Everyone has a different story, or perspective when it comes to the choice of using cloth diapers.
Whether it’s financial reasons, sustainable and eco-friendly living, or you just want to avoid those harsh chemicals on your baby’s bum, deciding to use cloth diapers is an impactful decision.
We asked 3 of our content creators to share their story...
NIKKI MANTZ:
There are many reasons people start to cloth diaper.
Most people don’t take allergies into consideration.
With the amount of different disposable diapers out there, you think there would be one that would work for my family. That answer is no.
When my oldest was born almost 8 years ago I knew what modern cloth diapers looked like thanks to a family friend.
I didn’t think cloth was going to work for us. I really wanted to cloth because the ones I had used were super cute and easy to use. Check out the new release cloth diapers.
Fast-forward to my oldest when he was 6 months old.
He developed this HORRIBLE diaper rash. No matter what I did, it never went away. After many, many, many doctor’s appointments, I had remembered that I had a few cloth diapers to try.
After he was in the cloth diapers no more than 3 hours, the rash was gone. I shared this information with our doctor and what I thought was going on. Our doctor agreed that he had a diaper allergy.
I now knew what I had to do. I couldn't buy a bunch of diapers all at once anymore.
Also, at this time, Nicki’s diapers still had a storefront. Off to the cloth diaper store I went. They were so nice and helpful.
They helped me figure out what type of diaper worked out best for us and stayed within our budget! YAY!
Now that I was getting used to cloth, I was enjoying it much, much more than I had previously.
I was just really excited we had found a solution to my son's problem.
Now, as a new mom learning another new thing, I thought I had everything figured out. Until I found out about newborn diapers and newborn diaper cover.
My husband and I knew we wanted over 2 kids. He wanted 3, and I wanted 4. (I just had my 4th).
Now talking with our doctor about our future children and the possibility of them having the same issue. She stated with our family history of allergies and our son, we had a 50/50 shot.
So my husband and I sat down and talked. We agreed we had already had enough for when our kids were a bit bigger. We just needed some for when they were newborns.
This is when I found Nicki’s diapers Facebook page. All the information I have ever wanted about cloth diapers was at my fingertips.
I could build the stash of cloth diapers we needed for all our kids over 9 months. I did $50-$100 a month till we had EVERYTHING we needed.
From diapers, wet bags, diaper pail liners, diaper sprayer, nighttime solutions, everything.
None of our kids have ever had an allergy related diaper rash. Really, they have only had a diaper rash a handful of times.
We are still using the diapers from almost 8 years ago.
Not only was this great for us financially but also for the health of our kids. This is just another view of why to cloth diaper that most people don’t think of.
Now I am not saying that disposables are bad, they just don’t work for our family.
Did you know that babies use approximately 2,500 diapers in their first year alone?!?! Then approximately 1,800 each year thereafter!
A good cloth diaper stash would only need about 24 diapers if you washed every other day.
JOY MOFFET:
My journey to cloth diapering was probably not unlike many others… I wanted to save some money while also saving the environment.
With my first child I planned to cloth diaper knowing the cost of disposables like when using the disposable cloth diaper liners and how quickly the amount would add up.
Knowing that from the first day of his life for at least the next 2 to 3 year I would need to continue to buy packs of diapers was daunting to me.
A sticker price of around $6 per pack for even the least expensive brand (this was 2013) and only getting around 24 diapers per pack meant that each diaper that I threw in the trash would cost me around 25 cents.
A whole entire quarter, going into the trash with every single diaper change. Since babies go through a diaper every couple of hours, whoa momma. So, off I went in search of cloth diapers.
Social media was nothing then like it is now and I wasn’t great with Google to find things. I found it was NOT easy to locate cloth diapers in my area or on the internet.
I finally found some really cheap pockets on eBay and ordered them. Once they came in I gave them a go and it was an epic fail.
So much of a fail that I gave up entirely and bought disposable diapers begrudgingly for the next 30 months.
If I quantified the amount that I spent on diapers for my son who needed special hypoallergenic disposables, the entire time he was in diapers I would probably cry seeing the number.
Luckily, by the time I found out I was pregnant with our second, I had found that there were actual cloth diaper groups on Facebook.
Chat groups where I could find out where people were buying diapers. In one of these groups, I stumbled across new release prints and found out that it was Nicki’s Diapers Brand.
I found the website and could make my hope of saving money during my diapering journey come true. Along with the Nicki’s Diapers website, I found the AMAZING support of the Official Nicki’s Diapers Cloth Diaper Chatter.
Here I could ask questions and find out how to actually make cloth diapering work for our family. We started with the least expensive options I could find that also gave us the ease of use that I needed as a mom of two.
Nicki’s Diapers Ultimate All In Ones and the Best Bottom All In Two system. Even though the initial investment for the diapers seemed like a lot at the time, these diapers have more than paid for themselves in use.
They have been on the bums of 3 babies in this house and I could not be happier that we saved money while saving the environment through the use of cloth diapers.
We also saved a good chunk of money by choosing to use cloth wipes.
Looking back on my first try, the failure of the diapers was due in part to the lack of absorbency that was sold with the diaper and the fact that I had zero knowledge of fit at the time.
If you’re new to cloth and hoping to get started on saving money, then head on over to the chatter page where you will find help you need to get started and what style might work best for your family.
AUBREY GRUGGER:
While I can’t remember back to my days wearing cloth diapers, I can remember household chores being done with old, repurposed flats.
I may not have made the specific decision to cloth diaper all those years ago when dusting the end tables, but my childhood shaped my commitment to the environment that led to my studying Environmental Science, working as an environmental professional, and ultimately the green options I choose as an adult.
The area I grew up in was a very rural area and this pushed my parents into making sustainable and low waste choices as we didn’t have access to trash service and were about a 30-minute drive to the nearest store.
While I now live in a populated area with a grocery store down the street, we still don’t have trash service, so the low-waste practices I picked up in my childhood are helpful in keeping our trips to the transfer station infrequent.
Reducing personal waste is not the only environmental benefit of cloth diapering and my work in environmental consulting has made me aware of just how impactful manufacturing is on the planet’s well-being.
There is the unavoidable use of water and energy and manufacturing waste and the generation of chemical absorbents.
Not that single use product manufacturers are polluting villains, these products certainly have their place and we definitely rely on them from time to time ourselves.
However, our family knows that the path our population is on is not sustainable and we may not be perfect but we know that a dozen small changes are better than no change at all.
Fortunately for my husband and I, our families have similar mindsets and have always supported our decision to cloth diaper, in fact, we were both cloth diaper babies ourselves!
We have some family members that don’t understand it (mostly the “ewww, but what about poop” mentality) but our cloth diapering journey has exposed us to so many wonderful sustainable products so we’re able to share and promote green living in other ways.
The cloth diaper world has many options, but we decided early on to go with an all-in-two.
We felt that the quick drying time, ease of use, and ability to customize absorbency would work well for our childcare providers, which included both family and a daycare facility.
We chose Best Bottom on the recommendation of my high school English teacher (of all people) and have never looked back.
The leap from that recommendation to the Nicki’s Diapers website wasn’t a big one, and then we quickly found the Official Best Bottom Diapers Fan Chat Page and Official Nicki’s Diapers Cloth Diaper Chatter Facebook pages.
The customer service from Nicki’s Diapers helped us determine our wash routine based on our machine and water and the chatter and fan chat families have been there for everything from fit help to sharing in our cloth diaper journey.
While reducing our environmental impact may have been the benefit that drove us to cloth diapering, the community and support is the benefit that we most enjoy.
The decision to cloth diaper doesn't have to be a difficult one!
Switching to cloth diapers is a decision that will save money, your ecological footprint, and free your baby's skin of diaper rash!
Although it may seem like a daunting task at first, remember it doesn't have to be all or nothing...part time cloth still makes a big impact on your wallet and the environment! If you ever have any doubts, or just need some great memes to get through your cloth diapering day...our chatter community is here for you.
