What did ONE cloth diaper ever do for anybody?

I have a lot of friends who are "shoulda, coulda, woulda" or "I want to, but I'm indecisive" about cloth diapering. I always share with these individuals the MANY cloth diaper giveaways that are always happening these days. The cloth diaper manufacturers want people to try their brands, and the way they're getting that done is by sponsoring give-aways through outlets such as Mothering magazine online, and various popular blogs. These things get less than 200 entries each, generally, so the odds aren't that bad, and it costs nothing to enter. Plus, it takes like 2 seconds to do it, and it's always spam-free. You just comment the blog entry the give-away is listed in, and say, "I would like to enter." most of the time.

I'm not even believing what I heard from a couple people regarding this stuff. Mind you, these are people who would do cloth, but can't afford the start-up. "But is it worth it to just enter to win one? One is not enough." Well, no, it's not, but let's go ahead and do an apples-to-apples comparison to everyone's standard, disposable diapers.

If you win one Thirsties Duo cover, and then scrounge up $20 to spend on prefolds, depending on the size of the baby, you could possibly be set to get started in a significant way for less money than you'd spend on a week's worth of disposables. When you consider how much use you can get out of these diapers and covers, you start profiting RIGHT AWAY. Then you can save up what you would have spent on disposables for the next month, buy a couple more covers, and a pocket diaper or two for night use, and you're 100% in business.

Just one diaper, huh? I don't think it occurs to the cloth novice what exactly one diaper gets you. Let's use my own diaper collection as an example. My Bum Genius diapers each get used roughly once every third day. Factor in that Orren has been able to wear them from birth, and that he is 540 days old. That means that each diaper has been used about 180 times. Mind you, they've still got a lot of life left in them! 180's not the end of the story. Say we use them each 250-300 times before Orren potty trains.

Now, if you factor in that 156 size 3 Huggies are $37 at a major retailer (I just googled it), and that ONE cloth diaper can get as much use as roughly twice that package, winning one cloth diaper is like winning a whole case of disposables!

This is also an interesting illustration of environmental impact. One cloth diaper. One. If you throw it away after it's been used for years, diapered multiple children (For 2-3 kids to use the same set of pocket diapers is not unheard of!) and become ripped up and leaky, it is small. If you ball it up, it fits in your hand. It is unobtrusive. It has no chemicals to leach, and it will break down before the children who wore it have children of their own. That one diaper may replace as many as 1000 disposable diapers in the landfill (if it's used for multiple children before becoming unusable). That's really significant. What's more, most simple natural fiber prefold or flat diapers don't even end up in the landfill after their first family's children have outgrown them. They get used around the house for other things, or passed onto other families who still have babies. I know one lady who's used the same prefolds on 8 children so far. You know each of her diapers have spared our landfills many thousands of pounds of waste. The more you use cotton diapers, the better and better they get (softer, more absorbent, AND better for the environment!)

Now you know. One cloth diaper makes a big difference. Not only may it put you well on your way to getting started in cloth, but it may keep half a ton of solid waste out of the landfill before it is said and done. That one diaper may save you $50 or more over the course of time. One cloth diaper makes a difference... especially if it can be used as a cover! Those, you can buy some cheapo prefolds and get 10000 more miles out of them when you're starting off. It all starts with one. OK, for me, it started with one dozen. It USUALLY starts with one, though.