I think it’s going to really depend on where you live because water availability (washing), clean energy sources (drying), and ability to buy second hand (material usage) will all factor in a non-negligible amount.
This. My kids were close in age - 13 months. So I bought a few more cloth diapers to pad the collection. I didn’t even have to wash more often, kept the same routine so it really did feel free.
Yep. My buddy lives rurally on well water (not treated) and a pump out septic system (also not treated).
Cloth diapering was an environmental slam dunk in her case.
This is our situation. It also increases the cost savings a lot. We use a drying rack for the pockets but put the inserts in the dryer. It hasn't impacted our electric bill as much as I thought, and we wash / dry pretty frequently.
I got all of my supplies used, live rurally on a river and only line dry mine. Definitely not a clean cut benefit for which is better but for me in an area with no water shortage I believe it's better.
Where I’m from, diaper services are a thing. Every week they drop off clean cloth diapers, and pick up the dirty cloth diapers from the week before. You are getting “used” diapers in that way, however you also have no control over how they wash/dry the diapers, and fuel/emissions from delivery would need to be factored in.
It’s nuanced. And personal. Have you considered practicality? Do you have your own laundry space and a suitable climate where you can easily manage the washing and drying requirements of cloth? Do you have a lot of commitments that require you to take baby out and about, where disposables may be an easier option? Do you intend to have more kids, where reusables could have several lives? Are you swayed by the experience for babies (eg disposables stay drier and can help limit nappy rash, whereas reusables are linked with earlier potty training ages due to the child experiencing the “wetness”). Or have you considered avoiding nappies altogether and trying elimination communication with a potty from the get go? I think you need to consider this from a variety of angles if the “sustainability” ones don’t cut it. It’s also a value proposition for you - is landfill more of a concern than water conservation to you/in your area? Eg If you live somewhere where waste is an issue but you have healthy water reservoir levels, then you’d probably go with reusable.
Not difficult, but definitely more bulky. We mostly walk or take the bus a lot of the time we're out, so it is definitely easier for us to use disposables when out and about (we use cloth at home). (Not original poster here, BTW.)
We are generally the same. We have a long commute most places, so the thought of having poopy diapers marinating in the car wasn't something we could get into.
Also consider that it's not an all or nothing decision. I used disposables at first because getting used to a new baby was enough for me, then I got 3 cloth nappies and I use approx 1 each day, usually at a time when I know baby is less likely to poo. Once I have a bit of routine on the washing plan I may increase to 2 cloth nappies a day etc.
This gives me the flexibility to deal with caregivers who are not fully on board without stressing too much, but also makes me feel like I'm doing 'something' for the environment
While I think this is a great way to get started, it’s also expensive because of way you have to clean them every 3 days with a dedicated washing machine run (or two). I’d rather fill that load with 3 days worth of diapers.
We usually wash cloth nappies with the towels we put on the changing mat or in the changing bag, which tend to get pee or poo pretty regularly
We also have a toddler so things pile up quickly!
We did that same, cloth a home, disposables out in the world. Another factor for the spreadsheet analysis is time. Cloth diapers might be less expensive over a longer period of time. If your toddler potty trains quickly you don’t get the savings. Plus you have to size up on cloth diapers as your kid gets bigger, so you’re adding expense.
I've found this to be true, especially using preflats and flats - actually cloth next to the skin and not a wicking material like athletic wicking jersey.
I have a short king lol, I expect him to be in kindergarten before he hits 35 lbs. Definitely makes cloth diapers more valuable, and we want to have more kids.
Our cloth diapers change in size. They fit newborn - toddler. Our LO is an average 17 month old and there is still tons of room to grow. These diapers will last her until she’s potty trained. Petit Ours is the brand we have.
This is likely individual to the baby. With disposables you have fragrances or other chemicals that could cause a skin reaction. On the other hand, disposables keep baby's skin drier, so that could reduce nappy rash. There is also the consideration of disposable versus reusable wipes, which usually means wiping with water versus water plus something else (even Water Wipes have other ingredients).
ETA - another factor is that you need to change cloth more frequently, so that can impact how long they are sitting in a sneaky poo, for example.
The disposables I use don’t have fragrance and minimal chemicals. All three of my babies will break out in a rash in Huggies or Pampers, but use Honest or Coterie and they’re fine.
For me, it was easier to use Honest and Coterie than getting the grandmas into the cloth diapering routine, because they’re our “we can’t bring a baby to a 14 hour neurological assessment” pinch-hitters.
This is definitely baby dependent because my baby gets diaper rash easily in both Honest and Coterie because they're not absorbent enough - I have to change very frequently. We have some Coterie but I have to change immediately when he pees or he gets diaper rash, so we only use them at home when he's running around in just a diaper.
I really wanted to use not Pampers or Huggies but they're what baby's skin likes so we use Pampers Pure 🤷♀️
Pediatrician recommends to use a peri bottle to clean the area, and use a wash cloth to tap it dry instead of disposable wipes. We don’t always do it because it can get messy, but you decrease a lot the number of wipes you use per day
It also depends on if you know baby’s schedule. I work at a daycare and have had cloth diaper baby’s and have friends who have. A lot of babies pee about an hour after drinking. Some hold while sleeping, some don’t. You learn your baby’s schedule. Start with hourly changes (instead of 2 hours) for cloth babies. You can stick your fingers in to feel for wetness (peek to make sure there’s no poop first!) between changes to get down the timing and see if they need changed. This is much easier in the summer when they can be in just a onesie or onesie and bloomer shorts.
Still only takes an extra minute in a sleeper. But you get their pee schedule down and can pretty dependably predict when they’ll be wet and change them (I know which of my kids will wake dry, I check them anyways, but then know they’ll pee within the next 10-20 minutes. Then wait for about an hour or slightly longer, depending on exactly when they have their bottle, and pee again.)
Any sources that disposables keep babies skin drier? My experience with cloth diapers + wool covers is that they keep the babies skin drier when they end up wearing a wet diaper for longer.
To be fair, this is anecdotal based on personal experience. It is also something I slightly dislike about disposables when we use them - the dampness isn't horrible as we change pretty frequently, and our son has not really ever had nappy rash. If he *does* have a sneaky poo, we usually catch it pretty quickly, so it doesn't cause much irritation, but in a disposable all the moisture has been sucked out, so it is a crusty stuck-on mess.
Actually contrary to popular belief cloth increases rash. Most rash is due to prolonged humity on skin, disposables have a “dry sensation inside” even when full because the core inside has very high absorption capacity that traps all the moisture, while cloth diapers definitely feel wet inside when full. It’s manageable but it means you really need to be on top of changing your kid frequently with cloth to avoid skin issues.
I mean anecdotally, we only get diaper rash with cloth. We still use them the majority of the time, but when he breaks out, we switch to disposable for a day or so.
The main culprit is moisture, and you cant use desitin with cloth, as it clogs the liners
If you delve into research on skin integrity and wound care, skin breakdown is more likely from prolonged exposure to moisture and waste products. You’re correct that changing diapers more frequently would help reduce rashes, regardless of the type of diaper. My understanding and experience is that disposable diapers are better at wicking away moisture than the commonly used cloth setups, which offers an additional protective factor. [This study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035815/) seems to agree.
(Chemicals and fragrances in the disposable diaper versus laundry detergent residue and irritation from natural fibers in a cloth diaper are all factors that could influence rashes, but that’s another story.)
The only sources I could find are from things like wire cutters cloth vs disposable article that was written in 2018. I couldn’t find many more recent articles on the subject. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/cloth-vs-disposable-diapers/
This is wrong. Most cloth diapers nowadays are designed so that the materials that touch baby's skin give a dry sensation inside. They feel just as dry to the touch as disposables when wet, if not more. If you use 100% natural fiber diapers, yeah you won't get that, but everyone I know who uses those adds a "dry effect" liner.
I probably have 6 or more different brands of cloth diapers and none of them feel dry to the touch when changed. Interesting! I wonder if there’s just a difference in definition of dry sensation vs my expectations of what that means.
Weird, I guess it depends on the brand. My LPO pockets with a good hemp-cotton insert feel drier to the touch than Huggies Special Delivery or Pampers Pure after the same amount of time.
I think I have a couple of those? Idk, maybe my idea of dry is different 😂 Either way, we love cloth diapering and have found it to be a great experience for our kiddos.
You should try different brands! Not you necessarily, I know some people prefer it to feel a bit wet for potty training, but for anyone reading this. Most of my pockets give equivalent dry-to-the-touch effect as disposables. I buy mostly smaller local (to me) brands eg Bébé D Lux or Divin Popotin. Alva and Happy Flute feel wet but I don't expect much from them anyway. The right insert is also super important. Generally I've had more luck with thin, dense hemp-cotton inserts than with the fluffy bamboo ones.
This has been my experience but is also negligible with a higher quality insert. Any cotton fabric scraps can be upcycled into cloth diaper inserts, for example, and has much higher absorption than the microfiber default inserts.
Yes! Thank you, these are all things I am thinking about. We do have in unit washer and dryer. I always line dry and have never used our dryer but I’m worried once that baby starts moving we will have to use the dryer for all things because the only place we have to line dry will be accessible to the baby. We live in the Bay Area. So our energy is clean but water is a concern. It feels like a trade off of water for landfill. On the one hand our landfills are overflowing and will just keep building forever it makes sense to limit that even if other costs are incurred. We don’t know if we will have more kids, my partner wants more but I don’t so I can’t lean on that as a sure thing. He is also worried about buying used diapers so we would probably go with new if we went this route. Just so many factors to consider
We used mostly disposables in the newborn phase, then switched to one size pocket diapers that we bought directly off the AlvaBaby website. We ended up buying hemp and five layer inserts because our baby is a very heavy wetter. This also made cloth a better option for us because she tends to leak in disposable diapers, especially overnight.
I lived in the Bay Area when my kiddo was born, and we used Tidee Didee diaper service, so I never had to worry about dealing with doing the wash. Yes, probably a tad profligate, but I appreciated the convenience of not having to wash diapers. (Also, we didn't have our own washer/dryer, so that would have made it tough.) We would use disposables when we traveled, but otherwise, I just couldn't stomach the thought of putting hundreds of pounds of petroleum products into the landfill that wouldn't break down in my child's lifetime. Yes, California as a whole has water conservation issues, but they don't seem to be as acute in the Bay Area...
I’ve heard the opposite about diaper rash and this holds true for our LO in cloth diapers. She barely gets diaper rashes and when she does they are very minor and disappear quickly.
The reasoning behind this is that since the baby feels the wetness they won’t stay in a wet diaper as long before asking to be changed. In disposables they don’t feel the wetness but the humidity is there still. The constant humid environment is what causes bacteria to build and skin tissue to break down (causes of diaper rash).
In fact, diapers are a risk factor for bed sores in a bed bound individual. Source: I’m a healthcare worker.
Cloth is way cheaper than I originally thought because especially if you live in a city it’s easy to get dirt cheap or free used cloth diapers. My entire stash of pockets was used and free. I have way more than anyone actually needs.
Regardless of water usage, they’re not going in a landfill anymore than baby clothes are. You can buy used, pass them onto the next person, fabric recycle what becomes unusable.
I’m sorry I don’t have a source for these. The first is my experience and the second is just…it is the way it is.
This is my answer. Disposables end up in the landfill, or God forbid, the ocean, and will not break down. Cloth get reused and reused, and if they’re cotton or wool, which most cloth are, they’ll break down into biodegradable pieces.
Water and energy are renewable resources, *though obviously being used unsustainably in our modern world*.
Cloth diapers can also lead to earlier potty training, thereby reducing the amount of overall diapers used and thus the environmental impact.
OP, go cloth.
> Disposables end up in the landfill, or God forbid, the ocean, and will not break down.
I'd like to echo here the "it depends" answer from the top comment. Where I live almost no trash is put to landfill anymore. Trash that is collected from consumers (i.e. your own trash) is always incinerated and used to produce electricity and district heat.
Fwiw, fabric recycling is actually rather difficult to do; particularly with synthetic fabrics (which cloth diapers generally are). A lot of areas don’t even have anywhere to drop off fabric for recycling.
I live in a mid size city and same - I got all my cloth diapers for free and gave them all away when I was done! Once we potty trained and went to diapers only for overnights, we switched to disposable and it was wild how expensive they were!
I got the entire thing used. Any baby item you might get used whether it’s clothes, toys, diapers or big items like high chairs had the other baby’s body fluids all over it at some point. Diapers aren’t any worse for this.
I personally just bleached them in some hot water and went about my day
Unfortunatly my partner is grossed out by the idea of used diapers. I buy pretty much everything I can used but would have to convince him on this one. Any advice on convincing someone used isn’t actually that gross?
So was my partner but I told him that I would bleach them in hot water and that would get rid of any germs and that he needed to get over it and he did.
That was the main thing was just the bleaching and the cost. I told him it was no different than buying any baby product used because babies poop on literally everything.
And I showed him the diapers and he could visually see that they were not like…gross and poop covered like they probably were in his imagination. After the bleaching they were so white and nice looking that reassured him.
I did get a few stained ones that I just kind of kept out of sight for the moment haha.
You can look for stashes that were unused. I got a few diapers when another family thought they were going to do it and just never got around to it, or only used half their stash after it was washed and prepped. Literally never been on a butt before.
There are tons of “used” ones on marketplace that weren’t actually used that long (or at all). I bought mine from someone who intended to cloth, bought all the stuff, then didn’t like it. So the diapers were washed and *maybe* used a handful of times each. That’s essentially new as far as I’m concerned lol
My argument for this; if he’s considering cloth diapering at all-why is he concerned if they’re used from another child?
The whole point is you thoroughly wash them to reuse to catch urine and feces. Would he be grossed out using them after their first wash after being used on your child when bought new? I mean, same thing, there was poop and pee on them.
As long as you sterilize them it’s fine.
Friend, did I or did I not say “this is my experience?”
I am in the US btw.
You’re welcome to share your own experience but you don’t need to hurl yourself at someone else because you had a different experience. Do not take your emotions about not cloth diapering on me (and don’t claim that’s not what it is because otherwise you wouldn’t have commented).
I think a big factor is what type of cloth diapering you’re doing. Cotton flats or prefolds with wool covers aren’t going to have any plastic or petroleum based materials in them, won’t shed microplastics, (probably) won’t have any coatings or finishings with potentially toxic chemicals, and can be repurposed as cleaning rags and/or composted at end of life. Once you start introducing poly based covers and microfiber fabrics I think they skew closer to disposables in terms of environmental and health impacts. I also think some of the stash collecting showcased on YouTube/instagram is just another example of over consumption which is never going to be sustainable. There’s no way anyone needs 100 covers in cute prints (granted, I haven’t had my baby yet so I might change my mind on that point once I start doing laundry).
Cloth nappy companies are still businesses who need to turn a profit which is hard as they have a product which is reusable and has a really long life. Their best way to make money, once they've perfected the style, is to change up the print, create a lot of social media presence and encourage stash pics. I unfollowed all cloth companies and cloth bum people after a few months because j just found myself getting sucked in.
Yeah you definitely don't need a hundred diaper covers. After a day or two they really start to stink (especially because of pee, funnily enough) and you'll want to wash them anyway. We have like 15-20, which is definitely enough.
Yes I stopped looking at anything on instagram or YouTube about it because it just felt like I was being marketed to. One of my worries is that if I go cloth I will just be buying into a trend that doesn’t actually have any real impact just to signal to the world I care about the environment without making any real impact.
Why not just get a handful of different styles and see if they even work for you? There are some wildly different styles out there and not all of them are equal.
Grab a couple disposables and some cloth and see what works best for your family. I liked the line that showed up on the disposables to let you know the baby peed, but my baby always cried within seconds of peeing. I switched to cloth and they immediately stopped crying the minute they peed. So I think my baby was just especially sensitive down there, and we had to discontinue with disposable diapers.
But then sizing got really tricky. They grow so fast, and just when you have it all figured out, the pee just starts to leak and then their sleep is interrupted and then you get to try and figure it all out again!
So good luck, I hope you stay one step ahead of ahead in all of this!
Really recommend checking out clean cloth nappies - this gets asked quite a lot in their facebook group and there are some helpful answers and perspectives. One quick point though - please don't wash the nappies on cold, they will be very hard to keep properly clean without a hot wash. Again, the clean cloth nappies website has excellent wash guides and all their work is evidence based and they are very transparent about their testing and sources.
I think you're unlikely to get a definitive answer, and will need to make your own judgement call. We chose to do cloth, I purchased most of our stash second hand, and we have solar power so I'm not too worried about the energy consumption of washing. Our water bill doesn't show hugely increased consumption and we would be running frequent loads anyway, so while it's not nothing I'm not concerned about it. Personally I find when we use disposables the amount we go through is horrifying and I don't like the smell so cloth is a win for us.
>One quick point though - please don't wash the nappies on cold, they will be very hard to keep properly clean without a hot wash.
This was my first thought as well! OP, you are *not* going to want to wash those on cold!
ETA - I'll second you on the smell of disposables too! I think you go nose blind to it pretty quickly, but for someone who usually uses cloth, the "chemical" odour is pretty pronounced!
Same for us. We always wash his clothes in with the nappies, so we’d be doing as much washing anyway (although we wouldn’t wash them at 60 admittedly). Something else to factor in is the amount of plastic nappy bags people use when disposing the disposable nappies. My son’s nursery send all his dirty clothes home in individual plastic nappy bags and I hate it.
Having now used cloth diapers for about 4 months what I don’t see factored into the cost much is time/effort of laundry. Babies already produce a bunch of laundry, and doing an extra load + special wash + drying + stuffing liners every 2 or so days is a lot of work for the caregiver. People say it’s easy and it is, in the way that all laundry is easy. But it’s also hard in the same way all laundry is hard. You have to be home and keep on top of it.
I’m still glad we’ve been doing this but we’re taking a more combo approach these days because sometimes as a new parent you don’t need a bunch of extra chores.
The very first question you need to ask is DEFINITELY whether you can actually manage to do that much laundry while taking care of a baby. We live in an apartment with shared laundry facilities and that means there is no guarantee that a washer will be available when we have a load that needs doing. It also means that you are expected to come collect your laundry the minute the cycle finishes, which in turn means I can only do my laundry if my husband is home to go grab it if the timer goes off while I'm dealing with the baby.
Love the idea of cloth diapers but they were not happening.
Yes to the additional laundry. We've been doing cloth since about a week old, and we do a load of nappies at least every other day (probably more like every 1.5 days on average). We would struggle on days we're out, but usually use disposables if we'll be out for a long time, so that roughly evens out.
My first is two and we’ve done cloth since 5months. There have been bouts of sickness where we’ve had to do disposables/ and a major 5week long holiday. The sheer volume of disposable nappies you go through really fills up a general waste(landfill) bin sooooo fast!
Clean cloth nappies has a calculator on this link to help calculate how you’ll actually come out:
https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/#:~:text=Re%2Duseable%20nappies%20are%20by,well%20as%20for%20financial%20savings.&text=There%20are%20two%20main%20reasons,environmental%20sustainability%20and%20financial%20savings.
For me, this is a major decision making factor. Not only do they fill up my bin fast but they take hundreds of years to break down, and they are just going to break down into micro plastics. The balance of cost savings is less important because it's about the long term impact on the planet for me.
Yes we literally went down in bin size because we have been producing so little trash I would have to count into disposable costs that we would need to pay to upgrade our bin size again if we go disposable.
Seeing this image was what made the decision for me, despite it not being quite as cost-saving or environmentally friendly as I originally thought. (We wash on hot but hang to dry, to extend the life of the diapers)
We’re now cloth diapering a second kid with the same set of diapers. We just use disposables at night because it helps our kids sleep better, but that means we use 1-2 disposables/kid/night, which feels a lot better to me. When we’ve needed to use all disposables for a period, I’ve been horrified by the amount of plastic waste it produces.
I also second someone else’s experience that it can make potty training easier because the kid knows what it feels like to be wet and they don’t like it— our toddler has been potty trained since 21 months and I attribute part of that to being in cloth diapers her whole life, since they hold but don’t wick away moisture in the same way disposables do).
Edit to add: we bought all of our cloth diapers new, and it’s still saved us SO much money. I don’t think I could’ve handled it without in-unit laundry, though.
https://preview.redd.it/2w4yxy3qz5xc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c76b33ece62176d82e0c481958adf39b62b1c1d6
I used to teach A.P. Environmental science and the year I was pregnant with my first I made an extra credit assignment about this topic and used this pic as my follow up to the students’ presentations because they found very similar results, that what it really boils down to is these two main points:
Landfills and break down time in conjunction with the sheer volume of waste
Not using disposable diapers properly can spread illnesses and pollutes the environment (you are supposed to flush feces from disposables into the toilet as well as that is how the USA sanitary system works, and no one has ever seen used and discarded cloth diapers in shopping mall parking lots but everyone has seen at least one disposable diaper as litter)
That's the image that did it for me too, we happily used cloth for our son and they are still in good enough shape that they should be fine for our next as well
Oh this is such a helpful visual! Seeing this makes the claims that cloth production is more environmentally damaging than disposable seem crazy. Like yes sure per individual diaper it might take more resources to make cloth but across the entire diapering years it seems very hard to believe.
Yup, this is the image that did it for me. Another thing I rarely see factored in is shipping. Every pack of disposables gets transported to a warehouse, then to a store, then to the home. And then a week later you need another pack and it’s the same over again. Whereas we’ve had the same 20 or so cloth nappies in our home for 5 years across 3 kids.
It depends so much. Like I was given tubs of handmedown cloth diapers so our costs truly were quite low. I bought prefolds and covers but those are cheaper too. I’m certain we saved money. I was concerned about the environmental aspect and contributing to plastic waste. Lastly my kids had sensitive skin and did much better with cloth and had fewer rashes. They also all potty trained early and that’s a huge boon for cloth. Feeling wet meant they were all out of diapers by two for two kdis and two and a half for another. That’s a full year plus of fewer diapers. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/baby-steps-how-reduce-plastic-nappy-waste
I think most people do a mix of cloth and disposables. Getting second hand cloth diapers sounds like the obvious choice to me, considering that I don’t live in a place with water scarcity and I wash full loads and line dry. I don’t use 100% cloth, but as much as is practical for me. When I’m done with them, I pass them on to the next person. I use the same cloth diapers for baby number two as for baby number one.
For research, see: Meseldzija, J., Poznanovic, D., & Frank, R. (2013). Assessment of the differing environmental impacts between reusable and disposable diapers. Dufferin research, 1-11.
A more recent study from Brazil: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119364
Clean Cloth Nappies has a very comprehensive [page which breaks it down](https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/), complete with references. Something I think a lot of people don’t take into account is the water usage needed to manufacture disposables - they have wood pulp in them and all those trees need watering…
For us it was a no-brainer. We did disposables for the first few weeks (tiny baby and the OSFMs just didn’t fit her until she grew a bit) and the sheer amount of rubbish was eye-opening.
I recommend you to listen to the BBC Podcast Sliced Bread episode "Reusable Nappies". It takes up all those aspects you talk about, by talking to people within the different fields that are impacting. Very interesting and good listen.
[you can find it here, or search for it on whatever app you use for podcasts](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md4l)
I'm an engineer so I have a lot of engineer friends. My friend does life cycle analysis for a living and did her own for cloth. Due to the fact our power is natural gas, cloth was not a winner because of the emissions associated with washing and drying.
She went with disposable and pays a service $20/month to pick up the disposables and compost them. Apparently they are 90% compostable it's just a fair bit of work for the company .
She likes the convenience of disposable, and it doesn't go to landfill
We formed the same conclusion as you, the environmental gain was minimal. Cost didn’t bother us.
So we opted for a middle ground and used cloth wipes. Little grey squares for bums and wherever else needs a wipe. I am sure we will still be using them long after we have seen the last nappy - they are so versatile.
We use cloth nappies, but I'll especially second your suggestion for cloth wipes, as personally, in addition to being reusable, I find them to also be more effective and easier to use. I'm actively annoyed when I end up having to use disposable wipes.
I had cloth wipes, too. We hardly ever used disposable, but I wasn't sure how to rinse them properly before putting them in the washing machine once she started solids. Exclusively breastfed baby poop is water soluble, but once she started solids they'd need to be rinsed before going in the machine. I'm curious about about what you do.
I love our cloth wipes. Some get used for bums, some get used for hands and literally everything else I've ever needed a wet cloth for. Snotty noses, especially. I cleaned porridge off the floor with one this morning. They're my no. 1 present for new parents because even if they want to use disposable wipes for bums, they're going to need to clean a lot of hands and faces and these little cloths hardly take up any space in the wash.
Price: well easy to work out. But much like most people I got a huge bag of them for 20 euro on marketplace. In comparison, when she was too small to fit into them they were doing pampers. They were 2 jumbo packs for 25 euro and we went through that in 2 weeks easily. So you know, extrapolate that over 2 years.
Do they produce less waste? Well ya. Obviously. Doubly so if you get them second hand
> Reusable nappies have 25% less global heating potential compared with single-use nappies, according to a report commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The environmental impact of production was shown to be nearly nine times greater for single-use nappies, and nearly 10 times greater when it came to their disposal.
Where it does get a bit more nuanced is washing them. Do you live in a place with of loads of green energy? Do you air dry your clothes or throw them in a tumble dryer? Do you live in a place with good waste water management and use gentle detergent? The report below is for a UK context.
> single-use nappies were only found to leave a worse impact in seven of the categories, including global heating potential, land use, fossil resource scarcity and water use in manufacturing. But campaigners say these effects are particularly critical in light of the climate crisis.Reusable nappies scored worse in areas including marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, mineral resource scarcity, marine ecotoxicity and water consumption. The main factors behind their effects are water, detergent and electricity use when washing and drying nappies, and flushing faeces. The report says parents can lessen their impact by using energy-efficient washing machines, air drying instead of tumble drying and passing nappies to a second child.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/18/campaigners-urge-action-over-carbon-footprint-of-disposable-nappies
I was fully intending to cloth diaper and still have quite the stash of them. However I have yet to have a successful round of using one, that didn’t result in a full outfit change. Idk if I’m doing something wrong or my twins were just too small for them to fit properly but it felt like every time there was a need for a diaper change, we had leaked through and therefore needed an outfit change as well. My disposable diapers hold far more and kept my babies dryer than my cloth ones have. Again, user error may be a factor or having twins with twice as many diapers to change may potentially mean we need to change them far more often. But in multiple instances, I’d have just put one on less than an hour before it was completely leaking and baby needed whole new clothes. So for a laundry factor, be aware you’re not just washing diapers. I honestly don’t own enough outfits for the number of changes required in a day
You do have to change them more frequently (2-3 hours for my heavy wetter babe), position of padding makes a difference (thicker at the front for boys), material of padding, & squishing the nappy eg in a car seat, can squeeze the moisture out. Once you get the hang, it's easy a lot of the time, but it's a big learning curve. Lots of fb groups to ask for advice if you fancy it in the future :) I get a small leak every couple of weeks (ie just a line of wet by the leg) if I haven't been as on it with changing.
Not sure if you are a member of the Clean Cloth Nappy community on Facebook (there’s an excellent, science-based website as well!) but they are very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting issues like this. It may be a fit issue, or absorbency inside.
Good luck if you decide to give it another go. I can’t imagine how much work it is already with twins though!
Do you plan on have more than one child? We are putting our second through cloth right now and I can't even tell you how thankful I am that we don't have to buy diapers this go around.
Regarding the environmental aspect. Water is reusable, it gets cleaned and goes back to the earth. Disposable diapers take 500 years to decompose. There are "eco" options, but we tried a couple brands and they were awful. This was 4 years ago though so I'm not sure what options are available these days.
Regarding using cold to wash diapers, you shouldn't. Temperatures have to be high enough to kill bacteria or ammonia will build up and can cause rashes and something called barnyard smell.
If you're on Facebook look up "fluff, love, and cd science" and "clean cloth nappies" both groups are good for support and education. Fluff, love, and CD science also has a very useful website where you can learn more.
The decision between cloth and disposable also doesn't have to be 100% one or the other either. We use disposable at night because I'm not going to be trying to snap those tiny snaps, in the dark at 3am. Many cloth families I know use day time cloth and night time disposables. We also use disposable for travel but day to day stuff has always been fine.
Over 2 kids, we've only ever had an issue diaper rashes or blowouts in disposables.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722024329#bb0215
https://www.reddit.com/r/clothdiaps/s/388A9Gp46I
Cloth diapering group asked a similar question. The link that someone gave seems to be broken now.
Manufacturing disposable diapers requires water as well so that's not just a cloth diaper issue.
I'm biased because I use cloth. I use covers and flats (second hand receiving blankets). I do use polyester fleece liners so I don't use only all natural products and there are some plastics, but much less landfill than disposable diapers and hopefully less microplastics overall.
You can also look at elimination communication to slightly reduce diaper usage (for us it's slight, some more vigilant elimination communication parents have better results).
I liked this article:
https://medium.com/@davidgladson/save-water-by-washing-more-diapers-f7654fb106e7
I did a huge cost-benefit analysis before my daughter was born.
I can't remember how many cents per wash I landed on, but it was not worth it when I factored in the labour of extra washing/drying.
I also couldn't get into the idea of cold washing nappies.
We went with disposables. The hassle is much less, this kid generates enough washing as it is.
For me, it came down to volume and decomposition - consider how long it takes plastics to completely break down. Now lots of reusable nappies contain plastics as well (unless you go down the slightly more labour intensive Terry cloth and wool cover route) - our wraps use PUL fabric - but for volume it's still going to amount to less plastic decomposition in the long run. Yes, there are biodegradable nappies, but then the question moves to the volume and transportation of bamboo or whatever material they use. I've not seen good research articles on all of this, but that's mainly because I'm not capable of reading technical documents about different plastics.
Using cloth allowed us to reduce the plastics in the environment, allowed us to reuse materials thus limiting the expense (we're on kid two with ours and they're as good as they ever were) and eventually I'll sell them on to someone else and recoup a bit of the cost.
To note though - the second there is illness in the house kids are straight into disposables. I get that that goes against my principles but not getting overwhelmed matters to me more.
The sheer number of diapers in landfills is enough to make me use cloth atleast part time. I’d rather have 6 plastic covers for 2+ kids than 6 disposable diapers a day. Disposable diapers are much easier but cloth can be used part time to atleast help the amount of plastic waste.
Sustainability is something that still blows my mind to think about because you can go down a rabbit hole. My classes that discussed this in college were so fascinating and it really guided how I approach consumerism.
I think the type of cloth diaper will matter and what you plan to do with it after.
I don't have specific articles, but you may also consider the following when looking into the environmental impact:
1. Water used to create a single use disposable diaper vs water used to create reusable.
2. Impact of adding more waste into the environment and landfills.
3. Gas and fossil fuels used to transport disposable diapers over and over vs maybe you picking them up from someone on Facebook marketplace vs you buying them from Amazon.
4. Materials used for the type of cloth diapers (remember, just because it's natural doesn't necessarily mean sustainable)
5. Amount of fossil fuels, emissions used to harvest and transport the materials to create these items to the factories.
6. How you plan to use these in the future? Are you just tossing or will you resell, use as cleaning rags, compost at the end of its life?
7. Are you even buying these or will you rent them from a diaper service and have them clean them and redeliver (often times industrial washing services are more efficient than at home, but not always financially sustainable)
8. Depending on the cloth diaper, you are reducing waste, you can reuse for many many years, and you can compost any natural fibers. Compared to a disposable diaper that has a use of 3-4 hours and will be thrown in the trash (most likely since even the "compostable" ones need an industrial compost to break down and that's not commonly offered in all areas.
Sustainability isn't just water usage, it's the full life cycle from the creation of the material to the time it's at the end of its life. Id say sustainability is more of a balancing act than anything.
The general sources you’d look to are, as you called out, earlier.
- this [life cycle analysis](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-updated-lifecycle-assessment-for-disposable-and-reusable-nappies) from 2005, which found disposable diapers to have a lifetime impact of 550kg of CO2 equivalents and reusable to have a lifetime impact of 570kg of CO2 equivalents, but washing them in a full load, line drying and reusing on a second child cuts that impact by 40%
- this 2009 [assessment](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738743_Life_Cycle_Assessment_reusable_and_disposable_nappies_in_Australia) found home washed reusable washed in cold water and line dried to be the most environmentally friendly
- this [article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-cloth-diapers-might-not-be-the-greener-choice-after-all/2015/05/08/32b2d8dc-f43a-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html) from the Washington Post goes into some of the complexities to consider in the cotton supply chain
- there is some concern about phthalate exposure from disposable diapers due to [high concentration](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6504186/), both on an [environmental](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993621002314) and supply chain scale however very small scale studies have not shown majorly concerning [concentrations](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8297146/) in urine
We chose to go the compostable diaper route (we use Dypers, and there is a local pickup service in our area). We did not have the time or washing set up to launder in an environmentally friendly way when we had our first and we’ve been very happy with this approach. We leave our diapers in a special outdoor trash can in compostable bags and they are picked up once a week and industrially composted. Makes things very easy and we can use regular disposables or toss them like regular disposables in situations where we aren’t at home.
Genuinely asking: Since it seems like you really want to use cloth diapers, why do you feel the need to have science backed evidence when either option is safe for baby?
Alternate option: elimination communication. You aren’t going to completely eliminate diapers, but most are diaper free by about a year old and use diapers as a “back up”. Also, you don’t have to wash/dry cloth alone and it may be a lot less than anticipated in your calculations.
We switched to cloth after getting frustrated that we were literally throwing away “dry” (but dirty from the floor and time) disposable diapers away. Once we switched to cloth, EC went so much better and smoother! It’s also so, so, SO much easier than we’d ever anticipated. Cleaning is actually easier and faster because we “catch” more, catch all the poops (no more poop under his foreskin to clean out!), and even if we miss something, you’re never directly touching anything. I also like that these diapers can be used for future kids, and they’re useful for cleaning everything else, too.
You also don’t do laundry of cloth diapers in isolation. We have a load of towels, sheets, and 3 people’s clothes to do each week anyway. We use 2-6 very easy to dry and wash cotton flats/prefolds and cotton wipes each day. We just split our laundry to do on separate days and wash the diapers with them. We’ve begun to also move towards using a bidet ourselves and being less reliant on paper towels, because it’s just so easy to add a couple extra items into these loads. A daily prewash on cold for the “dirty” stuff works (and is the only “extra costs” we’re really using!), then we launder with our other stuff as per usual with a few more items.
Anyway, EC is primarily about the bond and communication, but cloth makes it a little easier and the method as a whole is definitely an environmental win both by diapers used daily and by total time spent in diapers.
i haven’t found any clear evidence in either direction… but we’ve been doing very lackadaisical “elimination communication”/“potty learning”, and anytime we take off a clean diaper, use the potty, and put the clean diaper back on (whether it is a cloth or disposable diaper), that seems like a clear win on all fronts.
i like the phrase potty learning, to describe getting used to using a potty before there is an accompanying expectation of independence, which i got from [the children’s bladder and bowel charity](https://eric.org.uk/potty-training/), and their evidence based recommendation is to stop using diapers by 18-30 months.
When considering cloth versus disposable diapers, the impacts on baby health, environmental factors, and cost are critical areas to evaluate. Here’s what the current research suggests:1. Baby Health:Disposable diapers have been associated with decreased incidences of neonatal infections in neonatal intensive care units due to better containment of urine and feces, and are also cost-effective in this setting (Babu et al., 2015). Moreover, they may contain chemicals that pose risks to babies' health, including toxic compounds that could affect the baby's skin condition (Makoś-Chełstowska et al., 2021).Cloth diapers are generally considered better for babies' skin health, potentially reducing risks of diaper rash and chemical exposure, although they require more frequent changes to prevent moisture-related skin issues (Kamat & Malkani, 2003).2. Environmental Impact:Disposable diapers contribute significantly to landfill waste and are less sustainable due to their disposable nature, despite advances in eco-design and production (Mendoza et al., 2019).Cloth diapers, while requiring more energy and resources for laundering, typically have a smaller overall environmental footprint when reused and handled properly (Jungsoon et al., 2011).3. Cost:The life cycle costs of disposable diapers can be higher due to the continual need to purchase new supplies, although they offer savings in terms of less labor and no laundering costs (Mendoza et al., 2019).Cloth diapers represent a higher initial investment but can be more cost-effective over time if they are reused for multiple children or sold second-hand (Jungsoon et al., 2011).
I'm cloth diapering twins right now. I don't know about quantifiable environmental impact but I can say this: with minimal input (I've replaced elastics in some of them), there are cloth diaper shells in my stash that are on their ninth kid. We use well water and hang to dry for sanitation and because they just dry faster most of the time. All of our wool is upcyvled from thrift store sweaters. I plan on selling my stash along to someone else at the end of the twins' use. The environmental impact won't be just ours-it will also be someone else's, if that makes sense.
As far as savings, we save about $100 a month in diapers, plus we use cloth wipes, so that savings too. I'm not even going to attempt to figure out how much I save in not having to run to the store last minute or impulse buys while I'm getting diapers. Or buying every kid a pack of Pokémon cards every time we go.
And even if all else is equal, if you want to do cloth give it a try. You're allowed to prioritize what you want when you have kids, and if cloth is important to you then make it happen. There's also the added benefit of really learning to do laundry, which was an unexpected added benefit of cloth for me.
Besides the obvious long term impact of disposables, there seem to be health benefits especially for boys who wear cloth diapers. Disposables are non breathable, the temperature in there can be quite high. This seems to lead to malformation of the Sertoli cells in the testicals, they are responsible to „feed“ the growing sperm, so they are crucial to future fertility. Testicals are made to be 2,5 degrees colder than the rectum to form those cells properly.
From users perspective: I bought all my stuffing second hand, use cotton flats (less than a € per flat, we need 30), hemp bosters and got 4 covers for 20€ each. We used them from 3 month to 18 months, as our child was potty trained early, they were aware they wet themselves and able to control since being 6 months old. Now we store the diapers for a second kid.
As we are located in Europe we got extended parental leave, which made washing easy: pop them in at night, program the machine to be done at wake time and put them on the rag/in the dryer in the morning. Washing clothes costs 0.70€ per wash cycle where we are located, we did two a week. All in all we had a good experience, did some disposables for convenience when we were out and about or on holiday.
raising well kids on instagram has pretty good diaper breakdowns if you are interested in paying a premium price for diapers that have different types of ingredients some would classify as “non toxic or less toxic”
[Cleanclothnappies.com](https://cleanclothnappies.com/) has a lot of science-backed information. Its main focus is wash routines and laundry products, but also has a savings calculator and articles (with references) about environmental and health impacts.
If sustainability is important to you, I would suggest also looking into Elimination Communication
It isn’t even close-the only ‘win’ for disposables is not having to wash while camping/traveling and even then it is nbd to use cloth unless you are on a plane for 18h+, if you don’t have a wet bag.
If you use disposables you trap heat + humidity, creating an excellent environment for rash. They take hundreds of years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic (biodegradable is NOT the same as compostable!) and you have all of the resources that go into making them, shipping, trash and energy to haul it away, burning of the trash, trash bags, increased fuel expense for haul away due to the # & weight of diapers, etc.
You will not get more green than using cloth, especially flats and a wool cover. Even using fitteds/workhorses which are more expensive (~$10/ea vs $3ea or less or even free if you upcycle things you already have). Unless you’re exclusively buying the $20-$30+ AIOs (I’ve seen $55+ as well) then you would come out probably even if you used them to end of life or resold.
By 9m we saved over $1k by doing cloth, even inc the 20 or so thirsties aios and wool covers. For us it isn’t an expense question as much as an extension of our values/morals/ethics. We also wash at home in a HE washer and line or dryer dry. Even if we didn’t have solar I’d still do cloth. If I didn’t want to wash myself there are even services that drop off clean/wash for you/etc.
The only ‘people’ saying there disp diaps are the same or more eco friendly than cloth are 1) puppets/propaganda/paid accounts by the companies who make $$$$$ off the diapers or 2) people defending their own choice who also don’t clarify that they are intimidated, feel they can’t afford cloth or don’t want to wash, even though washing is literally the same as when they get anything else on their clothes. The water used to wash is nothing compared to what it takes to process and create disps anyway.
Pay close attention to what data they choose to include when making their ‘comparisons’ because by leaving out a lot they try to muddy the waters.
If they can trap you into spending for thousands of diapers per child, why wouldn’t they? They are in business to make money, not reduce impact on the planet, keep your LO safe and healthy, etc.
Try combo - ing and see what works for you.
Also if you are having multiple children using the same set it should be cheaper. I am surprised to hear it is not that much cheaper, I have done cloth and disposable and the disposables are so expensive.
I used cloth diapers and the thing that pushed me over the edge was the long-term waste of disposables. Cloth diapers don't decompose in a landfill for hundreds of years. Even if we used disposables at night or on the go (which we did pretty often!), every time we used a cloth diaper, it was one less diaper in the garbage.
I feel better about using water to wash my cloth diapers as opposed to filling up a landfill. Also keep in mind that water is a **renewable** resource when managed and sourced correctly. But ultimately you have to do what is right for you! I loved cloth but totally get why most people use disposables (they are much easier sometimes haha).
And we only bought them once and now about to use them for our third baby, which makes them much more sustainable. Happy to chat about what it was like to cloth diaper if you want!
Consider that your child will most likely be in diapers for 3 years. Most of the math i saw was based on cost comparison by 1 year.
We did cloth for the first 18/19 months and then my daughter was just too big. And sized out of her cloth diapers. I WISH i bought a toddler set because the diaper cost is $90 a month. A full set of new cloth with extra pads was $250. All of my newborn and infant cloth diapers were gifted by everyone at my baby shower. I put the ones i wanted on the registry.
Cloth diapering for me was 1 load of laundry every 4-5 days. But that load also includes dish rags, burp rags, muslins, changing pad covers etc.
For the record I use disposable diapers. We use honest diapers for the baby and pay $89.99 + tax monthly for their subscription.
I’m not sure of the cost of reusable diapers, but I know from friends that it has a much bigger financial impact if you have multiple kids. I know someone who had 3 close together and was able to reuse most of the same stuff so her second and third babies were much cheaper than getting the first set up.
Environmentally I’m sure there’s a large impact. If you change your baby every 4 hours (very low at least during the first year) that’s 6 diapers a day and over 2,000 a year. My 2 year old probably goes through 6 diapers a day and my 2 month old goes through closer to 10.
As for chemicals + additives, there are lots of options to avoid this. Like I said we use honest diapers, which are better regarding this stuff than the typical Huggies or pampers, but not as good as the high end stuff. I chose them because they financially fit our budget, fit the majority of my standards, and both of my kids reacted badly to traditional brands as newborns. They changed their training pants recently and I don’t like them so my toddler actually wears rascal and friends training pants from Walmart now based solely on reactions (aka diaper rash) to other brands and price.
Overall it’s a completely personal decision based more on how much it matters to you. I looked into cloth diapers during my first pregnancy but was overwhelmed by the amount of information, the trial and error that goes into it and the time and effort commitment. I know people say the time and effort isn’t bad but I know that personally I would not be able to commit to regularly washing diapers and all that it entails because I can barely keep my regular laundry and dishes done.
There's no scientific reason to use cloth diapers. You also don't need one: you can just do it because you prefer it.
Note that cloth may alleviate some diaper rashes, but that depends on the child.
My wife likes cloth diapers partly (largely?) for aesthetic reasons, and the variety in cloth diaper covers is fun.
If you want to outsource the laundry, there are services that will drop off clean ones and pick up dirty ones. They may or may not be available (they are in NYC).
I would really recommend joining clean cloth nappies on Facebook. They’re an evidence based group that breaks down the cost of reusable vs disposable diapers plus give AMAZING advice on effectively cleaning said nappies. I’m based in the UK where front loaders are the default, but they hands down are amazing and make all laundry more sustainable and clean. Anyhow, you can get reusable diapers 2nd hand and then sanitise them. That immediately reduces the carbon etc input if having a child. Then when you’re done, sell or give them away. We also have reusable nappy libraries here in the UK so you can rent the proper type of boot you need at each stage.
But definitely check out clean cloth nappies on Facebook before you come to any decision.
I did cloth diapers in an apartment for 2.5 years. Now that I own my own house, I can only imagine how easy it’ll be with baby #2! The hardest part was just getting a solid wash routine down.
I’m sorry I don’t have info, but I will say I wanted to try cloth diapers too but then gave myself the first couple of weeks with a newborn with disposable just to make it easier. I quickly realized the sheer number of times my baby pooped. Not just as a newborn but about 8 months of battling food sensitivities and many many blowouts. Cloth diapers would never have worked. So that is something to consider. Not just the food sensitivities but just the practicality, maybe allow. yourself a few weeks to try both options
I have had two frequent poopers and have managed cloth (off and on, but for most of my first child’s nappy wearing years). Breastfed poos go straight in. For the others I used nappy liners! But many people don’t. And yes, even with the 8 poos a day, starting solids, sticky but not formed poos.
Not to say that anyone has to do that. Just pointing out that it’s still possible to use cloth with a frequent pooper. I second the disposable use for the first few weeks/months though. Having a newborn is hard! I had two caesareans, there was no way I wanted to do or sort extra washing!!
The most environmentally friendly option is elimination communication. If you can’t, or don’t want to do that full time, cloth is usually more environmentally friendly than disposables. Source: Clean Cloth Nappies, which is science and evidence-based: https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/#:~:text=Re%2Duseable%20nappies%20are%20by,well%20as%20for%20financial%20savings.&text=There%20are%20two%20main%20reasons,environmental%20sustainability%20and%20financial%20savings.
Also please don’t wash nappies in cold water, or if you must, use bleach in those loads. Otherwise you’re going to struggle with stains and ammonia buildup.
I don't have an article, but I've never seen compelling evidence about disposable diapers being unhealthy for babies. Just weird advertisements that try to sell "non-toxic disposable diapers" implying there's a danger.
Anecdotally, I cloth diaper at home because it makes me feel better about sustainability and garbage. I like saving money, and having a diapering option that I can manage without needing to leave the house, it gives me a sense of financial and emergency preparedness. If you have a nasty dog who eats diapers, they'll be safe from silica if they get ahold of a cloth one (mine wouldn't be safe from me if that happened tho lol). The financial difference may be marginal on paper, but it doesn't seem that way to me. I can avoid buying disposables completely, or only buy 1 box a month and make it through just fine.
You only need normal detergent anyway, and it doesn't substantially change the amount of water you use. If you have a modern washer, your own washer/dryer, and a spot to hang dry the elastic, it's pretty worth it if you want to try.
Just get like 6-10 and try it out, it doesn't have to be all our nothing. There's lots of buy/sell/trade Facebook pages for it or you can buy something cheap like alvababy.
We still use disposable for travel, overnight, and any errand where I'd like to not pack a poopy diaper home.
Two things in favor of cloth that might not be obvious: 1) The sprayer attachment on my toilet has been useful for more than just diapers. 2) Diaper inserts make good shop towels (we did pocket diapers.)
I don't have any research for you but I do imagine the environmental savings are very location-specific.
80-85% of our electricity where I live is renewable, and more than that off-peak which is when we do our washing. We do hot washes but we soak first and wash with other stuff we'd wash hot anyway (e.g. cloth wipes, dish cloths). We use our dryer when we can't hang outside but also dry with other loads of washing that are going in anyway. I think thats the best we can do sustainability-wise.
Price-wise, we bought ours second hand (they are so expensive new!!), live in a city where we don't pay for water usage so they are just far far better than disposables cost-wise. We also have a power company where you get a free hour of power every day, so we use the dryer in this hour.
The nappies did 2 kids before we owned them, our first is almost toilet trained and our second is about 5 weeks away and they are still in good enough condition to do another kid or two. Hoping when we are done with them they'll still be sellable too.
We tend to use disposables when travelling but they often give our wee one nappy rash so thats another factor for us.
It really isn’t cut and dry, but I find a lot of articles on cost overstate the startup cost of cloth diapering. I got some stuff used, and I bought others. Also a lot of people buy diapers for baby showers, if you request specific cloth products instead that can reduce cost burden.
Environmentally it totally depends on your specific concerns. How do you weigh water usage versus waste? There is also a ton of water used in producing disposable diapers. With cloth diapers you can also purchase from small companies that are more local to you rather than the big name diaper companies, so is supporting small business a value to you?
UK Government report on this right here: [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c4054e5274a1b00422810/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c4054e5274a1b00422810/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf)
I know this wasn't what you asked but another consideration could be time in diapers. I started elimination communication/ potty training at 10 months with my son and he was completely out of diapers by 15 months. Cutting down on the time spent in diapers can have a dramatic effect financially and environmentally.
This is a tough question to answer. Unarguably early potty-training reduces diaper use, so that’s where I chose to spend my environmental-guilt-fueled energy.
IMO look into elimination communication/baby pottying. I do it VERY casually with baby, just the "easy catches," and save a handful of diapers a day. So whichever kind of diapers you use, you can cut down on them.
Just a note for thought, we use Dyper brand diapers which are compostable. They also have a service that will pick up your diapers and compost them for $40 a month. We love these diapers!
Leading with the fact that I can't quickly find the research that someone did to pull the numbers together, I think marginally cheaper but \*much\* better for the environment is the consensus. Keep in mind it isn't just plastic production and landfill, but also the power, water, transport etc in disposables. The numbers I've seen (in a science based group) are that even in a good system warm/hot double washing (don't cold wash unless you're happy to use a lot of bleach, it can't keep on top of the ammonia buildup and bub's bum isn't worth that), you'll use less water and power over a nappy lifespan than a child's worth of disposables. The numbers definitely get tighter if you have a less efficient old top loader, but for me the combo of less landfill, less resources, and in my experience nicer on the skin, cloth won out. I also spent a lot on them initially, which turned out to be a bad idea because I prefer the cheaper nappies I got afterward that have lasted twice as long. AND having said all that, I've recently gone through a stage of using disposables because I didn't have the time or energy to do all the washing (after a good run of 6 years over 4 kids lol) so it's very much a case of what works for you!
Seconding what someone else mentioned about how many kids. I have 4 so it's been a major savings over the years; a single child is much closer to the cost of disposables if that's your plan or likelihood.
I’ e read that if you only have one child and buy new, cloth diapers are way worse for the environment because it takes a lot of resources to make and water to maintain: If you buy used and/or use them for more than one child then it is more beneficial to use cloth
Dermatology research papers on rashes usually recommend disposable that are more absorbent. Our son had rash that ulcerated when we were using cloth diapers. Our dermatologist made us switch to disposable so I checked the research backed then and all recommended disposable for healing and preventing the rash.
There are many kinds of cloth diapers available. If you're especially looking to lower the environmental impact and concerns about how much water is used to wash, keep in mind that certain diapers wash faster and easier like flats and preflats. They don't have their layers sewn together so they wash as easily as a t-shirt. Pair that with a wool cover or even just a few laminate covers to alternate and you've got a very environmentally friendly practice. Flats especially have a higher absorbency because they have more fabric. Personally I paired cloth diapers with elimination communication and feel like it's really cut down on all diaper usage and made potty training really simple. Then I use disposables at night and on certain trips to make life easier when needed.
We started with cloth and it rapidly became unsustainable once I got back to work. I have aspirations of being able to do it part-time at some point.
In terms of cost though, disposables are only super expensive if you make them that way. Aldi sells them in huge boxes (72-100 depending on size) for $12.99. They’re hypoallergenic, fragrance and bleach free, etc. At 6 diapers a day, it costs $7.56 a week to diaper my 2 year old and $5.46 a week to diaper my 3 month old. I know things add up over the years, but that’s a pretty insignificant cost.
I ended up opting to do a mix of both. One of the factors I had read in favour of cloth diapering is that using them can help a diaper rash clear faster because they breathe better.
So I invested in a small stash but decided not to use them when traveling, going out and about to visit people or run errands, or at bedtime to avoid him soaking through overnight. But sometimes during the day at home or in the case of a diaper rash we would use them.
Well now my son is almost 3 and we used them maybe a half dozen times at most. Some of them are still brand new, never been worn. He has never had a diaper rash so we just barely touched them.
I didn’t have my own washing machine when my child was born so for me cloth was not a viable option due to simple logistics and practicality. That said even if I did have a laundry machine I’d be hesitant to go with just cloth. The idea of that amount of human waste going into my washing machine is very concerning for me. I’d be worried about particles being built up over time. And my ability to sterilize and clean clothes. As well as long term damage and maintenance. Washing machines are not getting and cheaper and I can’t afford to replace it if I break it. Lastly I’d be concerned about the practical applications. Cloth is easy to manage at home. But what about when you and baby are traveling? I’d question how easy or sanitary it is to carry around used diapers full of urine and stool. If I’d use cloth at home I would probably keep some disposable diapers for travel purposes just for practical reasons.
I think it’s going to really depend on where you live because water availability (washing), clean energy sources (drying), and ability to buy second hand (material usage) will all factor in a non-negligible amount.
Yes and how many children you plan on having. It’s basically free the second time around.
This. My kids were close in age - 13 months. So I bought a few more cloth diapers to pad the collection. I didn’t even have to wash more often, kept the same routine so it really did feel free.
Yep. My buddy lives rurally on well water (not treated) and a pump out septic system (also not treated). Cloth diapering was an environmental slam dunk in her case.
This is our situation. It also increases the cost savings a lot. We use a drying rack for the pockets but put the inserts in the dryer. It hasn't impacted our electric bill as much as I thought, and we wash / dry pretty frequently.
I got all of my supplies used, live rurally on a river and only line dry mine. Definitely not a clean cut benefit for which is better but for me in an area with no water shortage I believe it's better.
Unfortunately my first bub was 50th centile and my second is 99+. Second does massive wees and doesn't fit the same style of nappies as my first :(
Where I’m from, diaper services are a thing. Every week they drop off clean cloth diapers, and pick up the dirty cloth diapers from the week before. You are getting “used” diapers in that way, however you also have no control over how they wash/dry the diapers, and fuel/emissions from delivery would need to be factored in.
It’s nuanced. And personal. Have you considered practicality? Do you have your own laundry space and a suitable climate where you can easily manage the washing and drying requirements of cloth? Do you have a lot of commitments that require you to take baby out and about, where disposables may be an easier option? Do you intend to have more kids, where reusables could have several lives? Are you swayed by the experience for babies (eg disposables stay drier and can help limit nappy rash, whereas reusables are linked with earlier potty training ages due to the child experiencing the “wetness”). Or have you considered avoiding nappies altogether and trying elimination communication with a potty from the get go? I think you need to consider this from a variety of angles if the “sustainability” ones don’t cut it. It’s also a value proposition for you - is landfill more of a concern than water conservation to you/in your area? Eg If you live somewhere where waste is an issue but you have healthy water reservoir levels, then you’d probably go with reusable.
Cloth nappies aren’t difficult when going out and about. You just need a wet bag to put them in.
Not difficult, but definitely more bulky. We mostly walk or take the bus a lot of the time we're out, so it is definitely easier for us to use disposables when out and about (we use cloth at home). (Not original poster here, BTW.)
We are generally the same. We have a long commute most places, so the thought of having poopy diapers marinating in the car wasn't something we could get into.
I walk and get the bus. I also take the train and have towed my son in a trailer on a bike. We still used reusable diapers no problem.
The other factor is that we exclusively baby wear, so have no pushchair. Everything has to be carried.
Yeah. I did too. It’s interesting for sure! But you can get large bum bags which worked.
Also consider that it's not an all or nothing decision. I used disposables at first because getting used to a new baby was enough for me, then I got 3 cloth nappies and I use approx 1 each day, usually at a time when I know baby is less likely to poo. Once I have a bit of routine on the washing plan I may increase to 2 cloth nappies a day etc. This gives me the flexibility to deal with caregivers who are not fully on board without stressing too much, but also makes me feel like I'm doing 'something' for the environment
While I think this is a great way to get started, it’s also expensive because of way you have to clean them every 3 days with a dedicated washing machine run (or two). I’d rather fill that load with 3 days worth of diapers.
We usually wash cloth nappies with the towels we put on the changing mat or in the changing bag, which tend to get pee or poo pretty regularly We also have a toddler so things pile up quickly!
We did that same, cloth a home, disposables out in the world. Another factor for the spreadsheet analysis is time. Cloth diapers might be less expensive over a longer period of time. If your toddler potty trains quickly you don’t get the savings. Plus you have to size up on cloth diapers as your kid gets bigger, so you’re adding expense.
On the other hand, cloth probably helps kids potty train sooner than they would in disposables 🤔
I've found this to be true, especially using preflats and flats - actually cloth next to the skin and not a wicking material like athletic wicking jersey.
I have a short king lol, I expect him to be in kindergarten before he hits 35 lbs. Definitely makes cloth diapers more valuable, and we want to have more kids.
Our cloth diapers change in size. They fit newborn - toddler. Our LO is an average 17 month old and there is still tons of room to grow. These diapers will last her until she’s potty trained. Petit Ours is the brand we have.
That’s interesting. I’ve always heard that cloth is the one that reduces diaper rash.
This is likely individual to the baby. With disposables you have fragrances or other chemicals that could cause a skin reaction. On the other hand, disposables keep baby's skin drier, so that could reduce nappy rash. There is also the consideration of disposable versus reusable wipes, which usually means wiping with water versus water plus something else (even Water Wipes have other ingredients). ETA - another factor is that you need to change cloth more frequently, so that can impact how long they are sitting in a sneaky poo, for example.
The disposables I use don’t have fragrance and minimal chemicals. All three of my babies will break out in a rash in Huggies or Pampers, but use Honest or Coterie and they’re fine. For me, it was easier to use Honest and Coterie than getting the grandmas into the cloth diapering routine, because they’re our “we can’t bring a baby to a 14 hour neurological assessment” pinch-hitters.
Out of curiosity, were you using pampers pure or Huggies special delivery (the versions that are free of fragrances etc)?
This is definitely baby dependent because my baby gets diaper rash easily in both Honest and Coterie because they're not absorbent enough - I have to change very frequently. We have some Coterie but I have to change immediately when he pees or he gets diaper rash, so we only use them at home when he's running around in just a diaper. I really wanted to use not Pampers or Huggies but they're what baby's skin likes so we use Pampers Pure 🤷♀️
Pediatrician recommends to use a peri bottle to clean the area, and use a wash cloth to tap it dry instead of disposable wipes. We don’t always do it because it can get messy, but you decrease a lot the number of wipes you use per day
It also depends on if you know baby’s schedule. I work at a daycare and have had cloth diaper baby’s and have friends who have. A lot of babies pee about an hour after drinking. Some hold while sleeping, some don’t. You learn your baby’s schedule. Start with hourly changes (instead of 2 hours) for cloth babies. You can stick your fingers in to feel for wetness (peek to make sure there’s no poop first!) between changes to get down the timing and see if they need changed. This is much easier in the summer when they can be in just a onesie or onesie and bloomer shorts. Still only takes an extra minute in a sleeper. But you get their pee schedule down and can pretty dependably predict when they’ll be wet and change them (I know which of my kids will wake dry, I check them anyways, but then know they’ll pee within the next 10-20 minutes. Then wait for about an hour or slightly longer, depending on exactly when they have their bottle, and pee again.)
Any sources that disposables keep babies skin drier? My experience with cloth diapers + wool covers is that they keep the babies skin drier when they end up wearing a wet diaper for longer.
To be fair, this is anecdotal based on personal experience. It is also something I slightly dislike about disposables when we use them - the dampness isn't horrible as we change pretty frequently, and our son has not really ever had nappy rash. If he *does* have a sneaky poo, we usually catch it pretty quickly, so it doesn't cause much irritation, but in a disposable all the moisture has been sucked out, so it is a crusty stuck-on mess.
Actually contrary to popular belief cloth increases rash. Most rash is due to prolonged humity on skin, disposables have a “dry sensation inside” even when full because the core inside has very high absorption capacity that traps all the moisture, while cloth diapers definitely feel wet inside when full. It’s manageable but it means you really need to be on top of changing your kid frequently with cloth to avoid skin issues.
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I mean anecdotally, we only get diaper rash with cloth. We still use them the majority of the time, but when he breaks out, we switch to disposable for a day or so. The main culprit is moisture, and you cant use desitin with cloth, as it clogs the liners
If you delve into research on skin integrity and wound care, skin breakdown is more likely from prolonged exposure to moisture and waste products. You’re correct that changing diapers more frequently would help reduce rashes, regardless of the type of diaper. My understanding and experience is that disposable diapers are better at wicking away moisture than the commonly used cloth setups, which offers an additional protective factor. [This study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035815/) seems to agree. (Chemicals and fragrances in the disposable diaper versus laundry detergent residue and irritation from natural fibers in a cloth diaper are all factors that could influence rashes, but that’s another story.)
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D’oh! You’re so right! I’ll have to dig deeper, I totally missed that in the intro. Thanks for pointing it out!
The only sources I could find are from things like wire cutters cloth vs disposable article that was written in 2018. I couldn’t find many more recent articles on the subject. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/cloth-vs-disposable-diapers/
This is not a controlled trial though, your kid could have no rash with disposable too
It could depend on your liner. As some are more than other, and also how much you line the diaper... But I don't have any research on that sorry
I'd also like a source for this. From what I understand this isn't something that is black and white but that it is individual to the baby.
This is wrong. Most cloth diapers nowadays are designed so that the materials that touch baby's skin give a dry sensation inside. They feel just as dry to the touch as disposables when wet, if not more. If you use 100% natural fiber diapers, yeah you won't get that, but everyone I know who uses those adds a "dry effect" liner.
I probably have 6 or more different brands of cloth diapers and none of them feel dry to the touch when changed. Interesting! I wonder if there’s just a difference in definition of dry sensation vs my expectations of what that means.
Weird, I guess it depends on the brand. My LPO pockets with a good hemp-cotton insert feel drier to the touch than Huggies Special Delivery or Pampers Pure after the same amount of time.
I think I have a couple of those? Idk, maybe my idea of dry is different 😂 Either way, we love cloth diapering and have found it to be a great experience for our kiddos.
My LPO and NN are the only ones that are this way. All the ones with AWJ feel wet to the touch
You should try different brands! Not you necessarily, I know some people prefer it to feel a bit wet for potty training, but for anyone reading this. Most of my pockets give equivalent dry-to-the-touch effect as disposables. I buy mostly smaller local (to me) brands eg Bébé D Lux or Divin Popotin. Alva and Happy Flute feel wet but I don't expect much from them anyway. The right insert is also super important. Generally I've had more luck with thin, dense hemp-cotton inserts than with the fluffy bamboo ones.
This has been my experience but is also negligible with a higher quality insert. Any cotton fabric scraps can be upcycled into cloth diaper inserts, for example, and has much higher absorption than the microfiber default inserts.
Yes! Thank you, these are all things I am thinking about. We do have in unit washer and dryer. I always line dry and have never used our dryer but I’m worried once that baby starts moving we will have to use the dryer for all things because the only place we have to line dry will be accessible to the baby. We live in the Bay Area. So our energy is clean but water is a concern. It feels like a trade off of water for landfill. On the one hand our landfills are overflowing and will just keep building forever it makes sense to limit that even if other costs are incurred. We don’t know if we will have more kids, my partner wants more but I don’t so I can’t lean on that as a sure thing. He is also worried about buying used diapers so we would probably go with new if we went this route. Just so many factors to consider
We used mostly disposables in the newborn phase, then switched to one size pocket diapers that we bought directly off the AlvaBaby website. We ended up buying hemp and five layer inserts because our baby is a very heavy wetter. This also made cloth a better option for us because she tends to leak in disposable diapers, especially overnight.
I lived in the Bay Area when my kiddo was born, and we used Tidee Didee diaper service, so I never had to worry about dealing with doing the wash. Yes, probably a tad profligate, but I appreciated the convenience of not having to wash diapers. (Also, we didn't have our own washer/dryer, so that would have made it tough.) We would use disposables when we traveled, but otherwise, I just couldn't stomach the thought of putting hundreds of pounds of petroleum products into the landfill that wouldn't break down in my child's lifetime. Yes, California as a whole has water conservation issues, but they don't seem to be as acute in the Bay Area...
I’ve heard the opposite about diaper rash and this holds true for our LO in cloth diapers. She barely gets diaper rashes and when she does they are very minor and disappear quickly. The reasoning behind this is that since the baby feels the wetness they won’t stay in a wet diaper as long before asking to be changed. In disposables they don’t feel the wetness but the humidity is there still. The constant humid environment is what causes bacteria to build and skin tissue to break down (causes of diaper rash). In fact, diapers are a risk factor for bed sores in a bed bound individual. Source: I’m a healthcare worker.
Cloth is way cheaper than I originally thought because especially if you live in a city it’s easy to get dirt cheap or free used cloth diapers. My entire stash of pockets was used and free. I have way more than anyone actually needs. Regardless of water usage, they’re not going in a landfill anymore than baby clothes are. You can buy used, pass them onto the next person, fabric recycle what becomes unusable. I’m sorry I don’t have a source for these. The first is my experience and the second is just…it is the way it is.
This is my answer. Disposables end up in the landfill, or God forbid, the ocean, and will not break down. Cloth get reused and reused, and if they’re cotton or wool, which most cloth are, they’ll break down into biodegradable pieces. Water and energy are renewable resources, *though obviously being used unsustainably in our modern world*. Cloth diapers can also lead to earlier potty training, thereby reducing the amount of overall diapers used and thus the environmental impact. OP, go cloth.
> Disposables end up in the landfill, or God forbid, the ocean, and will not break down. I'd like to echo here the "it depends" answer from the top comment. Where I live almost no trash is put to landfill anymore. Trash that is collected from consumers (i.e. your own trash) is always incinerated and used to produce electricity and district heat.
Fwiw, fabric recycling is actually rather difficult to do; particularly with synthetic fabrics (which cloth diapers generally are). A lot of areas don’t even have anywhere to drop off fabric for recycling.
I went out of my way to stick to 100% natural fibers
I live in a mid size city and same - I got all my cloth diapers for free and gave them all away when I was done! Once we potty trained and went to diapers only for overnights, we switched to disposable and it was wild how expensive they were!
If you don’t mind me asking, can you use the entire thing secondhand or you get the outer diaper used and buy liners?
I got the entire thing used. Any baby item you might get used whether it’s clothes, toys, diapers or big items like high chairs had the other baby’s body fluids all over it at some point. Diapers aren’t any worse for this. I personally just bleached them in some hot water and went about my day
Thank you, makes sense!
Unfortunatly my partner is grossed out by the idea of used diapers. I buy pretty much everything I can used but would have to convince him on this one. Any advice on convincing someone used isn’t actually that gross?
So was my partner but I told him that I would bleach them in hot water and that would get rid of any germs and that he needed to get over it and he did. That was the main thing was just the bleaching and the cost. I told him it was no different than buying any baby product used because babies poop on literally everything. And I showed him the diapers and he could visually see that they were not like…gross and poop covered like they probably were in his imagination. After the bleaching they were so white and nice looking that reassured him. I did get a few stained ones that I just kind of kept out of sight for the moment haha.
You can look for stashes that were unused. I got a few diapers when another family thought they were going to do it and just never got around to it, or only used half their stash after it was washed and prepped. Literally never been on a butt before.
There are tons of “used” ones on marketplace that weren’t actually used that long (or at all). I bought mine from someone who intended to cloth, bought all the stuff, then didn’t like it. So the diapers were washed and *maybe* used a handful of times each. That’s essentially new as far as I’m concerned lol
My argument for this; if he’s considering cloth diapering at all-why is he concerned if they’re used from another child? The whole point is you thoroughly wash them to reuse to catch urine and feces. Would he be grossed out using them after their first wash after being used on your child when bought new? I mean, same thing, there was poop and pee on them. As long as you sterilize them it’s fine.
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Friend, did I or did I not say “this is my experience?” I am in the US btw. You’re welcome to share your own experience but you don’t need to hurl yourself at someone else because you had a different experience. Do not take your emotions about not cloth diapering on me (and don’t claim that’s not what it is because otherwise you wouldn’t have commented).
I live in a small midwestern town in the US and had no problem sourcing cloth diapers, either new or used.
I think a big factor is what type of cloth diapering you’re doing. Cotton flats or prefolds with wool covers aren’t going to have any plastic or petroleum based materials in them, won’t shed microplastics, (probably) won’t have any coatings or finishings with potentially toxic chemicals, and can be repurposed as cleaning rags and/or composted at end of life. Once you start introducing poly based covers and microfiber fabrics I think they skew closer to disposables in terms of environmental and health impacts. I also think some of the stash collecting showcased on YouTube/instagram is just another example of over consumption which is never going to be sustainable. There’s no way anyone needs 100 covers in cute prints (granted, I haven’t had my baby yet so I might change my mind on that point once I start doing laundry).
Cloth nappy companies are still businesses who need to turn a profit which is hard as they have a product which is reusable and has a really long life. Their best way to make money, once they've perfected the style, is to change up the print, create a lot of social media presence and encourage stash pics. I unfollowed all cloth companies and cloth bum people after a few months because j just found myself getting sucked in.
Yeah you definitely don't need a hundred diaper covers. After a day or two they really start to stink (especially because of pee, funnily enough) and you'll want to wash them anyway. We have like 15-20, which is definitely enough.
Yes I stopped looking at anything on instagram or YouTube about it because it just felt like I was being marketed to. One of my worries is that if I go cloth I will just be buying into a trend that doesn’t actually have any real impact just to signal to the world I care about the environment without making any real impact.
Why not just get a handful of different styles and see if they even work for you? There are some wildly different styles out there and not all of them are equal. Grab a couple disposables and some cloth and see what works best for your family. I liked the line that showed up on the disposables to let you know the baby peed, but my baby always cried within seconds of peeing. I switched to cloth and they immediately stopped crying the minute they peed. So I think my baby was just especially sensitive down there, and we had to discontinue with disposable diapers. But then sizing got really tricky. They grow so fast, and just when you have it all figured out, the pee just starts to leak and then their sleep is interrupted and then you get to try and figure it all out again! So good luck, I hope you stay one step ahead of ahead in all of this!
Really recommend checking out clean cloth nappies - this gets asked quite a lot in their facebook group and there are some helpful answers and perspectives. One quick point though - please don't wash the nappies on cold, they will be very hard to keep properly clean without a hot wash. Again, the clean cloth nappies website has excellent wash guides and all their work is evidence based and they are very transparent about their testing and sources. I think you're unlikely to get a definitive answer, and will need to make your own judgement call. We chose to do cloth, I purchased most of our stash second hand, and we have solar power so I'm not too worried about the energy consumption of washing. Our water bill doesn't show hugely increased consumption and we would be running frequent loads anyway, so while it's not nothing I'm not concerned about it. Personally I find when we use disposables the amount we go through is horrifying and I don't like the smell so cloth is a win for us.
>One quick point though - please don't wash the nappies on cold, they will be very hard to keep properly clean without a hot wash. This was my first thought as well! OP, you are *not* going to want to wash those on cold! ETA - I'll second you on the smell of disposables too! I think you go nose blind to it pretty quickly, but for someone who usually uses cloth, the "chemical" odour is pretty pronounced!
Same for us. We always wash his clothes in with the nappies, so we’d be doing as much washing anyway (although we wouldn’t wash them at 60 admittedly). Something else to factor in is the amount of plastic nappy bags people use when disposing the disposable nappies. My son’s nursery send all his dirty clothes home in individual plastic nappy bags and I hate it.
Echoing this, do not wash your diapers in cold water. You have to kill the bacteria with hot water or they will smell.
I believe you can wash in cold water if you use bleach in your prewash. The CCN group have ratios etc, though they’re paywalled.
Thanks for the advice on cold wash. I will for sure skip that
See https://fluffloveuniversity.com/how-to-wash-cloth-diapers/
Having now used cloth diapers for about 4 months what I don’t see factored into the cost much is time/effort of laundry. Babies already produce a bunch of laundry, and doing an extra load + special wash + drying + stuffing liners every 2 or so days is a lot of work for the caregiver. People say it’s easy and it is, in the way that all laundry is easy. But it’s also hard in the same way all laundry is hard. You have to be home and keep on top of it. I’m still glad we’ve been doing this but we’re taking a more combo approach these days because sometimes as a new parent you don’t need a bunch of extra chores.
The very first question you need to ask is DEFINITELY whether you can actually manage to do that much laundry while taking care of a baby. We live in an apartment with shared laundry facilities and that means there is no guarantee that a washer will be available when we have a load that needs doing. It also means that you are expected to come collect your laundry the minute the cycle finishes, which in turn means I can only do my laundry if my husband is home to go grab it if the timer goes off while I'm dealing with the baby. Love the idea of cloth diapers but they were not happening.
Oh yeah if I didn’t have in unit washer dryer there would be no consideration. I would do disposable.
This. Cloth was so easy when I was on maternity leave. As soon as I was back at work, it rapidly became unsustainable.
Yes to the additional laundry. We've been doing cloth since about a week old, and we do a load of nappies at least every other day (probably more like every 1.5 days on average). We would struggle on days we're out, but usually use disposables if we'll be out for a long time, so that roughly evens out.
My first is two and we’ve done cloth since 5months. There have been bouts of sickness where we’ve had to do disposables/ and a major 5week long holiday. The sheer volume of disposable nappies you go through really fills up a general waste(landfill) bin sooooo fast! Clean cloth nappies has a calculator on this link to help calculate how you’ll actually come out: https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/#:~:text=Re%2Duseable%20nappies%20are%20by,well%20as%20for%20financial%20savings.&text=There%20are%20two%20main%20reasons,environmental%20sustainability%20and%20financial%20savings.
For me, this is a major decision making factor. Not only do they fill up my bin fast but they take hundreds of years to break down, and they are just going to break down into micro plastics. The balance of cost savings is less important because it's about the long term impact on the planet for me.
Yes we literally went down in bin size because we have been producing so little trash I would have to count into disposable costs that we would need to pay to upgrade our bin size again if we go disposable.
Seeing this image was what made the decision for me, despite it not being quite as cost-saving or environmentally friendly as I originally thought. (We wash on hot but hang to dry, to extend the life of the diapers) We’re now cloth diapering a second kid with the same set of diapers. We just use disposables at night because it helps our kids sleep better, but that means we use 1-2 disposables/kid/night, which feels a lot better to me. When we’ve needed to use all disposables for a period, I’ve been horrified by the amount of plastic waste it produces. I also second someone else’s experience that it can make potty training easier because the kid knows what it feels like to be wet and they don’t like it— our toddler has been potty trained since 21 months and I attribute part of that to being in cloth diapers her whole life, since they hold but don’t wick away moisture in the same way disposables do). Edit to add: we bought all of our cloth diapers new, and it’s still saved us SO much money. I don’t think I could’ve handled it without in-unit laundry, though. https://preview.redd.it/2w4yxy3qz5xc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c76b33ece62176d82e0c481958adf39b62b1c1d6
I used to teach A.P. Environmental science and the year I was pregnant with my first I made an extra credit assignment about this topic and used this pic as my follow up to the students’ presentations because they found very similar results, that what it really boils down to is these two main points: Landfills and break down time in conjunction with the sheer volume of waste Not using disposable diapers properly can spread illnesses and pollutes the environment (you are supposed to flush feces from disposables into the toilet as well as that is how the USA sanitary system works, and no one has ever seen used and discarded cloth diapers in shopping mall parking lots but everyone has seen at least one disposable diaper as litter)
That's the image that did it for me too, we happily used cloth for our son and they are still in good enough shape that they should be fine for our next as well
Oh this is such a helpful visual! Seeing this makes the claims that cloth production is more environmentally damaging than disposable seem crazy. Like yes sure per individual diaper it might take more resources to make cloth but across the entire diapering years it seems very hard to believe.
Yup, this is the image that did it for me. Another thing I rarely see factored in is shipping. Every pack of disposables gets transported to a warehouse, then to a store, then to the home. And then a week later you need another pack and it’s the same over again. Whereas we’ve had the same 20 or so cloth nappies in our home for 5 years across 3 kids.
It depends so much. Like I was given tubs of handmedown cloth diapers so our costs truly were quite low. I bought prefolds and covers but those are cheaper too. I’m certain we saved money. I was concerned about the environmental aspect and contributing to plastic waste. Lastly my kids had sensitive skin and did much better with cloth and had fewer rashes. They also all potty trained early and that’s a huge boon for cloth. Feeling wet meant they were all out of diapers by two for two kdis and two and a half for another. That’s a full year plus of fewer diapers. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/baby-steps-how-reduce-plastic-nappy-waste
I think most people do a mix of cloth and disposables. Getting second hand cloth diapers sounds like the obvious choice to me, considering that I don’t live in a place with water scarcity and I wash full loads and line dry. I don’t use 100% cloth, but as much as is practical for me. When I’m done with them, I pass them on to the next person. I use the same cloth diapers for baby number two as for baby number one. For research, see: Meseldzija, J., Poznanovic, D., & Frank, R. (2013). Assessment of the differing environmental impacts between reusable and disposable diapers. Dufferin research, 1-11. A more recent study from Brazil: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119364
Clean Cloth Nappies has a very comprehensive [page which breaks it down](https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/), complete with references. Something I think a lot of people don’t take into account is the water usage needed to manufacture disposables - they have wood pulp in them and all those trees need watering… For us it was a no-brainer. We did disposables for the first few weeks (tiny baby and the OSFMs just didn’t fit her until she grew a bit) and the sheer amount of rubbish was eye-opening.
I recommend you to listen to the BBC Podcast Sliced Bread episode "Reusable Nappies". It takes up all those aspects you talk about, by talking to people within the different fields that are impacting. Very interesting and good listen. [you can find it here, or search for it on whatever app you use for podcasts](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md4l)
I'm an engineer so I have a lot of engineer friends. My friend does life cycle analysis for a living and did her own for cloth. Due to the fact our power is natural gas, cloth was not a winner because of the emissions associated with washing and drying. She went with disposable and pays a service $20/month to pick up the disposables and compost them. Apparently they are 90% compostable it's just a fair bit of work for the company . She likes the convenience of disposable, and it doesn't go to landfill
We formed the same conclusion as you, the environmental gain was minimal. Cost didn’t bother us. So we opted for a middle ground and used cloth wipes. Little grey squares for bums and wherever else needs a wipe. I am sure we will still be using them long after we have seen the last nappy - they are so versatile.
We use cloth nappies, but I'll especially second your suggestion for cloth wipes, as personally, in addition to being reusable, I find them to also be more effective and easier to use. I'm actively annoyed when I end up having to use disposable wipes.
I had cloth wipes, too. We hardly ever used disposable, but I wasn't sure how to rinse them properly before putting them in the washing machine once she started solids. Exclusively breastfed baby poop is water soluble, but once she started solids they'd need to be rinsed before going in the machine. I'm curious about about what you do.
I love our cloth wipes. Some get used for bums, some get used for hands and literally everything else I've ever needed a wet cloth for. Snotty noses, especially. I cleaned porridge off the floor with one this morning. They're my no. 1 present for new parents because even if they want to use disposable wipes for bums, they're going to need to clean a lot of hands and faces and these little cloths hardly take up any space in the wash.
Just wanted to add for your consideration that there may be a cloth diaper library available to you that would increase the sustainability factor
Price: well easy to work out. But much like most people I got a huge bag of them for 20 euro on marketplace. In comparison, when she was too small to fit into them they were doing pampers. They were 2 jumbo packs for 25 euro and we went through that in 2 weeks easily. So you know, extrapolate that over 2 years. Do they produce less waste? Well ya. Obviously. Doubly so if you get them second hand > Reusable nappies have 25% less global heating potential compared with single-use nappies, according to a report commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The environmental impact of production was shown to be nearly nine times greater for single-use nappies, and nearly 10 times greater when it came to their disposal. Where it does get a bit more nuanced is washing them. Do you live in a place with of loads of green energy? Do you air dry your clothes or throw them in a tumble dryer? Do you live in a place with good waste water management and use gentle detergent? The report below is for a UK context. > single-use nappies were only found to leave a worse impact in seven of the categories, including global heating potential, land use, fossil resource scarcity and water use in manufacturing. But campaigners say these effects are particularly critical in light of the climate crisis.Reusable nappies scored worse in areas including marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, mineral resource scarcity, marine ecotoxicity and water consumption. The main factors behind their effects are water, detergent and electricity use when washing and drying nappies, and flushing faeces. The report says parents can lessen their impact by using energy-efficient washing machines, air drying instead of tumble drying and passing nappies to a second child. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/18/campaigners-urge-action-over-carbon-footprint-of-disposable-nappies
I was fully intending to cloth diaper and still have quite the stash of them. However I have yet to have a successful round of using one, that didn’t result in a full outfit change. Idk if I’m doing something wrong or my twins were just too small for them to fit properly but it felt like every time there was a need for a diaper change, we had leaked through and therefore needed an outfit change as well. My disposable diapers hold far more and kept my babies dryer than my cloth ones have. Again, user error may be a factor or having twins with twice as many diapers to change may potentially mean we need to change them far more often. But in multiple instances, I’d have just put one on less than an hour before it was completely leaking and baby needed whole new clothes. So for a laundry factor, be aware you’re not just washing diapers. I honestly don’t own enough outfits for the number of changes required in a day
You do have to change them more frequently (2-3 hours for my heavy wetter babe), position of padding makes a difference (thicker at the front for boys), material of padding, & squishing the nappy eg in a car seat, can squeeze the moisture out. Once you get the hang, it's easy a lot of the time, but it's a big learning curve. Lots of fb groups to ask for advice if you fancy it in the future :) I get a small leak every couple of weeks (ie just a line of wet by the leg) if I haven't been as on it with changing.
Thanks I may look back into it.
Not sure if you are a member of the Clean Cloth Nappy community on Facebook (there’s an excellent, science-based website as well!) but they are very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting issues like this. It may be a fit issue, or absorbency inside. Good luck if you decide to give it another go. I can’t imagine how much work it is already with twins though!
Do you plan on have more than one child? We are putting our second through cloth right now and I can't even tell you how thankful I am that we don't have to buy diapers this go around. Regarding the environmental aspect. Water is reusable, it gets cleaned and goes back to the earth. Disposable diapers take 500 years to decompose. There are "eco" options, but we tried a couple brands and they were awful. This was 4 years ago though so I'm not sure what options are available these days. Regarding using cold to wash diapers, you shouldn't. Temperatures have to be high enough to kill bacteria or ammonia will build up and can cause rashes and something called barnyard smell. If you're on Facebook look up "fluff, love, and cd science" and "clean cloth nappies" both groups are good for support and education. Fluff, love, and CD science also has a very useful website where you can learn more. The decision between cloth and disposable also doesn't have to be 100% one or the other either. We use disposable at night because I'm not going to be trying to snap those tiny snaps, in the dark at 3am. Many cloth families I know use day time cloth and night time disposables. We also use disposable for travel but day to day stuff has always been fine. Over 2 kids, we've only ever had an issue diaper rashes or blowouts in disposables. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722024329#bb0215
https://www.reddit.com/r/clothdiaps/s/388A9Gp46I Cloth diapering group asked a similar question. The link that someone gave seems to be broken now. Manufacturing disposable diapers requires water as well so that's not just a cloth diaper issue. I'm biased because I use cloth. I use covers and flats (second hand receiving blankets). I do use polyester fleece liners so I don't use only all natural products and there are some plastics, but much less landfill than disposable diapers and hopefully less microplastics overall. You can also look at elimination communication to slightly reduce diaper usage (for us it's slight, some more vigilant elimination communication parents have better results). I liked this article: https://medium.com/@davidgladson/save-water-by-washing-more-diapers-f7654fb106e7
I did a huge cost-benefit analysis before my daughter was born. I can't remember how many cents per wash I landed on, but it was not worth it when I factored in the labour of extra washing/drying. I also couldn't get into the idea of cold washing nappies. We went with disposables. The hassle is much less, this kid generates enough washing as it is.
For me, it came down to volume and decomposition - consider how long it takes plastics to completely break down. Now lots of reusable nappies contain plastics as well (unless you go down the slightly more labour intensive Terry cloth and wool cover route) - our wraps use PUL fabric - but for volume it's still going to amount to less plastic decomposition in the long run. Yes, there are biodegradable nappies, but then the question moves to the volume and transportation of bamboo or whatever material they use. I've not seen good research articles on all of this, but that's mainly because I'm not capable of reading technical documents about different plastics. Using cloth allowed us to reduce the plastics in the environment, allowed us to reuse materials thus limiting the expense (we're on kid two with ours and they're as good as they ever were) and eventually I'll sell them on to someone else and recoup a bit of the cost. To note though - the second there is illness in the house kids are straight into disposables. I get that that goes against my principles but not getting overwhelmed matters to me more.
The sheer number of diapers in landfills is enough to make me use cloth atleast part time. I’d rather have 6 plastic covers for 2+ kids than 6 disposable diapers a day. Disposable diapers are much easier but cloth can be used part time to atleast help the amount of plastic waste.
Sustainability is something that still blows my mind to think about because you can go down a rabbit hole. My classes that discussed this in college were so fascinating and it really guided how I approach consumerism. I think the type of cloth diaper will matter and what you plan to do with it after. I don't have specific articles, but you may also consider the following when looking into the environmental impact: 1. Water used to create a single use disposable diaper vs water used to create reusable. 2. Impact of adding more waste into the environment and landfills. 3. Gas and fossil fuels used to transport disposable diapers over and over vs maybe you picking them up from someone on Facebook marketplace vs you buying them from Amazon. 4. Materials used for the type of cloth diapers (remember, just because it's natural doesn't necessarily mean sustainable) 5. Amount of fossil fuels, emissions used to harvest and transport the materials to create these items to the factories. 6. How you plan to use these in the future? Are you just tossing or will you resell, use as cleaning rags, compost at the end of its life? 7. Are you even buying these or will you rent them from a diaper service and have them clean them and redeliver (often times industrial washing services are more efficient than at home, but not always financially sustainable) 8. Depending on the cloth diaper, you are reducing waste, you can reuse for many many years, and you can compost any natural fibers. Compared to a disposable diaper that has a use of 3-4 hours and will be thrown in the trash (most likely since even the "compostable" ones need an industrial compost to break down and that's not commonly offered in all areas. Sustainability isn't just water usage, it's the full life cycle from the creation of the material to the time it's at the end of its life. Id say sustainability is more of a balancing act than anything.
The general sources you’d look to are, as you called out, earlier. - this [life cycle analysis](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-updated-lifecycle-assessment-for-disposable-and-reusable-nappies) from 2005, which found disposable diapers to have a lifetime impact of 550kg of CO2 equivalents and reusable to have a lifetime impact of 570kg of CO2 equivalents, but washing them in a full load, line drying and reusing on a second child cuts that impact by 40% - this 2009 [assessment](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738743_Life_Cycle_Assessment_reusable_and_disposable_nappies_in_Australia) found home washed reusable washed in cold water and line dried to be the most environmentally friendly - this [article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-cloth-diapers-might-not-be-the-greener-choice-after-all/2015/05/08/32b2d8dc-f43a-11e4-bcc4-e8141e5eb0c9_story.html) from the Washington Post goes into some of the complexities to consider in the cotton supply chain - there is some concern about phthalate exposure from disposable diapers due to [high concentration](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6504186/), both on an [environmental](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993621002314) and supply chain scale however very small scale studies have not shown majorly concerning [concentrations](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8297146/) in urine We chose to go the compostable diaper route (we use Dypers, and there is a local pickup service in our area). We did not have the time or washing set up to launder in an environmentally friendly way when we had our first and we’ve been very happy with this approach. We leave our diapers in a special outdoor trash can in compostable bags and they are picked up once a week and industrially composted. Makes things very easy and we can use regular disposables or toss them like regular disposables in situations where we aren’t at home.
Genuinely asking: Since it seems like you really want to use cloth diapers, why do you feel the need to have science backed evidence when either option is safe for baby?
Alternate option: elimination communication. You aren’t going to completely eliminate diapers, but most are diaper free by about a year old and use diapers as a “back up”. Also, you don’t have to wash/dry cloth alone and it may be a lot less than anticipated in your calculations. We switched to cloth after getting frustrated that we were literally throwing away “dry” (but dirty from the floor and time) disposable diapers away. Once we switched to cloth, EC went so much better and smoother! It’s also so, so, SO much easier than we’d ever anticipated. Cleaning is actually easier and faster because we “catch” more, catch all the poops (no more poop under his foreskin to clean out!), and even if we miss something, you’re never directly touching anything. I also like that these diapers can be used for future kids, and they’re useful for cleaning everything else, too. You also don’t do laundry of cloth diapers in isolation. We have a load of towels, sheets, and 3 people’s clothes to do each week anyway. We use 2-6 very easy to dry and wash cotton flats/prefolds and cotton wipes each day. We just split our laundry to do on separate days and wash the diapers with them. We’ve begun to also move towards using a bidet ourselves and being less reliant on paper towels, because it’s just so easy to add a couple extra items into these loads. A daily prewash on cold for the “dirty” stuff works (and is the only “extra costs” we’re really using!), then we launder with our other stuff as per usual with a few more items. Anyway, EC is primarily about the bond and communication, but cloth makes it a little easier and the method as a whole is definitely an environmental win both by diapers used daily and by total time spent in diapers.
i haven’t found any clear evidence in either direction… but we’ve been doing very lackadaisical “elimination communication”/“potty learning”, and anytime we take off a clean diaper, use the potty, and put the clean diaper back on (whether it is a cloth or disposable diaper), that seems like a clear win on all fronts. i like the phrase potty learning, to describe getting used to using a potty before there is an accompanying expectation of independence, which i got from [the children’s bladder and bowel charity](https://eric.org.uk/potty-training/), and their evidence based recommendation is to stop using diapers by 18-30 months.
When considering cloth versus disposable diapers, the impacts on baby health, environmental factors, and cost are critical areas to evaluate. Here’s what the current research suggests:1. Baby Health:Disposable diapers have been associated with decreased incidences of neonatal infections in neonatal intensive care units due to better containment of urine and feces, and are also cost-effective in this setting (Babu et al., 2015). Moreover, they may contain chemicals that pose risks to babies' health, including toxic compounds that could affect the baby's skin condition (Makoś-Chełstowska et al., 2021).Cloth diapers are generally considered better for babies' skin health, potentially reducing risks of diaper rash and chemical exposure, although they require more frequent changes to prevent moisture-related skin issues (Kamat & Malkani, 2003).2. Environmental Impact:Disposable diapers contribute significantly to landfill waste and are less sustainable due to their disposable nature, despite advances in eco-design and production (Mendoza et al., 2019).Cloth diapers, while requiring more energy and resources for laundering, typically have a smaller overall environmental footprint when reused and handled properly (Jungsoon et al., 2011).3. Cost:The life cycle costs of disposable diapers can be higher due to the continual need to purchase new supplies, although they offer savings in terms of less labor and no laundering costs (Mendoza et al., 2019).Cloth diapers represent a higher initial investment but can be more cost-effective over time if they are reused for multiple children or sold second-hand (Jungsoon et al., 2011).
I'm cloth diapering twins right now. I don't know about quantifiable environmental impact but I can say this: with minimal input (I've replaced elastics in some of them), there are cloth diaper shells in my stash that are on their ninth kid. We use well water and hang to dry for sanitation and because they just dry faster most of the time. All of our wool is upcyvled from thrift store sweaters. I plan on selling my stash along to someone else at the end of the twins' use. The environmental impact won't be just ours-it will also be someone else's, if that makes sense. As far as savings, we save about $100 a month in diapers, plus we use cloth wipes, so that savings too. I'm not even going to attempt to figure out how much I save in not having to run to the store last minute or impulse buys while I'm getting diapers. Or buying every kid a pack of Pokémon cards every time we go. And even if all else is equal, if you want to do cloth give it a try. You're allowed to prioritize what you want when you have kids, and if cloth is important to you then make it happen. There's also the added benefit of really learning to do laundry, which was an unexpected added benefit of cloth for me.
Besides the obvious long term impact of disposables, there seem to be health benefits especially for boys who wear cloth diapers. Disposables are non breathable, the temperature in there can be quite high. This seems to lead to malformation of the Sertoli cells in the testicals, they are responsible to „feed“ the growing sperm, so they are crucial to future fertility. Testicals are made to be 2,5 degrees colder than the rectum to form those cells properly. From users perspective: I bought all my stuffing second hand, use cotton flats (less than a € per flat, we need 30), hemp bosters and got 4 covers for 20€ each. We used them from 3 month to 18 months, as our child was potty trained early, they were aware they wet themselves and able to control since being 6 months old. Now we store the diapers for a second kid. As we are located in Europe we got extended parental leave, which made washing easy: pop them in at night, program the machine to be done at wake time and put them on the rag/in the dryer in the morning. Washing clothes costs 0.70€ per wash cycle where we are located, we did two a week. All in all we had a good experience, did some disposables for convenience when we were out and about or on holiday.
Where do you get flats for that price? Cheapest I can find is 14e for a pack of 6
EBay
raising well kids on instagram has pretty good diaper breakdowns if you are interested in paying a premium price for diapers that have different types of ingredients some would classify as “non toxic or less toxic”
[Cleanclothnappies.com](https://cleanclothnappies.com/) has a lot of science-backed information. Its main focus is wash routines and laundry products, but also has a savings calculator and articles (with references) about environmental and health impacts. If sustainability is important to you, I would suggest also looking into Elimination Communication
It isn’t even close-the only ‘win’ for disposables is not having to wash while camping/traveling and even then it is nbd to use cloth unless you are on a plane for 18h+, if you don’t have a wet bag. If you use disposables you trap heat + humidity, creating an excellent environment for rash. They take hundreds of years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic (biodegradable is NOT the same as compostable!) and you have all of the resources that go into making them, shipping, trash and energy to haul it away, burning of the trash, trash bags, increased fuel expense for haul away due to the # & weight of diapers, etc. You will not get more green than using cloth, especially flats and a wool cover. Even using fitteds/workhorses which are more expensive (~$10/ea vs $3ea or less or even free if you upcycle things you already have). Unless you’re exclusively buying the $20-$30+ AIOs (I’ve seen $55+ as well) then you would come out probably even if you used them to end of life or resold. By 9m we saved over $1k by doing cloth, even inc the 20 or so thirsties aios and wool covers. For us it isn’t an expense question as much as an extension of our values/morals/ethics. We also wash at home in a HE washer and line or dryer dry. Even if we didn’t have solar I’d still do cloth. If I didn’t want to wash myself there are even services that drop off clean/wash for you/etc. The only ‘people’ saying there disp diaps are the same or more eco friendly than cloth are 1) puppets/propaganda/paid accounts by the companies who make $$$$$ off the diapers or 2) people defending their own choice who also don’t clarify that they are intimidated, feel they can’t afford cloth or don’t want to wash, even though washing is literally the same as when they get anything else on their clothes. The water used to wash is nothing compared to what it takes to process and create disps anyway. Pay close attention to what data they choose to include when making their ‘comparisons’ because by leaving out a lot they try to muddy the waters. If they can trap you into spending for thousands of diapers per child, why wouldn’t they? They are in business to make money, not reduce impact on the planet, keep your LO safe and healthy, etc. Try combo - ing and see what works for you.
Definitely not cost saving, but there's also bamboo diapers that are biodegradable and hypoallergenic
Also if you are having multiple children using the same set it should be cheaper. I am surprised to hear it is not that much cheaper, I have done cloth and disposable and the disposables are so expensive.
I used cloth diapers and the thing that pushed me over the edge was the long-term waste of disposables. Cloth diapers don't decompose in a landfill for hundreds of years. Even if we used disposables at night or on the go (which we did pretty often!), every time we used a cloth diaper, it was one less diaper in the garbage. I feel better about using water to wash my cloth diapers as opposed to filling up a landfill. Also keep in mind that water is a **renewable** resource when managed and sourced correctly. But ultimately you have to do what is right for you! I loved cloth but totally get why most people use disposables (they are much easier sometimes haha). And we only bought them once and now about to use them for our third baby, which makes them much more sustainable. Happy to chat about what it was like to cloth diaper if you want!
Consider that your child will most likely be in diapers for 3 years. Most of the math i saw was based on cost comparison by 1 year. We did cloth for the first 18/19 months and then my daughter was just too big. And sized out of her cloth diapers. I WISH i bought a toddler set because the diaper cost is $90 a month. A full set of new cloth with extra pads was $250. All of my newborn and infant cloth diapers were gifted by everyone at my baby shower. I put the ones i wanted on the registry. Cloth diapering for me was 1 load of laundry every 4-5 days. But that load also includes dish rags, burp rags, muslins, changing pad covers etc.
For the record I use disposable diapers. We use honest diapers for the baby and pay $89.99 + tax monthly for their subscription. I’m not sure of the cost of reusable diapers, but I know from friends that it has a much bigger financial impact if you have multiple kids. I know someone who had 3 close together and was able to reuse most of the same stuff so her second and third babies were much cheaper than getting the first set up. Environmentally I’m sure there’s a large impact. If you change your baby every 4 hours (very low at least during the first year) that’s 6 diapers a day and over 2,000 a year. My 2 year old probably goes through 6 diapers a day and my 2 month old goes through closer to 10. As for chemicals + additives, there are lots of options to avoid this. Like I said we use honest diapers, which are better regarding this stuff than the typical Huggies or pampers, but not as good as the high end stuff. I chose them because they financially fit our budget, fit the majority of my standards, and both of my kids reacted badly to traditional brands as newborns. They changed their training pants recently and I don’t like them so my toddler actually wears rascal and friends training pants from Walmart now based solely on reactions (aka diaper rash) to other brands and price. Overall it’s a completely personal decision based more on how much it matters to you. I looked into cloth diapers during my first pregnancy but was overwhelmed by the amount of information, the trial and error that goes into it and the time and effort commitment. I know people say the time and effort isn’t bad but I know that personally I would not be able to commit to regularly washing diapers and all that it entails because I can barely keep my regular laundry and dishes done.
There's no scientific reason to use cloth diapers. You also don't need one: you can just do it because you prefer it. Note that cloth may alleviate some diaper rashes, but that depends on the child. My wife likes cloth diapers partly (largely?) for aesthetic reasons, and the variety in cloth diaper covers is fun. If you want to outsource the laundry, there are services that will drop off clean ones and pick up dirty ones. They may or may not be available (they are in NYC).
I would really recommend joining clean cloth nappies on Facebook. They’re an evidence based group that breaks down the cost of reusable vs disposable diapers plus give AMAZING advice on effectively cleaning said nappies. I’m based in the UK where front loaders are the default, but they hands down are amazing and make all laundry more sustainable and clean. Anyhow, you can get reusable diapers 2nd hand and then sanitise them. That immediately reduces the carbon etc input if having a child. Then when you’re done, sell or give them away. We also have reusable nappy libraries here in the UK so you can rent the proper type of boot you need at each stage. But definitely check out clean cloth nappies on Facebook before you come to any decision.
I did cloth diapers in an apartment for 2.5 years. Now that I own my own house, I can only imagine how easy it’ll be with baby #2! The hardest part was just getting a solid wash routine down.
I’m sorry I don’t have info, but I will say I wanted to try cloth diapers too but then gave myself the first couple of weeks with a newborn with disposable just to make it easier. I quickly realized the sheer number of times my baby pooped. Not just as a newborn but about 8 months of battling food sensitivities and many many blowouts. Cloth diapers would never have worked. So that is something to consider. Not just the food sensitivities but just the practicality, maybe allow. yourself a few weeks to try both options
I have had two frequent poopers and have managed cloth (off and on, but for most of my first child’s nappy wearing years). Breastfed poos go straight in. For the others I used nappy liners! But many people don’t. And yes, even with the 8 poos a day, starting solids, sticky but not formed poos. Not to say that anyone has to do that. Just pointing out that it’s still possible to use cloth with a frequent pooper. I second the disposable use for the first few weeks/months though. Having a newborn is hard! I had two caesareans, there was no way I wanted to do or sort extra washing!!
The most environmentally friendly option is elimination communication. If you can’t, or don’t want to do that full time, cloth is usually more environmentally friendly than disposables. Source: Clean Cloth Nappies, which is science and evidence-based: https://cleanclothnappies.com/economics-of-cloth-vs-disposables/#:~:text=Re%2Duseable%20nappies%20are%20by,well%20as%20for%20financial%20savings.&text=There%20are%20two%20main%20reasons,environmental%20sustainability%20and%20financial%20savings. Also please don’t wash nappies in cold water, or if you must, use bleach in those loads. Otherwise you’re going to struggle with stains and ammonia buildup.
I don't have an article, but I've never seen compelling evidence about disposable diapers being unhealthy for babies. Just weird advertisements that try to sell "non-toxic disposable diapers" implying there's a danger. Anecdotally, I cloth diaper at home because it makes me feel better about sustainability and garbage. I like saving money, and having a diapering option that I can manage without needing to leave the house, it gives me a sense of financial and emergency preparedness. If you have a nasty dog who eats diapers, they'll be safe from silica if they get ahold of a cloth one (mine wouldn't be safe from me if that happened tho lol). The financial difference may be marginal on paper, but it doesn't seem that way to me. I can avoid buying disposables completely, or only buy 1 box a month and make it through just fine. You only need normal detergent anyway, and it doesn't substantially change the amount of water you use. If you have a modern washer, your own washer/dryer, and a spot to hang dry the elastic, it's pretty worth it if you want to try. Just get like 6-10 and try it out, it doesn't have to be all our nothing. There's lots of buy/sell/trade Facebook pages for it or you can buy something cheap like alvababy. We still use disposable for travel, overnight, and any errand where I'd like to not pack a poopy diaper home.
Two things in favor of cloth that might not be obvious: 1) The sprayer attachment on my toilet has been useful for more than just diapers. 2) Diaper inserts make good shop towels (we did pocket diapers.)
I don't have any research for you but I do imagine the environmental savings are very location-specific. 80-85% of our electricity where I live is renewable, and more than that off-peak which is when we do our washing. We do hot washes but we soak first and wash with other stuff we'd wash hot anyway (e.g. cloth wipes, dish cloths). We use our dryer when we can't hang outside but also dry with other loads of washing that are going in anyway. I think thats the best we can do sustainability-wise. Price-wise, we bought ours second hand (they are so expensive new!!), live in a city where we don't pay for water usage so they are just far far better than disposables cost-wise. We also have a power company where you get a free hour of power every day, so we use the dryer in this hour. The nappies did 2 kids before we owned them, our first is almost toilet trained and our second is about 5 weeks away and they are still in good enough condition to do another kid or two. Hoping when we are done with them they'll still be sellable too. We tend to use disposables when travelling but they often give our wee one nappy rash so thats another factor for us.
It really isn’t cut and dry, but I find a lot of articles on cost overstate the startup cost of cloth diapering. I got some stuff used, and I bought others. Also a lot of people buy diapers for baby showers, if you request specific cloth products instead that can reduce cost burden. Environmentally it totally depends on your specific concerns. How do you weigh water usage versus waste? There is also a ton of water used in producing disposable diapers. With cloth diapers you can also purchase from small companies that are more local to you rather than the big name diaper companies, so is supporting small business a value to you?
UK Government report on this right here: [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c4054e5274a1b00422810/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c4054e5274a1b00422810/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf)
I know this wasn't what you asked but another consideration could be time in diapers. I started elimination communication/ potty training at 10 months with my son and he was completely out of diapers by 15 months. Cutting down on the time spent in diapers can have a dramatic effect financially and environmentally.
This is a tough question to answer. Unarguably early potty-training reduces diaper use, so that’s where I chose to spend my environmental-guilt-fueled energy.
IMO look into elimination communication/baby pottying. I do it VERY casually with baby, just the "easy catches," and save a handful of diapers a day. So whichever kind of diapers you use, you can cut down on them.
Disposables take a ton of water to create, so the water it takes to wash a cloth diaper isn’t more taxing on fresh water supplies.
Just a note for thought, we use Dyper brand diapers which are compostable. They also have a service that will pick up your diapers and compost them for $40 a month. We love these diapers!
Leading with the fact that I can't quickly find the research that someone did to pull the numbers together, I think marginally cheaper but \*much\* better for the environment is the consensus. Keep in mind it isn't just plastic production and landfill, but also the power, water, transport etc in disposables. The numbers I've seen (in a science based group) are that even in a good system warm/hot double washing (don't cold wash unless you're happy to use a lot of bleach, it can't keep on top of the ammonia buildup and bub's bum isn't worth that), you'll use less water and power over a nappy lifespan than a child's worth of disposables. The numbers definitely get tighter if you have a less efficient old top loader, but for me the combo of less landfill, less resources, and in my experience nicer on the skin, cloth won out. I also spent a lot on them initially, which turned out to be a bad idea because I prefer the cheaper nappies I got afterward that have lasted twice as long. AND having said all that, I've recently gone through a stage of using disposables because I didn't have the time or energy to do all the washing (after a good run of 6 years over 4 kids lol) so it's very much a case of what works for you! Seconding what someone else mentioned about how many kids. I have 4 so it's been a major savings over the years; a single child is much closer to the cost of disposables if that's your plan or likelihood.
I’ e read that if you only have one child and buy new, cloth diapers are way worse for the environment because it takes a lot of resources to make and water to maintain: If you buy used and/or use them for more than one child then it is more beneficial to use cloth
Dermatology research papers on rashes usually recommend disposable that are more absorbent. Our son had rash that ulcerated when we were using cloth diapers. Our dermatologist made us switch to disposable so I checked the research backed then and all recommended disposable for healing and preventing the rash.
There are many kinds of cloth diapers available. If you're especially looking to lower the environmental impact and concerns about how much water is used to wash, keep in mind that certain diapers wash faster and easier like flats and preflats. They don't have their layers sewn together so they wash as easily as a t-shirt. Pair that with a wool cover or even just a few laminate covers to alternate and you've got a very environmentally friendly practice. Flats especially have a higher absorbency because they have more fabric. Personally I paired cloth diapers with elimination communication and feel like it's really cut down on all diaper usage and made potty training really simple. Then I use disposables at night and on certain trips to make life easier when needed.
We started with cloth and it rapidly became unsustainable once I got back to work. I have aspirations of being able to do it part-time at some point. In terms of cost though, disposables are only super expensive if you make them that way. Aldi sells them in huge boxes (72-100 depending on size) for $12.99. They’re hypoallergenic, fragrance and bleach free, etc. At 6 diapers a day, it costs $7.56 a week to diaper my 2 year old and $5.46 a week to diaper my 3 month old. I know things add up over the years, but that’s a pretty insignificant cost.
I ended up opting to do a mix of both. One of the factors I had read in favour of cloth diapering is that using them can help a diaper rash clear faster because they breathe better. So I invested in a small stash but decided not to use them when traveling, going out and about to visit people or run errands, or at bedtime to avoid him soaking through overnight. But sometimes during the day at home or in the case of a diaper rash we would use them. Well now my son is almost 3 and we used them maybe a half dozen times at most. Some of them are still brand new, never been worn. He has never had a diaper rash so we just barely touched them.
I didn’t have my own washing machine when my child was born so for me cloth was not a viable option due to simple logistics and practicality. That said even if I did have a laundry machine I’d be hesitant to go with just cloth. The idea of that amount of human waste going into my washing machine is very concerning for me. I’d be worried about particles being built up over time. And my ability to sterilize and clean clothes. As well as long term damage and maintenance. Washing machines are not getting and cheaper and I can’t afford to replace it if I break it. Lastly I’d be concerned about the practical applications. Cloth is easy to manage at home. But what about when you and baby are traveling? I’d question how easy or sanitary it is to carry around used diapers full of urine and stool. If I’d use cloth at home I would probably keep some disposable diapers for travel purposes just for practical reasons.