Ten Responses to Use when Faced with Cloth Diaper Criticism

As any cloth diapering mama knows, there is a lot of criticism about using cloth diapers out there.  Even if cloth diapering is becoming more and more mainstream, it is still sometimes viewed as a time suck, taking a step backwards, gross, not as good for the baby, or too much hassle.  It can get frustrating and even overwhelming to a new mother who has decided to use cloth when she is faced with tons of negative comments.  Especially since cloth diapering is a learning process anyway and you typically feel unsure of yourself to begin with.

So here are the top ten criticisms I have faced in regards to cloth diapering and ways they can be dealt with.
1)  That is disgusting.  I don't want to put poop in my washing machine.  My common answer to this one is a simple so anytime your baby has a blow out diaper are you going to throw those clothes away?  Because it seems to me like during the newborn explosive poo phase that practice could get expensive.

2)  That is so gross.  I don't want to handle that much poop.  Answer:  Well then maybe you shouldn't have kids.  Child rearing is gross on many days and levels.  Some days I get covered in a multitude of different bodily fluids.  You just have to roll with the punches (and hopefully wash your hands.)

3)  They are too expensive of an investment.  Cost savings in using cloth  I usually just point out stats like this.  I calculated that my diapers would start paying for themselves at the one year mark.  So anything after one year is saving money.  Anything with baby number two would be super extra money saving (you know if I could quite just having to have the newest and cutest designs.) You could also point out that enough prefolds and covers can be bought to cloth diaper a baby for less than a hundred bucks.

4)  The baby will have more rashes with cloth diapers.  This just isn't true at all.  If anything disposables make the baby more rash prone because they can't breathe as well as cloth diapers can.  The Real Diaper Association says there is no difference in diaper rash occurrence in cloth diapers or disposables.  (There is a great informative link on their site, see here.)

5)  It takes too much time to wash, stuff, etc.  cloth diapers.  I was getting this a lot so I kept up with the time it took me in a week to do everything cloth diaper related.  It was about an hour.  So yes, it does take slightly more time than using disposables would.  But not really when you consider that you have to go to the store to buy the disposable diapers.  I figure it all balances out in the end.

6)  It will raise the water bill too much.  Or an alternative is that it wastes too much water.  Again in my personal experience, yes my water bill did go up slightly.  But it is still far cheaper than spending 20 bucks a week in disposables.  Especially since my kid is the poopingest kid ever and still goes through 6-8 diapers a day even at 16 months.  Heck some days he has hit ten diapers.  And according to the Real Diaper Association, "The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth."  (See link here.)

7)  Disposables are just as safe and healthy for babies as cloth.  My answer is that there are known chemicals that cause cancer in lab animals that are used in the manufacture of cloth diapers.  Why chance it?  Some links I like that back that up are:  http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php
http://www.whyclothdiaper.com/2011/05/23/cloth-vs-disposables-health-benefits/
http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/are-disposable-diapers-really-that-bad/

8)  My child potty trained early even in disposables.  Okay so yay for your child.  But the majority of children don't potty train until closer to three.  If I can speed that process up even by a little bit, I am thankful for that.  I hate changing diapers.  Kids in cloth diapers feel wet (especially if you are using organic fibers.)  This leads them to potty train slightly earlier than their disposable diapered counterparts.

9)  I never had leaks in my disposables.  Again maybe the person didn't.  But in my personal experience and in talking with many cloth diaper users, diaper blowouts are much less frequent or non existent in cloth diapers.  That was why I was so excited when Destructo's belly button had healed enough to start using cloth.  I was tired of having to change his clothes 8 times a day when his diaper leaked.  I nearly never (at least before my leg elastics wore out on my Bumgenius diapers) had poop leaks.  And only occasional pee leaks and usually only when he is napping on his stomach. 

10)  Disposable diapers are just as cute as cloth.  Okay so I have never actually heard this one.  But if I did, I wouldn't hesitate to call the person crazy.  Cloth diapers after all are adorable.  And isn't that why we all cloth diaper?  I mean I need matching diapers to my son's outfits!

I mean come on what is cuter than a sports diaper?