Are you the mother of an infant or toddler? Do you get overwhelmed by the cost of the "simple things" like diapers? The majority of the USA uses disposables, for a number of reasons. One being convenience, another perhaps stronger reason is the lack of knowledge that there are MANY kinds of cloth out there. They are NOT the diapers that your grandmother had to use and they can be MUCH cheaper!

Lets look at the numbers:

The average baby is in diapers between two to three years and uses between 8,000-10,000 diapers with in this time. How much does this equal for the average parent?

Allow me to do the math for you:

On average, each diaper will cost you about .30 cents.

How did I reach that number? The prices of most diapers range between .19 (for the newborn size) to .46 (for the toddler size). So I started with a base price of .30 on an average of the two combined (I did round down), because no baby stays in the newborn or even 20 pound range forever. So by calculating the cost of an average diaper by the number of diapers the baby will use, including gas and tax, you can expect to spend between $2,400.00 (for 8,000 diaper changes) and $3,000.00 (for about 10,000 changes, frankly is probably the more accurate number). This adverage estimate does not include applicable sales tax, or the gas used to drive to store for those late-night runs for diapers, or the amount of time you use up.

So for every child that uses disposable diapers, parents will spend roughly between $2,500.00 to almost $3,500.00 dollars (and that's JUST in diapers!). Unfortunately, when the baby is finished with the diapers, they are gone, poof! You can never use them again; and you have NOTHING to show for all that money; its wasted (litterly). Many parents spend a significant amount of their hard earned money on trash. How heartbreaking!

Now I hear your husbands saying, "But what about the washing, that costs money!" Which is totally true, and a realisic concern. However, the realistic cost of washing cloth diapers, 2-3 times a week on adverage is about the same cost of the adverage 4 year old going to the bathroom 5 times a day. The engergy, wash, and soap, costs roughly 1.25 per wash. (Though if you line dry this can be cut down even further!)

So again let me do the math for you:

Lets round up, for the sake of arguments, 3 washes per week. Which equals 12 for a month, that equals somewhere around 156 per year. That equals somewhere around 468 washes for the 3 years (most kids) are in diapers. So for 3 years of washing 3 times a week is somewhere in the neighborhood of 585.00 dollars TOTAL!

Now the first thing that your probably thinking after hearing all this, is "WOW, lets go buy cloth diapers right NOW." But WAIT! Before you desided to do that, please consider that you DO get what you pay for, and in the area of cloth diapers, cheaper does not always equal better or in most cases even good! My first intro to cloth diapers was a real eye opener. I had read several things but just frankly could not grasp all the different options. So I desided to head over to Babies-R-Us and get some prefolds with several covers to "try." OH MY GOSH what a disaster. I had some other kinds of cloth on the way, thank goodness, or I would have just simply given up. It would have SO not been worth the effort to me.

So where do go you now? Well, you found us, so your not totally lost or are you? There are also a TON of other great sites out there for cloth diapers just like ours, or similar! You can do a search for them to come up with several different ones.

How much will you need to spend on a complete cloth diapering layette? This is what I suggest to my fellow Dollar Stretcher´s: use diaper covers and prefolds. You will get all the benefits of using cloth diapers with minual cost. "Fitteds, All In Ones, All in twos or Pockets" are also very popular for their convenience, but they are a more expensive choice (although still less expensive than using disposables). There are dozens of great products available; you just have to find them. Here's a possible cloth diapering layette:

* 3 dozen newborn diapers (18.50 each dozen, Chinese Prefolds brand) = 55.50

* 6 Small Diaper Covers (9.25 each, Bummis brand) = 55.50

* 3 dozen Regular Diapers (27.50 each dozen, Chinese Prefolds) = 82.50

* 6 Medium Diaper Covers (9.25 each, Bummis brand) = 55.50

(now if your child is like mine, he can STILL at 23 months fit in regular size prefolds, AND newborn prefolds make darn good stuffers for later!)

So for the basic cloth diapering layette you are looking at spending around $249.00. This is a "leak-proof" and absorbent diapering, witch can work for babies up to around 30ish pounds. Then you will either need to move up to the Toddler size or potty train. Again, half of the benefit is that when baby is done diapering, you´ll have diapers to use all over again, you can sell them at places like Diaper Pin, or donate them! You will probably need to purchase new diaper covers for the next baby because after so many hundreds of washings the waterproofing material can wear out. So you may need to spend another $150.00-200.00 on the next baby.

The total cost of buying AND using the cloth diapers for 3 years comes to around $834.00 (including washing diapers three times per week). This is a far cry from $2,500-$3,500.00! What seems like the smarter choice more ecnomical choice to you and we have not even begun to talk about the good your doing for the enviroment (that's another article!)!!

So give cloth diapers a try, not only will your baby has less diaper rash but your pocketbook will be much happier, too!