What Do You Do With A Miracle?: Adventures In Cloth

About a 6ish weeks ago (my best guess since I'm not even sure what day of the week it is most times) Noah developed a rash on his right hip. It was in a spot that was completely covered by his diaper so I knew it wasn't from something weird touching his skin. We tried all different creams on him and nothing was working. The rash wasn't getting worse but it wasn't getting better either. I thought maybe he was developing an allergy to his regular diapers so I began my search for an alternative.

I decided to try out the organic diapers that are chemical free. Boy, there is some sticker shock with those bad boys! I sucked it up and bought a small box which was actually about $5 more than our regular with about 20 less diapers in the box. While I was in the store there was a small display for cloth diapers and I was actually really tempted to buy them right then and there but I decided to go home and do some research to know what I would be getting into.

I went to work researching the brand that I had seen in the store and it sounded really awesome and I was totally excited to possibly start cloth diapering. The only problem at that point was the cost. I was looking to buy directly from the company and it would have been a considerable up front cost. I knew it would eventually pay off but I wasn't' really ready to make that big of a commitment since I was still unsure if this would even work for us.

I also joined a few cloth diapering groups on Facebook. The most knowledgeable people are the ones actually at home, using these diapers, putting in the work every day so I knew it would be a very good place to learn and pick up some tips. I joined a website called Cloth Diaper Trader where people can buy, sell, and trade cloth diapers and cloth diapering accessories. I kind of browsed the site and quickly overwhelmed myself with all of the different types of diapers. So. Many. Choices.

Anyway, one day a post from Cloth Diaper Trader showed up on my Facebook news feed. There was a listing for 19 cloth diapers for only $65! I honestly could not believe it. In case you didn't know, some cloth diapers can sell for as much as $20 each. I immediately went and looked at the listing which had pictures of the diapers. I thought this deal was way too good to pass up so I contacted the seller. I was in luck and the diapers were still available so I went ahead and bought them. I figured even if they didn't work I got a really good deal and I could always resell them.

Fast forward to today and I've spent about $140 on our diaper stash. And when you do the math on how much we were spending on disposables, our cloth stash has definitely paid for itself already! We do still use disposable diapers for him at night because cloth diapers are not as absorbent and require more frequent changing. I didn't want to have to wake Noah up every 2 hours just to change his diaper. We also use disposables when we leave the house just for the convenience of being able to throw them away instead of carrying a wet bag with us on top of all of Noah's equipment. So instead of using 10-12 disposables a day (which is about $3) we only use 3-4 (about $1). It may not seem like a lot but if you add it up over a week or month or year the savings is actually huge!

Cloth diapering is not something that has to be 'all or nothing.' It is actually a lot easier to manage than I had ever realized. I encourage anyone who is curious to do some research and consider trying it. If it doesn't work out for one reason or another, there is a pretty good market for cloth diapers so you will easily be able to resell to someone who will use them. Plus, they are so stinkin' cute!