“The OG” – cotton has been the textile of choice for cloth diapering parents for years, but since it’s days as a simple flat (re: rectangular sheet of fabric you folded on baby) things have evolved. Cotton is now used in flats, prefolds, and all in one cloth diapers. There aren’t many plain cotton inserts on the market. Sometimes you gotta give credit to something that worked for generations.
Cotton is absorbent – many charts put cotton at the bottom of the list in terms of absorbency, but when you compare 100% cotton AIO cloth diapers to similar bamboo blends, or if you compare a 100% cotton prefold to a bamboo prefold, you’ll see the numbers are very similiar. Cotton is thirsty and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Organic Cotton versus Cotton – Cotton takes a huge environmental toll to grow. It’s estimated that 3% of the worlds crops is cotton, and that 3% uses 25% of the world pesticides. The difference between organic cotton and cotton is the methods in which it is grown. Organic cotton is grown without pesticide, insecticides and GMO free. Organic cotton is also about a return to sustainable farming practices. Regular cotton is just grown whatever way can drive a profit, even if it means drying up the Aral Sea, and spreading endocrine disrupters into local ecosystems.
Cotton holds up well, washes up well, and just performs well – Can I really roll three points into one thing? There’s a reason your grandma till has your original cloth diapers because cotton textiles are durable and long lasting. They do eventually show wear and tear with use, but looking at my stash I have complaints about my cotton products overtime. You’ll get some original shrinking with the first wash, but 3 years later my cotton flats and prefolds remain relatively decent size.
Cotton is cheap, even the organic cotton prefolds or flats are competitively priced in the cloth diaper market. The nice thing is you can use anything cotton to cloth diaper, so if you see a great deal on cotton towels, those will work too. Small Cotton $2.75 USD, Small Organic Cotton $3.00 USD, Small Bamboo $3.75
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