Looking for sales, or coupons for cloth or disposables can significantly reduce the cost, as can using online ordering for disposables (amazon’s subscribe and save keeps the cost down for when I use disposables while traveling)

Even with my crazy expensive stash (and replacing many of my pocket diapers when they wore out after 2+ years and 2 kids) it’s still been a cost effective endeavor.

Since I stay at home, the time spent washing diapers isn’t a big deal. A couple minutes putting diapers in the washer, a couple minutes checking and restarting the washer as needed, a couple minutes to get them into and out of the dryer – maybe 15 minutes total, while I’m doing other things about the house. I’m not concerned about the value of my time there.

Let’s also not forget to add the price of year #3 in disposables. Cloth diapered children potty-train, on average, about a year earlier than disposable diapered children.

And as many people have already pointed out, $700 for a cloth diaper stash is ridiculously high. Most cloth diaper mamas I know spend about $300 on a nice stash, not $700.

That’s all I got ;-)

Frankly I think the costs were exaggerated for both sides, disposable and cloth. That said, cloth is still more cost effective than disposable if you want it to be, especially with more than one child.

I use cloth and I spent $400 to get myself set up. I bought diapers that will fit my child until he’s potty trained because they’re fully adjustable. I can use them for any future children as well. I use cloth wipes and I dry pail the diapers. I do a very small load every other day and dry my diapers in the dryer with the rest of my laundry (which means I can’t use dryer sheets, but there’s another savings :) ). I buy cheap detergent with no chemicals.

BTW, do you know that water is used in the production of disposables? You have to consider the resources that go into the making of the diaper, not just the resources your household uses.

If you want to use disposables, check craigslist, freecycle, freepeats.org, and ebay for people who are selling, trading, or flat out giving away extra diapers their children no longer fit into. I got a lot of diapers this way, and then sold my extras when my son outgrew a size. I’m using a mix of store brand and premium brand diapers…no preference to brand, I just get whatever I can as cheaply as possible. It’s worked out to $3 a week to diaper him. And I change him VERY frequently, so it’s not like I’m letting him sit in wet diapers just to save a few bucks.

At the rate I’m going, I’ll be spending WAY elss than a clother diaperer.

Also, there is a value in the diapers for resale, especially in the covers. We even bought most of our family’s diapers secondhand through local consignment stores and craigslist or as “seconds” through the internet….so even more savings.

The last thought is we don’t use the dryer during the summer months (maybe we can hang one last load on Monday). The sun has so much value beyond money savings for cloth diapering. It’s an instant bleach and negates any build up of smell.

So I guess my long winded comment is to say I was surprised how expensive the analysis made diapering seem. It’s definitely more inexpensive than her post makes it appear…plus money is only one important aspect….the environment is a bigger consideration.

One last suggestion..bum genius all in ones or pocket diapers for one size fits all. These will fit the wee one from birth to potty learning. They really do.

And for those folks concerned about water use – um..the water use to make disposables and to ship them way trumps clothdiaper water use.

ALL POOP SHOULD BE DUMPED. It is mentioned on the side of disposable diaper packaging that feces should not be thrown in the trash. So, poo should be dumped even with a paper diaper. Unfortunately that rarely happens.

I do appreciate this post, it’s nice to see everything spelled out. Cloth diaper can be very inexpensive and can also be very expensive depending on what type of diapers you buy and if you’re in to the newest crazes out there.

I make my own diapers and I also work full time. My son is in a “bigger daycare center”. I just wanted to say that some of the information mentioned above about cloth diapering not being allowed in daycare centers is not true. Make sure to look up the law for your state, they vary. I looked up our state law and was armed and prepared when going to the daycare to talk about cloth. Almost every state that I know of allows cloth diapers by law, they may have a few extra rules regarding how they handle them, but they are allowed. I’ve been using cloth on my son for almost two years now. His daycare teachers have never had a problem with it. I provide easy-to-use pocket diapers as well as provide a wetbag for them to store the diapers in.

Just wanted to add another $0.02 on the daycare situation.

To each his own!

1. $750 on diapering stuff in one year? You’ve got to be kidding. That is an excessive amount of stuff. I have 8 gDiaper “pants” that cost $120 (several bought used), 6 microfiber inserts (bought new on eBay for $10 w/shipping)and 2 dozen prefolds that were used as burp cloths for my 5 yr old that I now use as inserts (shower gifts 5 yrs ago-maybe $25 tops). While these pants are sized, there is a HUGE resale value on them, so 50% of price paid can be recuperated on a used diaper site. My “pail” is a bucket we already had lying around (free), so the tab is about $155. I also use the flushable inserts occasionally when out or lazy, so add in 2 packs (80 inserts)/month is about $336 a yr. Still WAY below $750.

2. Washing-Because there’s a waterproof liner in the g pants, they don’t have to be washed every time you change baby so despite having 8 pants I wash every other/every two days when using cloth inserts exclusively. I do a single cycle w/extra rinse-usually with his clothes I already have to wash. This works because I’m using a non-soap based detergent (Charlies, Ecos, etc.). They don’t leave residue so no odors, no stripping required AND only 1/4 of the amount to use on “regular” clothes so less detergent cost & there isn’t any “extra” utility being used.

3. I line dry my pants & liners on a rack so there isn’t as much need for the dryer to be running any more than for our family’s normal clothing laundry.

4. The other option is to use one-size pocket diapers from the beginning-they’ll last you through to potty-training & on to the next kid and usually can resell well. Obviously you’d need more (around 18 which is about $325) & there’s a bit more frequent washing, but the inserts come with them and with the washing regime described above a minimal amount of water & electricity.

Both methods should cost under disposables and add the assurance that your diapers won’t be sitting in a landfill in 200yrs.