When you become a parent, along with the cuddles, the snuggles, the giggles and the fun bonding times, you also accept the realities of parenting, such as your child puking, pooping and peeing everywhere! At first, you might find yourself dreading a diaper change. Still, slowly you will see yourself as a diapering ninja who is an expert in putting a diaper on, taking it off, washing the diapers and stashing them after the laundry day!
Diapering is not just an activity or a task for new parents. On average, a child would be ultimately potty trained by the age of three. Thus, diapering becomes an integral part of a parent’s parenting journey. And with diapering comes the mathematics and calculations of how many diapers you would need and how much you would spend on newborn diapers. Raising a newborn is expensive, and newborn diapers can be costly; thus, knowing the facts and details would help you make better decisions and choices and thus save money.
So, based on which kind of diaper you would go for, a simple calculation will help you understand how many diapers you would need.
How Many Disposable Newborn Diapers Do I Need?
Say you decided to go ahead with disposable newborn diapers. Here are some facts associated with newborn poop:
- Babies poop around five to six times a day for the first six weeks. Count 1 extra diaper for the night, which means you would need a minimum of 210 – 220 newborn diapers in this phase.
- Between 6 weeks and three months, the poop frequency of babies reduces, and they poop 3 – 4 times a day. Count one extra diaper for night time, and you would need 170 – 180 extra newborn diapers till the age of 3 months.
- The average number of poops would be three per day until you start solid food for your baby. So, considering you will introduce solids at six months and consider one extra diaper for the night, you will need 360 – 370 additional newborn diapers in this phase.
- Adding the math up, you will need at least 750 – 800 newborn diapers during the first six months.
Branded disposable newborn diapers would cost you around Rs. 10 per diaper. Thus, in the first six months alone, you will end up spending a minimum of Rs. 8000 on diapers alone. And this will continue till the age of around 3, till your baby is entirely potty trained.
How Many Cloth Newborn Diapers Do I Need?
You must have heard all cloth diapering parents tell you that cloth diapers are cheaper than disposable diapers. So let us try to understand if this is true. Let us calculate how many newborn diapers you would need if you decide to start a cloth diapering journey and avoid disposable diapers. And let us also understand if this is cheaper or if that is just a myth!
- If you are using reusable, washable diapers, the whole idea is to reuse them, so by default, of course, the number of diapers you would need will be less.
- Let us go with the above calculations for the number of poops and newborn diapers changes per day. The maximum at any given stage is 5 – 6 diaper changes per day. Considering one extra night time diaper, you would need a maximum of 6 – 7 diapers on any given day.
- With a newborn in the house, the number of other baby clothes put in the laundry is also higher, so let us say you have an alternate day laundry cycle.
- Considering your laundry cycle, you would need a maximum of 12 – 14 cloth newborn diapers for the diapering journey!
A superior quality cloth diaper such as SuperBottoms UNO would cost you around 650 – 699 Rs. per diaper. So, isn’t the cost of cloth diapering as much as the calculations we did for the disposable diapers above?
Yes, but do not forget that once you have invested in cloth diapers, they last for up to 300 washes. You can keep using cloth diapers until your baby is potty trained. Not just this, you can also pass cloth diapers on to your next child or any other newborn babies in the family. One wash, a hot wash rinse, drying in direct sunlight, and cloth diapers are as good as new and ready for the next child in the family to use!
The Choice Is Simple!
By choosing cloth over plastic, and reusable newborn diapers over disposable ones, you are making a choice that is not just economical and sustainable, but you are also making a sensible choice of keeping the toxins and harmful chemicals away from your baby’s sensitive body and giving them what’s best for them! Happy Diapering!
