Most people would wonder why I would bother with cloth diapers to begin with. I had been in Baby Gap a month or two ago when I found pants that would actually fit over Grace's cloth-diapered tushie, and when I mentioned this fact to the clerk, she asked, with about the same disgusted incredulity as if I admitted to beating my daughter before bed every night, "You use cloth diapers? Why??"
Well, for one thing, it's what I know. My brother Mark is ten years younger than I am, so I remember quite clearly the day he arrived home, as well as the following three years of diaper-changing. Since I was so much older, it was expected that I would help care for him, and that included changing diapers. My stepmom used one prefold cloth diaper, folded in thirds, laid on top of an old-style diaper folded in half, then pinned and covered with vinyl pants. She's concerned for the environment, and didn't want to put more disposable diapers into our already-overburdened landfills. She did use disposables when we ran errands or traveled because it is difficult to cloth-diaper your child at all times, and so that's what I did with Grace.
Also it can be much healthier for your baby to be in cloth diapers. No one really knows if the gel they put inside diapers that can leak out and appear on your child's skin has any effect on their health. I mean, you're basically putting chemicals against the very sensitive skin of their genitals day after day after day. That definitely concerned me.
Another reason I use cloth diapers is because I am extremely lazy and cheap! Most of my diapers I received as a gift from my parents, and even if I had bought all of them myself, it's still cheaper than using disposables. You can get an awesome set of cloth diapers for probably $500 -- which sounds like a lot until you realize you will spend between $2,000 and $3,000 on disposables over the three years your kid will use them. Plus cloth diapers you can use for subsequent kids. I wouldn't suggest using your first kid's disposable diapers on your second child. *wink* Also I am extremely lazy. I never wanted to say to Kurt, "Oh crap! We're out of diapers!" and have to make a 3am run to the grocery store for more. If ever I run out of diapers, all I have to do is a load of laundry. Easy speezy.
But lately cloth diapers haven't really been cutting it with Grace. I have all-in-one diapers that are not supposed to require an outer waterproof pant, but about three months ago she started wetting through the diapers. So I added a doubler and started putting vinyl pants on her as well. Now she's just soaked every time I change her, no matter how often I change her or how much absorbency I try to build into her diaper. I think the quantity that is coming out is just no match for a cloth diaper. And at this stage of diapering (she'll be two in October, so hopefully soon she'll begin working on potty training), she shouldn't be in diapers too much longer anyhow.
So it really was a struggle to decide whether to stop using cloth diapers. Fortunately Kurt is very supportive of me, whether I want to use cloth or I want to use disposables. He figures I should do whatever makes me happy.
But I still refuse to own a Diaper Genie or any other diaper pail. I just throw the wet diapers into the kitchen trash. The poopy diapers I either dump into the toilet if possible (because you're not supposed to put human waste into the trash anyhow) and put in the kitchen trash, or if they're too messy to dump, they go straight into the big trash can in the garage. I empty my kitchen trash nearly every day, so the smell is kept to a minimum. It's better than spending $30 or $50 on some wacky diaper pail that requires expensive refill bags anyhow!
One thing I have noticed since I switched to disposables. Dang, I can do a diaper change QUICKLY now!! It used to take several minutes to change her, what with having to build the diaper and find a pair of clean vinyl pants, etc. Now I just take off the dirty one, swipe her with a wipe or two, and throw another diaper on! Usually no more than a minute.
Now what should I do with all this time I'm saving?? *wink*