Shondra writes for the Pugent Hound.com and wrote an article about cloth diapers. She is sharing it for our readers:
When I was pregnant and still debating whether or not I wanted to use cloth diapers, I posted this question on my Facebook wall: To Cloth Diaper or Not To Cloth Diaper? My question was answered with a variety of responses, but most were opposed. I wasn’t surprised at the response but I was curious as to why they were against them.
Here are a few of the common misconceptions of cloth diapering that keep people from even considering the pros:
Courtesy of flickr user pierrotsomepeople- Too Time Consuming
- They Smell Bad!
- Too Hard to Figure Out
- Cost
- Increased Amount of Diaper Rashes
Too Time Consuming: I worried about this at first. Would I be spending all my spare time washing and folding stinky diapers? How often would I need to wash them? Would I wind up hating cloth diapers simply because they took up too much of my time? After 10 months of cloth diapering, I have found that I don’t spend much time on them at all. I do one load every other day, then I plop them into a laundry basket next to the changing table and grab them as needed.
They Smell Bad: Well, yeah. After baby does his business, they smell. But so do disposables. If you wash them right (strip them occasionally) they won’t smell.
Too Hard to Figure Out: Many of the newer cloth diapers are much easier to figure out than the old-fashioned prefolds (although they are your cheapest option). My diapers (pictured to left) took a few tries to get the diapers folded to the right size, but once I figured it out, it was easy. If I can do it, so can you.
Cost: When you consider the cost of a box of $15 diapers in comparison to one cloth diaper that can cost anywhere from $1 (prefolds) to the more expensive bumgenius, it’s easy to not see the big picture. Buying 3 $15 packs of diapers/month (you might even need more!) will set you back $45 a month or $540 a year. I purchased a cheaper brand and am very happy with my choice. Right now they are selling for $175, which gets you 30 diapers and 60 inserts.
Increased Amount of Diaper Rashes: In my experience, this is not true at all. My son has had one diaper rash, which was quickly cured using Bag Balm. Disposable diapers contain chemicals which allow the diaper to stay on much longer than cloth diapers, resulting in more rashes.
With all of these misconceptions out of the way, what are other reasons that one might choose disposable over cloth?
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