From empty womb to overflowing heart...: Does it really save you money?

The cloth diaper debate!

I was at a playgroup the other day when I slipped out to change Lovebugs diaper. Upon returning to the room, bright orange wet bag in hand and Lovebug modeling a fresh cute pink diaper, I noticed a new mom eying me, curiosty beaming from her eyes. As I walked past she she excitedly asked "So you cloth diaper?! How do you like it?" After explaining to her that I love it and us chatting back and forth about it for a second she asked "after doing it for a while, do you really think it saves you money with all the washes and all?" Of course I said yes and a fellow fluffy enthusiast backed me up with some numbers that she'd researched. But, it piqued my curiosty... how much am I saving with these fluffy beauties? So I sat down and did the math:

To find the average cost of sposies (disposable diapers) I used Huggies as the porduct, size 3 diapers and a child using 6 a day.

Jumbo pack of size 3 Huggies(36 diapers): $10.99

If the child is changed 6 times per day you would have to buy diapers every 6 days. In a month with 30 days thats you'd buy diapers 5 times.

$10.99 x 5= $54.95 per month

$54.95 x 12= $659.40 per year

The average child is in diapers for 3 years

3 x $659.40= $1978.20

So to diaper a child for 3 years using sposies (without counting wipes) you'll spend around $2000

Then I went on to cloth!

Our diaper of choice is Fuzz.iBunz (med. cost@ $19.95 per diaper). To any new cloth diaperer I would suggest getting 18-24 diapers. That lets you do laundry every other day and have diapers to use on laundry day.

So your start up costs are these:

18-24 diapers @ $19.95= $359.10-$478.80

Wet bag @ $15 and diaper sprayer @ $20

Then the next two are cost per year that I multiplied by 3 (the Fuzz.ibunz are a one size diaper that adjust to fit from birth to potty training)

$24 per year in detergent (we use Eco's free and clear. It's $12 per 100 loads. But, it lasts waaaay longer because you don't use a full amount!)

$85 per year in washing costs (as calculated using our statistics on this washing machine calculator: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html)

So on the high side:

$478.80 + $15 + $20 + $72 + $255= $840.80!

So whats the cost difference in using cloth vs sposies?

Almost $1160!! For 1 child!

Plus there are things that are priceless... have you ever seen a cuter butt than that wrapped in pink fluff?! How about purple fluff or blue? I know I haven't!

And then there are the health and environmental pluses.

Did you know it takes diapers 200-500 years to decompose in a landfill?!

One statistic I found said there were 4 millions babies born in 2010. If those babies all used the statistics I gave for sposies than by now there would be at least at least 8,640,000,000 new diapers that will be sitting in landfills of the next 500 years! Yuck! Luckily at least some of those little booties were covered in fluff and not plastic. Lowering that number some.

There's also the heath debate. Some research suggest that sposies present health risks, especially to baby boys, because of the fact that sposies reportedly raise the temperature in the diaper leading to the concern of male related infertility. With infertility on the rise and male infertility on the rise, this wouldn't surprise me. Disposable diapers are full of chemicals that sit on your babies most delicate parts... why do yo think they keep baby so dry? This was one of our main concerns (aside from savings) and really pushed us to cloth
diaper.

So, a quick overview of positives to cloth diapering:

Less landfill waste over the next 500 years!
No harsh, nasty chemicals sitting on babys skin to could potentially lead to infertility among other health concerns!
Cute fluffy pink, blue, purple, yellow, green butt!
No diaper rash! Seriously. Lovebug has never had diaper rash!
Human waste being disposed of into sewage and not in a landfill!

And last, but definitely not least: