Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts recently. We’ve been on vacation, and I took a break from the computer while we were away. We spent several days with my husband’s parents at their sunny winter home. They live in an RV park in the southwest during the cold months, and it was great to see palm trees and wear shorts! But it’s great to be home again too.
While we were away, we used disposable diapers for our son. Before we left, we bought a package of 7th Generation diapers at the co-op where we now do all of our shopping. They were definitely more expensive there ($20 for a pack of 35 diapers) than they would have been at a baby store, but we were in a hurry that day, and wanted to make just one stop. We considered taking our cloth diapers along and washing them while we were there, but decided to just take the easy route this once. It’s the first time we’ve ever bought disposable diapers for our son, and he’s 22 months old, so we gave ourselves a pass.
The first thing I noticed about the disposables is that they hold a lot more liquid than the cloth diapers. I typically change our son about once every two hours, but I found that even after three or four hours a disposable diaper would still feel completely dry on the inside. So the package we bought lasted for the whole trip, and we even have a few leftovers that we’ll give to a friend.
It was nice to have the convenience of disposables on our trip. But I must say, I’m thrilled to be home and have our little guy back in his regular mama-made diapers. For starters, the 7th Generation diapers still use the same crystalline absorbency technology that other disposable diapers use. I like the fact that they don’t use bleach to whiten the diapers (they’re a light brown color), but I do feel better with plain old cloth on my baby’s behind… even if it isn’t as absorbent. And no matter how convenient the disposables were, they didn’t come close to dispelling the guilt I felt about the bag full of diapers that we sent to the landfill this morning before we left. There is no way I would be able to do that for two straight years.
I’ve always liked our homemade cloth diapers. We’ve spent barely any money on them, they’re a cinch to use and keep clean, and I have no concerns about what’s in them. And each week we just dump a tiny amount of trash into our outdoor bin (still using that same garbage bag we were using in January!) Now that I’ve tried disposables too, I’m still just as sold on my cloth diapers.
Simple in France says
Interesting–I don’t have kids and therefore have no right to judge, but I did feel a little cringe come on when you mentioned the disposables ‘felt’ dry after 3 hours and so you didn’t have to change every 2 hours. It struck me as odd because the diapers must contain the same amount of urine–it’s just that the disposables contain urine + chemicals . . .If I have kids, this is something I’ll have to take into consideration–thanks for posting. And thanks for the trash bin update. Nice idea!
Molly On Money says
My kids are grown but I did disposable at night and cloth during the day. The other great advantage to cloth diapers, I found, is my kid potty trained herself early because she didn’t like the feel of her wet diaper. In disposables they can be in the same diaper for most of the day without having a drop of wetness touching them!
NMPatricia says
Not much about diapers (I am way passed that but always did the cloth diapers when I was there – even while camping although I doubted my sanity during those trips!), but I am curious about the trash thing. Here i thought we were doing so well with only having one large trash bag per month. I owuld love to have a link to past blogs or some hints on how to decrease my trash even more.
Random Thoughts of a Jersey Mom says
My kids have past the diaper stage now but when they were babies I used disposable diapers. I did try for a short time to use cloth diapers but did not continue because: most daycare will not use cloth diapers, it leaks more easily, and it’s not easy to travel with.
I’m anticipating that someone will be yelling at me about this soon. But I still feel that it’s a personal choice; one that we have to feel comfortable with.
Ashley says
I have a 14 month old daughter and unfortunately we have been using strictly disposables every day of her life. Every single time I change her diaper, I am sad and desperately want to go to the local fabric store and start making a stash of cloth diapers. Despite my desire to go cloth and not look back, her father won’t have anything to do with it and I don’t think it would be in anybody’s best interest to make a decision we’re not both on board with. My hope is that someday, we’ll regress and disposables will no longer be available.
Anna says
I’m very proud that we’ve used cloth diapers almost exclusively on our 20 month old. They weren’t homemade, but they still saved us a ton of money, and a ton of junk in the landfill. I know just what you mean about feeling sick about your bag of disposable diapers after your trip – whenever I picture the mountain of disposable diapers that must be used for a single baby – well, it just blows my mind. I’ve convinced at least 3 friends that cloth are the way to go, and I’m proud of that too! (that’s about 24000 disposables kept out of the landfilll!)
Kelly says
We do cloth with our almost 2 year old daughter, thanks in large part to you! We started when she was about three months old and after reading just a couple weeks of your posts about cloth, I was sold. We do use disposables every now and then. I would say I buy a package and it lasts maybe six months or more, so I would say maybe 4 to 5 disposables a month. I cringe every time I put one on her and don’t know why it never occurred to me to spend the money on Seventh Generation. Since I don’t use them that often, I would grimace a lot less at the cost. Also, as an FYI, I just read about (I don’t have first hand knowledge) a brand called Tushies which are the only gel-free diaper and are available at Whole Foods. I might check them out if we were to go on vacation, because like you, I am not sure I would want to lug around a bag of dirty dipes the whole trip :)
frugalscholar says
My children are in college, but I think using cloth (bought, not homemade) was one of the best things we did. Aside from environmental issues, we appreciated the cost savings, which formed the beginning of our college savings account.
J says
I agree w/ Jersey Mom and Ashley.
We are a two income family and our daycare only allows disposable diapers. Also, my husband isn’t on board with the cloth diaper idea so the decision is made.
Not everyone has the option to go disposable free or to stay at home although it’s good that we’d like to. I hope that no one yells at anyone’s personal decision cloth or disposable. We are all adults here.
Have a nice day!
FrugalBabe says
The daycare thing is definitely an issue – everyone I know who has kids in daycare has to send their children to daycare with disposables. I have heard that there are some daycares that will use cloth (and hopefully more will get on board with this as time goes by), but I think they are still pretty rare. I know some people who have opted to use cloth at home, and disposables at daycare. Seems like a good compromise.