theluvyourbaby.com has 10 covers for around $50, free shipping, stuff those with prefolds you can get from craigslist or a diaper swap page, and you're set. Depending on baby's age, you'll need between 6 and 12 inserts per day, which I got a ton of from CL for $21, I was set for 3 days worth of diapering, and that was when Little was 2 months old. You'll want to wash on or before day 5 to keep the funk from setting in. Rinse first, hot water, then wash in hot water with soap on the 1 line, and two rinses after, one hot, the other whatever you want it to be. If you clean them right, you'll very rarely need to strip them. Rinse, wash, rinse, then 3 drops of dawn in the machine, wash, rinse til the bubbles stop coming back, 1 c vinegar in that cycle, then one last rinse.
And cloth is SOOOOOO easy. It really is.
If you have a heavy wetter at night, you'll need to invest in some hemp inserts, to keep baby dry at night, otherwise you're going to get pissed almost immediately. If you decide not to do cloth overnight for that reason, or you decide not to do cloth in general, sign up for amazon mom, and use the subscribe n save option. You get 30% off diapers and wipes. AND you can stack the amazon coupons you'll find in parents magazine on top of that. My last $40 box of diapers (7th generation, even) cost me $9.
Oh, AND , parents magazine is on sale from barnes and noble for $1 right now
http://www.thriftyandthriving.com/2011/03/barnes-noble-year-subscription-to-parents-magazine-only-1/
Little is 11 months, we go through about 5 or 6 diapers a day, and I use sposies at night because he is a HEAVY wetter.
So what will you need in all? What do you do for messy poopy diaper?
I you buy the ones from luv your baby, the only thing you'll need are the covers and 30 or so prefolds. You fold them and lay them in the diaper, and lay babe on top, then pull the dipe up and snap it or velcro (I got snaps, which I love). Check the YouTube link for video how to :) second one down looks good to me.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=prefolds+and+covers&aq=0
Is baby's poo solid? If it is, you just shake the turd into the toilet and flush, then put the insert into storage. If it's still runny, just put the cloth & cover (it will be rare that babe misses the cover if it's runny) into your storage place (separate hamper, bucket, I store mine in the washing machine unless I know I'll be doing laundry every day), and on day 4ish, throw them all into the wash and proceed. Don't dry the covers, hang em, they'll last longer.
And for wipes, you can either continue using store bought, or you can use your gerber baby washrags, wetted with warm water. If you use regular wipes, you've got to keep em separated, pitch the wipes, and throw the dipe in the laundry. With a baby washcloth, you can roll it up in the dipe and forget about it :)
Stain tip: if you have stains, wash them like you normally would, then hang them in the sun to dry one super sunny day. The sun will bleach the poo stains right out (that reminds me...)
Good Luck, and have fun with diapering!
