Léo is 6 months old:) 6 months of reusable diapers and loving it!

Last week Léo reached the half birthday mark :)  Totally on track with the developmental cues, he now is almost crawling, can shake the rattle on his own and finally knows how to put the nook the right way in his mouth by himself :0)! Yeh!


This post is about my love of cloth diapers.  Even before Léo was still a far away dream we knew how important it was to use cloth diapers and we weren't planning on throwing away precious resources (fiber and nutrients!) or our money into the landfill!  We told ourselves that one day we would lead by example and use them on our kids instead of disposables.  I used to advocate for them to mamas that would come into the Coop in Montreal, knowing the environmental benefits, but I had never tried them myself.  After 6 months of testing it out, I can say with certainty that it works, and that you can do it too, because it is so simple! 

Why is it important you ask?  Here are the stats:

• 95% of families in North America use disposable diapers and on average each of these babies generates more than a ton of garbage, just is diapers... That is a lot to ask of our landfills!
• Cost comparisons: You save a lot of money no matter how you look at it! Disposables can cost upwards of 1200$ a year (look to this budget blog for all the details... this family did its research!) for each child. Plus you cannot get hand-me-down disposable diapers... Cloth diapers on the other hand can be a large initial investment, minimum of about 400$ but they can be reused for the duration of the diapering need of your child so the cost of the second year is almost nothing, and they can even be passed down to others :) saving yourself and your friends and family members thousands of dollars.  And its the same thing with the reusable vs disposable wipes, or anything disposable for that matter, its always more expensive to keep buying more new 'one-use' items.  Just this point alone is enough to convince most people.  Ok, the cloth diapers wont last forever, but you will for sure save more than a thousand dollars per child if not more.

Just a few days old

at 4 months

• There are no chemicals, scents or dye in cloth diapers, so you know what is going on your baby's bum.  Also, when a cloth diaper is wet, it feels wet, so your baby will demand to be changed more often, usually making them potty trained faster and reducing the risk of diaper rash (from long exposure to moisture against their skin).

• Saving natural resources: I know this one is a debatable point... what is better? Using wood fibers and petroleum to make disposable diapers and then throwing right away in the garbage, or using cotton, bamboo, hemp, and then water, eco-soap and electricity for the washer (we air dry our diapers most of the time, either outside or over the wood stove)?  I prefer knowing that I am reusing the same fibers, not creating any more waste, spending a few pennies on eco-soap that wont harm the waterway my waste water gets sent to, and a few cents for using my front loading eco-washer, than knowing that I am using wood fibers and petroleum (a non renewable resource) to then throw it in the garbage approximately one hour later.

Drying Léo's diapers outside in the summer

• If you want to, you can even make them yourselves!  Its not that complicated if you are somewhat able to operate a sewing machine, here is a link to a free pattern. I am not that talented, nor did I have the time to start production with everything we were doing on the farm, but we were very fortunate to have at least three guardian angels in our lives who passed down their diapers to us, so our initial cost was barely anything , and we will do the same for others once we are done with them.  But even when parents buy their diapers new (some people prefer that) their budget will still come out in the positive. We weren't going to be picky! But I would encourage that if you do buy them new, try to favor diapers that are made locally, with a sustainable fiber (whether its organic cotton, hemp, bamboo or recycled polyester), the options are numerous.

Beyond these reasons, Alex and I find it quite easy to do.  We have the diapers all folded and ready to go in Léo's room, along with the reusable wipes that I made myself (forty of them for a total of 2$ of second hand soft towels cut into pieces), we have an impermeable bin in which we put the dirty diapers, and I wash them all 2 or 3 times a week.  We even take them with us on the road.  Ok, I can't pretend that it is as easy as disposable diapers, it does take a lot of time, doing the cleaning and folding, but then you just have to weigh what is more important to you, saving money and resources and the environment, or time :)  And what we keep reminding ourselves is, this only happens once and for a very short amount of time :) soon Léo will be a big boy and all the diapers will be forgotten...

Its always easier if you get them all ready to go in advance

If you have used cloth diapers and want to share your stories, or if you have a blog post about cloth diapers and want to share it, don't hesitate to write a comment! 

Til next time,

Be well.