by Jennifer Peter

Created on: February 15, 2007   Last Updated: March 03, 2011

Saving money by washing diapers.

"Say it ain't so", was the response I receive from my friends. My family just stared. My mother smiled because I did it her way. She had five children.

The older generation doesn't understand the fuss. My friends would just look at me and mumble. They didn't want to hear the stories. They imagined poop under my nails and a kid with a diaper rash so bad he would scar. But none of that was true.

I'm talking about washing my baby's diapers. There, I said it. I know you don't want to hear how easy it was or how clean the diapers came out or how my baby never had a diaper rash. But maybe you'll listen when I say it's cheap.

I figure it costs me $1.50-$3.00 per week to wash diapers, depending on usage. Newborns use more diapers, toddles will use less. Using the most diapers imaginable this would cost $390 for 2 years. Plus $1.51 per diaper on the Internet which is $105 for 70 diapers. Diaper service is $21.50 per week, with unlimited usage. Two and one half years would be $2795. The average cost of Huggies on the Internet was forty-four cents per diaper. Government statistics say a child will use 5000 diapers before being potty trained. At 44 cents this is $2200.

I know the image of all those poopie diapers holds people at bay. People just don't want the hassle. Hassle? I say. Have you ever watched a woman juggle two boxes of diapers, a week worth of groceries and a toddler at the same time and wondered about hassles? Have you witnessed a father running out of a store at 11 p.m. with a box of diapers in hand? He is digging out money much better spent on books, vacations or sandboxes. And the expense doesn't stop with the purchase of disposable diapers. It is estimated that for every $1 spent on disposable diapers, the community pays a hidden cost of 10 cents in landfill expenses.

How did all of this bad feeling about cloth diapers get started? Disposable diaper companies have contributed to current perceptions. They spend billions of dollars convincing you of their ability to deliver a safe, clean and convenient alternative to washing. They never show landfills or smelly garbage pails. They show you clean, smiling babies with no rashes in sight. They never mention babies whose skin becomes overly dry from rubbing against the super-absorbent diaper. Highly absorbent diapers soak moisture and oils directly out of the skin.

One newspaper columnist recommended soaking diapers in a pail and then washing 16 diapers at a time. She also recommended

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