Cloth Diapers..

We use gDiapers. They're kind of a hybrid. You can get cloth inserts or use a biodegradable, flushable insert. The best thing is they are available at HEB, BabiesRus or Whole Foods and the initial cost isa little less. The starter kit (with 2 covers/liners and a few flushies is about $25 and the 40 count flushies if $15). Amazon also carries them and has great deals.I like the ability to choose cloth or "disposable".
Their webite is www.gdiapers.com. They have cute covers on their website. You can write back and I have coupons for $2 off each starter kit. I would love to talk to you if you have questions.

K.

Hi J.
Wise choice. I always thought the disposable diapers were too full of chemicals to be on babies bottoms but so many young mothers- including all my daughters and daughter in laws have used them. I would go for the prefolded ones- a little more expensive but saves you so much time.
Good luck and blessings

I used the big square ones, I think the brand was Gerber and folded them myself - little extra work, but it wasn't too expensive I think it was $9 for a dozen diapers (I think I had 2 or 3 dz.) - that I used for my second baby as well. Got away cheap in the diaper department as well as the added benefit of very, very few diaper rashes. I think out of both babies we only had one extreme rash situation which was cleared up quickly thanks to Dr. Smith's diaper ointment.

Congratulations on both your pregnancy and the decision to cloth diaper. I've cloth diapered my youngest two (and my oldest as a toddler). For the newborn period, the easiest way to go is prefolds and covers (what your mother used). You change newborns so often that it's the cheapest and easiest way. Plus you can have a few dozen for a small cost. If you want to wash every day, 18 is a good number. If you want to wash every other day (which really is best, no matter how many diapers you have, just because you don't want them sitting with urine and feces longer than that), then 36 is a great number. A great thing they have now is called a Snappi. It's easier (for many people) than diaper pins. Infant prefolds fit to 15 lbs. After that, a mixture of premium prefolds/covers and pockets will be an easy choice. Unfortunately, different diapers work for different babies (and mamas!). Sometimes you do just have to try them and see.

A lot of people buy used, so you could either buy used to save money if you change your mind, or just sell what you don't love later on. www.diaperswappers.com and www.clothdiapernation.com are good forums. They both have a lot of discussion boards where you can ask questions about diapers and they have a For Sale or Trade board.

Pockets like Bum Genius can be one size, meaning you use them from about 10 or 12 lbs up to 35 lbs. My 2 year old wears these and Fuzzi Bunz. She's been in a size medium Fuzzi Bunz since 4 months old! My baby wears Bum Genius one size and Happy Heiney's one size, along with premium prefolds and wool covers. I also have lots of fitted diapers (have elastic and fit baby more than a prefold but still require a cover) and we use wool covers that I knit and PUL covers. BOth are basically water proof and keep the urine and poo from getting on clothing. My favorite PUL cover, and very popular with people, is made by Thirsties.

There are lots of different choices out there. Many people, though, find ease of use with prefolds as newborns (as long as you have plenty and some good covers, they are great!) and Bum Genius one size the rest of the time. There are many others out there, but these tend to be popular with most. I personally like supporting WAHMs that make diapers, but they are all different, and I think you'd be safe in using the prefolds and Bum Genius.

This is very abbreviated, as you know there are lots out there. I tried to tell you the ones that most people find to be easy. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to send me a message through Mamasource. I'll be happy to answer any you can think of. I've tried LOTS of different diapers and I've guided several people in converting to cloth.

And though it does seem very expensive at first, it is an intitial investment. IT's lots better than the $15-20 a week you could be spending on disposables, and if you have more children you can use the same diapers (ESPECIALLY the prefolds. These will last generations!). And it's oodles better for baby's skin and the environment. No nasty chemicals!!!

***ETA I read some other responses, and you actually do have to launder all the diapers (except for covers) after you take them off. Prefolds can't be reused before laundering. You should wash them each time. Covers can be used all throughout the day, just switching when they're wet to allow them to dry. Ones that get poo on them should be washed before using again.

I had to start using cloth diapers when my baby was about a month old because he's allergic to disposables...I did research on every kind of diaper that I saw that I thought I might like and the one with the least bad reviews ended up being bumgenius. I bought 12 bumgenius 3.0 one size diapers for $225 off one of the many websites that sells them. I LOVE them! I've never had a leak! That was the reason we went for these diapers. I also love all the different colors they have and that they're so easy to use, they're really similar to disposables in how you put them on, and since they grow with him it ends up a LOT cheaper in the long run than buying small, medium, etc. Hope this helps!

Hello and congratulations! We have 7 month old twins. We started with cloth. It was overwhelming! This lasted about 2 months. The situation was intense due to the number of times a baby must be changed each day the first few months. The diapers can leak. The leaks frequently went through to the sheets, blankets, clothing and even through the changing pad cover! Translation: more laundry! We had a diaper service, so washing, etc was never an issue.

The diaper cover used over the cloth also needs to be cleaned with a wipe each time diaper is changed. After a day or two of use, the cover must be washed. Granted, we were changing 2 babies versus your 1. I think cloth is much more realistic at 3 or 4 months old. They need changing less frequently the older they get. When we went full time disposable, the 'work' was soooo much less!

I wish we would have delayed the use of cloth until 3 - 4 months of age. Cloth is said to be better for them and a help with potty training when time comes. Another thing: I don't know if the amount of energy used in delivering and washing by the service and extra laundry created at home truly make cloth a better environmental choice. This is something that really concerns me so I really feel like we failed in our attempt.

I hope I have given you a little insight into cloth. I have heard of others that loved the cloth and had no complaints. What ever you choose, I hope it works well.

Please let me know how it goes!
Y.

I used cloth diapers when my girls were younger (now 18 and 21) and now with my 2 year old twins I have used a diaper service. I pay $121 every 5 weeks for 150+ diapers/wk for 2 (it's less for 1 child) - they deliver and pick up each week to my doorstep. They don't have to be cleaned in the toilet like with my girls, just take them off and put them in the diaper pail - deodorizer works really well so don't smell. I compared cost before hand and this was cheaper and better for my boys and the environment than disposables. I am in the san antonio/austin area, if you are there I'd be happy to share their number with you.

We have used pre-folds and covers for over a year now and love it. Our main motivation was money and the environment. We started out using Gerber prefolds and then moved to some diaper quality pre-folds. We only have 12 and wash every 2-3 days. We use Thirsties covers. All that we have were less than $60 and they work great for us.

A great site to get some inexpensive or just for shipping to try is diaperswappers.com . Check it out.

There are lots of types and lots of price points for the diapers. It really depends on how much effort you want to put in and how much money you want to invest. (You will probably get most of you money back by selling them if you decide they are not for you or you little one if finished with each size.)

go to diaperpin.com for all the advice you care to read on cloth diapering. Every one has an opinion. I used Fuzzi Bunz for 14 months with my daughter - covers with absorbent inserts. Easy to wash, dry fast. I'd recommend buying about a dozen. I was able to buy some used and some new, but ebay doesn't allow selling used diapers anymore. My niece also used them after I was done with them and they held up great for 2 children and good enough for a third! It is an investment, but if you plan to have more than one child, it's cheaper than disposables and much better for their bottom. My husband liked how easy they were to use. I tried some other brands, but didn't like them as well. I have friends who used plain old fashioned diapers and diaper pins just like our moms used on us! And they were happy using those as well. Good luck.

Get a diaper service for at least the first 3 months and then consider using an all in one. I spent over $700 buying diapers of all sizes and kinds, covers, liners, pails, wet bags, etc...only to give up on cloth diapering because they were leaking and giving my son a rash. Not to mention they had to be changed every 2 hours even in the middle of the night. I was so sad. My mom had used them too and I was so excited to do right by the environment. Good news is you can learn from my mistakes. Others who have used a diaper service have used them much more succesfully. They grow so much in the first 6 months that just getting all the different sizes is daunting. All-in-ones that adjust to fit multiple sizes are the easiest, but the most expensive. You can order chinese prefolds online for fairly cheap, about 37-42cents each depending on the size and at least you can use them as a burp cloth or to clean if you don't end up cloth diapering. Good luck! If they don't work out there are always g diapers!

I understand why you're overwhelmed. There is so much information and so many opinions about cloth diapers. We used the real cloth diapers (like I'm sure your mom used) with both wool and plastic covers, Fuzzi Buns, and one other I can't remember the name of. In the end I like Fuzzi Buns. They are super easy to use and didn't leak as much as others. They come in tons of colors / styles with snap buttons so they can grow with your child. You use inserts (lost of different fabrics to choose from--we used microfiber) for absorbency then pull them out to wash. They are pricey. Sometimes you can find them on e-bay for less. I also found a website called Diaper Swapper. If you're trying to save, I would buy the mediums. It seems like that's the size your child (I have 3) is in the longest. If you're not totally opposed to disposable diapers (we use Seventh Generation--love them), you can just use them until your baby is big enough to use the cloth and then go from there. I've also been reading some good things about BumGenius--would be interested to try.

We've used cloth diapers since my first was born. I was overwhelmed with all the choices too! We chose to use the fuzzi bunz after reading some reviews and seeing them demonstrated. They are snaps instead of the velcro. I knew I didn't like the velcro after using some bibs with velcro and they stick to everything if you forget to close them and get all kinds of bits stuck in them. We have been very happy using our cloth diapers. We wash about every other day and have about 15 diapers. We started with small and for my daughter never moved out of medium and it looks like the same for my son. They are both average height and weight. The snaps allow for them to grow with your child...my daughter had the fattest little thighs so it allowed for that and still fit around her waist which I guess wasn't that tiny either!! They are a bit expensive in the initial buy but I can save you some money-I have smalls for sale! I will sell them to you for $5 a piece and then you just have to buy the inserts-which I am using for my mediums. You can find the inserts pretty cheap on some sites. I have about 18 smalls in a variety of colors. We started both kids about 3-4 weeks on the smalls-since they are so tiny in the beginning we just used disposables. Let me know if you want more info about how we wash and store them and all the logistics!! We've save a lot of money using the cloth diapers that is for sure!

Congratulations!!! Good for you for wanting to use cloth. I started using cloth on my 22 month old when she was 6 months and never looked back. I love it!!! That's all I will do with future children. There are so many choices and different types so its hard to tell you what to use. I would suggest do alot of research online and decide what you want to use. Some good websites are www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com, www.fuzzibunz.com, www.gdiapers.com, www.diaperco.com, www.thirtiesbaby.com, www.bumgenius.com, www.swaddlebees.com, www.happyheinys.com, www.kissaluvs.com. Those are just a few of the dipaer websites and different types. Good luck!!

Hi J.,

I am a working mother of 3-11, 8 and 4 and I used both cloth and disposable diapers. I loved my cloth diapers! I brought about 7 Bummis (I think that's how it is spelled.) I spent about $300 up front but in the long run it is cheaper than buying constant disposable ones. I washed every day but if I brought more I wouldn't have had to do that. There are many options out there so I would suggest doing a combination of different styles. Also if you buy at Sam's or Costco it is much cheaper than buying diapers at a supermarket. I hope this helps!
Take care and all the best!

Congratulation on both the arrival of baby and daddy!

Here are my thoughts:
1) Visit the Austin Baby (if you’re in Austin) or another natural parenting store in your area. This way you can touch and feel all your choices.
2) Consider using a diaper service, they do ALL the work for you. We used Debbie Does Diapers (they deliver to Austin and San Antonio for about $100 a month and you get 100 a week). These services are great for several reasons. Most will have a gift registry for your green-minded friends and family. You can get your feet wet on how you feel about using cloth diapers without spending $$ on diapers only to find out they aren't for you. Newborns go through at least 10 diapers a day, some more. Who wants to do laundry every day when you’re still healing from birth? Lastly, newborn poop is very liquid and more difficult to clean. When children start solids, it will be much less work for you.
3) My favorite brand has been Fuzzi Bunz in med. We started using them when our child was 5 months. She is now 20 months and they still fit great.

Best wishes!

I understand that feeling of being overwhelmed!
I researched cloth diapers ad nauseum. I made my own.
You can't go wrong with a pocket diaper and prefolds for a newborn.
You do need to launder cloth diapers with particular detergents, and I recommend a diaper sprayer for your toilet.

I know you have received a lot already but I thought I would throw my opinion out there. I have really liked the Thirsties brand. While the baby was small and had the really runny breastfed poop they were the most leakproof. Get the fab-fitted diapers and the covers. Their covers are definetly the most leakproof thing I found. I have FuzziBunz and BumGenius and now that she is a little bigger and doesn't poop as often these both work well but for overnight I don't trust anything but the Thirsties cover to protect the bed. Even if she sleeps long and saturates the prefold (which I use at night) she does not leak through the Thristies cover. I have even been known to put the cover over an All-in-One just in case.

I love Bum Genius 3.0 - They come with two inserts (one for day/one for overnight use). They work great, no leaks, and dry super fast! I've also used All-In-Ones which are nice but take forever to dry - like 2-3 dryer cycles! The BG 3.0 dry in half a cycle or 1/2 day outside.

If you are a crafty person you could even make your own. All you really need is a sewing machine and some old flannel sheets. Then you would need a soaker to cover the flannel diapers. There are some great Wool Knit or crochet pattern's on the net.

God Bless! Congrats on your baby!

Here are some great links:
http://www.kellyscloset.com/
http://www.diapersewing.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Oaks/1126/sewfleece.html
http://withatangledskein.blogspot.com/2008/02/little-fire...
http://www.thediaperhyena.com/reap.htm

I used cloth diapers, but it was literally decades ago...... but I purchased cloth diapers with a sponge type material sandwiched in the middle of a tri-fold shaped diaper, bought them at Sears, "back in the day"

I can honestly say, now that I have grandchildren, the disposables are so awesome, they keep the baby much drier, for whatever thats worth. They were available when my kids were babies, but I had to be careful which brand I used, they would be allergic to certain brands.

Congratulations on your upcoming delivery, the best advice is probably, every baby is different, and you will have to use what works for you and your baby..........

I use cloth diapers but I started when mine were about three months. I have the fuzzy bun diapers that are an outside liner with a cloth insert- I love them. There is a great store in Austin, TX called Austin Baby and they are a wonderful resource. Their website has great information on it. Good luck.

I used bum genius with my daughter and loved them. But they are kind of expensive to get started. My sister in law went to an Organic Baby store in Round Rock called Tiny birds(i think) and she said that they carried a brand that works just as well as the bum genius but wasn't quite as much. I also had a bunch of whisper wraps. With these you just take your hemp flat cloth diapers and fold them in to thirds and lay them in the wrap and put in on like a regular diaper. I liked these too. When my family would ruin a t-shirt, I would cut it up and fold it and sew together the ends and through those in the whisper wraps at night time along with the hemp flat diaper to double up on the absorbency. Cheep and so soft. Good Luck. My daughter is two and a half and potty trained now, but I really did enjoy the cloth. She calls them her softy diapers and the disposable are crunchy diapers. Kinda cute.
K.

I have cloth diped both of my kids and will this 3rd one too.
We were given a 3mos of diaper cleaning service at a shower. After that we decided to try to wash our own since we weren't interested in spending the extra money on the laundering services.
I do a rinse, then wash on hot, rinse cold. I use Planet detergent. That's one thing you don't see on many diaper sites -- some detergents are better for washing dipes than others. I have a sheet that lists 4-5 different detergents that are preferred. I'll try to find it later today and either add it here or send you a message.

As for what kind of dipes...it's like looking at the cereal aisle at the grocery store!
What we found that works -- that is, most bang for $$ and no leaks -- is:

Bummis Super Whisper Wraps -- these have elastic around and velcro closures at the waist that overlap, great elastic around the legs. I actually ended up putting one of these wraps over a disposable when on a trip to keep my daughter from blowing out (again) -- it was in the diaper bag and I had not taken it out before the trip.

Chinese prefolds -- when baby wets, just take out the prefold, toss it in the pail and insert a dry prefold. Unles baby wets 2-3 times you can re-use your prefold quite a few times before needing to launder it.

We tried all-in-ones (AIOs), but the one use before laundering was too much for me...and they're not cheap either.

HTH -- if you have any questions for me, or if something I wrote needs clarifying, don't hesitate to email me!

K., mama to
Catherine, 5.5y
Samuel, 2.5y
Baby due 9/09

The site that Heather mentioned, www.diaperswappers.com is the best for learning about diapers. Great for trying out before buying, etc.

I know it's overwhelming, but you have some time to learn about the different types.

I really love cloth diapering. I started with pockets for my LO, but got really tired of stuffing them. Now I mostly use fitted diapers with wool covers with him. Diaperswappers really helped me. Feel free to email me if you'd like my opinion on any brands, etc.

Best wishes~C.

As has already been said, everyone has their personal opinion on diapers. The cheapest certainly are prefolds, but the Gerber style you find in the stores aren't as absorbent as what you can find online or at real cloth diaper stores. Here you can see some good prefolds on babies. http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/prefolds.htm That funny looking rubber thing is the snappi which is way better then pins. A friend of mine bought the G diapers and uses prefolds instead of disposable G liners in the covers.

A lot of people like pocket diapers, and truly they can be stuffed for better overnight wear then other diapers. But you have to stuff them and then remove the wet stuffing to wash them, so if you prefer something with fewer steps, skip the pocket diapers. All in ones have the cover, diaper and liner all in one diaper. these have been my favorite, especially for when I'm out somewhere.

I think the best thing I found was wwww.diaperswappers.com and I purchased just a few of various fitteds (those are diapers that have snaps or velcro plus need a cover over them) prefolds, covers, pockets, liners, and all in ones. that way I could really see what I liked the best before buying a lot of one particular style or brand.

What I have- Mother Ease fitteds and covers for toddlers(got these through freecycle) Mother Ease one size (from a friend) Happy heinies pockets (got these on craigslist) stay at home mom made various diapers and Bum Genius and Wonder Works I bought online used. I've really bought almost nothing new. They can get quite expensive new!

S., cloth diapered 3 kiddos from toddler stage and 1 from 3 months on, and I hate sposies!

We have used Austin Diaper Service and been very happy with them. You get lots of 'prefolds' (which are not actually pre-folded) and you use those with the plastic covers. It's also great to have all the cloth diapers around for burp cloths! I was skeptical about the whole thing, but you get the hang of it pretty quick. Once your baby starts sleeping longer at night, you might want to use a disposable at night time because they do stay a lot drier. I don't think our son would sleep as long if we put him in cloth at night. Our son is now 5 months. We will probably stop cloth next month because he is starting daycare and they wont do cloth. We do a mix of cloth and disposable. Disposable at night or if we are out of town.

Congratulations and good luck! So happy for your that your husband will make it home in time for the birth!!

I have used both Mother Ease (one size fits most) 2 part diapers (OSFM diaper & sized waterproof cover) and BumGenius one size fits most (I think they claim 7-35 pounds) pocket diapers. Between the two kinds, I LOVE the BumGenius so much more. They aren't cheap, but to me having a one size diaper makes so much sense. You definitely don't have to buy as many diapers since you can use all of them any time.
The way I bought my BumGenius was through craigslist & at Diapers.com you get a discount off your first order of diapers. If you order 3 at a time, it gives you the best deal, but then you're stuck with getting friends and family members to allow you to ship to them (to get the discount again) to get the total amount you want.

Good Luck!

Everyone's personal opinion is just that...personal opinion. What works well for one may be another person's nightmare.

My suggestion to you is to contact the companies who make them and tellthem you want to make the right choice do they have a sample product you can try to determine what works best for you prior to "spending a fortune" in cloth diapers.

Personally I would try this route first, you may find yourself surprised at how many of them are actually accomodating to this idea, and the ones that aren't should get crossed off your list for that reason alone...Try all the samples you get and figure out what works best for you and your family... It may end up that two brands work best and you have to choose based on pricing or you may end up getting two to switch between...

Good Luck...;-)

Hi,

I also found the topic of cloth diapering to be really daunting. Here are some resources that might help:

Austin Baby on S. Lamar has a free cloth diapering class where you can see and learn about the pros and cons of differnt types of cloth diapers.

Someone mentioned Austin Diaper Service which we also used because our apt when baby was born didn't have a washing machine. One of the nice things about it, other than not having to wash any diapers, was that they provided three different brand covers so you see the differences and what works better before buying your own if you want to go the pre-fold with cover route.

I've also heard that there's an Austin attachment parenting group that has a cloth diaper library where you can check-out cloth diapers to see how they work before you buy. Don't have specific info on this but you could try a google search.

Many on-line cloth diaper retailers offer sample packs or starter kits for newbies to cloth diapering that include one of different kinds of diapers to try.

I haven't actually bought anything from them, but I found
www.greenmountaindiapers.com to have really useful detailed information about different kinds of diapers and brands with lots of pictures. Hope this helps!