Doing the math

Phoebe in her new Bum Genius cloth diaper

I have decided to give cloth diapers a try. I say "a try" because honestly I am not sure how they will work out for us. Will they leak? Will they be a pain to wash? What about when we are out and about? But anyway, I am going to try. There are many reasons for this, mostly because I am sickened by the amount of diapers we throw out every week and their impact on the environment (it's so cool to be green these days, dontcha know?). Also, and this is not my primary motivation but more my very correct justification for the high price of fancy new cloth diapers, they are a huge cost savings. I calculated today that if your child is in diapers for 2.5 years, that is 912.5 days of diapers. Using a very conservative estimate of 5 diapers a day (most days are more) and also a conservative .25 per diaper, that is $1,144.38 (at a minimum) to diaper one child! Compare that to buying a 6-pack of Bum Genius cloth diapers, which is $105. I know that the extra laundry will have some cost, though I am going to experiment with water temperatures to try to wash them in the lowest temp possible while still getting them clean enough for my household's precious behinds. Or, maybe just one precious behind, because I have no idea if Lucy will accept these. I am actually hoping that if she does, they will be a potty training help because she will feel more wet than she does in her super-absorbent disposables.

I only bought one cloth diaper for now, just to get a feel for it and to see how it works. I must admit, I was very excited when it arrived in the mail today (I know, get a life Sara). It is really cute and also easy to use. It is on Phoebe now, but I will wash it tonight and try it on Lucy tomorrow. I want to see how it holds up under lots of different, um, "circumstances." The real test will be breast milk poop, which I find tends to stain clothes like the dickens, but unfortunately with Phoebe's rather erratic poop pattern it may take a while to do the test-run on that front. At any rate, wish me luck!