Cloth Nappies - actually fairly lazy (and very cheap!)

Having a few cloth nappy role models in my family made it easy for us to opt for cloth – and being slightly on the frugal side made it very appealing to our el cheapo tendencies. There’s also the positive environmental aspect – so though you’ve got to do what’s right for you and your family, for us this was a no brainer. I thought I’d lay out what I see as the pros and cons, and then will share the system we use (which we’ve found easy and awesome) in a later post [update: link here].

The Good Stuff:

Cost

Generally estimates of savings come in at around $1500 over the time your child is in nappies – though obviously this varies depending on how you buy your nappies (i.e. waiting for sales / buying secondhand vs paying full price for the fanciest kind). I think this table provides a fairly reasonable view including cost of washing (and we don’t come close to washing daily! Every 2-3 days is plenty). We got most of our nappy inners secondhand which made them really cheap (we’ve probably spent $200-300 total) – though for the next size up we’ll probably spend a bit more.

Environment

Speaks for itself really – though I have read that if you use the dryer it can undermine your eco efforts so let’s not be too smug. And there are compostable disposable options now so there are different ways of ticking that box.

Leaks – or lack thereof!

Leaks seem to be a non-issue for us – we have only had “poosplosions” in disposables, never in cloth. We’ve had the occasional wet leak but only when we’ve not quite put the nappy on properly (and now we’re in the groove that barely ever happens). We are not super vigilant about changing them – I mean, we’re not neglectful either (I hope) but I’ve read some things that say cloth is all well and good if you change them every three hours – that’s not my experience. If Young Sir has a long sleep he might go four hours or so in between changes during the day, and at night we add a booster (absorbent insert) but then he goes from bedtime through till morning (around 12 hours) without a change, and we haven’t had problems with leaks there either. Some people think cloth nappies are more prone to leaks but it’s probably mostly down to getting the right system – that definitely hasn’t been my experience.

The Bad Stuff

Bewilderment

I reckon this is the thing that puts most people off - the options are just so confusing. There are prefolds (which aren’t folded, you have to do that, the name makes no sense) and fitteds, which both need waterproof covers; then there are pocket nappies (you stuff an absorbent pad in the pocket), all-in-ones (less work but longer drying time) and various hybrid systems. It’s extremely hard to know where to start – I was lucky, as my sister reckoned she had it all sussed out, so I worked from her recommendations and it was easy and worked perfectly for us too. So as a (possible) remedy for your bewilderment, I’ll share that system in another post soon. Depending on your system there is also potential for grandparent / daycare confusion – if nappies need to be assembled – but there are plenty of options which don’t require assembly or special technique.

Ick Factor

Lots of people seem to be worried about this, but so far (we’re not up to solids yet so will let you know if this changes!) it is barely different to disposables. You have to touch the nappy when you change it – that’s the same whether it’s disposable or cloth. You also have to put cloth nappies in the washing machine at some point – but we empty the wet bag directly into the machine and don’t touch the nappies again (though I do wash my hands after doing this – same as I would after taking a rubbish bag full of disposables out on rubbish day). So I reckon that’s equivalent.

You are supposed to empty solids into the toilet (technically you should for disposables too – it says on the packet but hardly anyone does) but it’s pretty hard to do that for breastfed babies as it is too liquid – so that’s not something we’re doing yet.

Time

There is of course a time factor – perhaps add 1-2 hours of my time a week for 2-3 extra loads of washing. But that I can handle for the potential savings, which are likely to be well over $1000 per child. Again, this can increase if you use a more complicated system, but hello, lazy mum here, we try to keep it as simple as we can.

Space

They are bulky! But really on the scale of baby stuff it’s not that big a deal – just think ahead if you’re heading on holiday. We’ve taken our cloth nappies with us when visiting family but they take up nearly as much again as everything else we need for a weekend away!

Verdict

Overall for us cloth is a clear winner but everyone’s priorities are different – and though I’m expecting to keep using cloth the balance might swing the other way when I go back to work. How about you? Have you tried cloth? Have I missed any points on either side?