Hi JRB,
If you turn the calendar back many years, I'd say cloth diapers were way ahead of disposable diapers in saving money. Disposable diapers were so bad that you went thru a lot of them and still had to deal with laundry from leaks and wet clothing and bedding and clean up of furniture and so on. While there were not any decent adult cloth diapers, you had to improvise but cloth was cheap to acquire.
The good disposable diapers we have today (Abena X-Plus and similar) have largely eliminated the leaks and offer extended wear time free of changing hassles.
These days good adult cloth diapers are readily available but high cost certainly can be a turn off for anyone wearing disposables who may be thinking about cloth diapering.
And laundry always has been a factor in cloth diapering. Most come to terms with the chore, a few never will and choose to stick with disposables.
As for the actual cost anylsis...I know it's been done and probably is on the web someplace....cost of water and detergent and energy for heating water, running the washer and drying.......and I'm sure it's substantial.
Most agree that cloth diapers rule the overnights for keeping pajamas and bedding dry. So a lot of folks use both; disposables by day and cloth by night, getting the best of both worlds: a diaper that provides good security and disappears under clothing for day time and secure cloth diapering to keep the bed dry overnight. Diaper laundry isn't as bad, often no more than twice a week.
My thoughts run along the lines of: It may be only slightly more economical....cost wise, for those of us wearing cloth 24/7 compared to wearing good disposables 24/7
I totally agree with Boomer that comfort and security keeps me in cloth diapers no matter what the cost comparison might be.
JoeK
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