable diapers...I liked the cloth idea when I had my son but got over it quickly. You need to have 20-40 cloth diapers and a few pairs of rubber pants. You do a lot of laundry and if you think about it, once you put the rubber pants on you have what you would have with a disposable diaper minus the dryness barrier.

Answer 5

cloth diapers are supposed to be more environmentally friendly but they can also create a lot of extra work (lots of extra laundry) unless you want to pay extra for a diaper service who would come and get the diapers and launder them for you. even though disposable diapers may cost more i think they are totally worth the convenience! one baby i tended had cloth diapers and i hated them because if we were ever away from home and she needed to be changed then i had to carry around a disgusting diaper instead of being able to just throw it away. i also think that the cloth ones were more likely to leak and not as clean for the parent to change since the whole thing gets wet you can't help but touch the wet part. cloth diapers should also be checked and changed frequently since there is no "dryness protection" the skin is going to be directly exposed to urine until it is changed which may cause rash problems for more sensitive babies. it's definitely a personal decision though.

Answer 6

I think it depends on your personality, and attitude. When I had my son, I was so thrilled to have a baby that I actually enjoyed washing diapers and hanging them on the line. After a couple of months of that I began to use pampers and never looked back. Disposable diapers are better than sliced bread!!! They are the best invention since zippers. Such a time saver, a work saver, more time with your baby, etc They can't be beat. Trust me!

Answer 7

I have used both. With cloth you only have the major expense the one time, when you first by them. Yes you still have some additional expense with laundering them and buying the outer plastic pants as they grow, but that isn't much. With disposable you have great convenience but they can be very expensive and it is a weekly purchase that can last for an average of three years per child. It does just depend on the person, what they feel is right for them and their baby.

Answer 8

regular with a backup of cloth. Regular because it's more convenient and there is no having to dunk them in the toilet or water or whatever to get the ick off and there is no bucket of festering bacteria that is holding the cloth diapers until you get enough to wash them in the hottest water possible. A backup of cloth in case a sitation arises in which you haven't been out to get diapers.

Answer 9

I try to be aware of the environment so when my daughter was a baby I used cloth diapers at home (diaper service) and pampers when we went out. It wasn't much but I felt I was doing something because pampers take forever to disintegrate.

Answer 10

Children are a big enough job, without having to wash diapers.

I used them with my first baby 30 years ago. Soon ended up using them to dust with. Or polish the car.

I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing laundry. There is enough extra to do .