I have a confession to make. And it’s really making me feel super guilty. I confessed it to Adam this morning, but he didn’t really have a response for me. I’m not sure what to do about it, for I have thought about it over and over in my mind, and I can’t come up with a good conclusion. Perhaps ya’ll can help me.
Here is my confession: I don’t want to use cloth diapers any more. It’s not because I don’t like them, for I do ….well as much as one can like a diaper, I suppose. They are Mother Ease diapers that we bought before Maacah was born. Yeah, they are old but they are still holding together very well. Although there is a reason for that. I used them from birth to potty trained with Maacah and she always had the worst diaper rash. It would never go away and often they were open, bleeding sores! It was horrible! Neither the doctor nor I could find the reason for it. Then Grace came along and she was in the same diapers and with the same horrible diaper rash. I chalked it up to the girls having very sensitive skin. This is true, but it wasn’t the whole culprit.
At one point, when Grace was around a year old, we went on a trip and for the first time, I brought disposable diapers along instead of the cloth diapers. We had gone on other trips before this one, but I always took “our” diapers. Anyway, we were gone long enough, that while she was in the disposable diapers, her rash went away! I was shocked! And then I figured out that because they have sensitive skin, the cloth diapers don’t wick the urine away from the skin well enough to keep it protective. Even though I would change them as soon as I saw wetness (for I often let them go without the cover on), it wouldn’t change anything. Since then, with Grace on down, once the child is eating more solids than nursing, I put them into disposables and put away the cloth diapers. So it’s only the first 8 – 12 months that we use cloth diapers; which is also why they have lasted for 8 1/2 years.
But all that isn’t really the reason I don’t want to use them anymore. It’s for a far more practical reason: I’m lazy. I just don’t want to have to wash them every 3 days. I know, that’s a real poor excuse, but it’s the honest one. That’s the reason I’ve gone back and forth within myself about this. On one hand, we already have the diapers, so there would not be any added expense. Even though I’d be washing them, I’m not sure the added water, soap, and my time would add up to the same amount of disposable diapers for a month (some of the diapers are getting thread bare and soon need to be replaced. And every so often, we need to get new covers. Should that factor into the cost effect?). On the other hand, disposables are easier, both here at home and going places. I wouldn’t need to bother about soaking them and the stink that it can generate in the house. There also wouldn’t be any juggling of bringing the dirty diapers down from up stairs to be washed and making sure there are clean diapers going back upstairs. Plus, when we go out for more than an hour (like to church), I take along disposables, not the cloth. So we are buying disposables anyway, just not as often as we would if we used them exclusively.
Time wise, disposables win. Cost wise, cloth wins (I think). Convience wise, disposables win. Never running out of diapers, cloth wins. Not dealing with diaper rash as often, disposables win. Nice idea, cloth wins.
All these reason sound pretty petty to my ears, I know. But I’m still not sure on what to do and what would be the best route to take. Right now, Damaris’s diapers are about $20 a month and Nathaniel’s are about $35 a month (we buy the Walmart generic brand, “Parents Choice”). I realize that we are not talking “big bucks” here, but when the budget is tight already, sometimes those costs make a difference.
Does anyone have a solution for me?