Before Mason was born, Clayton and I decided that we didn't want to contribute to adding more plastic to our landfills. I researched a few diaper services in the Lower Mainland and chose the best value for our money.
We are now into 3 months of using the cloth diapers and I thought I would share our experiences this far....
From birth, Mason goes through 80 diapers per week
Benefits of Cloth
Enviro friendly!
Package cost includes; pail, clean diapers, diaper sack
Cost effective? This is up for discussion. The Diaper service provides a cost comparison to disposables but who knows if it's all that accurate
Disadvantages of Cloth
Need to be changed more often
Leakage from side
Leakage from back (mostly for boy babies)
Diaper cover smells like pee (cause it's covered in pee!)
Set # of diapers per week, if you run out you need to have disposables on hand
The diaper pail gets full fast (the bin I have barely holds all 80 diapers by the time of pick-up)
Need to carry around dirty diapers when on the road
Add bulk to baby body, clothes fit a bit more snug in length
May cause diaper rash because skin is exposed to wet longer (not in my case though)
The covers must be purchased or rented (I prefer Kushies brand from Sears. $8 per cover. Buy 5!)
Benefits of Disposables
No leaks
No urine smell
Use and toss in the garbage
Can change baby less often
Disadvantages of Disposables
Bad bad bad for the environment (500 years to decompose)
Some of the scented diapers smell awful (very chemical-ly)
Can be costly