Cloth Diapers or Disposable?

I have 3 sons. I only used cloth with my first, 2/3 cloth and 1/3 plastic with my second, and commercial diapers with my third. You can buy the rectangled diapers you fold yourself and throw away liners cheeply. Better for your wallet and the environment. This is what my first child had. By the time I had my second child I had found great cloth diapers with velcro to use. Problem is a Mom needs to buy different sizes as her baby grows. The savings to your wallet is small but this is still best for the environment. Disposable diapers are convienant and easiest to deal with. They are, of coarse, costly and bad for the environment. I loved the velcro cloth diapers but thought they were expensive (maybe compreable to disposable). All the years I used cloth I also kept disposable diapers on hand for bedtime and traveling. So many choices!

I've never used traditional cloth diapers but I was feeling guilty about all the disposables so I tried G Diapers and a few new disposables that are greener. I didn't like any of the green disposables but I loved the G Diapers. They are pretty cute too. The outer part of the Diaper is cloth and you insert thick cotton pads. They advertise that you can flush the pads in the toilet but my toilet didn't seem to enjoy that much so I just threw them away. When we were at home and not running around town, I used them and they worked great for me.

The easiest type of cloth to use are pocket diapers. They have velcro or snaps and come in one-size styles so you can use the same diaper by adjusting the snaps to make it bigger or smaller. I've used Bum Genius One Size pocket diapers:

http://www.cottonbabies.com/index.php?cPath=98

The ones I have, have velcro side tabs, but you can get side snaps on some of the versions. I prefer snaps to velcro because it looks nicer. (I have Fuzzi Bunz with snaps but they are not one-size diapers. Still the size medium fit my son from 7 months through 2 years old)

You can get All-In-One diapers (different from One-Size). You do not have to stuff the insert in the diaper so there is less work. The problem is that they take a long time to dry. I prefer pockets.

Gdiapers are great and now come with an optional cloth insert. Gdiapers, the Flip system and GroBaby are all set up so you can use the cover for more than one diapering if baby is just wet, you remove the insert and put in another. The advantage is that you use fewer covers, the disadvantage is that when you are out, it is a bit of monkeying to switch the insert, but not too much trouble. They take up less room in the diaper bag as well and there is less to wash. Flip and GroBaby are One-Size systems.

I used my Bum Genius One Size diapers from the time my daughter was 2.5 weeks old. My son used the same diapers until he was 2.5 years old. The one-size diapers are expensive when it comes to your initial investment, but you will definitely get your monies worth. I could have started using the diapers from birth, but I wanted to wait until everything was settled to start.

Check out the Diaper Pin's FAQs for a complete run down of options. There are lots of reviews as well. If you are really adventurous, you can find patterns online and sew your own.

http://www.diaperpin.com/home.asp

The other 5 have pretty much hit on everything. I used with both my children cloth--the one size fits all. Diaper one thing and cover different one. This is the cheaper option compared to the all in on. I only had 3 different cover sizes and I think I only had about 3 covers versus lots of diapers. I washed about every 2 to 3 days but not because I had so much, I just preferred not to have big loads and then you don't have to soak (soaking and washing rarely caused smell).

Suggestion: use a liner. There is one company out there where you can reuse the liner when the child did not poop (washable). If dirty just take the packet and throw away.

I was flexible and also used disposable diapers when I was out and about (and when we were on vacation) because I did not like carrying the stinky stuff around either. I think we women nowadays have the best of all worlds.

With my second child I also practiced "elimination communication" that solved most of the poop problems in diapers because he used the toilet for his #2 pretty much consistently starting a month 9 which is about the same time it becomes stinky due to diet change from milk to solids. The yahoo group: eliminationcommunication is a great info source for that.

So all in all I used a bit of all with child #2: cloth, disposable and elimination communication and that's what I would do again should I ever have a 3rd child. Pretty much a happy balance without going overboard on either. I just used the method that was most appropriate and most convenient for me for the situation I was in at that particular moment.

Congratulations and got with your instincts then you will find the right way for yourself!

I personally use the disposable for convenience but really considered the cloth for awhile. Probably my biggest issue with the cloth is simply that I don't like the idea of having to carry stinky ones around while I'm out so that I can rinse poo out of them when I get home. (eeeewwww)

I do have friends/family that swear by Bum Genius. (www.bumgenius.com) I think the cloth are really a huge improvement from where they used to be... especially the all in one. Plus the covers are pretty cute by themselves without needing to cover with lots of clothing. (I've seen polka-dots... animal prints... etc.)

I guess the all in ones really give you several options for absorbancy... you just add more liners or use different types of fabric liners like organic bamboo... cotton... etc. One issue I'll point out that I've noticed with my niece is that you can't expect onsies to fit... the diapers are pretty bulky so you might need to buy up a size with clothing so that they can fit around the diaper.

Hmmm... I really do think if you start off with the cloth it's going to be easier for you to stay on it. It's just a big investment initially. We're really at the end of our diapering days with my daughter so it's not very practical for us to start now.

Hope this info helps with your decision making!
Oh... another useful site... check out www.etsy.com I know they offer some homemade generics for diapers too... My brother and sister-in-law have used the Bum Joy brand and say it's comparable in quality to the Bum Genius.
GOOD LUCK!!

Cloth diapers are defintetly more earth friendly:) and these days there are such great cloth diapers out there.
I would recommend buying them used if you just want to try them out-there is gdiapers, BumGenius, happy heinis, etc. etc.
Why don't you join

www.diaperswappers.com

you will find so many answers there as well as diapers:)

Good luck!