Get it...diapers have a "scent"..typically bad, but there is so much more "sense" in choosing cloth when it comes to your baby's bum!
We found the most sense for cloth diapering in Bum Genuis!
I LOVE using cloth diapers on Olivia and recently that love increased. I just spend almost a month in Portland with John's family so we decided to just use paper diapers. We decided that when the plan was to stay for 1 1/2 weeks. I changed my flight and stayed for 2 more weeks which meant I had to spend more of our precious- one income family money- on things I was going to throw away! ugh!We found the most sense for cloth diapering in Bum Genuis!
My life is split into 2 spheres of people...Denton people and the rest of you. ha! ;) Anyone in Denton gets why I use cloth diapers and most of my Denton friends use cloth as well. The rest of you just think us Dentonites are crazy, and that is ok. But I do want to run down the list of "scents {or sense}" of cloth diapering. I'm going to give you the good "scents" first , because well, baby poop always smells better in the beginning when they are young. It gets worse as they get older so I'll keep the "smelly scents {or sense}" for later.
The Sense in choosing cloth: {These are the top reasons we chose cloth}
1. Cloth diapered babies typically potty train quicker & sooner. The research says that Babies who are put in cloth potty train, on average, 6 months sooner than babies not raised in cloth diapers-those 6 months could save you $600, not to mention the thousands you can save for all the years you choose cloth. Babies in cloth can feel the wetness/dirtiness more/sooner therefore become more uncomfortable & aware of their actions.
2. Cloth diapering saves thousands of dollars! You could have a vacation for that amount of money! The average family spends $2000-$3000 on diapers for one child until they are potty trained. The average cloth diapers family can spend from $300-$1000 (depending on your preferences) but this is can last through all your children! If you have 3 children that is $5000 at the very least!
3.Cloth diapering is being a good steward our Earth. God has created an amazing creation for us to enjoy. Now I understand the Earth isn't perfect & me choosing cloth diapers doesnt "save the Earth" or preserve it back to the Garden of Eden but I do believe that in choosing cloth diapers I am helping to take care of the Earth and its resourses. Please don't hear me say that if you don't choose cloth that you are not being a good steward. This is just one of the ways the Lord has weighed on my heart to take care of the Earth. The US uses 27.4 Billion diapers each year, which will amount to about 3.7 million TONS of landfill waste....which could take between 250-500 years to decompose.
Ok, now for the scents {notice the change from "sense"...scent=smelly=the down side to cloth}:
Yes, there is a bad side to everything in life, although the "sense" definitely out weighs the scents... so choose Bum Genius people. ;)
1. Sometimes they do leak. This is usually because I don't have them adjusted properly, possibly due to a recent growth spurt or if I have left it on her too long. ( and to set our record straight- Olivia has never blown out of a cloth diaper but has blown out of several paper!)
2. Forgetting about a cloth diaper in the car or diaper bag....this is worse than if its a paper because you can just throw it away, you have to wash it.
A few Myths I heard:
1. Your baby's poop/pee will be all over the couch or anywhere they are. I was seriously told this. This is not true, cloth diapers are made so different and much better than when our parents were diapering us as babies.
2.It causes more chemicals to go into the ground in the washing process...nope not true. You use clean detergents on diapers as to not ruin their fibers or ruin your little baby's bum!
3."Don't you have to use those big safety pins?" Nope. Again, cloth diapering has come a long way, IF you use a type of cloth system that requires fastening like that you would use a snappy from Cotton Babies.
We use Bum Genius diapers and another brand, that I will leave nameless because we are very sad that we don't have all Bum Genius diapers. We bought the other brand first but I am SO much happier with Bum Genius!!
For more statistics on cloth diapering Click here.
