What's More Important?

So I walk down stairs and the smell hits me like a load of bricks.

It’s diaper day.

This is the reason why so many people refuse to cloth diaper. I don’t blame them. Scraping poop off diapers isn’t fun. In fact, it is my most dreaded chore, but I do it.

I’m saving the environment one nasty poopy diaper at a time and man; I am proud of it.

~ ~ ~ ~

I knew I wanted to cloth diaper but I didn’t know a lot about it. So I stayed up late every night for a week reading up on cloth diapering, the various styles, shapes and sizes, washing instructions, etc etc. I felt I knew all there was to know about cloth diapering. So when I came across an online company that was going out of business I impulsively bought 20 FuzziBunz Pocket Diapers (size medium). I was 6 months pregnant. I reasoned with myself that I wouldn’t be able to get such a great deal anywhere else, so the $350 that I’d just dropped on diapers was worth it. My husband wasn’t sure of my decision but I eventually converted him and he was impressed when the diapers arrived a few weeks later.

Our daughter was born. She was 6lbs6oz at birth. She was 20 inches long. She was smaller then the cloth diapers that I had bought.
I cried.
I remember trying for weeks to see if the diapers would fit…and just like the week before, even on the tightest setting they fell off the second I pulled her up. I was upset and felt certain that I had wasted $350 on things I would never be able to use.

5 months passed.

Charlotte started wearing cloth diapers exclusively at about 5½ months and at 15 months, weighing in at a whopping 19lbs, she is still in them. I love them more now then before. My collection has grown by 6 diapers (BumGenius 3.0) that were added just recently (I bought them used for $13/diaper) and I expect my collection will continue to grow when my family does. People say cloth diapering is too expensive. It’s not. Let me break it down for you.

A package of name brand diapers will run you about $20 a package. Yes, I know there are sales and no-name brands but generally speaking you’ll pay between $20-30 for a package of diapers. The average $20 package of diapers has been 54-60 diapers. At 5 diapers a day, that package will last you about 12 days. So every 12 days you spend $20 on diapers that you throw away. They will sit in our landfills and it will take them up to 500 years to decompose. In the meantime, they are little methane bombs full of pee and poop just WAITING for the chance to explode. Nasty? I think so. In a year the average parent (according to my math) would spend over $520 on disposable diapers. Now the average child is in diapers for 2-3 years so you’re looking at $1040-1560 in diapers for ONE child. That makes me sick.

I spent $350 on diapers that will last me the 2 years for my first child…and will last me 2 years for my next child…etc. Even adding in the extra cost for a few more diapers, special additive free laundry soap and the energy it costs to wash them and dry them (mine are hung to dry so that doesn’t apply to me) it is still CHEAPER for me and BETTER for my environment. The positives clearly out weigh the negatives, less diaper rash, no chemicals on her bum, easier to potty train and no poopy diapers rotting in the landfill for 500 years…all things that make it worthwhile to me. Click here to see what you are actually putting on your baby when you put them in a disposable.

Still not convinced? Maybe some pictures will help…




















Interested now? Not prepared to dish out a ton of money without trying them first? Click HERE!

I want to encourage you all to think of our planet. I also want you to think about all the disposable diapers being thrown away each day. What kind of planet do you want for your children? For their children? For their children's children?

Frugally Yours,
Erin B.

Parenting By Nature