Cloth Diaper ?

adding some baking soda in the wash and some vinegar in the rinse can help both with stinkiness and stains. I would put mine on a drying rack in the sun with the bad side facing up – they seemed to bleach out pretty well. I never dried mine in the dryer, even though it said I could. It helps them last longer that way too I believe. And the sun’s UV rays helps disinfect (so I’ve been told by a friend who always gets shopping carts from outside for this reason). 

I have cloth diapered my newborns and I used a prefold diaper and cover. My favorite and rather inexpensive prefolds are Dappi brand. I paid 6.99 a dozen. My favorite covers are the Thirsties Duo. I purchased some on eBay that were used but in excellent condition for 28.00 I think. And for nights I use a pocket diaper with 2 inserts in them. I purchased 7 of these from eBay for about 40.00. I bought them from the seller mayflower_garden. They have really good diapers and excellent prices. I hope this helps.

We like the Bum Genius pocket diapers.  They aren’t exactly cheap, but we’ve been really happy with them.  And, in my experience they really are ‘one size’ – as in they fit my daughter from about 8 or 9 lbs and still fit my 2 year old son, who is around 25 lbs or maybe a bit more now (of course, I don’t have really big kids either, but he isn’t on the verge of outgrowing them yet either!)  We have also found them to be absorbent enough for overnight use, even for my 2 year old son who can be a bit of a heavy wetter.  While the velcro has started to pill on some of older ones (which we’ve had in constant use for the past 2 years), they are still completely useable.  We don’t have enough of these to use them exclusively, so reserve these for going out and overnight use and use prefolds with a velcro cover (similar to what others have described) for daytime/at-home use.  So that’s a thought for you as well if you are needing to keep costs down. 

Whether or not you will be able to use them from birth or not probably depends on whether or not you have a big or small baby!  All of my babies were in the 5-6 lb range at birth and were too small even for the smallest things until they were around 8 or 9 lbs, so we never started using them until 4-6 weeks.   (Also nice to have one LESS thing to think about in those early weeks!)

And I echo the sentiment that line drying them in the sun, whatever type you use, will help with the stains!

mjemom – how much baking soda and vinegar do you add to your wash cycles?  I may need to give that a try as I’ve not been very pleased with the commercial soaker we’ve been using (and trying to use more natural products in our home where practical anyhow…)

Do you use a diaper sprayer?  (Sprays all the yucky stuff into the toilet?)  We use one and have never had any stains.  =)  I don’t think I could stomach cloth diapering without one!  LOL

Erin

Nina

You might be using too much soap.  Just put them in the wash with nothing as many times as you need until they don’t have soap bubbles  any more.  Try finding the right soap here pinstripesandpolkadots.com she has a list of many sopas and which ones work for what diapers. Not sure if that is your problem…just a thought

trulyblessed26

for a newborn I love small fuzzy buns and then around 4-6 months bumgenius one size pockets or the new flip system form bumgenius is good too.

Just for a note….you should not use vinegar on covers/diapers that are waterproof you can use them on the parts that are not. The best way is a softener ball in the rinse cycle.  It will eat away at the waterproofing over time.  You really should not dry them either. It separates the waterproofing from the fabric or will crack it.

trulyblessed26,

We use and love prefolds and covers.  The best prefolds are the cloth-eez by Green Mountain Diapers.  Yellow edged, Brown edged, Blue edged are fabulous.  Thirsties covers rock!!!!! 

I also recommend the diaper sprayer.  I cloth diapered without and with, and it is wonderful.  I’m truly spoiled having it.

Bridget