Well, it’s been a few weeks since we started with cloth diapers (CD) and my major impressions are – so much softer! and what a ton of laundry!

Let me elaborate.

We started with the 7 or whatever from Jillian’s Drawers. We got the Thirties Duo, Fuzzibunz Perfect Size in medium, BumGenius 4.0, Smartipants, Bummis Tots Bots, a Flip One Size and a Thirties Fitted Diaper with a Duo Wrap diaper cover. We also got 4 Indian prefolds and a Snappi, which we didn’t use. I learned a few things from trying a bunch of different types of diapers.

1) Velcro is easier… sort of. Doing snaps on a wiggly baby is not the easiest thing. Velcro is just faster. And the snaps on a diaper are not pansy snaps – these are heavy duty hard to snap snaps. You have to really push these suckers together to get them to snap, and sometimes I feel like I’m going to accidentally pinch some skin. However, they stay on better (they should!) and it’s one less step to worry about when I do the endless laundry. With the velcro, you have to take the time to make sure that the velcro is attached to something because otherwise it will find something to attach itself to and that can result in pulled threads or parts that don’t dry correctly. I’ve also heard from other CDers that the velcro wears out and needs replacing periodically.

2) Pocket diapers are better than all-in-ones (AIOs). This went against what I initially thought. Wouldn’t it be easier if the diapers were all one piece? When Mandy and I opened the package of diapers, we both were drawn to the Tots Bots AIO since the pattern was friggin’ cute (Mushroom Magic, if you are interested) and it has an insert that’s attached but slides out. (Hard to explain, but there’s a picture on the product page.) I hoped I wouldn’t like it since it is the most expensive by far. No need to worry, because it didn’t fit Parker well AND took two cycles to dry. Not only are pocket diapers better, but they dry faster. On that note…

3) Pocket diapers need an opening on each end! Another diaper I thought I would like was the BumGenius 4.0. This diaper has a pocket where you stuff the absorbent insert into. However, when washing the insert gets all bunched up in the interior of the pocket. Ideally, you would let the cycle run the first rinse and then remove the insert for the wash cycle. However, with pocket diapers like Smartipants, the pocket is open on both sides, so the insert wriggles itself out during the wash cycle. That’s one less step to worry about!

4) CDs are very customizable. Not only do most diapers come with an array of snaps that allow you to make the diaper smaller to fit your baby (typical of One Size diapers) in both directions, they also have a bunch of different ways that can be worn. You can add and remove inserts to customize baby’s needs. There are even flushable inserts that you can line the diaper with. We haven’t bothered to use the ones that we got because Parker’s poop is still much too watery to even bother.

And they have definitely helped with her rashy tush. She seems much happier in the cloth, but that could just me projecting my own hopes onto it. It is a little bulky underneath her clothes but it’s not too bad. Best of all, we hope to start saving money! We were able to get our first 20 or so diapers pretty cheaply, and hopefully we won’t have to buy too many more. All the ones we got are “one size” so we hope to be able to use them on the next kid too! Any questions?