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The Cost of Diapering:

(Written and compiled by Charlotte Russell)

Do not copy or reproduce without permission from the author.

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One of the biggest misconceptions about cloth diapering is that the “fancy” cloth diapers are more expensive than disposable diapers.  The other is that once the cost of laundering the diapers is figured in cloth is more expensive than disposables. Yes the upfront expense of cloth diapering is intimidating and laundering diapers does cost some money but let me make something clear: it ABSOLUTELY does NOT cost more to use cloth diapers than it does to use disposables!  Above is a summary of different diapering systems and their costs.  Below are the details on how each figure was arrived at.  See for yourself and if you don’t believe it do your own calculations.

Prefold Diapers:

Calculated buying only 4x8x4 Prefolds:
48 infant: $72.00 (-10% for the package price) $64.80
36 premium: $72.00  (-10% for the package price) $64.80
36 toddler: $84.00 (-10% for the package price) $75.60

I’d want a couple of Snappis to fasten diapers, which will cost $4.50.
I'll toss in a few doublers b/c my baby would need them at night. At the same site the Babykicks Hemparoo Doublers (also known as Joey-Bunz inserts) are $4.95 each and I want one for every night between washes, so say 4 (just to be sure): $19.80

That totals $247.80 for an entire birth to potty supply of prefold diapers and doublers.

Kissaluvs Fitted Diapers:

I use Kissaluvs so I'll start with them.
24 size 0: $214.80
24 Size 1: $238.80
24 size 2: $238.80

That totals $692.40 for a birth to potty supply of Kissaluvs fitted diapers.

Covers:

Bummis Snaps are one popular choice because of the easy care factor:

6 Newborn $57.00
6 Small: $57.00
6 Medium: $57.00
6 Large: $57.00
I'll hold off on XL b/c I hear they're really big and my baby might potty train before I need them, especially if I use prefolds, which are less bulky and will let the larges fit for longer.  The total for Bummis Snap covers is $228.00.

Some customers prefer Prorap Classics as a more economical option to Bummis: 

6 Newborn $39.00
6 Small: $39.00
6 Medium: $39.00
6 Large: $39.00
Again, I'll hold off on XL b/c I hear they're really big and my baby might potty train before I need them, especially if I use prefolds, which are less bulky and will let the larges fit for longer. The total for Prorap covers is $156.00.

Laundry:

Let's look at the cost of laundering up close.

Detergent and other Additives:
I buy industrial size detergent at Sears. It does 225 loads and costs $14.99 on sale. Sometimes I add baking soda or vinegar to the wash to strip my diapers of build-up and restore the pH balance. I buy the industrial size baking soda at Sams Club and it costs $4.80. Generic vinegar is $1.97 per gallon at Wal-Mart. The vinegar and baking soda last through about 32 loads of diapers for me (4 months). The detergent, if used only on diapers, would last 28 months. But I'll be very generous and say that I need two buckets of detergent for the time my baby is in diapers. That's $29.98.  I'll need 8 replacements of baking soda and vinegar, which totals $54.16.

Laundry additives for an entire 2.5 years of diapers will cost me $84.14.

Energy:
As far as energy goes, my washer is a front loader and sears.com estimates that it will cost me about $8 per year to operate with a gas water heater. We'll *say* that cloth diapers double the amount of laundry of an average household (they don't) and figure that just the diapers cost me $8/year to wash. My dryer's energy listing isn't on the site, but they tell me "To calculate how much energy your unit uses, simply multiply the nameplate wattage by the number of hours it operates. Sometimes a nameplate will show amps instead of watts. You can convert amps to watts by multiplying the amps by the voltage." Voltage at a dryer outlet is 220. That's 20.24 kWh per week drying diapers (2 hours twice a week to dry diapers. It'll be half as much if you use prefolds). The energy guide for the washer estimated $0.083 per kWh, so we'll use that figure. That's $1.68 per week to dry diapers. So the total to dry diapers for 2.5 years is $218.39. Drying is the highest cost and it could easily be cut in quarters by using a line to dry your diapers and only dry them for 30 minutes to "fluff" after drying them on the line!!

Energy costs for 2.5 years in fitted diapers will cost about $238.39.

Energy Costs for 2.5 years in prefold diapers will cost about $129.20.

Disposables:

There are three different price levels of disposable diapers, no matter the brand you use.  They are: very inexpensive generic diapers (White Cloud and DriBottoms are examples), middle of the road national brands (like Luvs), and high-priced “Supreme” or “Premium” diapers (like Huggies or Pampers).  I’ll figure the cost of each here, but first we need to determine how many diapers will be used in 2.5 years of diapering.  From day 1 to week 6, let's say you change diapers every 2 hours all day. That’s 504 diapers for the first 6 weeks. At 6 weeks you might be able to stop changing at night (we’ll randomly say “night” is 8 hours). However, you still change every 2 hours during the day. If this continues until potty training, at about 2.5 years, you will use 6944 diapers in this time, for a total of 7,448 diapers. This isn't counting the days that your baby is sick when you'll change every 20 minutes or so!  Plus, if your child doesn't potty train at 2.5 years but at 3 years (very common for babies in disposables), you'll use another 1,460 diapers!

Generic disposable diapers average $0.15 per diaper.  $0.15 multiplied by 7448 results in a total of $1117.20 for 2.5 years of diapering.  An average figure for sales tax in the US is 7%.  Since diapers are a taxable item, plan on paying $78.20 in sales tax on your diaper purchases, for a total of $1195.40 to diaper your baby in generic disposable diapers for 2.5 years.  Keep in mind that many babies potty train at 3 or later when using disposables.  Another 6 months in diapers would cost $234.33, including sales tax.

Mid-priced name brand disposable diapers average $0.19 per diaper.  $0.19 multiplied by 7448 results in a total of $1415.12 for 2.5 years of diapering.  An average figure for sales tax in the US is 7%.  Since diapers are a taxable item, plan on paying $99.06 in sales tax on your diaper purchases, for a total of $1514.18 to diaper your baby in mid-priced name brand disposable diapers for 2.5 years.  Keep in mind that many babies potty train at 3 or later when using disposables.  Another 6 months in diapers would cost $296.82, including sales tax.

“Premium” or “Supreme” disposable diapers average $0.26 per diaper.  $0.26 multiplied by 7448 results in a total of $1936.48 for 2.5 years of diapering.  An average figure for sales tax in the US is 7%.  Since diapers are a taxable item, plan on paying $135.55 in sales tax on your diaper purchases, for a total of $2072.03 to diaper your baby in premium or supreme disposable diapers for 2.5 years.  Keep in mind that many babies potty train at 3 or later when using disposables.  Another 6 months in diapers would cost $406.17, including sales tax.

Wipes:

Cloth: This is kind of a splurge when most people use washcloths from Wal-Mart, but I like the wipes from www.lukesdrawers.com. They cost $14/dozen and I'll need two dozen, so that's $28 for wipes.

Disposables: according to my friends, you can plan on going through one "tub" every other week. There are two common types of disposable wipes: generic and any of the name brands.  We’ll figure both price levels.

Generic: The initial tub will cost you about $1.97 and each refill pack about $3.27, That's $106.21 for 2.5 years of wipes!!

Name Brand:  The initial tub will cost you about $2.67 and each refill pack about $6.97, That's $151.36 for 2.5 years of wipes!!

Points to Ponder:

Using disposable diapers and wipes is not only expensive but will result in over 7,000 diapers containing your child's excrement buried in landfills and infecting ground water for the next 500 years.

Many cloth diapers have an excellent resale value, which could allow you to recoup over 50% of your initial investment.  Or there is the option of using them on a second, third or fourth baby and diapering the rest of your children for only the cost of laundry!!