Try different kinds. I went to a specialty store called Happybottomus and spent way to long with the diapers. I felt the lining, examined the inserts, snapped, unsnapped, velcroed, unvelcroed(?) and basically coped a feel of every diaper brand and style they had. I decided to buy a couple different styles to take home and test drive. I chose the brands based on reviews from other parents. There are a number of on-line sources for cloth diapering info.
The test-drive. Ok, so this is where I made my first mistake. I threw the (new) diapers in the wash with a load of Charlie's clothes. I figured they didn't need to be rinsed and washed and rinsed, ad nauseum according to the instructions before we actually used them. Wrong! Cloth diapers actually get more absorbent the more you wash them. I found this out the hard way when, while co-sleeping, the first diaper leaked all over the place. The first, most important step in cloth diapering is to 'prep' the dipes. Cold rinse, hot wash, cold rinse, cold rinse. Fortunately, I have a brand new washing machine (here after referred to as the Magic Machine) that has a sanitize cycle on it so it's already programmed to do this (See? Magic!) The inserts can be dried on medium and the covers should be hung to dry. Once I got this part figured out the diapers worked out great.
The investment. All-in-one cloth diapers can be expensive to get into. I figured 24 diapers was a safe estimate for how many we'd need. At $15 and up for new, Charlie would be potty trained before I had enough diapers to CD full-time. To make it easier on our pocketbooks to get started, I looked for second-hand diapers. Craigslist and diaper swaps are a great place to start. Also, we were gifted a couple by my Mom for Christmas. Ultimately, I wound up finding a lot of 24 new Sunbaby diapers on ebay for $120. They are made in China but so is everything else, so what the hell. I actually really like them. They fit a lot trimmer than some of the other one-size-fits-all diapers but they are smaller, so it's possible we'll need a bigger size down the road. Either way, it's worth it to never spend another penny on disposables again, even when we decide to have another baby!
The ick factor. There is none. Ok, there is some but seriously, who escapes parenthood without getting a little poop on them? People who can afford nannies, that's who and sometimes not even then. Honestly though, changing cloth diapers is no different than disposables. Instead of the poopie diaper going into the diaper genie-esque thing next to the changing table, it goes into a cheap, plastic waste basket, or in the case of our daycare provider, a wet bag (a pretty place to put poo). Every other day, I do a load of diapers. I take the wet bag and the diaper pail to the Magic Machine, pull out all the inserts, and put the covers, inserts and wet bag all in together. I use Charlie's Soap and hit start and viola; poopie, stinky diapers go in, clean, fresh smelling diapers come out (again, by magic). Now in the interest of full disclosure, this system works so long as Charlie is exclusively breastfed. Once he starts solids, we'll have to knock the poo into the loo but I think we'll invest in a bidet sprayer when the time comes.
The benefits.
We never have to spend another penny on disposable diapers again! This will literally save us thousands of dollars. - Cloth diapers are so much more adorable than disposables! I don't care if your baby does poo in blue, my baby has tropical print all over his fluffy little bummie!
- There are no icky chemicals in cloth diapers!
- Last but not least, we aren't contributing to the already overflowing landfills with diapers that take 450 years to biodegrade and contaminate our ground water with chemicals and solid waste.
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