Disposable or cloth diapers?

Getting ready to be a new parent is already overwhelming at times, and there are days when it has been difficult trying to decide what is best for our family when the baby arrives.

Like other necessary baby items, diapers have what seems to be an unlimited amount of choice.

There are various brands when it comes to disposable diapers, and every brand has different sizes and types. Usually you can save a little bit of money when you buy in bulk, or you can always try and save a few pennies by testing out to see if the generic store brands will work for your baby. You can also look into subscription or membership services that offer discounts on diapers such as through Amazon Family or the President’s Choice Insiders Program.

Cloth diapers tend to save money in the long run, but because of the extra laundry, energy and time required, it might not be suitable for everyone.

I’ve researched to see if there are environmental benefits in your diapering choice, but the debate is not clear. We all know that washing cloth diapers uses a lot of water, detergent and electrical resources, whereas disposable diapers take up landfill space. However, because a lot of these studies that I’ve found online were funded by biased resources, I wasn’t able to make an obvious conclusion.

If you are considering cloth diapering, Tidy Tushees is a local company based in West Kelowna that does all the dirty work. Their service provides the diapers, picks them up, washes the diapers and drops them back off clean and ready to go. No rinsing or soaking necessary!

“We wash about 300,000 diapers per year,” says Jaclyn Jaeger, owner of Tidy Tushees. “Our goal is to make cloth diapering easy.”

Wondering if parents have the option to use cloth diapers from the get-go? Jaeger says that they can supply diapers for newborns and babies of any age.

“We have diapers that fit down to 3 pounds,” says Jaeger. “For families interested in using our diaper service, we normally drop newborn diapers off one or two weeks before baby arrives so they can be ready for the new arrival.”

What are your experiences with disposable or cloth diapers? We invite pregnancy experts and other moms-to-be to join in on the conversation! Reach out if you have topic suggestions for this column on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook (my social media platforms are all under @weslawong), or email us at KelownaNow.