Giving the Banana Bottom Line on Cloth Diapers

Monday, January 4, 2010, Vincenzo Ravina of TheChronicleHerald.ca Metro introduced his readers to Kristen Bassett, owner of Banana Bottoms, a home-grown cloth diaper business. In his article, Mom gets to bottom of diaper debate, he calls Bassett a “one-woman assembly line.”

“Ms. Bassett said she started making the cloth diapers almost 12 years ago, but she’s only made a business of them in the past few years.”

Sewing “cute and fashionable” cloth diapers at home is not as easy as it sounds; there are patterns to trace, snaps to apply and sewing…lots and lots of sewing. Bassett says it takes a full hour to sew one of her organic cloth diapers from start to finish. While she is building a local client base in Canada, she has been utilizing Etsy to sell her cloth diapers.

Are People Really Choosing Cloth over Disposables?

“Cloth diapers are increasing in popularity”, Ms. Bassett said. While initially she noticed “her customers tended to be people who were switching to cloth diapers after having a baby or two and using disposable diapers. Now, she’s getting more people deciding to start their newborns out with cloth diapers, never having tried disposable diapers.”

Ravina reported that a cloth -v- disposable diapers breakdown by Environment Canada’s EnviroZine said that disposable diapers “represent a burden to municipal landfills and continue to deplete natural resources,” but that “concerns raised with cloth diapers are water and air pollution” – this was based on just how those families were washing and drying their diapers.

“Environment Canada said a baby will need between 5,000 and 7,000 diaper changes in the first two years of life.” That’s a lot of diaper changes – which is why Ravina’s take is that “The debate may come down to the pocketbook for most parents.”

Is the Cost Difference Substantial?

While Ms. Bassett’s cloth diapers are $21 each, they are reusable. Pampers disposable diapers cost, on average, $0.40 each, but are not reusable. Even with the lower end of the scale in diaper changes, parents will throw away $2,000 on disposable diapers, whereas a full-time cloth diaper stash at Ms. Bassett’s store will about $630 for 30 diapers.

There are several cloth diapers that sell for less – though they are mass manufactured and with less adorable fabrics and customizations. Either way, cloth diapers are a marked savings over disposable diapers, and they can be used on subsequent children.