Baby on a Budget: Cloth Diapers

My son, Caleb, was 3 months old when I got the brilliant idea to switch to cloth diapers. I was tired of spending so much money on disposable diapers. Caleb had very sensitive skin and was breaking out from the diapers I was using. I began my research and jumped on board!

I had a very negative opinion of cloth diapers when I began. I envisioned plastic pants and safety pins with lots of leaky diapers and poop everywhere. When I finally started researching cloth diapers, I found that things had changed drastically over the past decade.

Gone are the days of plastic pants and safety pins. In there place are all-in-one diapers that are as easy to use as disposables. Most people see me toting around a big bag full of cloth diapers and automatically get this perception that I’m a “crunchy” mom. And while I think the “crunchy” mom fad is awesome and I have a lot of respect for them, I’m not one of them. Yes, cloth diapers are great for the environment. They reduce the amount of disposable diapers in the landfill. That’s wonderful, but that’s not the main reason why I cloth diaper.

The main reason is I’m cheap.

When Caleb was 3 months old, I was cheap, we were broke, and buying diapers was getting old. So I purchased 24 super-cheap China made cloth diapers and stopped buying disposables! I eventually worked my way up to better quality diaper and I’ve never looked back.

My husband was skeptical at first, and to be honest, still doesn’t like dealing with the poop. However, he jumped on board pretty quickly when he noticed the $75-$100 a month savings we saw from the investment.

We now predominantly use Bumgenius 4.0s from Cotton Babies. We have 37 pocket diapers. While this seems like a lot, we have built up to this number over 4 years. You could easily get started cloth diapering with 20-24 diapers. We are still using the same diapers with our second son that we did with our first. These diapers really do stand the test of time. 

The Bumgenius 4.0 diapers come with microfiber inserts. After using these for over a year, I found that they built up a stench I had trouble removing. So I switched my inserts to Green Mountain Diaper size small prefolds. I just tri-fold these and slide them into the pocket. They are just about as trim as the microfiber and very easy to keep clean.

I also use cloth wipes when at home. I made these from flannel scraps on the super cheap. We have 2 Planet Wise pail liners and a large trash can. This is where we store the dirty diapers before they are washed. We also have a couple Planet Wise wet bags to use for when we are out of the house. 

We wash our diapers every two days. I just throw them in the wash with the pail liner and do a quick wash on cold. Then I do a heavy wash with hot water and an extra rinse. I use Tide Original powder during the hot wash. Some people say you need to use a cloth diaper safe detergent. We did this for the first 3 years, but I never felt like the diapers got super clean. After switching to Tide, the diapers come out super clean every time. I know Tide is not recommended by everyone, but it works for us and our super hard Midwest water.

I hope this gives you some inspiration and encouragement to try cloth diapers if you have been on the fence about it. They are an investment, but so worth it for so many reasons. 

Do you use cloth diapers? If so, why? 

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