WichiTalk

I’m no longer diapering, but we saved money - in the long run - by using cotton diapers. I was a customer for the former Cottontails Diaper Service in Wichita in the 1998-2000 time frame (the website listed above is Chantal’s present website). As it turned out, we were neighbors so that was nice - but not having to wash the diapers at first, when I was recovering from my c-section was even nicer. Later, as she began to wind down her business in Wichita, I had opportunities to buy “gently used” cotton diapers.

She mentioned in her old website and I believe the info is still available on her new website, that cotton diapered babies will potty train sooner because they can’t stand the wet diaper on their bottoms. Thus no need to buy diapers for toddlers who are 2 or 3 or 4 years old and still not potty trained, the way it is with these newer paper diapers.

We found that to be true, and potty-training our son was amazingly less pain and hassle then what I was hearing from other moms who used paper diapers.

Now, before I get labeled as some goody-goody, I will go on record here and I’m just as pressed for time as anyone so I *did* use paper diapers at NIGHT - why? because I didn’t want to wake up any more than I had to!!! But - that didn’t seem to slow down the potty-training progress, because right at about 15-18 months, soon after my son started walking, he began being more fussy and pointing at his diaper and wanting it off whenever it was wet in the daytime. We got him the little potty chairs and put him on it and he really caught on fast (seeing his dad helped too, and we just talked about what he needed to do.

So anyway….this is digressing off topic and not really on how to save money on diapers - but, just buying 3-4 dozen diapers from places like Chantal’s website or literally dozens of other cotton diaper sources online, it seems like a huge investment at first, and it is, but it’s renewable - it’s a “Green” Thing to do - the diapers get washed, rinsed, cleaned, get them absolutely clean (so as to prevent diaper rash - and we had very little diaper rash too, even with the cotton diapers) - dried, the only cost from that initial investment is your water, energy for heating water, your soaps or detergents, and your dryer energy costs.

If you are fortunate enough to live in a non-covenant neighborhood where you are allowed to have a clothes line in your back yard, then so much the better - solar and wind power at your beck and call to dry your cotton diapers!!

And when the kid is out of diapers?? the cotton diapers make excellent nose wipies, dust clothes, cleaning rags (one at a time! Not at the same time!!) etc.

Other then that, I saved money or at least my time and effort buying those big bales of Huggies at Sam’s whole sale. I’m sure it could have been cheaper by the individual packages if I had wanted to stay awake scouring coupons but no more then I was using them, maybe one or two at night, they lasted a long time before I had to replenish my supply of paper diapers.