An article in Advertising Age last week cited a correlation between falling disposable diaper sales and rising diaper rash cream sales to conclude that the economy is causing parents to change diapers less often. Many commenters disagree, stating that the falling sales of disposables could be caused by rising sales of cloth diapers, and rising sales of rash cream could be caused by advertising in that industry. Still, it’s interesting. What do you think? Would cash-strapped parents try to make diapers last longer between changes?
If you find yourself tempted, don’t bother. Here’s a better way to save money on diapers:
1. Use cloth diapers. Use the cheapest cloth diapering methods, and you can spend $500 or less total on all the diapers you’ll ever need from birth to potty training, for multiple babies. Compare that to $1500 per year with disposables, and you’ll realize the upfront cost is really not that much. And all you have to pay for after that is laundry.
2. Of course, practice elimination communication. Do it part-time, relax with it, have fun with it. Every diaper you save is one less diaper to wash.
3. Save on laundry-related bills by cutting down on your water and energy usage. Turn your hot water temperature down, convert your toilets to low-flush, get a high efficiency washer, and line-dry your diapers.
And if your baby gets a rash despite frequent changes with cloth diapers and occasional diaper-free time, don’t worry, and don’t switch back to disposables. Just email me. Tell me about the rash and about your diaper washing routine, and I will help you figure out the cause and how to fix it. No diaper cream necessary.
Obviously as a cloth diaper user, I see the appeal of all these points. Cost savings was one of the biggest reasons we chose to use cloth. However, it does take a position of relative privilege to be able to make that choice in the first place, and since I began looking into cloth diapering it has bugged me that this is rarely addressed.
For people who live paycheck to paycheck, paying a large amount for an initial investment, even if it ends up saving lots of money in the longrun, may not be possible – because there just isn’t that lump sum of money lying around. Working families that need to use daycare may have to use disposables if the daycare in question requires them (as you know, we’re in this situation now!). People who do not have their own washer/dryer and must use shared laundry facilities, whether in an apartment complex or at a laundromat, face an additional burden of paying per load and taking time to transport diapers to and from the facility. People who do not own their home cannot do things like purchase an HE washing machine or convert their toilets to low-flow and often cannot even adjust their water heater (if they live in an older apartment building that has shared water heaters).
I know this wasn’t the point of your post but just thought I’d chime in since it’s something I hardly ever see addressed that I think is a very important point. Cloth diapering has many benefits, but the reality of people’s daily lives often makes it impractical or impossible.
Amber, I am THRILLED that you brought up these points. I may write another post on this issue. It’s always bothered me that cloth diapering is perceived–and, in fact, usually is–a choice for privileged people.
First, about the upfront cost. I often encourage people to spend only a little at a time and buy a few cloth diapers at a time as they are able to and gradually replace their disposables that way. However, just for comparison reference, I looked on diaperswappers this morning and saw lots of 12-16 prefolds selling for $30. I saw some covers selling for under $4/each. So for $50 total, you could buy enough diapers to use cloth exclusively if you washed them every day. Which I know is hard, maybe prohibitively so if laundry facilities are far away, but it’s certainly a manageable upfront cost. It’s comparable to a large box of disposable diapers on amazon.
Now, about the washing. We lived in an apartment with shared laundry facilities when my daughter was born. We didn’t have to pay extra for the laundry, however, and I know that for people who do, the cost savings of cloth can be negligible or nonexistent (I’ve seen cost comparisons for people living in apartments in New York, where laundry is very expensive!). However, we had to sign up in advance for a laundry schedule, and we were only supposed to use them twice a week. I knew I was probably going to want to wash every day, so we ended up buying a tiny apartment washer and a clothes rack. The washer cost $400, which IS a big upfront cost (but that was about how much money we were saving by having a home birth 😉 ). It was extremely convenient for us. I also considered this hand washer: http://www.laundry-alternative.com/apartment_size_washing_machine.htm, which is only $43. Again, comparable to a large pack of disposables. Washing with the “hand washer” would be somewhat inconvenient, but much less so than carrying dirty diapers to the laundromat down the street–and it washes a load in just a few minutes, so it wouldn’t really be that much more work. And prefolds and flats will hang dry quickly. With those two purchases, you *could* use cloth diapers full-time for about $100 initial investment. And you could spread that investment out over a couple of months if necessary. No, it wouldn’t be as convenient, but if your budget is really tight, then it could be well worth it.
Also, this is totally off topic now ;), but if you click on the link for low-flow toilets, you’ll see that I’m actually advocating a very simple, cheap, reversible conversion you can do to any toilet. The link actually explains several ways to make your toilet use less water, some of which cost money, but anything that displaces water in the tank will reduce the amount of water your toilet uses by the volume of the item. You just have to use something that won’t disintegrate in water. I used an old gallon jug full of water. Put it in your tank and you’re using a gallon less per flush. You have to change them out regularly, though, because the plastic will disintegrate over time.
The daycare issue merits its own post. I would really like to do some advocacy work to encourage more daycares in Atlanta to accept cloth diapers. The Real Diaper Association has a list of cloth-friendly daycares: http://daycare.realdiaperindustry.org/cloth-friendly-daycare-list–but of course, there’s only one in Atlanta, and it’s Harvest (which I added to the list). I know there are more that would at least consider it, though, and I’m going to research that for a future post. They also have a tip sheet for convincing your daycare to use cloth.
Also, there are some organizations, like the Cloth Diaper Foundation (http://www.clothdiaperfoundation.org/), that give free cloth diapers to low income families. (Their website is down right now…I hope that doesn’t mean they’re out of business!)
Finally, I do know one person who started EC when her daughter was 2 months old and has never bought a diaper since. She made this choice primarily for financial reasons–she’s on a tight budget, and she figured if she could just cut that item out of her budget entirely, then why not? Not for everybody, I know, but her daughter is almost two now (maybe older), and she has not worn a single diaper since she was a newborn. This friend of mine was also able to do this while working as a live-in nanny and living with another family. Like I said, not for everybody, but she managed to convince her employers that it wasn’t a big deal if her daughter peed on their floor! And obviously she has saved a lot by never spending anything on any type of diaper.
FYI, Primrose in midtown had told us they would do cloth. That’s where we were planning to send Fitz when I was planning to return to work. However, on one income, we can’t afford it. So again it’s a privilege issue… yes there’s a daycare that will use cloth, but only one that is very expensive! I think it would be great if more daycares were educated about cloth, as it is most of them seem to dismiss it as “too time consuming” when I have asked.
One other thing, in my experience prefolds take a really long time to hang dry – even outside in the summer sun! They dry faster than the all-in-ones, but it still takes the better part of a day. Never used flats so I don’t know how those compare.