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Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site …
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Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
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When You Can't Afford Diapers

Charitable and creative solutions

Posted by Arwen Mosher in Health on Tuesday, April 05, 2011 10:37 PM

Wouldn’t it be awful if you couldn’t afford to change your baby’s diaper every time he needed it?

There are a lot of people who can’t. I imagine this article, from a New York news channel, gives only a tiny glimpse of the bigger problem.

Providing diapers to low-income families is an important mission, and this charity, The Diaper Bank, is tackling it. You can read more about them at their website. I know that local pregnancy care centers also often collect and distribute donations of diapers, so there’s another way to help.

Cloth diapering seems like a good solution to the “diapers are expensive” problem, since you can reuse them - but many cloth diapering systems call for a substantial initial investment. We use pocket diapers at our house, and although they’ve saved us money in the long run, it was a big one-time cost at the beginning. Many low-income families can’t manage that.

In the early 1980s when I was born, and before fancy cloth diapers were around, my parents were quite poor and used cloth diapers out of necessity. The simple gauze squares, diaper pins, and plastic covers that my mom dragged to the laundromat every few days might not have been as convenient as disposables - but they were extremely affordable!

Almost 30 years later, it seems like most people aren’t aware that cheap cloth diapering is even still an option. That’s why I was very happy to read this article at a cloth-diapering blog today: “Almost Free Diapers - How to diaper your baby when you can’t afford disposable diapers or cloth diapers”.

This creative article is all about how to diaper your baby with items you already have around the house - and includes instructions for washing the diapers if you don’t have access to a washer and dryer. Such useful information!

As the author of the article points out, you never know when you’ll find yourself in reduced financial circumstances or (heaven forbid) an emergency situation - and these suggestions could be useful in minor emergencies, too.

image credit

Comments
7
Filed under articles, cloth diapers, creativity, diapering, disposable diapers, finances, solutions

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 
Posted by Rachel on Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 10:01 AM (EDT):

after my last baby was done with cloth diapering, i donated our diapering supplies (cloth diapers, snappy fasteners, covers, diaper pail, diaper pail liners, reusable fabric baby wipes) to a low income family who was looking for cloth diapers. if anyone out there is interested in doing this, go to mothering.com, they can help you find a family in your area.

and what about wet wipes? reusable cloth baby wipes are very easy to make, i sewed mine out of old clothing, flannel, baby towels, baby blankets ~ cut into squares, sew 2 squares together. use warm water, then after use they can be thrown in the wash & reused many times (then you never have to buy/use wet wipes which saves money, too)

 
Posted by Laura on Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 2:29 PM (EDT):

My friend is a pediatrician in a rough area on the south side of Chicago, and she says she routinely sees children with awful diaper rashes because their parents aren’t changing their diapers frequently enough - but they’re forced to stretch their diaper budget because it’s so expensive. She says it’s heart-breaking to see, but the reality of the working poor in this country is that many, many families are forced to make tough decisions like that every day: diapers or groceries? diapers or rent? We who find ourselves in much more comfortable situations do well to remember this and act/give accordingly. Thanks for another good reminder.

 
Posted by Emily on Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 7:34 PM (EDT):

I remember working out the costs of disposable vs cloth back when we were still living in an apartment and had to use a laundromat.  They came out to about the same in the end. :-(

 
Posted by Claire on Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 8:18 PM (EDT):

Depending on the situation, the cost can be very comparable.  In fact, some people who are really good at couponing get disposables for next to nothing.

 
Posted by LRoy on Sunday, Apr 10, 2011 3:09 PM (EDT):

I am almost 49 years old. Me and my brother…as well as millions of other people my age had cloth diapers.  There was no such thing as disposables in those days.
I even remember diaper services who made house deliveries, which like the milk man, no longer exist that I am aware of.
Sometimes the old ways were the best.

 
Posted by Claire on Sunday, Apr 10, 2011 4:38 PM (EDT):

Yes, diaper services still exist, and they are way more expensive than using disposables.

 
Posted by bea on Thursday, May 5, 2011 1:55 PM (EDT):

I also live in Chicago.  I think cloth diapers are a great option, but in many places (like Chicago), you cannot wash diapers or anything else containing body fluids in a laundromat.  It’s illegal.  If you don’t have your own washer and dryer, choosing cloth diapers simply isn’t an option.


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