With the economy in a downward spiral, some parents are sniffing out savings by jettisoning disposable diapers and switching to reusable cloth diapers for their children.
Danielle Tassin of Covinton, La., has two children in diapers, and the costs were starting to pile up. After a rough couple of years that included losing most of their possessions to Hurricane Katrina and a fall that left her husband unable to work, Tassin decided to start using cloth diapers.
She has spent about $300 total so far on cloth diapers for her 17-month-old and 3-year-old. But she said she has saved hundreds of dollars, because disposable diapers would have cost her about $20 a week.
For those who turn up their noses at the idea of stained cloths and safety pins, these aren't your grandma's cloth diapers.
There are all-in-one models that snap on like a normal diaper, or versions that can be used with a disposable liner.
With such names as bumGenius and FuzziBunz and an array of colors and fabrics, "They're adorable," said Caite Mackey, who was shopping recently at Circle Me, a new cloth-diaper store in Lincoln, Neb. "I think it's going to pick up as soon as people realize it's not as difficult as they think."
Mackey registered at Circle Me so people coming to her baby shower could buy diapers to help build up her stash. She also made some of her own diapers out of old T-shirts and sweaters for her first child, a girl born in March.
Susie Arevalo of Diaper Decisions, an online business-resource center for cloth-diaper sellers, said that stores are telling her that sales have increased in recent months, and several online stores contacted by The Associated Press said that they are selling more cloth diapers.
There are some high-profile proponents of cloth: Actresses Julia Roberts and Maggie Gyllenhaal and musician Dave Matthews have all said they used cloth diapers with their children.
Most people still use disposable diapers. Stuart Schneider, the brand director for Huggies, said that sales in the diaper category haven't been down, although some people are buying cheaper disposable diapers and that Huggies is promoting money-saving awards systems.
Cloth diapers are a "fairly large" niche market, estimated at about $200 million a year, according to Mintel International Group Ltd., a market-research company based in Chicago.
People bought $2.8 billion in disposable diapers and training pants in 2007, and Mintel's research shows that 83 percent of diaper users had used disposable diapers or training pants in the past six months.
"We haven't seen a movement of people out of disposable diapers to cloth diapers," Schneider said.
Huggies is a brand of Kimberly-Clark Corp. of Dallas Schneider said that once you add up the initial investment in cloth diapers and the water and energy to clean them, cloth isn't any cheaper.
Some parents disagree, and there are other reasons they turn to reusable diapers, too, including the assumption that they are better for the environment.
Cloth advocates point out that disposable diapers make up the third-largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers.
On the other hand, disposable-diaper producers point to studies showing that cloth-diaper use increases water and energy costs and also sends more detergents down the drain.
But for some parents, cloth seems less sanitary. There's the unpleasant task of getting the solid waste into the toilet, then throwing the rest in the washing machine, which may seem a bit, well, icky.
"I just could imagine how big of a hassle that would be," said Britney McGinnis, whose husband is stationed at Offutt Air Force Base south of Omaha. She said she never considered using cloth with her 5-month-old son, Ryan.
"I get grossed out with him pooping on his clothes," she said. "I wash those separately because I don't want them to touch my other clothes."
But the rinsing and washing is "not that big of a deal," said Sarah Breakfield of Denver, who has two children ages 1 and almost 3.
She has a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet's water supply line. She rinses the worst of the waste into the toilet, then throws the diaper into a pail for washing every two days.
Breakfield said that her electricity bill has gone up about $3 a month since she started using cloth diapers eight months ago. Still, she said she has saved hundreds of dollars.
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