I got started with cloth when my second son was right about 1 year old. I think I just happened across a mention of it online and I was like.. "hmm" I tossed the idea around in my head a bit then mentioned it to a couple friends. The typical reaction I got was "why?" or "uh, ok, you go ahead and try it, if it's not "too" bad, I might consider looking into it" My husband on the other hand, was ecstatic! No, seriously, he was. He said he would have loved for me to do cloth from the start, with our first, but didn't mention it for fear of overwhelming me. We already had so many other non-typical things going on with that pregnancy, birth, etc. He just left that alone. So, when I brought this idea to him, he said to do whatever I wanted, that it sounded great to him. From there, I did some more research online. I had narrowed down my choices, almost ready to make an order, somewhere, when we ran into an old friend who just so happened to be cloth diapering her baby!! How cool is that? So, I got a bit more info from her. That really helped to ease any lingering doubts I had as well. Then, I just jumped right in. And haven't looked back for a moment. Well, that kid was only in the diapers about 6 more months, tops! But I continued on from the start with the third. I'm proud to say Benjamin has ONLY worn cloth diapers and is now 18 months old.

Ok, so, what about this washing business you say. Simple. It really is. Here's my routine: put wet diapers in dry pail (just a small garbage can) if the diaper is messy, dump what I can into the toilet (not even an issue in those first few months, nothing TO dump), then, into the pail where it sits until the pail is full That's about every few days now. Wash day: put the diapers in the washer in a cold soak with a tiny bit of detergent (preferrably a dye/fragrance free version) Then once it spins out, wash on hot in highest water level with a small amount of detergent. Dry on high/hot setting. Viola! Once in a while for extra cleaning power, add about 1/4 cup of baking soda to the wash and some vinegar to the rinse (be sure to use the vinegar when you use the soda to level out the ph) The vinegar also acts as a softener. Another note..don't soak your covers or let them set with urine soaked diapers. It weakens their waterproofness. It's ok to wash them with the diapers as long as you don't use vinegar in the rinse cycle. Vinegar wears them out too quickly. And do not machine dry PUL covers. You can learn more about PUL and other covers at the sites below.

How you ask? By visiting the links below. You're not likely to find any cloth diapers in a store. Yeah, you heard right, Wal Mart doesn't carry these. They may carry some prefolds but trust me, that's not exactly what you want to be truly successful at cloth diapering. But in a pinch or a very limited budget, Gerber DSQ (diaper service quality) prefold diapers will work.

Cloth Diaper Info
another good site to get the basics on cloth diapering