Are you curious about cloth diapering, but not sure what it involves? You’ve heard that Cloth Diapers can be quite beneficial towards the environment, and your wallet however you’re not completely certain on how much you’ll be spending upfront. You find yourself asking “How many cloth diapers do I need?” We get it! Cloth Diapering is a bit of a learning curve, and that’s why we are here to answer all your questions about getting started with cloth diapers, how many cloth diapers you need, and what your upfront costs will look like.
To begin, we offer Pocket style Diapers and Diaper Covers. Our Pocket diapers are sold in packs of 7, 4 or as singles. Each diaper comes with a reusable bamboo insert that is placed in the pocket to help with absorbency. Our pocket diaper bamboo inserts can also be purchased on their own in packs of 10. Our Diaper Covers are sold in packs of 7. Rather than a pocket, our Diaper Covers each come with a button snap that attaches to a reusable bamboo insert with a button. Our diaper cover inserts can also be purchased on their own in packs of 7. Both our Pocket Diapers and our Diaper Covers aim to fit 10lbs to 35lbs, and feature an adjustable snap system to help ensure your baby is getting a proper fit as they grow!
When determining how many cloth diapers you will need – regardless of style – there are a few factors that come into play. The first being your child’s age. Newborns and younger infants will need a larger stash of diapers, as they will soil their diaper more frequently. Whereas toddlers won’t need to be changed as frequently. Another factor that will determine how many cloth diapers you need is how often you are planning to wash your cloth diapers. We understand that every family's circ*mstance is different, and some families may not have access to launder their cloth diapers as frequently as other families. To avoid any bacteria build up that would cause harm to your cloth diapers, we recommend washing your used cloth diapers every 2 to 3 days at most. We always recommend spraying off or rinsing off any solids in your diapers prior to storing them in your diaper pail, wet bag, hamper etc. to help avoid any bacteria growth that can wear down your cloth diapers and cause diaper rashes and irritation to your baby.
So, how many cloth diapers to start? Let’s say you are washing your cloth diapers every two days, and your child needs to be changed every two hours – For newborns, we would recommend a stash of 24-36 cloth diapers. Each diaper will come with its own Bamboo insert, however it is always good to have some extras on hand for the times you may need some extra absorbency – whether it be overnight or on a long car ride, etc.For toddlers, we would recommend a stash of 14 to 24 cloth diapers, again with an extra pack or two of bamboo inserts.
So how much would you be spending upfront? For your newborn, we would recommend 24-36 diapers, so between 4-5 7 packs of cloth diapers. If you were to purchase our pocket diapers, this would be approximately $280 USD upfront.For toddlers, we would suggest 14-24 cloth diapers, so this would be 2-3 7 packs of cloth diapers. If you were to purchase our pocket diapers, this would be approximately $210 USD upfront.
(These estimations are based off of our current pricing for pocket diaper 7 packs - $69.95. These estimations do not include tax, and/or shipping fees.)
The average family will spend an average of $500 USD on disposable diapers in their first year of diapering a child. This does not include diapering your child for more than one year, and/or multiple children.
These prices compared to the cost of purchasing disposables are outstanding. Especially because with proper care of our cloth diapers, they can last you from newborn cloth diapers until your little one is potty trained, and can even be passed down to future kids. When you compare the impact on the environment of a handful of reusable cloth diapers to the staggering amount of materials involved in manufacturing 6000+ disposable diapers from birth to potty-training and the overwhelming amount of trash and plastic and other chemicals that will sit in the landfill for 500+ years, cloth diapers the clear winner of the sustainability contest.
Beginning your cloth diaper journey can be a bit overwhelming at first. We’ve created our How To Blog, as well as our free E-book to help families learn everything they need to know about getting started. To download a copy of our Free E-book, click here.
