Pocket Diapers and All-in-ones
So, this is the next update on cloth diapers. You see these days Brandon and I are looking to save money any way possible. We recently decided to start taking advantage of the food co-op in our complex (they are actually all over utah here is the link…http://www.crossroads-u-c.org/cfc/) because you get a lot of good food for about half the price. Then of course we have our garden, a lot of which will become baby food for Aiden. We also decided to make an investment and buy 24 pocket/all in one diapers with our credit card. Now, we do not like to go into debt for anything. But we both could not see a way to get the diapers without doing so, because the money we would use to save up for cloth diapers would need to be spent on disposables for Aiden to wear in the meantime. This way we will only spend the $40-60 you spend a month on diapers for the next 6 months and then we will have paid off the cloth diapers. This seemed like a much better idea then spending $40-60 a month indefinitely for 6 kids. I recognize that we will have to replace worn out ones and if by some craziness we have twins then we will need twice as many as we do now but it is still much MUCH cheaper then continuously buying disposables. Here is an approximate price breakdown. $300-500 for 24 (which is two to three days worth) cloth diapers (I bought mostly the one size fits all diapers which will fit 5 lbs. babies to 35ish lbs. toddlers) that will last through the entire length of time that at least one child is in diapers (say 24 months). OR disposables which are about $10.00 for a package of 40. I go through 6 packages a month which would equal $60.00. So the total cost for two years worth of disposable diapers is about $1,500 per child if they are potty trained by age two. This cost is 3 to 5 times more then cloth diapers. Can you believe that?
Anyway, so far Aiden has worn 3 of his all in one diapers and it is going pretty well. I have to change them a little bit more frequently because the all-in-ones are just flannel lined and so the wetness sits on Aiden’s skin. However, once I get the pocket diaper liners pre-washed their 5 times before first usage they will slide into the pocket on the diapers and Aiden will have fleece against his skin which will wick the moisture away. Pretty neat eh? Well, I better go get the liners off the clothesline and back into the washing machine again. If any of you are ever curious about what they look like and some of the different brands (I have 5 different kinds of pocket diapers and one kind of all-in-ones) then you can come see my diapers. If there are enough curious people I could even throw a diaper party to introduce the different kinds of diapers and how they work (there is a place online that will send me a diaper party kit).
So there you go. Cloth diapers are much more fancy and user friendly then they used to be. I also read this tid bit of information that said one child will produce 2 tons of dirty diapers from infancy to potty training. I don’t know how accurate it was but I was shocked and amazed. It must be fairly accurate because it was in the users manual for my Kushies diapers. Wow huh? So if you are looking to save some money one was is buy and use cloth diapers.