The first obstacle for many moms wanting to cloth diaper can be getting their husbands to realize that cloth diapering really isn’t that bad–and can actually be FUN!
Having trouble convincing your little one’s daddy to try cloth? I understand! My husband wasn’t so keen on it at first either–but now he touts the benefits to other parents!
I recently surveyed some other mommies to find out what convinced their hubbies to give cloth a try. Check out their suggestions:
1. Show him how much money you’ll save.
On average your child will go through 9,000 diapers from birth until you successfully potty train your child. Now assuming the average case of diapers bought is the 100 ct, that’s 90 cases of diapers per child. At an average price of $40 per case you’re looking at $3,600 in lifetime costs per child. This number is an average and is on the conservative side. With cloth, you can save anywhere between $2,000 and $3,000 per child! The cloth diaper option can be a one time expense (or can be scaled into) that saves you lots of money over time.
2. Show him how easy modern cloth diapers are.
It’s true that many people still use and love traditional prefolds, but modern cloth diapers, such as pockets and all-in-ones, are a viable option for daddies who want the easiest diaper possible. In fact, many daddies feel like these types of diapers are just as easy to use as disposables! My book, Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert, gives details about how to use each type of diaper.
If you think about it, after you change the disposable diaper you have to make a trip to the garbage or diaper genie. With a cloth diaper you either make a trip to the toilet to flush the biodegradable flushable liner or if you have a different type of cloth diaper you empty the poop into the toilet. Either way you have to get up and do something with your diaper.
3. Show him the research on the health benefits of cloth diapers.
Traditional disposable diapers are made of hydrocarbon (i.e. crude oil) based chemicals. Some of these chemicals, more appropriately identified as toxins, include Tributylin, Sodium Polyacrylate and Dioxin. Baby skin is very sensitive and absorbent and simply put the disposable diaper chemicals mentioned above get absorbed by their skin. Studies are inconclusive on the long-term affects of exposure to these chemicals, but why take a chance?
4. Show him how cute and comfy they are.
Now, not all daddies really care what their little one is wearing, but some might! What dad would choose scratchy paper diaper over a blue Superman for their boy or a pink princess diaper for their girl? You might just have a case here!
5. Show him that YOU will do the diaper changing.
So, it’s ideal that dads will pitch in, but sometimes it takes drastic measures to convince them to switch to cloth. If your husband is really, really hesitant, why not volunteer to take over diaper duty during a trial period? Once he sees you doing it and how easy it is, he might be volunteering to pitch in in no time!
What convinced my hubby? The savings! However, since then, he also sees that cloth diapers are really just as easy to use as disposables!
And like I said last week: Poop is poop–no matter what type of diaper catches it!
How did YOU convince your little one’s daddy to make the switch to cloth?
My eBook, Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert, is a 200+-page handbook that will tell you all you need to know to have a successful cloth diapering journey! To read more about this book, click here.
Kristy
I remember when we first started using cloth diapers. It wasn’t to help the environment, save money, or anything smart for that matter. It was simply because our baby was highly allergic to disposables. Quite honestly I was in shock. I knew my husband had been allergic as a baby but our first daughter wore disposables just fine. When I suddenly had a baby whose hiney looked burnt & was in constant pain, I was thrown into a very overwhelming world of cloth. Our 1st diapers were Bum Genius AIO. (the closest thing I could find to sposies 😉 lol Fast fwd. 6 yrs. and you will find me a changed woman! I not only use cloth for all my babies now, but I LOVE it! So does my husband!! We also use cloth wipes for the babies and the rest of my kiddos. I use mama cloth as well. As funky as this may sound, I am so thankful my daughter forced me to enter the world of cloth! Not only did I discover a healthy way to diaper my children, but I met so many wonderful women who opened my eyes to living a more healthy lifestyle in general. I am forever grateful!
Brandy
My boyfriend and I discussed cloth diapers for a whole 5 minutes before he was all into it, and EXCITED. It was strange, hearing all these battles women have with their SO’s, and not having to ‘prove my case’ so to say. I feel cheated! ha ha!
I have a cloth diapering/disposable diaper price comparison on my blog, if you want to check it out.
Charity
My husband was super easy to talk into cloth diapers especially when I told him how much we’d save. We have both prefolds and pocket OS diapers. He has no problem changing her if she’s in the pocket diapers, but he will not change the baby if she’s in prefolds. In fact I rarely use them anymore either. Such a pain to use.
Gloria
At the time I cut my hours at work to part time and we really needed to cut costs. He was on board when he realized how much money it would save us. Plus I offered to wash the diapers, and as long as I had the pockets already stuffed, he was on board with using them too!
steviferg
Any tips for helping him get the hang of diaper laundry? My hubby and I split laundry duty, but he seems to find the diaper process “complicated” because it’s different than how he’s always done laundry. It’s also been tough to break him of the fabric softener habit, even though I’m using dryer balls for all of the loads I do…
Alyssa Marie Thys
Great article! I want to cloth diaper when we have kids but my husband is skeptical. I think the money issue will eventually change his mind.
Julie
We’ve cloth diapered three of our five earth babies and the hubs gave me trouble each time. The first time I did it simply for the cost savings. I’d gone back to work after each of our first two babies but with our third I was finally a SAHM. We needed to be careful about money so cloth diapering was a big way to do that. He protested but quickly learned how to change the prefolds and covers. He even set up a super cheap diaper sprayer that worked horribly.lol. He finally came to the realization that I was saving him a boatload of money when our son was a toddler and I sent the hubs to the store for some disposables. He came home and said, “We can’t afford to do that anymore. Use the cloth.”
With our second he protested again but my mom sent a gift of money to buy some nice unbleached prefolds, covers and the brand new (at the time) Fuzzibunz. DH liked the pockets and all went well until the economy went south, we had to move in with my mom for a while and she refused to let me wash diapers in her washing machine.
When we had our last baby, DH absolutely refused. He said if I was going to cloth diaper I would be changing the baby and he wasn’t going to touch a cloth diaper. I thought, “What a jerk!” and proceeded to buy cute cloth for my baby girl. DH wasn’t kidding so since I knew I was going to have to have a c-section and wouldn’t be able to lug the wetbag out to the washing machine for a few weeks, I kept all the disposables we were gifted to give myself some time to recover from the surgery. They lasted just 7.5 weeks. I had a rough recovery so that stunk. Of course, the incredibly disappointing GroVia newborns had plenty of leaks and I had to change the baby a lot but my husband took pity on my and started helping. He gave me a hard time for months. I’m not sure what changed his mind but pretty soon he started talking about the benefits of cloth, monetary savings, of course, being the biggest draw, and he even thanked me for using cloth. It was really nice to finally have some help and be appreciated.