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Home › Articles › Basic Care › The Diapering Dilemma

The Diapering Dilemma

Cloth vs. Disposable

By Shel Franco

Pages:  1  2  3  

Saving the Money
"When our second child was born and we needed to save pennies, we used cloth [diapers]," says Dawn Nowakoski of Indianapolis, Ind. A trip to your local grocery store will tell you that the price of disposable diapers really stacks up. It's easy to see why plunking down a one-time sum for a childhood supply of cloth diapers looks so appealing. Add to that the strong possibility that these diapers will last through all your children, and you've got a very strong argument for cloth. But not so fast. Cloth diapers aren't exactly free after your initial purchase. In fact, a few parents find themselves buying several types of cloth diapers in hopes of finding the perfect fit. "I tried all different kinds of cloth diapers with my first daughter," Haggert says. She spent everywhere from $60 a dozen for one brand to $10 per week for a diaper service.

And of course, you will be charged for the water and the electricity and the detergent you use in laundering. "You have to take time to do laundry at least every other day," says cloth diaper user Karin Kuiper of the Netherlands. And every other day certainly increases your grocery and utility bills. Does it all add up to the same monthly cost of disposables? Maybe not. But it can come awfully close, especially when you take into consideration the availability of low-cost, very competent, generic diaper brands that are flooding the disposables market.


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