I have some strong opinions on cloth diapers. I’ll explain why I don’t use them and never will. If you choose to try them by all means try them because you may love them. Who knows but I won’t and here is why…

Item 1: Odor

The smell. Diapers smell and keeping them around the house is not my idea of a good idea. Yes, there are air tight containers but see my next point…

Item 2: Sanitation

I feel it is unsanitary to keep human feces in the house outside of a toilet or a garbage can. I do not wish to have such in my bedroom, nursery, laundry room or any other room. Human feces can lead to infection and sickness when not handled properly so my opinion is that if they are handled the least that decreases the chance for any potential negative.

Item 3: Technology

There are many things that go into the creation and manufacture of diapers. Some of these things are the shape of the body, the movements of crawling and walking, absorbency, biodegradability, etc. Diapers have come a long way even in the past ten years. All of these factors weigh in. Cloth diapers are not as absorbent nor do they wick away moisture away from the skin, nor do they have wet indicators so you know if they are wet. The fact that they wick away moisture from the skin means less possible diaper rashes. These things are all very cool technological benefits built right into to a convenient little package .

Item 4: Extra Laundry

In my house (recall I have six kids) there are already mountains of laundry. Another load would mean another mountain and with the twins in diapers currently I don’t even want to think about what that would be like!

Item 5: Leaks

If you’ve ever experienced a diaper leak you wish you hadn’t. The absorbency of disposable diapers is incredible. Cloth diapers are much more likely to leak being that the absorbency is so much less.

Item 6: Ouch!

I have one memory from being under the age of 2 and that memory is clear as day. I was being changed by my father and my parents were using cloth diapers at that time. They had these fabulous diaper pins that had these blue animal shaped tops. Then the pain! I was poked… in the butt. I don’t know if this was a result of my squirming or what but I’ll never forget that pain. Also, heaven forbid you poke your child in the ass they could get an infection from their own business. Not a pleasant idea. But in fairness, some cloth diapers do not need pins these days.

Pros:

Okay, so I have to admit that there are some things about cloth diapers that are worth noting on the plus side…

There are less diapers landfills thanks to those who use cloth diapers. But if you get biodegradable diapers this point is nil. Just sayin’.

Cost savings. Yes, possibly, but not worth it in my opinion.