Cloth Diaper

A cloth diaper is fabric worn by babies and young children to absorb their bodily wastes. Most cloth diapers are made of cotton, but some are made of other natural fibers, such as hemp or bamboo. Cloth diapers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors.

Traditional cloth diapers are rectangular pieces of fabric that are fastened with safety pins or adhesive tape. They are worn with a waterproof covering, often made of wool or synthetic fabric, to prevent leakage. Prefolded diapers are similar to traditional diapers but have a padded layer in the center. Contoured diapers are like prefolds but have an hourglass shape to better fit around the baby’s legs. Fitted diapers are shaped diapers with elastic at the legs and back. They have built-in fasteners, such as snaps or Velcro. Pocket diapers are fitted diapers made of several layers of materials, with a waterproof material for the outer layer and a highly absorbent material for the inner layer. They are used with an absorbent insert. All-in-one diapers are similar to pocket diapers but have a built-in insert. Like pocket diapers, they do not require an additional waterproof covering. Variations on the all-in-ones include the all-in-twos and hybrid diapers, which contain inserts of highly absorbent material.

Brief History

Diapers have been used since ancient times, although the early diapers did not resemble the cloth diapers used today. In ancient times people used strips of material—linen, wool, flannel, or animal skin—they wrapped around an infant’s body. Over time, rectangular- or square-shaped fabric replaced the strips and covered a child’s buttocks rather than the entire body. In the 1880s Maria Allen manufactured cloth diapers, much like modern prefolds. The fabric was folded over and fastened with large safety pins. The following decade saw the introduction of rubber baby pants to waterproof the cloth diapers. Diapers quickly became popular, and by the late 1930s diaper services were operating in the United States. Companies collected dirty diapers and delivered clean ones as needed, eliminating the onerous chore of laundering dirty diapers.

By the 1940s diapers and rubber pants were a staple for European and American babies. Innovators began to transform the basic cloth diaper and rubber pants. Sewing the material from a plastic shower curtain onto a cotton diaper, Marion Donovan created a diaper with a waterproof covering in 1946. She continued to refine the design, adding snaps to replace the safety pins. She also created a disposable paper diaper, but it was not mass-produced. Donovan began manufacturing her Boater design in the 1950s.

In 1961 Procter & Gamble introduced a disposable diaper with more absorbent material and a more fitted shape that launched the widespread use of disposable diapers. Disposable diapers offered many features that appealed to consumers: they were highly absorbent, came in different sizes, fastened with tape instead of pins, and did not need to be laundered. As their popularity increased, the use of cotton diapers declined.

Cloth Diapers Today

While cloth diapers were once the norm, they are less commonplace today. The majority of American consumers use disposable diapers, with an estimated 90 percent of the diapers used in the United States in 2024 being disposables.

Disposable diapers offer many advantages: they require no laundering, can be thrown out, and are convenient to use. They are easy to carry for changes away from home, eliminating the burden of returning with soiled diapers. They also are more absorbent than cloth diapers, keeping babies drier—an important factor in diaper rash prevention—and resulting in fewer leaks.

Cloth diapers, on the other hand, cost less per diaper than disposables, are reusable, and usually are made of natural materials that are free of chemicals such as chlorine. Advocates of cloth diapers also claim that cloth diapers may encourage early toilet training, as children find wet and soiled diapers uncomfortable.

Cloth versus Disposable Debate

For several decades, people have debated the use of cloth diapers versus disposable diapers. The debate focuses on the diapers’ costs, health benefits, impact on the environment, and issues of social responsibility.

Advocates of cloth diapers cite an economic advantage, claiming the overall cost to use diapers is less for cloth users than disposables. They also maintain that the natural materials used in cloth diapers are healthier. Perhaps the biggest argument, however, is that cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly than disposables because they produce less waste and consume less of Earth’s resources because they are reusable.

An estimated 200 billion disposable diapers were being discarded throughout the world in 2024. In the United States, about 58.4 million were being thrown away per day. This amounted to about 3.75 million tons of diaper waste per year. Advocates of disposable diapers acknowledge that disposables produce vast quantities of waste that ends up in landfills, but they claim that this is less harmful than the environmental damage caused by producing and using cloth diapers. They cite the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from cotton production as being higher than that of disposables, as is the water consumption to grow cotton and launder cloth diapers. They believe that these are more detrimental to the planet’s health than waste in landfills. They also point out practices of the cotton industry that are harmful to the environment and society. Growing cotton requires large amounts of fertilizers. Most cotton today is grown in countries that lack stringent environmental regulations. Cotton growing is a water-intensive industry. Using cotton diapers requires laundering, which consumes not just more water than disposables, but also more detergent and energy resources. Fertilizers in soils pollute rivers, lakes, and the public water supply. Many cotton manufacturers engage in unethical labor practices, using forced labor and paying very low wages in unsafe working conditions. In comparison, brand-name disposable diapers such as Huggies and Pampers are made in the United States, where there are greater regulations to protect the environment and labor.

In 2008 Britain’s Environment Agency updated an earlier study and concluded there was no significant difference in the environmental impact of producing cloth or disposable diapers. Instead, it found consumers’ laundry habits of cloth diapers had a significant environmental effect and could either decrease or increase carbon dioxide emissions. For example, using energy-efficient washing machines and line-drying diapers significantly reduced the environmental impact of cloth diapers, giving them an ecological advantage over disposables. The converse, however, resulted in much higher environmental impact, giving disposables the ecological advantage.

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