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?
