Diaper services are a great option for people who want to use cloth diapers without washing them themselves. The company will plunk sets of nice clean diapers outside your door and whisk away your bag of soiled ones on a regular basis. They’ll usually allow you to specify the size of prefolds you need, and you’ll buy the covers yourself. While prices vary across the nation, diaper services generally end up being cheaper than disposables but more expensive than home-laundered cloth diapers.
Are they better for the environment, too? With a diaper service, you’ll throw away far less garbage than disposable-users will. There is the added environmental cost of the water used to wash the diapers and the fuel used to transport the diapers to your house–but keep in mind that there are fuel costs associated with driving packs of disposables from the factories to the stores as well.
We’re hoping some of our readers have used a diaper service so we can learn a bit more about them. Please post a comment with your experiences! How much did your service cost? How convenient (or inconvenient) was this diapering method? Would you recommend a diaper service to our readers? Why or why not? Thanks for your input!
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August 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
I didn’t use a diaper service, but I wish I had. I recently found out about one in our area that uses trucks that run on biodisel and provide biodegradable wipes.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I used a diaper service for a little over a month 7 years ago. So my experience is limited. I did not know a single person who did cloth diapering at the time and looking at going back to work when my daughter was 7 weeks old made the whole thing seem daunting. I got some pretty nice covers at a garage sale and found a delivery service for cotton pre-folds. They even provided a pail and all you had to do was leave the dirty diapers on your doorstep and a new bag would be delivered every week. I think a few things went wrong, not the least of which is that I didn’t know what I was doing. For instance, I hated the way they fit on the newborn and didn’t realize that the cloth diapers fit a lot better on bigger babies. Having changed my nephew enough times, I can see that now. The main thing that made me stop the service was that my daughter had a diaper rash that wouldn’t go away and I decided it must be from the chemicals they used to wash and sanitize the diapers. My mom kept trying to convince me that it was no big deal to just wash your own diapers but I wouldn’t listen. I had read up on it and believed that if I did it myself I would have to wash them in super hot water 3 times and if my washing machine didn’t have a sanitize setting I would have to turn up my hot water heater to the point that it could be dangerous for things like, oh, washing your hands or giving a baby a bath. I was intimidated to say the least. Anyway, I don’t know if the chemicals the diaper company used caused my daughter’s rash or not. It turned out to be a yeast rash which requires antifungal cream to get rid of. I definitely think the diaper service was convenient and only slightly more expensive than disposables. I think it is worth a try if you’re not sure about cloth diapering. It can be a good way to test the waters. I would ask about their methods for washing/sanitizing. Keep in mind that if your kid is going to wear the same diaper that another kid pooped in, you’ll want the method to be pretty darned effective, but at the same time, how many chemicals do you want your baby’s tush exposed to? My experience was 7 years ago and so I’m sure there’s more info now. I think if only YOUR baby is using the diapers (you own and wash them yourself) the need for super sanitizing is reduced. I mean, your baby is not going to pass, say, hepatitis, to herself.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Eileen, you bring up a lot of interesting points. The chemicals used to wash diapers in a service could not only be bad for the baby but also for the environment. In the book Green Babies, Sage Moms (which I reviewed a while back), she recommends against ever using a diaper service because she had never heard of one that didn’t use chlorine bleach. I haven’t looked into it, but I would think it would be possible for a service to use eco-friendly detergent and boiling water to sanitize the diapers. Clearly I have to do more research on this!
August 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hi, I live in Portland and enjoy your blog but have never commented.
We use a cloth diaper service for our 3-month-old. We have had the service since she was born. Between jobs, life and the overwhelmed-ness of being first time parents, the service made it easy for us to get on the right foot with cloth diapering. I load the cloth diapers into the wraps each evening in preparation for the next day and they are as easy as using disposables. Our service costs $18 per week. We are happy with the service but are now transitioning to using bum genius wraps.
I know there are people who contend that diaper services are “green” enough. I’m a careful, thoughtful parent so we did not choose this direction lightly. It worked the best for our household. Bottomline is that when we first brought our daughter home (and the service hadn’t started yet), I threw away 13 disposable diapers a day! And felt terrible about it. I wish more parents considered a diaper service instead of disposables when they first start diapering. It is simple and easy. And I guarantee it will get them off and running in the cloth direction.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Hey Ali,
Thanks for posting your very first comment! It sounds like the service worked well for you in those first few months. Using a diaper service right at the beginning can be a sanity-saver for sleep-deprived parents who have to deal with such frequent diaper changes. I know a couple people who used a service in the beginning and then transitioned to home-laundering, as you are. Good luck with the bumGeniuses–they’re great!
August 26th, 2008 at 9:17 am
We currently use a cloth diaper service for our 5 month old son. I LOVE our diaper service, and here’s why.
A) Our service is a family owned-operated venture. Gina personally came out and dropped of our first bundle, diaper pail, and even helped me diaper my squirmy boy. She also brings along a teddy to demonstrate on. Her husband is the delivery driver and handles the pick up/drop offs.
B) One occassion there was a mix up (2 clients, same last name) and the wrong diapers were dropped off. The problem was solved by the next morning.
C) Gina is so committed to cloth diapering that she picks out disposable wipes if a client uses them and leaves them in with the dirties. I know some places charge a fee if this happens.
D) NO rinsing, swishing, soaking, or wet pail required. Simply dump used diaper, contents and all, into the lined pail. Diaper day the liner gets removed, tied and dirties are placed outside. By midmorning/early afternoon a fresh bundle and pail liner appear like magic!
Our service is $60/mo (or $15/wk) for 80 diapers/week. However, the system only gives us back what we turn in, so watching how much we use and increasing/decreasing our service changes the price.
We do supplement with cloth inserts we wash at home, and we use Fuzzi Bunz as our night diapers. We could use the diaper service for this, but because our son is sleeping for longer and we nurse at night, it’s more convenient for all for us to leave him in a more absorbant diaper for longer.
Chandra