The Diaper Dilemma

Tiny baby, big diaper

Cloth diapers are confusing. There's prefolds, contours, fitted, pocket diapers, and all-in-ones...

If I was a better consumer, I would have done this: Changing Diapers, Changing Minds

You can try a bunch of different types of cloth diapers for only $10. You have to pay an initial deposit for all of them.

Instead of doing my homework like a good mommy, I just went with the recommendation of two different friends and bought Bum Genius 3.0 diapers. These are definitely NOT what comes to your mind when you think cloth diapers: no folding or diaper pins required. They're great.


PROS

• One size fits all, or at least 7-35 pounds.
• Not a single blowout yet. We had one at least once a week when we used disposable diapers.
• WAY cheaper than disposables. You save about $1,500 all together by using cloth diapers

CONS

• Washing is a bit of a pain. It takes 1 cycle on cold, 1 on hot, then 1 rinse. We do it every other day.
• You get the baby fluffy butt. While cute, it also means that they go up a half size or so in clothes.
• It's a large initial investment. If your not skeeved out by the idea of buying previously used diapers, this is a great website: Diaper Swappers. You can also check out your local Craigslist.
  

Other things to consider:

• We have 20 diapers and we seem to run perilously close to running out every other day. I wish I had bought about 4 more. EDIT: now that she's a bit older, 20 diapers are the perfect amount.
  
• The liner inserts do get stained occasionally, but I have it on good authority that you just put them to dry in the sun and the stains disappear.
• We still use disposables on trips where its not feasible to wash the cloth diapers.

If I was richer, I'd use these: gDiapers

They're diapers with an cloth outer liner and flushable inserts. Wet inserts are even compostable. How cool is that?