Money Saved: The Cost of Cloth Diapers

There are a a host of contentions showing why it's important to consider alternatives to using disposable diapers. However, the benefits with the greatest impact are the benefits for the wallet and the benefits to the environment.
When starts researching cloth diapers, one may be surprised by the "sticker price" of good cloth diapers. Prices up to $20 per cloth diaper is not unusual. Every baby requires at least 10 to 20 cloth diapers to stop the need to do too many loads of laundry each week. The initial cost can be as much as $400. Since cloth diapers can be used over and over and sizable, they can be used for babies from 7 to 35 pounds. The reusability makes it the only product expense for around two to four years.
What is the financial benefits of cloth diapers? Lets look at disposable diaper costs first:
An average baby uses about 8 disposable diapers per day at a cost of $0.30 per disposable diaper. At this cost, the disposable diapers will cost $875 annually. By the end of 3 years, the average time a baby is in diapers, you would have spent $2,625 on disposable diapers.
Lets take a look at how much cloth diapers cost:
20 sizable reusable cloth diapers cost $400,as is stated above.
That's all there is to it. We also need to figure in the extra charge for washing cloth diapers. The laundry expense is only about $1. 50 a wash and you will complete around 3 a week or fewer which adds to be $235 a year x 3 years = $705. Over three years your total cost for cloth diapers is $1105.
Compare these two choices over a period of three years:
Disposable diapers: $2,625.00
Cloth Diapers: $1,105.00
Savings from cloth diapers: $1,520
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Savings per year: $506.00
Saving $506.00 each year by using cloth diapers is just the start. There are serious environmental benefits as well.
Environmental Factors
* Over the course of the diapering phase, one baby will contribute between 8,000 and 10,000 disposable diapers to landfills.
* It takes upwards of 500 years to decompose a disposable diaper, if left in open air and sunlight. In a landfill, the waste covering the diaper means that it will never decompose.
* Fecel disposal is illegal in landfills, but this is not enforced where disposable diapers are concerned. One danger in disposable diapers is the leakage factor, which contaminates groundwater, spreading polio and other serious diseases.
Chlorinated plastics used to manufacture disposable diapers have generated dioxins, which have been linked to liver disease, immune system suppression, birth deformities, cancer and genetic abnormalities in laboratory animals.
Many families can benefit directly from alternatives to disposable diapers, through cost-savings and avoiding health hazards to babies, while at the same time helping save the environment from their negative impact. Using cloth diapers can save a family money in addition to saving the Earth.

Article Source: http://www.ezx-articles.com

Eco friendly baby products, including cloth diapers and other natrual, and organic baby gear, are introduced to parents by Dawn Michelle. She is an expert at saving families money by recommending non-toxic options. www.BabySproutNaturals.com

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