# cloth-bums - for eco reasons or money saving?



## ThunderPearls

Just curious as to why you chose to cloth bum :) 

Im about to buy a load of alva pockets (tried them already) as they are super cheap. My main reason for buying them is they work out cheaper in the long run and are really cute! Its going to cost me under £100 for 20 nappies, some extra inserts and liners and a wet/dry bag, it would cost me £550 appx for disposables for 2 years.

Looking at some other brands and their prices I assume most people use them just for the environmental factor rather than the price difference over sposies! As a full kit in the expensive brands can cost anywhere up to £300 or more! And then on top of that you would need extra inserts,liners,bag,pail etc... So there really isnt much difference! 

So just wondering what peoples reasons are behind choosing cloth over diaposables? 

:)


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## babymonkey18

I'm still doing my research so I don't know which cloth I will be using...

but tbh I am doing it for baby's bum! I think the material is better. Besides that definitely next reason is because it is more cost efficient. The eco reasons are a great perk but if I'm being honest that's not the top reason for me...


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## Mum2b_Claire

Tbh, although I started off using cloth for money reasons, I can honestly say I would NOT switch to disposables if there was no cost difference. The environmental concerns over disposables bother me, as do the chemicals, and it sounds silly but I have MAJOR issues with the smell of disposables after just one wee. My first daughter wore mainly sposies and I just assumed her wee was stinky until I got a small stash of cloth just before she PT. My second baby has only worn a handful of sposies in her life.


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## ickle pand

I'm going to cloth bum for both reasons. Remember you can sell on cloth nappies and get some money back once they're done, which adds to the saving. Can't do that with a used sposie ;)


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## Nevaie

Personally the cost savings, environmental impact, cuteness and all that is just extra perks for me (though very nice ones!). I do it because no matter the cost, I feel it's the _best_ option for my baby. Much like breast milk, I don't do it because it's cheaper (in my case it's actually cost me more than formula so far due to various problems) but because I think it's good for her. After spending so much on soft clothes, soft blankets, soft toys, soft sheets ect. I like that she has diapers that are soft and smooth against her instead of rough and scratchy. I don't like the idea of chemicals against her skin. I worry that someday in the future we'll find out that the chemicals in disposables caused problems that we didn't know about at the time. Even if it never happens, I'll still have spent years worrying. I hate the diaper rash that showed up shortly after birth and persisted until my daughter was big enough to fit her cloth diapers well (and cleared up within 2 days of switching). I hated the additional chemicals I had to put on her rash in many failed attempts to clear it up. If I weigh the pros and cons, cloth always wins for my family so far. If it was the more expensive option, I'd still choose cloth because some things are worth it to me. Everyone is different though.


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## Stardust1

I cloth nappied my first over 13 years ago, everyone thought I was bonkers but I couldn't bear the thought of all those disposables sitting in landfills, I was also not very well off so the money saving side was fantastic although there were only a few companies doing shaped nappies and the upfront cost was a lot for a 21 year old student. this time it's very much the environmental and healthy bottom benefits, I'd love to say it was financial too but I've gone quite crazy with my stash and spent far too much (just don't tell my husband)


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## Rachel_C

I think it would have cost me more than £1000 per child to buy disposables for 2 years. I wouldn't want the big brands touching LO's skin so I would go for the best eco disposable I could find. I guess that would be 20p+ per nappy and we'd be using maybe 8-10 per day even for a toddler as even eco sposies gave my first LO a bad rash (never tried them on my youngest but I assume they'd be similar). So £550 would be a really low figure for me, then add in my second child and I think even though I've spent an absolute fortune trying every cloth nappy I like the look of, I will still probably have saved a little money once I've sold on my stash when we've finished with it. The cost wasn't really a factor though, it was environmental concerns that convinced me. Money was one of the reasons I gave OH when I told him that's what I wanted to do but it's not a deal breaker, just a nice perk. Now, the fact that cloth is better for skin and maybe longer term health is something that would keep us in cloth even if it was really expensive. And the pretty factor keeps me going when I can't face the washing basket!


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## noon_child

Cultural - my Mum used cloth on me so I thought it was normal. So did MIL on OH.

Environmental - the above was reinforced by imagining the disposables in landfill never degrading. Then LO was born too small for the stash we had and had to be in mini disposables for some weeks and I felt ill at the sight of how many we were throwing away every day.

Personal - once I had seen how pretty they all were I was hooked. Plus the horrible smell from some disposables when they have been weed on made me gag - I almost couldn't bring myself to breastfeed, it was so horrid.


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## Yipee

My top reason is I don't like the chemicals in disposables, and can't afford the "natural" ones that are also have some chemicals in them anyway. I don't want those chemicals on my baby's skin. 

My second reason is cost. 

Eco is a very nice side benefit that makes me feel good about it, but I have to admit I might not choose cloth just based on that, if it weren't for my other two reasons. I feel like a bad person admitting that, but it's true. I would feel terribly guilty sending bag after bag of dirty diapers to the landfill, but I'm just not sure that would be motivation enough for me to go for cloth, if not for the other benefits.


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## ThunderPearls

Its interesting hearing about everyones reasons behind the choice :) I agree at not liking the chemicals in the disposable ones, the pampers ones just smell like strong bleach/chlorine! I dread to think how many chemical are in them. I tried some of the natural disposables but they were an awful fit and had loads of leaks :( .

It also is awful how many we go through in a week :/ it can be up to 60/70! And to think of them just being there for god knows how many years is scary! 

As much as I would love to be able to cloth bum just because of the eco reasons, if I hadnt found these cheap ones then I doubt I would be able to do it so cosf has been a massive factor for me. I also like the pp point that I can resell my cloth nappies!


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## Toms Mummy

My main reason is that our bins only get picked up every 2 weeks, so that meant pooey nappies sitting outside the house for 2 weeks before they were picked up.... ready for the cats and birds to rip to shreds!


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## petite ping

I did it mainly for financial reasons - I do use sposies for the night though because I didn't like the idea of the LO sleeping 12hrs with dampness on the skin - she's a big nighttime wetter. I have to admit that cloth nappies contain poomageddons so much better than sposies.

It's worked out quite well but I did notice a spike in my electricity bill due to all the extra washing so I'm not sure that environmentally or financially it is as interesting as I thought - still better than sposies though.


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## Honesty

I started off doing it for both reasons but I became so addicted to buying them that I've already spent a good $1000. I have so many brands and styles its crazy I'm guessing about over 75 pockets & aio but that's not including flats, prefolds and covers. I need to stop! Lol Baby isn't even here yet I'm due for a csection in 2 weeks.


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## Rachel_C

petite ping said:


> I did it mainly for financial reasons - I do use sposies for the night though because I didn't like the idea of the LO sleeping 12hrs with dampness on the skin - she's a big nighttime wetter. I have to admit that cloth nappies contain poomageddons so much better than sposies.
> 
> It's worked out quite well but I did notice a spike in my electricity bill due to all the extra washing so I'm not sure that environmentally or financially it is as interesting as I thought - still better than sposies though.

In the UK at least, washing costs (electricity, water, detergent, wear and tear on your machine) are estimated at around £1/week so still a considerable financial saving at £104 for 2 years of washing. That obviously doesn't include tumble drying though. Environmentally, I would argue that electricity generation and water treatment at least have the potential to be done cleanly (and some of it is), whereas the chemicals and processing involved in making disposables will never be clean and neither will the disposal of dirty sposies, so I'd say it's still pretty 'interesting' :)


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## noon_child

Rachel_C said:


> Environmentally, I would argue that electricity generation and water treatment at least have the potential to be done cleanly (and some of it is), whereas the chemicals and processing involved in making disposables will never be clean and neither will the disposal of dirty sposies, so I'd say it's still pretty 'interesting' :)

Yes - I'm with Green Energy and they provide 100% renewable energy to the grid (unlike some green packages from energy companies that include nuclear and waste combustion as "green"). This makes me feel better about the washing and tumble drying.

Also cloth nappies are only manufactured and shipped once - one lot of energy consumption - whereas energy to make, package and ship disposables is consumed repeatedly.

I'm never sure what to believe though, as marketing can be tailored to our green concerns and twist the truth so we never find out the down sides. (e.g bio-fuel production ripping apart natural habitats, re-usable shopping bags using more energy to be produced than all the plastic ones put together that would be used in an equivalent time etc. etc.)


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## AnneD

My reasons:

1 better for baby
2 easier on my pocket
3 no need to scrape poo off disposables, or break the law by not scraping it off
4 rubbish collection only happens every few weeks
5 disposables take aaaaaages to decompose
6 I was cloth bummed myself, never really thought I'd use disposables on my baby
7 cloth is great fun
8 everyone was against me when I said I'd be using cloth, so I enjoy using cloth even more as it proves how wrong they were when they said they gave me a few days before I gave up and bought disposables


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## noon_child

AnneD said:


> My reasons:
> no need to scrape poo off disposables, or break the law by not scraping it off

Whaaa? Where is that the law? I was totally unaware of this.


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## ThunderPearls

noon_child said:


> AnneD said:
> 
> 
> My reasons:
> no need to scrape poo off disposables, or break the law by not scraping it off
> 
> Whaaa? Where is that the law? I was totally unaware of this.Click to expand...

I am unaware of this too :0 hope its not in the uk! Dont you have to scrape poo off reusables too though? Especially when its not the runny newborn poop...


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## emyandpotato

It started because I felt like a bad mum for failing at BF and the mums whose parenting I admired used cloth so I switched. Now I like it for many reasons and will definitely use them for any more children we have.


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## Yipee

ThunderPearls said:


> noon_child said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> AnneD said:
> 
> 
> My reasons:
> no need to scrape poo off disposables, or break the law by not scraping it off
> 
> Whaaa? Where is that the law? I was totally unaware of this.Click to expand...
> 
> I am unaware of this too :0 hope its not in the uk! Dont you have to scrape poo off reusables too though? Especially when its not the runny newborn poop...Click to expand...

I was surprised to read this, so tried to find info on it, and it seems to be kind of a gray area here in the US. It is a law not to throw out human waste, but doesn't seem to be enforced when it comes to diapers. Though some areas do seem require that dirty diapers be placed in sealed plastic (which I guess a diaper genie does for you). 

Months ago when I was considering cloth I mentioned to my mom that the main thing I'd mind would be scraping off the poo, and she was like "oh, but you'd have to do that with disposables anyway; you aren't just going to throw that in the trash." I honestly thought she must be going senile. I had never heard of scraping poo off of a disposable. Is that something people actually do? I know I never did when taking care of my nephew many years ago. But then, I was only like 14 at the time, so maybe they were trying to make things easy on me by not suggesting that little detail.


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## AnneD

I can't quote the exact legislation for you as I am not versed in that, and from what I was told it was written so that you can get around it (deliberately). So please don't panic or feel bad. I spoke to the council here about it when I was considering my options and was basically told that human poo is in the same class as clinical waste and should technically be disposed of properly. Most, if not all councils turn a blind eye to nappies as long as they are wrapped properly and a household doesn't produce more than a certain amount of nappies per collection. They advised poo should be disposed of down the toilet first before you wrap the nappy up thoroughly. If a household produces more nappies than they deem acceptable per collection (I think it was a standard bag or something?), they should be in special bags for hazardous waste or something and the council could impose an extra charge for collection. Childcarers and nurseries here often give you your child's used nappies to take home to dispose of for that reason apparently. Rubbish collections are not frequent around here (except for recycling), so I'd have way more than the acceptable amount at least with a newborn, if not consistently. To be fair, they also told me most people aren't aware that they shouldn't be leaving poo in the nappies, or if they are, choose to ignore that, and that they tend to turn a blind eye to it most of the time unless animals tear open your rubbish bags and drag used nappies all over the place (animals tearing bags open are a common problem here), in which case they fine you if they identify you as the owner of the rubbish.

So yes, a huge grey area wherein I'd potentially be breaking the law, and a lot of conflicting information. For me it was just one more reason to not even want to do disposables.

As for poo in cloth, as long as it's breastfed poo, it's water soluble and pooey nappies can go straight in the washing machine without ceremony. After I started introducing solids, I started using paper liners. You just lift out the liner with poo and flush both down the toilet, it's dead easy.


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## AnneD

I know a very very limited number of people who do scrape the poo off disposables.


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## Rachel_C

Aside from the nasty thought of disposables still being around up to 500 years later (so when your great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchild is born or something like that, assuming 4 generations per 100 years!), something that really gets me is when you see news stories about slum children digging through landfill abroad - landfill WE have sent them. They're looking for things they can sell but they're digging around in nappy bags... I can't stand that thought. Poo should be in the toilet to be dealt with by the sewage system, not left in a bag on a pile of rubbish for a child somewhere to root through. I'm not exactly in favour of sending any landfill abroad but it does happen so I try to keep what I do send as clean and safe as possible.


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## Toms Mummy

It seems a bit ironic that you have to scrape the poo out of a sposie as the poo would bio degrade and leave the nappy behind :shrug:


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## T-Bex

95% environmental, 5% money, and the added bonus was that they're so cute! :)


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## Olivette

This is how we feel about it (in no particular order):


Most of my friends have had babies before we did. Most used cloth so I don't think I ever considered using disposables as cloth was just the norm. 
It was on my radar that disposables are terrible for degrading. The eco side was a concern, but wasn't the main reason really. I feel good about the fact we won't be sending more disposables to the landfill, but also probably wouldn't choose cloth just based on this reason if everything else wasn't a factor.
The horrible smell from disposables, and them needing to be in the bin for 2 weeks as we don't have a weekly collection. The dog poo being in the bin is bad enough!
The chemicals! So put off by the chemicals in disposables. Like the other posters have said, even the really eco friendly have SOME chemicals. My own skin is so sensitive, and I'd hate to think LOs skin being sensitive and aggravated. 
Cost of disposables. This was the winning factor for my DH. For me, although there is the upfront cost, it was really appealing to not have to buy disposables every week. My health isn't fantastic, so is great to know I won't have to make any last minute journeys out in times of need. I'll just have to go to the washing machine/dryer instead. 
Everyone is also quite negative about us proposing to use cloth. Like a PP said it makes me even more happy to go down the cloth route as I do feel I have something to prove. The main comments we get is 'just you wait till you have to do the extra washing', yes, it will require extra washing, but I have tried to explain to them that it will only require me too take nappies from bucket, to washing machine, to line, to being packed away. I think some forget that we don't have to wash by hand anymore which would have taken hours of work! I've been told that when she's born we just won't care about cloth as we'll realise disposables are easier; I don't really agree! I think people are waiting for us to try it then switch to disposables as they like to say I told you so (not so supportive really!) but for us it's not so much about 'we might use cloth' or 'we plan to use cloth'. We WILL use cloth'. That's the way it's going to be and family will adjust. 

So like a lot of others, for us it's about the cost, eco friendliness of them, better for babies bum, not having smelly disposables in bin for weeks, and they look really pretty! We have decided to cloth bum our baby as we just feel it is the best thing for her. For me that's the most important reason. It's not just about saving money, we feel it's best for her, and that's reason enough I think! 

Ox


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## Rachel_C

Toms Mummy said:


> It seems a bit ironic that you have to scrape the poo out of a sposie as the poo would bio degrade and leave the nappy behind :shrug:

Does it though? When eco disposables are sent to landfill, they don't degrade like they can if you compost them due to the conditions. I wonder if the same is true of poo?


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## Mum2b_Claire

Just to say, I always scraped poo out of sposies - poo in the bin bloody stinks, if nothing else!


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## Sambatiki

Initially for me it was for financial reasons and then as I've used them I found the benefits over 'sposies'. I do use one 'sposie' at night time but figured that's still better than full time use. I also hate the way sposies smell when wet :(


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## lindseymw

Cost is the main reason for me. Other reasons;

They are cute
You never run out
No horrible smells in bins

I will admit, the eco part is quite low on my list.


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## jenstar

First attracted by money saving after seeing cloth nappies in a local pram shop. Looked into them and liked the eco aspect too. Cute I don't care about.


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## ashybug

I will also admit that the eco part is rather low on my list.

In order for me to stay home with the baby, I need to be pretty darn frugal. Cloth is a great way to do this! Even though DH isn't on board with changing cloth so we will be using disposables part-time unfortunately. It will still save us loads I believe. 

I'm trying to do it rather cheaply as well. I'm looking into Kawaii one-size pocket dipes :)


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## noon_child

ashybug said:


> Even though DH isn't on board with changing cloth so we will be using disposables part-time unfortunately.

The reality is that it is the baby that gets covered in poo whether in a disposable or cloth! I'm sure he could be persuaded over time to use cloth - especially if he runs out of disposables at an awkward moment (I assume you won't be breaking your neck to restock them as you'll be laundering the cloth ones?).


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## Dragonfly

First reason 
to save my childs bum, chemical burns where not nice on Alex now Myles is in disposables just to use some up I got and his bum is red. Cloth ones seem massive on him and will be changing. 
second reason would be money, I spent so much on nappies with the boys till I switched I did notice the change in how much I saved. Yes its great saving the environment also, no more to landfills. And I have some cute cloth nappies!


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## JenX

For me the top reasons are keeping nasty chemicals away from my child's skin, money saving, and they contain messes better. Keeping diapers out of the landfill and the cute factor are also good.


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## ChaiTea

I don't want anything laden with chemicals wrapped around my baby all day. (I've read some research stating that there may be a link between disposable diapers and later infertility.)

I don't want to throw all those disposables into the landfill. (I've read that any disposable EVER thrown into a landfill is still there!!!!)

My parents bought our supplies for the baby's entire diapering career (including reusable wipes) for about $300. We may have to add a few things here and there down the road, but it will never equal the amount we would have spent on disposables.

Basically we chose cloth for all the reasons!


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## Olivette

ChaiTea said:


> *I don't want anything laden with chemicals wrapped around my baby all day. *(I've read some research stating that there may be a link between disposable diapers and later infertility.)
> 
> I don't want to throw all those disposables into the landfill. (I've read that any disposable EVER thrown into a landfill is still there!!!!)
> 
> My parents bought our supplies for the baby's entire diapering career (including reusable wipes) for about $300. We may have to add a few things here and there down the road, but it will never equal the amount we would have spent on disposables.
> 
> Basically we chose cloth for all the reasons!

This reminded me of another reason we chose to use cloth nappies. For several years now I have been using Cloth Sanitary Protection for my AF each month. I originally looked into other options for my AF as the disposable products where making me sore and itchy and I really disliked having to stock up on more disposable products each month. I've been using CSP ever since!

When we fell pregnant, I mentioned to my DH that I'd like to use cloth nappies and he simply said "well you use cloth". It felt like a natural progression to us. I also felt like I'd be being a bit two faced if I went ahead with disposables with our baby but used cloth myself.

So yes, another reason for us using cloth, mama uses it so baby will use it, and hopefully one day when she's old enough she might choose to use cloth again! .

Ox


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## noon_child

Olivette said:


> This reminded me of another reason we chose to use cloth nappies. For several years now I have been using Cloth Sanitary Protection for my AF each month. I originally looked into other options for my AF as the disposable products where making me sore and itchy and I really disliked having to stock up on more disposable products each month. I've been using CSP ever since!
> 
> 
> 
> Ox

I had always wondered about this. I had been trying to do the Maths about (approx) 38 years of (approx) 5 days per month sanitary products vs. everyday for 2.5 years of nappies. Seemed hypocritical of me to use cloth nappies but throw away sanitary wear. (Not a prob for me for a while as my contraception is, and has been for the last 10 years, designed around stopping my horrendous periods - but still I'm interested.) Is there another thread about this anywhere on NP?


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## Rachel_C

I was the other way around with nappies and CSP. I was buying all these gorgeous soft nappies for LO, then one day I realised that I was using the same type of plastic/paper stuff on myself that I was avoiding for LO. I decided to treat myself to something pretty too and haven't looked back! 

With the chemicals, I have read that a lot of people find their periods aren't as heavy/painful after switching to CSP, presumably something to do with the chemicals in the disposables, and I have found it true for me too. That's pretty scary!


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## Olivette

I'm not sure if there is a CSP thread here in NP noon_child. You could always start one? :D I found the 'Mums Things' section on the Cloth Nappy Tree forum really useful as there was lots of posts from people just starting out with CSP and lots of advice from people who had lots of experiance.

I found that too Rachel_C! My AFs where definitely not as heavy/painful as they were prior to switching, and I found that pretty scary too!!


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## Rachel_C

There are definitely a few threads around here, I'll see if I can find some to bump.


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## Rachel_C

If you search the NP for 'csp' it brings up quite a few. I didn't bump any as there isn't one clear winner in terms of recency and replies!


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