What's the deal with cloth diapers?

It's really rather easy no matter what you choose for diapering. You have to deal with it one way or another, right? First week - use disposables - meconium is pretty much impossible to wash out of... anything... We chose cotton 'pre-folds' mostly because a co-worker had a supply from his child and gave them to us. We tried using pins like our parents used on us, but ended up with a 'snappi' instead (like this: http://www.snappibaby.com/products/snappidiaperfastener.html) After the change, solids were scraped into the toilet and the diaper went into a pail of water and borax. In the evening the pail went into the washing machine, given a spin, and then a wash with soap and borax. Once a month we gave them a wash with bleach, and then an extra wash/rinse. I'm not sure I'd want a pail sitting around for a week waiting for a service to pick them up. I'm not sure I'd want disposables hanging around for a week waiting for garbage pickup either. For covers - there are some great covers made of modern materials that beat the pants off the old plastic covers. We used 'mother-ease' covers, and I'm sure there are others on the market as well. We weren't purists - We used disposables when traveling. We found changing the cotton was easier than changing disposables. Most don't believe us Most thought we were crazy using cotton but we got over it, and so did they. We did at least a load of laundry a night - the diapers. Really though, the machine did most of the work. We just folded them and put them away. It was a quiet time where my wife and I reflected on the day. The benefits we experienced: - No diaper rashes... ever - We saved a small boatload of money - Trained to use the toilet almost perfectly at 24mo. I think those disposables do such a good job wicking away the wetness that the children barely know they've had an 'accident'. - After you are done diapering you are left with the softest towels and rags in the land. Hardships: - We changed way more often than our disposable using peers. Just a little wet, and it was time for a change where disposables wick away almost all moisture. - We sometimes found it hard to find cloths that fit the little guy with a huge cotton swaddled bottom. - We sometimes had 'containment breaches', and the rare poo-splosion which created extra laundry. Good luck!

Amalah over at Advice Smackdown has written a lot about cloth diapers, so these pieces might be a great place to start. The Lazy Mom's Guide to Cloth Diapering: http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/lazy-moms-guide-to-cloth-diapering/, http://alphamom.com/pregnancy/the-lazy-moms-guide-to-cloth-diapers-part-two/, http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/the-lazy-moms-guide-to-cloth-diapers-part-three/. http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/the-straight-poop-on-cloth-diapers/ http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/a-year-in-cloth-diapers/ http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/cloth-diapering-the-older-baby/ http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/cloth-wipes-101/

FWIW, I never ever rinsed out my cloth diapers; just let whatever could fall into the toilet fall, and then tossed them into the diaper bin. Like Nickle Pickle said, start with a rinse, then run a normal wash with hot water. I used to put vinegar in the rinse (you can add it via the fabric softener dispenser) and it seemed to help with smells. I would also run a second rinse most times; it was very exciting to get a washer with an automatic second rinse. You will be amazed by the variety of diaper covers and cloth diapers out there now. I bought samples of a lot of fancy stuff but found pre-folds and diaper-service style plain covers the easiest and most durable. Diapers with built-in snaps and stuff just seemed to me to add an extra inconvenient step and slow the process down. Just fold the diaper into thirds and lay it in the cover; fold over any extra, usually at the back because that seemed more comfortable. Make sure the whole diaper is inside the cover; I would usually run my fingers around the leg opening tucking in any stray bits. There is no need for pins or snappis (I tried snappis and also found them to be an unnecessary extra step; likewise the many fancy twisty folds you will sometimes be shown. A nice cotton pre-fold, folded in thirds, did fine for my kids. Again, as Nickel Pickle said, we used a regular lidded garbage can. Some odor escaped when opening it to toss a new diaper in, but IME I was washing diapers so often that it never got really bad. Get a couple of diaper pail liners (like nylon laundry bags) and you can just dump the diapers into the washer and toss the liner in after them. A neighbor of mine used a diaper service and loved it; one advantage was that if you stayed with them for two years, all your diapers after that were free. She really cleaned up what with having twins and all. But washing at home was no big deal and much cheaper. I always did part-time cloth/disposables. I'd do cloth for short outings, but sometimes take disposables for all-day outings, because of the weight and bulk of cloth diapers. After some experimentation, we ended up using disposables at night almost all the time, though I know a lot of people who cloth-diapered overnight successfully. Oh, one piece of advice: if you start out with cloth and start to get discouraged, switch to disposables for a few weeks and then try again. I know so many parents who tried cloth with newborns and decided it was too much trouble, and never went back. I have this whole theory that that first two weeks with the first child is one of the best times to use disposables, and then once you're in the groove with that baby you can deal more easily with the learning curve you might have with cloth. Instead of stacking learning how to use cloth diapers on top of learning how to nurse and change onesies and what to do when the baby cries, all while you're at your most sleep-deprived, you can add cloth into the mix at 2, 3, or 4 weeks old, when you already feel like an old pro at all that other stuff.

I used Fuzzi Bunz for two years with my daughter (who is now nearly 6) and LOVED them. They were so easy, and so cute, and so soft! My daughter never had a diaper rash or any irritation, and I credit the cloth diapers. I had made up my mind about cloth diapering when I was pregnant, and was glad to find that I did enjoy it despite the naysaying of just about everyone in my family. :) I had friends who used prefolds and covers, too, but I felt the pocket diaper was easier for my purposes. I just carried a waterproof bag in my diaper bag for the used ones and threw them in the diaper pail or washing machine when I got home. Good luck!

The alphamom site has a bunch of posts on cloth diapers: http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/a-year-in-cloth-diapers/, http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/lazy-moms-guide-to-cloth-diapering/, http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/the-straight-poop-on-cloth-diapers/, http://alphamom.com/pregnancy/the-lazy-moms-guide-to-cloth-diapers-part-two/, http://alphamom.com/tag/cloth-diapers/page/2/. I found these pretty useful (I'm also in the 2nd trimester and exploring options).

Cloth diapers aren't by definition more sustainable than disposables. It all depends on what inputs you measure and what you care about in terms of sustainability. Here's a http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=789465&page=1. Obviously, you don't throw away cloth diapers. But the energy inputs you need to wash them and dry them are quite intense, especially because you frequently wash them by themselves (for obvious reasons), and in small batches (1 days worth). Also bleach is very bad from a sustainability perspective, both to use and to create it. So if you're counting that part of the process (on both the disposable paper-bleaching, and the cloth bleaching), you're going to find that cloth diapers use more bleach over a baby's diapering years (usually, though it'll depend on how often you wash and how much bleach you use). From some reading that I did, that I can't seem to dig up, I think that a diaper service was the worst. It has a lot of the fossil fuel use of delivering diapers, along with a ton of bleach usage, along with the energy inputs of regular cloth diapering. Not trying to give you or anyone a free pass on disposable diapers, but it's not as easy as "things that I don't throw away" are good for the planet and "things that I throw away" are bad. P.S. - I'm expecting my first in a month or so! Still deciding on how to diaper the little rascal.

There's a bunch of different methods: terry cloth flats, prefolds and shaped jobbies which require the covers; pocket style which have a cover with a pocket that you stick an insert into and all-in-ones that look like a disposable. We use liners now she eats solids - you can get flushables and disposables. We previously used disposable ones that weren't flushable but at the moment we're using cut up bits of chux that we wash if just pee and chuck out if it's poop (after shaking the poop into the toilet). They go into a bucket in the laundry and currently it's cold enough in there and we do the laundry often enough that it doesn't smell even without a lid. In warmer weather we've got a bin with a lid. The routine for a nappy change is: prep cloth nappy if it hasn't already been done (insert the insert into the pocket, lay down a liner), lay the baby down, take the dirty one off and put it next to me, clean the baby off, chase the baby around, put the clean one on then deal with the dirty one. Dealing with the dirty one is either pulling it apart and sticking it in the bucket or shaking the poop off, chucking the liner then sticking it in the bucket. When she was still exclusively breastfed I would do a quick rinse before sticking it in the bucket. Every day or so we wash - I do a rinse in cold (occasionally with Napisan if they're super whiffy or poopy) then a wash with a soak in hot with a quarter of the amount of washing powder. In summer they hang on the line in direct sun, winter it's in front of the heater. Winter isn't so great because the sun is a great stain remover and anti-bac. We get the occasional rash but it's mostly dietary/got stuck in a nappy for too long. Baby anachronism HATED our terry flats but is fine in the pocket style (microfibre). Listen to our grandparents about how to deal with the nappies because they will have perfected the routine.

I just wanted to jump back in to thank everyone for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the personal anecdotes a lot as it helped me to envision how using cloth diapers would work for us. And the links (especially to the alphamom and Katie's Kisses sites) were super helpful. This was really new territory, so the information about little details (what people use for diaper pails, detergent, what to do with poop) was extremely helpful. I can't thank everyone enough. I will add that my husband and I are set on doing cloth after all this information, and we are also going to go the self-wash route! I am very excited to try some different types and figure out what will work best for our little guy or girl.

Rather than engage all the good info already here, I'll just give you our story. We're currently diapering 8 mo old twin girls and have used cloth from day one. We chose Kissaluvs diapers with Thirsties covers. Rather than buy a bunch of newborn diapers we rented from http://www.sunshinediapers.com/ in Florida. Now that we go through less we actually bought them, when they graduated to a larger size. We wash every two days. The covers go longer, they probably are worn about five times before they become stinky with pee. To wash newborn diapers, we just chuck em in the washer (frontloader). Breastmilk poops wash out cleanly every time; I don't know about formula. They get washed in hot, on the "heavy" cycle, with about 1/4C of vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. The vinegar is supposed to get any detergent residue out of the diapers. For detergent we use a dye/fragrance free standard HE (All brand, usually). We were told not to bleach them as it weakens the cotton of the diaper. Now that they are eating solids and we are in Solid Turd Country, I rigged up a sprayer in our laundry sink. I separate the poop diapers from pee only, which go right in the machine, and I spray the solids right into the sink where the spray breaks them up and they go down the drain (oh, we don't soak them, they all go dry into our diaper pail, which is just an old 5 gal drywall mud bucket). Once a week or so I try to use a 1/4C of Oxyclean laundry booster which helps with the stains (there will be stains). Oxyclean makes a dye/fragrance free version too but it's tough to find. That's it. Our motivations were somewhat environmental but also financial - we did the math and with twins we're saving several thousand dollars by the time they're toilet trained. We do have a few disposables around for Grandma or convenience or whatever. If there is one thing I could stress, it is that cloth diapers have far exceeded our expectation in terms of ease and performance. We have had far more blow-outs with the disposables. The thick cloth diapers grab pee and poop and assimilate it, whereas the disposables absorb a small amount of urine and then everything else just slides around and out. Also, we have never had any diaper rash. And washing them really has been far less onerous (and gross) than I expected. Basically, before the kids were born, we decided "we'll do cloth diapering, but we'll go into it knowing it will be a little tougher, cause it's worth it." Now we're like "cloth diapering is totally just easier and better!" One caveat: can't prove it, but I suspect that the big round padded cloth diaper butt made it harder for our kids to learn to sit up, maybe up to three weeks later than they "should." They're fine with it now, but this is one issue you never hear about. Also, that same big diaper butt makes clothes fit funny sometimes.