Am I an Eco-Mom?? My decision to cloth…

I’ve never been extremely eco-friendly.  While I do recycle and recently started my own garden…it really ends there.

Then I became pregnant.

Almost immediately I started considering cloth diapering.  Where these ideas came from… I have no idea.  But halfway through this pregnancy, I am diving head first into learning everything cloth diaper.

And let me tell you…it’s hard…these aren’t my moms cloth diapers with just some folding and pins.  There’s prefolds, all-in-ones, all-in-twos, one size, fitteds, covers, pockets…overwhelmed yet…I sure was am.

So why do I want to? (The four main reasons)

• It saves a ton.  The average cost of disposable diapering until age 2 is $2000.  The average cost of cloth the entire time a child is in diapers is approximately $800.  Plus if you have more than one child, you can continue to reuse the cloth diapers, yielding an even bigger savings.
• It’s healthier for baby.  Many people don’t realize that there are harsh chemicals in disposable diapers that cloth simply don’t have, including dioxin and polypropylene, amongst others.
• Convenience.  Ever run out of diapers and are stuck leaving a dirty diaper on your child until you can gather find everything your keys you need get to the store? Never again.  You can never run out of cloth diapers…though you may need to do a wash.
• Prevent waste.  In addition to just making yourself feel better about protecting the baby, you will help the environment by eliminating up to one ton of waste that is estimated to come from every child’s disposable diapers by age 2. Plus a diaper taskes approximately 500 years to decompose.

The first reason, is really all I needed.  I’m very frugal spending aware, especially as we are trying to save for our downpayment for our first house. Which is essentially how I convinced my fiance to do it with me.  His initial thought was literally, “Hell No! I’m not touching poop”.  After explaining the modern convinces to cloth diapering plus the savings, he was all in.  Thank God!

While the average cloth diaper costs anywhere between $5-$25, the initial shock was overwhelming. However, the more I read, it’s recommended for 2-3 dozen diapers for newborns-6 months and as little as 6-8 once older, depending on your washing preferences.

There’s also no more “dunking” associated with cloth diapers like many people initially assume and the adorable bright colors and prints are to die for!

Do you cloth?  What are your favorite brands? This is just my initial post on how I came to my decision to cloth.  I will be posting a lot more once I start to build my stash and obviously once the baby is here, so I can update everyone on how it’s going!!

Updated:  Read more on Cloth Diapering

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A look into our Fluff Stash

Our Eco-Friendly parenting Journey Updated (2015)