Which is cheaper, cloth or disposable diapers?

    Obviously in the short term, disposables are much cheaper--a whole box of disposables costs roughly the equivalent to just two or three of the most expensive type of cloth diapers.  On the other hand, you can't buy used disposable diapers (ewww) like you can with cloth diapers.  In the long term is where the real cost lies.  
    First, you have to consider how long your child(ren) will be in diapers.  The longer they are in diapers, the higher the cost of disposables and the lower of cloth.  Thus multiple children (not twins, but different aged siblings) will be much cheaper in cloth than disposables.  Anyhow, here are the numbers, thanks to this study.

18 months of diapers for 1 child

Disposable = $2577

Cloth =  $590 - $1887 (includes washing cost)

18 months (or 36 months total) for 2 children

Disposable = $5155

Cloth = $799 - $2096 (includes washing cost)

Disposable Cost

The study used prices from 2 of the least expensive popular disposable diapers at a discount chain store (I'm assuming Walmart or Costco).  They factored in the cost of newborn size through size 6 training pants.  Having never used disposables, (except for a few in newborn size while we were waiting on our cloth diapers to arrive), do not know the cost involved personally, so if those of you that use disposables have different numbers to weigh in, please post!

Cloth Diapers Cost

Cloth diapers generally hold up well for use by two children, after two you'll probably need to buy some replacements in each size (we're using some diaper covers that are still working with our kid as the 3rd to use them!).  I checked out the cloth diaper prices of the study and they are accurate.  I personally wash almost every day but that's because I don't have 36 diaper changes like they account for in the study.  In any case, they came up with $36/gas water heater or $122.40/electrical water heater for 30 months as washing cost...I'm using my own numbers as I also account for detergent cost.

Prefolds + Diaper Cover (Cheapest) = $381

More Expensive Cloth Diaper Options = $1678

Washing Cost = $139/yr
Detergent Cost for an average of 4 loads per week = $33.16/yr

Electrical Cost of a cheapo Top Load Washer ($37) & Dryer ($69.12) = $106.12/year 

**For those of you not familiar with cloth diapers, you generally don't need to buy every size of diaper or even 36 of each size.  You can also buy gently used diapers from online stores or Craigslist for significant savings.  Gently used sometimes works better since they've be washed enough to be the most absorbent (new ones you have to pre-wash them 2-6 times to get them to the most absorbent).



The math is all broken down to all the different kinds of diapers in the study if you'd like to see the details.  If anyone has more specific numbers or corrections, please post!

Cloth Diapers Reviews size newborn

Temujin is growing fast and about to outgrow her newborn cloth diapers, so I thought I'd share what Paul and I discovered so far. I also included what friends thought about the cloth diapers they used.


Diaper Reviews

Prefolds
We haven't actually used prefolds for anything but burp cloths, changing pads, and blankets so far but friends that did use prefolds loved them because they are by far the cheapest and are also easy to use. Being so cheap you can buy in bulk and have to do laundry less frequently. They are also the only option if you wanted to have a diaper service wash your diapers for you. Some friends used Snappi's fasteners to keep the prefold in place (instead of safety pins) but others learned to arrange the prefold in the diaper cover so it stayed in place and never used fasteners.





Fitted Diapers
There are many brands that make fitted diapers either with velcro or snap fastenings and you use them with a diaper cover. We used Kissaluvs Organic Cotton/Hemp Fitted Diapers and Kissaluvs Cotton Fleece Fitted Diapers in size 0 - newborn. We, and friends that used them, loved Kissaluvs Fitted Diapers for two reasons, first of which was how well they fit. The newborn size has a snap setting to allow the diaper not to rub on the umbilical stump and they come small enough that they fit her as a small newborn of 6lbs. 14oz. (were pretty bulky at first, but did actually fit). We also like them because they have never leaked once (which with breastmilk poo is a big plus). Now, of the two, we like the cotton fleece (not the cotton/hemp ones) the best because they 1) dry faster in the dryer, 2) keep her drier when she pees (less chance of diaper rash then) and 3) are cheaper. The weird thing about the cotton/hemp ones is that there was a HUGE size variability in them despite them all being size 0 - newborn (which is frustrating when you're trying to buy the tiniest size possible to fit your newborn!). The good thing about the cotton/hemp ones that turned out tiny, were the only ones that fit her as a newborn. So in the beginning the cotton/hemp ones were the only ones we could use. The other bonus to the cotton/hemp ones is they come with a snap-in diaper pad. We actually didn't find much of a difference with the pad snapped in for function of the diaper, but they do make great pads (usually put two in at once) to put in the diaper cover if you've run out of clean diapers. On the other hand, the cotton/hemp ones plaster themselves to her when wet and easily create diaper rash if she isn't changed fast, which is why overall we perfer the plain cotton fleece diapers. The downside we've found with fitted diapers is that they are expensive, bulky to pack up for traveling and they take a long time to dry in the dryer--1 1/2 hours in the dryer for the cotton fleece and 2 hours for the cotton hemp!!


Inserts & Soaker Pads
We had a multiple inserts/soaker pads, the first of which was the aforementioned snap-in diaper pad/soaker that came with the cotton/hemp diapers. These were wide enough at the back to work quite well by themselves (i.e. enough coverage not to also soil her diaper cover) in her diaper cover when Temujin was first born, although like I said, we usually doubled them since they are fairly thin. We also had some Kissaluvs Booster Doublers which are more tapered and thinner on width but much thicker and absorbent than the cotton/hemp ones. We usually used a Kissaluvs Booster Doubler on top of one the cotton/hemp pads to make a "diaper" for when we were out of clean fitted diapers, but they also work well to put in a fitted diaper for extra absorbency at night and also keep her more dry in a wet diaper. We also had two FuzziBunz Microfiber Inserts that came with the FuzziBunz One Size Diaper we received from the baby shower which work great as a pad in the diaper cover when baby is bigger newborn size--and most importantly, it was the one pad we used that kept her really dry. Last of all, we had some Japanese diaper pads from my cousin, which are from a Japanese baby store called Akachan Honpo--can't find a link to them because I sadly cannot read Japanese, but they worked very well as a "diaper" as well and seemed like they would be inexpensive if you went to Japan or had a friend that could bring them from Japan for you.




Diaper Covers
When Temujin was first born, we used a newborn Imse Vimse Bumpy Swim Diaper as a diaper cover because it had by far the tightest fit of anything we had. The others we would use if the swim diaper was dirty. It was not the easiest "diaper cover" to use for changing because it only had snaps for one leg. As for snap closure as versus velcro closure, I personally like snaps better and Paul likes either. The one disadvantage of velcro covers is the extra step of keeping the velcro tab part on their wash tabs so they don't snag the diaper cover or grab onto other things in the wash, but they do tend to be the cheaper diaper cover options.
Another cool thing with diaper covers (as vs all-in-one diapers) is the diaper cover acts as a changing pad.

Bummis
We had several Bummis brand covers, all of which worked well. The Bummis Super Whisper Wrap diaper covers in NB (newborn) size are nice in that they have a fabric lining inside so they never stick to the skin, have cute patterns and are easy to use velcro fastening. For Temujin they were very large overall and wide between the legs when she was first born and now at 8 weeks, they are still fairly wide between the legs. Looking up online, she apparently is a skinny baby, thus the extra width between the legs, which led me to get a Bummis Super Brite diaper cover as they have a narrow width between the legs. The Super Brite has a higher rise (good for our, skinny girl), extra gusseting around the legs (which we didn't need the extra protection with fitted diapers) and has a slick inner lining. The slick inner lining is great for wiping it out if something does get on it so you don't have to wash it, but it does stick to the skin when wet, again leading to a greater possibility of diaper rash. But overall, we liked the fit better on Temujin than any of the covers we had for her in newborn size.

Thirsties
We liked the Thirsties Diaper Cover for the same reason we liked the Super Whisper Wrap in that the inside is fabric-like and super easy to put on.  It is also the least bulky cover for traveling and cheapest cover that we have. However, the smallest size did not fit Temujin for several weeks, although other friends that used this cover were able to use it almost immediately.



How many should I get?
We currently have 21 fitted diapers, plus the various pads and inserts, and we do laundry once or twice a day. If we always used up most of the pads and inserts as well as the fitted diapers we would only being doing a diaper load once a day. The thing that we did not take into account is you need diapers for baby to wear while you're washing and drying the diaper load. Usually this means we need about 4-6 changes while the diapers are going through the current four hours of laundering (2 hours in the washer, 2 hours in the dryer). As for diaper covers, we currently have 5 covers and rarely have used more than two before doing a diaper load again.
Another friend that also used the Kissaluvs fitteds had 24 of them for the newborn size and did laundry every other day.
One of our friends using prefolds had 12 newborn prefolds and 24 regular size prefolds and five covers. She tended to use about 20 of the prefolds and 4 covers in two days, therefore doing laundry every other day. However, only two of the covers were small enough for their baby's first few weeks, so they had to do laundry every day.