Eye on Parenting Blog
CBS News/ December 9, 2010, 11:39 AM

Taking Another Look at Cloth Diapers

CBS
After some considerable response over her first cloth versus disposable diaper "Eye on Parenting" webshow, CNET's Natali Morris took on a month-long cloth diaper challenge. She used only non-disposable diapers on her baby.

Cloth Diapering Challenge: I Accept
Cloth Diaper Challenge Hits the Road
Cloth Diaper Challenge Update
Cloth Diaper Challenge Do-Over
Cloth Diaper Challenge: Day 1

In this edition of our "Eye on Parenting" series, Morris talks the pros and cons of cloth diapers and why she's a convert and how you can be, too. Check out some of the latest cloth diaper products on the market, as well as cleaning methods, that can help curious moms out there.

Also, check out some of our holiday tech gift ideas for your kids.

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
25 Comments Add a Comment
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deltaflute says:
to WAC1956- you posed the question why low income families use disposable diapers as opposed to cloth. There's a good article about this http://www.helpamotherout.org/2009/07/01/diapers-101/ Basically, low income families can't afford a washer or dryer and have to use laundry mats which some won't allow you to wash cloth diapers. And a cloth diaper service is expensive. Also diapers must be paid for by the family: WIC and food stamps don't cover them. In our area we have a diaper bank, they are all disposable. Third, since most low income families work (called the working poor), they have to put their children into daycare. Most daycares especially subsidized ones will not accept cloth diapers. So the bottom line is this: low income families are choosing disposables not because they don't want to use cloth, but because of the circumstances that society has imposed on them to use disposables. If society made it easier to use cloth diapers, I'm sure that low income families would do so because in the long run it's cheaper.
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luvmy2babies says:
Sooo excited that you gave cloth diapering a shot, I really wish that it was better portrayed to the public eye. I am glad that you had a change of heart (they really can be intimidating) and also decided to stick with them. I was also very skeptical, but soon saw that CDing was a better resolve for my family. Hope all continues to go well, and thanks for giving it a chance!
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craftymommajess says:
So glad to see the CD update!! CD's are easy & economical in such tough times. Even my hubby says he can't believe the money wewasted with our son, using disposables!! It's so niceto walk down the baby aisle & not need diapers...not to mention how much the sposies stink!!
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luvmy2babies replies:
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Very much agree with your comment. We did disposables with our son (now 4) and it's amazing how much money we are saving doing cloth with our daughter (4 months). I had a bit of a hard time convincing hubby because it's more of an initial investment, but now he's very happy with our decision! I also agree that disposable diapers are stinkier! Anytime I put DD in sposies for whatever reason I can smell the urine after just one void, but not so with cloth.
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uxordepp says:
I used mainly cloth for my kids. The diapers can last for years!
With my last child, we had an HE washer. I now found the thick cloth diapers impossible to thoroughly clean. If I could have found regular old thin fold-up diapers, I think it would have been fine, but I ended up going to disposables eventually because I could never managed to wash/rinse the odour from the diapers in the HE machine.
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schoolhouse6 says:
When my daughter was a baby 35 years ago, we lived in a refurbished school bus, no hot running water. Never once did she wear a disposable diaper. I would put her dirty diapers in a sealed bucket under the bed with regularly-changed water and bleach and soap. As we would drive down the road, the sloshing would be the first wash of the diapers. Then we'd stop at a laundry mat and wash the diapers. She never had a diaper rash and I never threw a soiled clump of plastic into a landfill to take hundreds, of not thousands of years to break-down. What makes us think it's out right to ruin the environment for the sake of making life easier? We've long-since abandoned this life-style. I still try to do little things like not buying paper towels and taking the time to wash cloth towels instead. I'm not bragging and I would not call myself an avid environmentalist, but I'm saying that we've become spoiled and seem to have over-inflated senses of entitlement. I'm also saying that if a young woman can do it in a school-bus, well what's the big deal?
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sagesmommy says:
Thank you so much for re-visiting this and showing the benefits of the different types of cloth! Throughout this trial, you have truly been the "average" woman - one like me who started with disposable and once introduced to cloth, never went back. I wish more women would realize how much better cloth diapering is!
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msbelle says:
I had my beautiful son in 1971. Disposables now were available so I bought them. I fully believed it was the right thing to do for him and a real convenience for myself.

So wrong on both counts. He developed the world's worse diaper rash! I mean horrible open sores even! I washed his bottom constantly and applied ointment constantly. I felt like a failure as a mother. The doctor couldn't figure it out. My Mother-in-law showed her disdain for me even more. As to young and incompetent to be her precious sons wife.

My mother gave me a gift of diaper service, cloth, messy pail and all. A week after I started using them his rash was almost gone! I didn't change anything I was doing but the diapers we used. The DR. finally figured out he was allergic to the scent chemicals the disposables used.

I have never been so in love with a messy diaper! I may have had to do more work, I bought cloth diapers myself, but I learned a valuable lesson. Convenience does not always mean satisfaction.So count me as a believer.
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naoma2 says:
I had a child over 40 years ago. Someone gave me a "diaper service" as
a gift. Pail with dirty diapers in it was awful. Disposables had come
out and I was happy to use them. Never had a problem. Of course, I had
only one child -- wanted no more of "childbirth." Raised a beautiful,
successful, wonderful child who was a joy.
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dawnawidmar says:
I want to respond to WAC1956's post. The first thing that I want to respond to is the fact that you said that it's "inconvenient" to change the baby more often. It may be inconvenient, but it is healthier for babies skin. Just because you can leave a baby in a wet diaper for hours doesn't mean that you should. We used an old fashioned diaper pail with a deodorizer in it and rinsed the dirty diapers in the toilet before puting them in the pail, I'll tell you from experience that a garbage can full of dirty disposables smell way worse than a diaper pail that gets emptied every couple of days. And as far as your clothes and furniture smelling of urine, they sure shouldn't if you have plastic pants over the diaper. My cloth diapers paid for themselves in the matter of a couple of months. That's including the water and electricity to clean them. And they last forever. My mother in law actually gave me diapers that she had used for my husband when he was a baby in the 50's.
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kattydid says:
In 1959 started using cloth diapers and was happy with them having absolutely no problems. But went to Germany within 2-weeks and found they had disposable diapers which I used during the rest of my travels since one can not wash and dry diapers while traveling. Germany had few choices but did have baby food in jars and I found it easy to prepare food at our small apartment in order to offer more choices. My baby girl had a bad case of colic & American doctor said, no wheat, but the German doctor said, put cereal in her milk . . she wasn't getting enough food! Knew nothing about babies but learned fast.
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