Cloth diapers…..eeeeeuuuuuwww…is the reaction I’ve had in the past. Let me change your mind on cloth diapering.

One: When I  first thought about cloth diapering I thought it was going to be a lot of work.

Well, I was wrong. It’s really not a lot of work.  Pretty similar to disposable – take dirty one off and put clean one on, right, RIGHT!!! With cloth diapers you simply rinse the liner and any poop (in toilet or sink etc), then place it in a dry bag and wash cloth diapers in washing machine. Personally, I wash my diapers every 2 days, sometimes I wait until the morning of the 3^rd just to get the night time diaper in the wash. Also, I try to hang them on the line for the sun to bleach them naturally – a good tip from a friend who cloth diapers.

Two. My second thought was this is going to be expensive.

So we saved our money over the course of my pregnancy; maybe $20-25 a pay cheque which is roughly the equivalent to one cloth diaper in Canada. So, yes we spent about $600 on about 24 Bum Genius diapers and $24 on liquid laundry soap (Allan’s), which has lasted us over a year!!! Think about it, we spent $600 on 24 diapers that we can use over and over and OVER again! As opposed to $15-$20 per bag of roughly 30-45 disposable diapers every other week. I found this “conservative estimate” for disposable diaper usage (in Canada): “Total estimated average cost $2694.54 for 7,349 disposable, single use diapers“ on the Diapering Decisions website (I can take no credit for these numbers). Wow, and I thought the $600 we spent on the reusable cloth diapers was a lot  – again I was wrong!

Oh, and this was all for 1 … yes ONE child. To think when we have another child we will use the same diapers for that baby and still be saving money on diapers! Sometimes diapers go on sale or you can find them second-hand on kijiji or cloth diapering websites.

Photo: A few of the diapers we bought.

Three: Diaper pins are no longer necessary. And the cute designs and colours means for less clothing in the warmer months – as it’s pretty cute to see a cloth diapering baby run around.

Four: They are cute on little bums. Yikes, I sure look tired in this photo!

Five: Environmental Impact. Since my background is environmental education and outdoor recreation it just made sense for me to use cloth diapers. Less disposable diapers in the landfills, is, well important to me. Sure I have to wash them but with a front loading washing machine and a full load of diapers that’s better than in the garbage for years and years to come.

Lilly helping me stuff her diapers….she’s fooling around and not getting much done 🙂

Six: Educating ourselves: We took the time during my pregnancy to educate ourselves. We would go into cloth diapering/baby stores and ask questions. We would ask our friends who were cloth diapering and we would google cloth diapering.  In the end we mainly bought BumGenius diapers (24)  from Nurtured in Halifax, Nova Scotia as they were the closest store to us. We also got a few other types to see which ones we preferred on our little one. It’s nice to have a variety. In the end we now have 28 BumGenius diapers as we prefer the fit and styles offered.

Seven:Educating others: after a few months of cloth diapering, I had a few friends and family members asking about cloth diapering. Everything from:

• “what do you do with the poopy diaper”
• “what about over night”
• “why are there so many buttons on this diaper”
• “how do you wash them” and
• “do you REALLY like cloth diapering?” (Yes, yes I do).

So, I wouldn’t just tell them, I would sit and show them on my daughter. How to change the diaper, the different sizes as she grows from her birth weight of 6 lbs 13oz to her current weight of 26 pounds, the dry bag, the dry bag for soiled diapers in the bathroom, how to stuff them, what I do when I am on the road. It was great to share this with others.

Other things you can do with cloth diapers: wear them as a hat!

Finally, please note that I have not received any form of compensation for this post from Cotton Babies, the makers of BumGenius diapers. I simply just wanted to share my love for cloth diapers since starting Piper’s Run Blog a few weeks ago. I came across this contest and thought it would be a good opportunity to blog and enter the contest. If I happen to win the contest, I would receive 12 cloth diapers for myself AND 12 cloth diapers to give away!!!! I would love to share my experience and give 12 cloth diapers to a new mom/dad in my area OR someone on following or commenting on this blog. The Cotton Babies contest winner will be selected January 15th 2012.

What do YOU think of cloth diapering?

Would you give it a try?

Let me know and if I am the lucky winner I’ll be looking for someone to give the 12 cloth diapers to!

 

UPDATE January 16th 2012: I am not the winner of the contest, Bummer (no pun intended). BUT I do have my first GIVEAWAY – check out this post: https://pipersrun.com/2012/01/15/cloth-diapers-my-first-giveaway/