Cloth or Disposable Diapers- That Is the Question!

My mom used cloth diapers for my brother and I and she said it was not a big deal and she saved tons of money. When I first discussed this with Hubbs he thought it sounded like way too much work and he was not interested at all. However, I just discovered that there's a local cloth diaper cleaning service, Clean Buns, in town that takes most of the work out of it! I was still hesitant because cloth diapers themselves can be expensive, but this company even rents diapers! The diapers look very easy to use and having someone pick up the dirtys and drop off clean ones every two weeks sounds totally doable! Plus, there's no commitment, so we could aways try cloth diapers and if it doesn't work for us simply switch to disposable.

From the research I've done online, it sounds like diapers can usually be purchased for about 20 cents each.... which works out to about $15.50/week and that's about what the diaper service costs.... so now I'm really not sure which way to go with this :-/ I decided to review the pros and cons of cloth vs disposable diapers in further detail :-)

	Cloth	Disposable
Health & Comfort	Change baby's diaper when it's full, baby needs to be changed more often with cloth. Baby may prefer softer feel of cloth diapers. Possibly no chemicals, depending on how diapers are washed. If bleach is used that may be an irritant as it is in disposable diapers.	Change baby's diaper when it's full. Disposable diapers are more breathable, but their moisturizing, absorbent chemicals irritate some babies. Long-term health problems related to disposable diapers have not been proven.
Convenience	Cloth diapers now come with Velcro or snap closures, shapes fitted to baby, waterproof bands around the waist and legs, and removable linings- making a cloth diaper change just as quick and easy as the disposable. Cloth diapers aren't as absorbent so baby will need to be changed more often.	For daycare or travel, disposable diapers are the clear winner. Studies show that disposables reduce the risk of infection when used in a group setting - and many daycares don't even allow cloth. When traveling cloth are simply inconvenient, unless you want to haul around soiled diapers and search for laundry machines every chance you get.
Price	If you're using a cloth diaper laundering service, the cost will be about the same as disposables. If you wash the cloth diapers yourself you'll pay about $800/year to the $1,100/year cost for disposable. If you have purchased the diapers then laundering those diapers for future children will cost you about $400/year. Another possibility would be renting cloth diapers and that may cost less for one child, but more with additional children. One study specifically comparing the cost of cloth and disposables indicated that cloth diapers were more expensive in the first year by about $100 and less expensive in the second year by about $200.	Amazon Mom members receive benefits such as 30 days of Amazon Prime including FREE Two-Day Shipping, 20% off diapers which are auto-delivered to your doorstep with Subscribe & Save, and other promotions geared toward parents. Note: Current Amazon Prime members can also join the program and receive all Amazon Mom benefits on top of your Amazon Prime benefits. If you cancel your Prime membership, you will no longer be eligible to receive the Amazon Mom benefits. Benefits that changed as of November 11, 2014: Extra 5% discount for 5+ subscriptions: After November 11, 2014, Mom members will receive the 15% Subscribe & Save discount (rather than 20%) when five or more subscriptions arrive on the same recurring delivery day. Diapers count toward the five items but still get a 20% discount.
Environment	Clean water and energy are used and dirty water is produced.	Disposables use resources like trees and plastics during manufacturing, and then collect in landfills (most are 40% biodegradable.) I'm not certain about this, but someone in my family said that when his company was cleaning up toxic waste in landfills, that the disposable diapers actually absorb a lot of the toxins so there's less in the soil.... so maybe that's a benefit.

I happen to work for a company that purchases disposable diapers in bulk and offers a one-time purchase option to employees at their company discounted rate. I highly recommend looking into this if you happen to work for a company like this, or perhaps have a friend who has access to these benefits. I will be able to get disposable diapers for almost half of the retail cost and I've heard from friends who have used this brand and they really like the fit and absorption. The only down-side to this arrangement is that I will have to figure out how to store as many diapers as possible, since it's a one-time only purchase. I had considered disposable diapers if they could compete with this price or offer some other major benefits. However, from my research it seems disposables will work just fine :-)

If you are going to do cloth diapers, Borealis Britches makes adorable ones!