By A. Simpleton

I am now a father of almost eight months. Previous to the birth of my daughter, I had changed one diaper. That’s right, only one. And it was not an enjoyable experience. I am very susceptible to the gag reflex, induced, for me, mainly by scents. You can imagine my fear at having my own kid and changing diapers daily, hourly, and sometimes even closer together than that. When my wife was pregnant, she suggested that we use cloth diapers for our bundle of joy, so we could save money. As the explanation of what was involved in using cloth diapers was relayed, I became more and more opposed to the concept. But as I have come to find out, getting my hands a little dirty has been worth it.

My previous experience with cloth diapers was limited (as I said already, I am not the one to have change the kid, weak stomach and all). I knew that my parents used them for my sisters and I when we were babies and I knew that they make good car washing rags. And in that respect, cloth diapers haven’t changed much. But we have found a very cost effective system that puts a twist on the old clothy.

For our daughter, we are using a mix of G Diapers (don’t ask me what the “G” stands for) and cloth diapers. G Diapers are a great system for the environmentally minded. They have three layers: an outer liner, a snap-in liner, and a flushable insert. The only thing disposed of is the flushable insert. It can be flushed, tossed (decomposes in about 90 days verses the disposable diaper, which takes 500 years to decompose in the landfill), or composted (a wet diaper composts in 50 to 150 days). The starter pack, it includes two outer liners, three snap-in liners, and ten flushable inserts, is around $20. The G Diaper system, as good as it is for the environment, is not necessarily good for the pocketbook. You have to continue to buy the flushable liners to keep this diaper system in business. Also, as any parent knows, the two outer liners in the starter pack just ain’t gonna cut it. So there is the upfront purchase of, say, 10 sets of liners, followed by two years (if you really work on that potty training, but more likely three years) worth of flushable inserts. But hey, nobody ever said saving the environment was going to be cheap.

So here’s the twist. Instead of buying those flushable inserts, we bought 36 medium cloth diapers from clothdiapers.com for $65. Fold those into thirds, and you’ve got yourself reusable inserts that fit perfectly in the G Diapers. Now, there are no reoccurring costs with diaper changes (except for the laundry bill, but with energy saving front loaders, we haven’t even noticed a spike in the utilities). All calculated, we save about $200 a month on diapers. Not bad.

For extra savings, ever considered cloth diaper wipes? My wife did, and now we also use those. They are small, thin squares of fabric that we leave in a pale by the changing table that have been wetted with a mixture of soap, water, and olive oil. A diaper change is almost completely free now.

This system, while more involved that a simple disposable diaper, has been a great money saving tool for us. It is great to not have to pickup giant bags of diapers every time we’re at Costco. If you have little ones in diapers, try this out!