Three Advantages of Cloth Diapers

So you’re going to need to start buying diapers and your wondering whether to go with cloth diapers or disposable diapers. Cloth diapers have a few advantages. Cloth diapers are cheaper for parents, have fewer chemicals than disposables diapers, and are environmentally friendly.

Over the full period of time you are diapering your child, cloth diapers are going to be cheaper than disposable diapers. Cloth diapers can be used over and over again. This is great because you don’t have to be continually buying diapers. Disposable diapers can only be used once and are then thrown away. According to WebMD, in a study of children who started training between 22 and 30 months of age, boys were fully trained at an average age of 38 months, while girls were trained slightly earlier, around 36 months. So on average children will be using diapers until they are approximately three years old. That's 1095 days...and kids don't take a day off either. Now think about how many times you have to go to the bathroom each day...maybe three...and you can hold it! Multiply that by 1095 and that's how many diapers you’re going to need. Let's say three a day (which is probably an underestimate), that would be 3285 diapers. And you're going to have to buy all those. Wouldn't it be nicer to buy 40-50 diapers and be able to re-use those? It would definitely save money to be able to re-use cloth diapers.

Cloth diapers are more gentle on your baby’s skin because they contain less chemicals and generally do not require any chemicals in the manufacturing of them. When making a disposable diaper, chemicals are used to bleach the pulp to get the diapers to be the right color. Chemicals are also added to aid in absorbency. We've all seen the commercials. Buy our diaper. It's super absorbent. Then they'll pour a glass of water into the diaper and show how much it will hold. Well, to get the diaper to do that takes chemicals. Do cloth diapers have any chemicals added? Well, some may have dies added to them if you bought colored ones but there are organic cloth diapers on the market which are made from cotton that was grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides. Then there are green cloth diapers that are free of bleaches and dyes, but the cotton used to manufacture green cloth diapers may have been grown with the use of pesticides.

The use of chemicals in disposable diapers also becomes a problem if you want to take your toddler to the pool. Most pool owners don’t like all those extra chemicals being introduced into the pool and require special swim diapers to be worn. With cloth diapers you don’t have to worry about introducing chemicals in the pool. Use cloth swim diapers on your youngster and your set for a fun day at the pool.

Cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly. This is fairly obvious. Disposable diapers are thrown away and cloth diapers are not, hence by using cloth diapers one can dramatically decrease the amount of trash thrown away and its impact on the landfill. Cloth diapers can be reused over and over again and can even be used for a second or third child. Parents who use disposable diapers could go through over 3,500 diapers over the period of time the baby needs them before potty training. That's a lot of diapers to be thrown away. In addition, the EPA reports that 1 billion trees are used annually to produce disposable diapers.

Disposable diapers are convenient but cloth diapers definitely have some advantages over disposable diapers. Cloth diapers are cheaper over the period of time you’re diapering your child. They contain less chemicals than disposable diapers do. And finally they are more environmentally friendly than disposable diapers.