Cloth vs. Disposable Diapers - A Cost Comparison from (half) Personal Experience

So here’s the thing – I have never used a disposable diaper on my son and he just turned one a couple days ago. I have never purchased disposable diapers. So it will be hard to make this extremely accurate, but I’ll try my best. I’ll be using numbers and prices found online, so I’m sure there could be cheaper prices… but we will make this an estimate.

While I was pregnant, I bought all of Noah’s newborn diapers. I bought them slowly over the course of a few months and I bought all but FIVE used. And those five that were new from The Extraordinary Baby Shoppe, my Mom bought for me. I had about 20 newborn fitteds, 2 all in ones and 4 covers. Total I spent MAX was about $150. Those lasted Noah (who was a big baby who grew fast) until about five weeks old. If I had a smaller baby they could have lasted a month longer.

I had about 10 size small diapers, which Noah wore after he outgrew the newborn diapers but before the “one size” diapers fit him well. They were Monkey Doodlez TAG system, Bum Genious AIOs and Thirsties Fab Fitteds and AIOs. I also had 2 size small covers. Total I spent on these diapers was about $100 (the Monkey Doodlez were new, the rest used).

Then I started to buy “one size” diapers, which started fitting Noah around 2 months old. I had about 10 pocket diapers ($10 each or less, used), 15 fitteds of many different brands ($10-$12 each), 3 or 4 hybrid diapers ($12-15 each) and around 5 AIOs ($15 each). So that makes this section around $350. Only one or two of the fitteds and one of the Grovia Hyrids were bought new – the rest were all bought used.

I don’t (and haven’t since he was about a month old) used disposable wipes either. I use cloth wipes and wash them with the diapers. Actually, I use inexpensive baby wash cloths (the thin ones) as wipes. I’ve spent MAYBE $10 in total on them, and I have about 40. So, if I total up those amounts, we are at $600. I’ll also add the cost of wetbags ($30 total) and my big diaper pail ($25). So, let’s say $660. Of course I sold some that didn’t work as well and bought others, but that’s definitely a good estimate of the cost of the first year of cloth diapering Noah.

You’re probably thinking well what about all that extra hydro and water you’re using to wash those bad boys? Guess what? My water bill hasn’t changed a bit over the past year, and our hydro bills are actually less than they were when I was pregnant. So I’m not adding anything extra for that. I do use a speical detergent for washing the diapers (Nature Clean liquid) but it costs $5 every two months or so. It’s such a tiny expense, but I’ll even add that $30 to the total. So $690 TOTAL . And please don’t forget I can (and will be) use these same diapers for NO EXTRA COST on future baby(s).

Now, I’m looking at the Walmart website in Canadian dollars for these prices of disposable diapers. Huggies Little Snugglers (newborn) are $20 for 60 diapers. I’d say 10 per day so that would last 7 days at the most. So if I used those for the 1st month (they say they go up to 10 lbs so that would have been accurate for Noah), I would have spent $80 + taxes. ($20 x 4 weeks)

Huggies Little Snugglers size 2 say they fit 12-18 lbs, so they would have fit Noah from 6 weeks til about 4 months. They are $65 for a huge box of 248. Let’s still say 10 diapers per day, so 248 divided by 10 = about 25 days that would last. SO, even if it lasted a month, times two months would be $130 + taxes, at least.

So, now say I decided to switch to Pampers Baby Dry size 3, which say they fit 16-28 lbs. If Noah was in disposables, he’d still be wearing this size (he’s currently 25 lbs). These are on the website for a huge box of 222 for $50. Even if I cut back to 8 diapers per day, this would last a month, approximately. So, from 4 months until 1 year old (8 months) these would cost $400 + taxes.

So, I would have spent approximately $700 on disposables over the last year (I added in some taxes), AND made about a million extra bags of garbage (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit). Oh, and that doesn’t include the cost of disposable wipes. They are around $4 for a 64 count tub… that would last a month maybe? So I’ll add an extra $50 there. And how about we include a diaper pail as well? They are around $40 plus the refills for the bags. Let’s make this an even $800.

Like I said, I just used prices I found on Walmart.ca . You may find lower prices online, at warehouse stores, or by using coupons on whatever brand is on sale. I understand that you can find disposable diapers for much less than this (using coupons and store brands) but this is an estimate.
 
Even if I round up and say I’ve spent $800 on cloth diapers and accessories over the past year, and I would have spent $800 on disposables (and wipes and pail), it seems to be the same, cost wise. But you have to remember that Noah will probably be in diapers for another year and I don’t have to spend another cent (other than detergent and hydro/water). Also, I plan to have at least 1 more baby, maybe 2, so the same diapers will get used again, with no addition money spent.
 
Aside from cost, there are of course other reasons to chose cloth or disposable diapers. And of course it’s a personal preference.
 
Pros of cloth diapering:
- Significantly cheaper (if you only buy as much as you need to wash every 2-3 days. Some people have WAY more than that)
- Creates (much) less trash
- “One Size” diapers often work well from 10-12 lbs all the way until potty training. No need to keep buying different size diapers
- You can use the same stash of diapers on 2 or 3 (or more) babies
- Children who are cloth diapered generally learn to use the potty earlier
- You can sell your cloth diapers when you are finished with them and make some of the money you spent back!

Cons of cloth diapering:
- You have to touch pee and poop on a daily basis (doesn’t bother me) Extra laundry (2 extra loads per week)
- There could be added costs for laundry detergent, water, and hydro

Pros of disposable diapering:
- Easier to travel with because finding a washer dryer is not a concern (I still travel with cloth diapers – I even hand wash if need be)
- You can buy them at any superstore, warehouse, drugstore or grocery store

Cons of disposable diapering:
- More expensive and you have nothing but trash to show for it
- Each child creates around 4,000 dirty diapers from birth to potty training. That’s a lot of garbage
- Chemicals in the diapers touching your baby’s sensitive skin