We cloth diapered as well. I don’t know if it really helped my son, but it definitely incentivized me to stick with it through those pretty stressful first few days and weeks.

With respect to potty training, I can really recommend cloth diapers for 3 reasons (in order of importance):

cost: We estimated the total costs before we started with our first child, and they would end up costing about the same as disposable diapers, however we have used them for 2 kids now :-)

potty training: Both our kids were potty trained at the age of 2, with little extraordinary effort, meaning the effort was constantly more since we have to clean the diapers. Indeed scraping poop from cloth is a good incentive for yourself to get them trained, so we combined the diapers with (but not very strict) the use "elimination communication" ("baby zindelijkheids communicatie" in Dutch). Simply put, we tried to keep diapers clean by holding the baby over the potty when we thought they were going to do nr 1 or nr 2.

My thoughts on why cloth diapers are better is this: the kids feel discomfort very clearly and immediately after the action, while the technologically superior disposable diapers are simply too comfortable to get this immediate action-response they need to learn by themselves, and indeed the first signs they were ready for full time potty training was that they started telling us the diaper was freshly made dirty.

environment: While honestly this is mostly based on my personal logic and not so much on science, but I cannot imagine cloth diapers being as bad for the environment as disposable diapers made from plastic and chemicals, event taking into consideration they need to be washed.

I can almost guarantee you're wrong about the environmental benefits, depending on what diapers you use, where you live and how you wash. Using LCA, it's usually an energy factor of 4x worse for cloth, 10x worse for water and air emissions, and 6x worse for water use. And most of that is from the washing, so prolonged use doesn't make it better.

It's literally one if the textbook examples taught in sustainability Engineering to get students to stop "feeling" about the better option and start thinking & documenting.

First Google result for "diaper LCA" :

https://www.appropedia.org/Cloth_versus_disposable_diapers

That said, I have no problem with people picking what works for them. But environmental justification and smugness... especially when it's downright false.

Own up to your preference and accept the fact that it's environmentally worse.

Call me skeptical. That article only says that the creation, washing, and drying of cloth diapers takes more “coal” energy than disposable diapers dumped into a land fill. It says nothing about the design of cloth diapers, HE washer dryers, etc, or the habits of those who cloth diaper.

Many cloth diapers now have two parts, a shell and an insert. Typically you can use the shell multiple times, only washing the insert, which is made out of absorbent bamboo fabric.

Also parents who cloth diaper are generally more environmentally conscious in other ways. We have solar panels, a high efficiency washer/dryer, and can dry the diapers on a laundry line for most of the year (pro tip: this really helps remove most poop stains, especially from newborns!). In California I don’t think any PGE power comes from coal.

We’re already on our 3rd child with the same set of cloth diapers, blowing past this articles assumptions. Really, once you realize how much landfill waste you’re saving you won’t go back. It does take extra work but so does a lot of things about being a parent.

It has a full LCA for both types, disposable and cloth. You didn't read far enough. There's a summarizing table at the end, comparing results of both.

>We’re already on our 3rd child

It's mostly in the washing, extended use gains you almost nothing.

Even the most generous LCA (not using hot water or a dryer, and only washing once per week) makes the impact almost equal.

>coal

Regardless of the energy source, 4x energy is 4x energy. If the grid is using wind power, the factory likely is as well.

Feel free to find an LCA that reflects your use case, but don't assume it's environmentally friendlier just because it's popular with a certain crowd.

Efficiencies of industrial scale can be hard to beat at home.

I totally get what you’re saying, and I’m surprised to see the data myself. However I think if you asked someone if it’s better to use more water (renewable) and power (clean) versus space in a landfill, I’m sure almost everyone would say that the former is the better option.

People throw away a lot of diapers.

Landfill space isn't a problem though. And pulp is also renewable.

Also, people don't realize it, but whatever gets flushed ends up in a landfill as well, in the form of wastewater sludge. In what ends up being a volume not all that less than a wrapped up diaper. So you're not avoiding landfill use.

>almost everyone would say that the former is the better option.

Who? Not environmental or sustainability engineers.

Again, if cloth works for you, use it. There are plenty of good reasons to. It's just the environment isn't one of them.