Cheap Cloth Diapering

Beat the high cost of disposables – cloth diaper your baby.

By admin ⋅ October 10, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Whether or not our country is in a “true energy crisis” is left to be seen, but as consumers, few of us in the United States have escaped the soaring prices at the gas pump, grocery stores, restaurants, etc…

Why the speedy rise in energy and transportation costs? Dow Chemical blames the cost of crude oil. Crude oil prices have doubled, even from this time last year, a 17 year high. To offset their soaring costs, Dow Chemical Co. announced a 20 percent price increase in their products, effective June 1, 2008.

Since Dow makes chemicals that go into everything from antifreeze and coolants, to toys, textiles, detergents and disposable diapers, it will come as no surprise that Americans are about to start paying substantially more to purchase basic staples and also, disposable diapers.

Dow is the biggest maker of polyacrylate, the absorbent chemical gel found inside every disposable diaper. When they raise the price of polyacrylate for their disposable diaper manufacturers, consumers will see the trickle down rise in pricing for disposable diapers.

They aren’t the only major chemical company affected either; just the first to announce a price increase-others are soon to follow.

How will this be reflected in the cost of diapering a baby in disposables?

A trip down the grocery aisle, plus a quick calculation of how many diapers a baby will go through in any given day, gives a rough expenditure of about 50 to 65 dollars a month spent on diapers–before the price increase. With Dow Chemical’s price increase of 20 percent on everything, YOURS and MY checkout receipt will reflect a rise of 10 to 18 dollars a month JUST IN DISPOSABLE DIAPERS.

For one reason or another disposable diaper prices have gone up considerably over the past few years. Day care providers who only 5 years ago paid about 22 cents a diaper for Pampers Cruisers^™ are now paying 34 cents for that same disposable diaper.

Beat the rising costs of disposable diapers – USE CLOTH DIAPERS instead!

Set aside any environmental argument you have heard regarding cloth diapers versus disposable diapers and simply focus on the FACTS – the actual COSTS. Following Dow’s announcement, cloth diapers have now become the most economical means to diaper your baby, period.

The Real Diaper Association has an excellent breakdown on the cost of disposable diapers in their Diaper Facts. According to the RDA, based on an average change of 8 diapers per day for a period of 2 years, a single baby will need about 6,000 diapers. Eight diapers a day might not seem like a lot, but 6,000 diapers certainly does-especially 6,000 disposable diapers with a trickle down price increase of about 20 percent.

Not only are disposable diapers expensive, but they are not a wise expense since a disposable diaper used just once is considered trash. Cloth diapers are REUSABLE; the initial investment pays you back, wash after wash, year after year, and through subsequent children.

Cloth Diapers cost less than one tenth the cost of disposables.

Based on estimations made by the RDA, the cost of using cloth diapers is about one tenth the cost of disposables. With the upcoming increased pricing, that will be less than one tenth. Now is the time for parents and caregivers to check out how far the cloth diaper industry has come in making modern cloth diapers that are easy to put on baby, easy to care for, much softer and more comfortable, and of course, considerably less expensive.

Cloth Diaper Blog is published by www.diaperjunction.com.