Let's all stop an pause a moment to ponder the thinking (or lack of) around deciding to cloth diaper when I have three children in said diapers. Good idea? Well, I thought so at the time.
It's not bad as you might think. Some days it is, I won't lie. But most of the time it's just dandy. Somehow I like it.
Off the bat, I would have added
vs. bumGenius to the title as well, to compare the third brand I have, but I've heard they've switched from velcro to snaps, and all my bumGenius diapers are the 3.0 old school kind with velcro and as such are obsolete for future cloth diapering Mamas. So, I won't say much about those except that in a pinch, babysitters and Grandmas like them because they don't have to think about what snaps to use, and out of the three brands, the fleece inside of bumGenius stays the softest the longest in my opinion. That being said, they are very bulky under pants and very wide in the crotch and the velcro is kinda pathetic after only several months. They are not my favorite brand. I could live without them, but since I have about six of them, they are used in my rotation. When I do use them, I prefer them on a younger kiddo, up to 20 lbs, as opposed to my 30 lb 2-year-old. They rub his legs the wrong way, and I don't have that problem with the 11 month old.
I've blogged in the past about my adventures in cloth diapering and for newcomers, I would start at the beginning first. But I wanted to write a few more tidbits I've learned to share for posterity.
First of all, if you are on the fence and thinking about taking the plunge or at least experimenting,
AppleCheeks is having a storewide sale right now and orders over $50 are free shipping!
And speaking of AppleCheeks, I will start off by saying this is my cloth diaper brand of choice. The sleek fit and fantastic elastic and sturdiness are wonderful. My second favorite product from their store besides the actual pocket diaper is their "
booster." This is a smaller, very low profile extra absorbency booster that I use in conjunction with a larger insert for all three boys in every diaper day and night, to extend the time between changes. It really helps keep everyone dry, and I can't find a better, flatter one out there. The goal with cloth diapering (which I didn't know until I experimented) is to have as little volume as possible coupled with as much absorbency as possible.
Why? Because you can stuff that lovely diaper with folded up dish towels in an emergency, but your child's rear end is going to be the size of Alaska. Bulk makes clothes not fit and it hard for kids to run around.
If I could go back to the beginning and place an order for all my cloth diapering supplies, here is what I could get.
1) Only two colors of AppleCheeks. They have lots of different colors and it's tempting to go nuts with the cuteness, but this isn't great for our house. For husbands or nannies or whomever is changing the baby who doesn't know as much as YOU do, they might never
quite nail down which combination of inserts is best for day, best for long outings, best for long nights. I would like one color for day, and one color for longer stints like 5+ hours. I could then, as I am doing the clean laundry, stuff the day time ones just how I like, and the nighttime ones just how I like, and hubs/grandma/babysitter will grab the appropriate diaper based on "oh this is blue, this is for day!" and I'd be happy because the kids wouldn't wake up sopping wet or have massive fluffy rear ends trying to run around at the park.
Or, Applecheeks could market all their colors with the words "Good night!" on the butt and alternatively "Have a nice day!" on the front to help caretakers know which one to use for different situations. Do you hear me, AppleCheeks?
2) The best, flattest most bang-for-your-buck inserts out there by far are
Thirsties hemp inserts 
. They absorb the most and are probably the least expensive, go figure. I've tried several different brands, and I wish I could start over and use just these with the AppleCheeks boosters. The worst inserts are all cotton micro terry. They are very bulky, and all cotton is just not able to absorb nearly as much as cotton/hemp combo. Even cotton/bamboo combos are better than just pure cotton. There are two sizes, I have small ones for the little boys, and large ones for my 2 year old. I can use the large ones for the babies as well, I just fold them over a bit to make them fit.
3)
Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper and Laundry Detergent 
is an essential. I've used
Charlie's Soap
with great success as well, but recently tried Rockin' Green and oh my gosh, it is even better. I can use Charlie's on all my laundry and it does well for cloth diapers. But the Rockin' Green is pricier and I would only use for the diapers. It knocks the smell out of the inserts. Good stuff. Both soaps get rid of smells and stains much better than traditional soaps and they don't leave a residue or build up in diapers and clothes or on the inside of your washer. I will never go back to Tide.
4) A handful of
FuzziBunz Diapers 
. There is a place in my arsenal for Fuzzibunz diapers. I like them almost as much as AppleCheeks because on the whole they are bigger. At nighttime, their small size is much bigger than the equivalent AppleCheeks small size, and thus can accommodate far more insert power and more absorbency without making it hard to snap. I like that AppleCheeks fits small and sleeker, I don't have to buy bigger pants for my child just because I am cloth diapering. The Fuzzibunz are good for overnight because I can really stuff them. They are a very similar diaper, so you can't go wrong. In fact, if you wanted to take care of that day and night issue for the hubs or babysitter, instead of limiting your colors, have AppleCheeks for day, and Fuzzibunz for night. (Though, I don't know if the other people in your house will notice the brand difference even though it's fairly obvious looking at them they are different. So this theory might not work.)
*** update 3/2011 I changed my mind. I could live without the Fuzzibunz if I had to. The elastic on the AppleCheeks fits my kids better. I like Fuzzibunz, but getting the inserts out takes a lot of shaking and pulling. I like that with the AppleCheeks diapers the inserts usually come out in the wash all by themselves.
5) With some kids, you are just not going to need diaper liners. Ya know, the
soft flushable layer that makes poop clean up easier
? With my 11 month old, his lovely feces fall off the diaper and into the toilet usually. Not much fuss. The two year old's diapers are hideous. Maybe it's because he doesn't mention that he's poopy, and plays and runs and sits and jumps and mushes it all up into a hideous mess before I can get to it, but liners definitely help him. Well, me. They tend to make clean up a littler easier. I've tried many brands of liners, AppleCheeks has a great ones, and I found
Biosoft 
on Amazon. They both work just fine. Sometimes I notice they hold the wet against a baby's skin totally undoing the wonderful wicking-away properties of the fleecy inside of a pocket cloth diaper. We've gotten rashes due entirely to some liners, so they are a double edged sword. But we need them. The worst culprit for rash-inducing liners are
Bumkins liners
. They are soft but are terror on Mark's bum because they hold so much wetness. I will never get them again.
6) I can't live without
Planet Wise wet bags 
. It isn't always easy to get the zipper on the top open with a dirty diaper in your hand, it's a two hand job to unzip. But these keep wet and smell in for a few days and we have three of the large size. We keep one in the bedrooms of the two older boys and one in the bathroom where I tend to do the most diaper cleaning, so a poopy diaper can go straight into a bag after being rinsed. Even if I only had one child, I would want two of these so when one is in the washer I have a place to put dirty diapers.
7) Tips and thoughts: Remember to bring a gallon ziploc or grocery sack to store dirty diapers when out and about. I could just get a small size wet bag, but I am getting tired of spending money, since one of the perks of cloth diapering is big savings in the diapering department. Another tip is take out the inserts as you are putting them into the wetbag. AppleCheeks diapers have a unique slit helping the inserts to shake loose themselves in the wash. This works 90% of the time. The ten percent where it doesn't work and I have a crumpled ball of smelly inserts in one end of the diaper left after a wash is really irritating, so much of the time, I just pull them out. What can I say, I live in fear.
8) Confession: we use disposies sometimes still. My two year old has epic, narsty diapers sometimes.
What in the name of everything holy is wrong with your body? diapers. Sometimes, I will throw a disposie on him first thing in the morning, wait until he does his business and then go back to cloth. I thought I should mention though, having disposables in the house is a temptation some
spouses people cannot withstand. Hide the emergency disposables or they might be used in a non-emergency situations.
9) Diapers that have some fecal residue or are particularly stinky and are going to have to wait a day or two until being washed get sprayed with
Biokleen Bac-Out Odor Eliminator with Live Enzyme Cultures Foaming Action Sprayer 
. It is a "green," no harsh chemicals but very powerful bacteria eating formula. I use it on diapers, on spit up, pee and cat barf on the couches and carpets. Many uses this spray has. That sounded like Yoda. Sorry.
10) I wrote once about whether or not to use cloth wipes so I don't have to deal with disposing of regular wipes. I will admit, I never followed up on this. We use regular Target brand wipes still, and if they aren't disgusting we throw them away, and the poopy ones are flushed. If you have older toilets, this probably won't work, as it will clog your toilets or kill your septic tank. But it's working for us and so that's how it is.
Now for the pictures
exhibit A: size small (1) and large (2) AppleCheeks
exhibit B: size 1 AppleCheeks with extension tabs, to help them fit over fat thighs and allow a baby to stay in the size ones a month or two extra before moving to the next size up
exhibit C: the size discrepancy between Fuzzibunz Perfect Size small, and AppleCheeks size small
exhibit D: Fuzzibunz size small next to AppleCheeks size Large (2). The photo shows them looking the same size, but I will attest the AppleCheeks is indeed larger and fits a much bigger kid. There is far more elastic in the AppleCheeks and it brings the fabric together more. I like this elastic.
exhibit E: Fuzzibunz medium (blue) looks the same as Fuzzibunz small. The medium is a more generous fit though, I promise.
exhibit F: Line up of inserts. On the left is the micro terry kind that comes free with bumGenius and Fuzzibunz. They are free for a reason. Middle is my insert combo of choice, the Thirsties hemp/cotton insert with AppleCheeks hemp booster. Right is
BabyKicks Joey-Bunz inserts
. They are better than the microterry, not as absorbent as the Thirsties in my opinion. They work just great though.
So, we have a mishmash of brands, a mishmash of sizes, a mishmash of inserts, but even so cloth diapering works. It is strangely satisfying. There are hang ups though. Sometimes I go too long in between washes and the smell is yucky so I have to run them twice. Sometimes I find a cloth diaper that didn't make it into a bag and it's sitting on the floor/couch/bed all stinky and wet. But we push on, and hey, folks swear my two year old will potty train sooner because of it. (It's not looking promising though.)
Good luck ya'll.
*disclaimer, the links to AppleCheeks are a just a shoutout to a great brand. The Amazon links, if used to purchase do provide me with a minuscule commission. It goes to my I Have Three Kids in Diapers Wipe Fund. 
