Any recommendations on "cloth diapers"

[Lovumms333238]

I am due April 12 and was leaning towards using apple-cheeks diapers for what looks like the ease of use and the option to use a flush-able liner instead of having to scrap the poop off the liner.
Well now that I've discovered I am so in the dark about all of my options I was wondering if any mama's out there can offer their experiences with this particular brand or what they would recommend? I am looking for ease of use, snaps or velcro and i guess that is it... but like i said I'm in the dark! What are my options?
Thank you!

[cristeen]

I will say that a flushable liner is not necessary until you start solids... not that it's necessary even then, but an EBF baby's poo is mostly liquid.

As for brands, there are literally dozens of brands, half a dozen types and plenty of styles, so narrowing it down to what you're looking for would help narrow down the recommendations you'd get.

Are you looking for flats? Prefolds? Fitteds? Pockets? AIOs? OS?

How about fabrics? Organic? All natural (no synthetics)? Stay-dry?

And covers? PUL? Wool? Fleece?

What are you priorities - ease of use? Will a sitter or daycare need to be able to use these? Are you more concerned with fit/containment? Ease of washing? Baby feeling dry? Absorbency? Trim fit? Potential sensitive skin?

My personal preferences are fitteds made of organic materials with snap closures and wool covers. I have precisely 2 PUL covers to go under other clothes, but we use wool most of the time. The trade-offs being that I sacrifice a bit of absorbency and stay-dry liners by not using synthetics, but washing is easier with less issues. We all have those things that are important to us, and this is what works for me.

As for brands - right now I'm in love with Bububebe OS and Muttaquin's 3-step rise for my night-time dipes. During the day my true love is a Disana tie nappy stuffed with an Under the Nile prefold. But the Sustainable Babyish OS pin dipe probably comes in second, and the Bag Shot Row Bamboo OS is also lovely. For a daddy dipe though, it's all about the Dream-Eze for us. He can't handle any of the above except the Bububebe. If I were to sell off my stash now and buy all new, those are the things I would buy again (there are plenty of dipes I have that I'd never buy again).

[DevaMajka]

Apple Cheeks are very very similar to AMP Duos, which I have and love! I like the stretchy belly- it seems to give more freedom of movement when they start to sit and they have tubby little bellies, kwim?

Pockets (like AC and AMP Duos) are easy to put on, but you have to stuff them. I've read that pockets don't work well for newborns, though, because they have teeny legs and it's hard to get a snug fit (which you need for pockets). Ds was big, so pockets worked for him by about 3ish weeks. Though- if you are thinking of going for the 2 size option instead of OS, they might work sooner.

For little newborns, you may want to consider fitteds or prefolds and covers. When ds was really little, I used fitteds without covers. He was born in the summer so he didn't get cold, and he didn't pee enough to leak out of it.
You can also trifold a prefold and lay it in a cover. I like the concept of the Booroi cover- it has a wipeable inner surface, but no plasticky stuff touches dc. The benefit of a prefold/cover system when they are little is that you can change out the prefold every time they pee, and keep using the cover- it's pretty cheap!

Then after the newborn pee all the time phase, move to your pockets.

[crunchy_mommy]

You don't need the liners (well maybe if you formula-feed, but BF poo just dissolves in the wash) and even once they start solids, it'll either still dissolve in the wash (if they don't eat a lot of solids) or, when they're eating more, will be solid enough to just shake off into the toilet. Plus you could use pretty much any liner with any diaper system so if you wanted to go that route, you don't really need a particular type of diaper. I just say all this because I was obsessed with liners before DS was born and now, 13 mos later, I haven't once used a liner & never had an issue.

Anyway!! As to some of your other questions -- Velcro is nice because it's more fully adjustable, but the Velcro can get all icky after a while. We still use some Velcro dipes but I really prefer the snaps (and you could even add more snaps yourself if you needed the extra adjustability). I don't know anything about applecheeks... my favorite diapers are from clothdiaperwholesale.com (WAHM, super cheap and small enough for most newborns but will fit later too!!!) and I like my BG 3.0 (minus the Velcro issue) and we have some ebay ones from China which I actually like but they aren't the best quality (on some of them the PUL got ruined in the hot water) but I tend to use those the most actually. The only ones I got & no longer use were Happy Heiny's, they were great when he was younger but they tended to leak a lot once he was crawling and the Velcro was really bad on them... though I believe they have new & improved ones now.

[hildare]

I have one apple cheeks diap that my mother bought for me. It doesn't look like it has a disposable option, though.
Of my vast random collection of diaps, if you like the apple cheeks, the one i have most closely resembles the fuzzi bunz sized diapers I have. They fit about the same, are pocket diapers, have snaps, etc. I like them a lot.

[Xavismom]

We use rumparooz, a pocket diaper. They have either a snap or a velco option, and are very easy to put on, even my DH and my mother love them. Its a one size diaper, that snaps to different sizes. The newborn setting fit my 8 Ib DS just fine.

I did recently start using prefolds with a fleece soaker for nighttime, at the reccomendation of a helpfull mama here on MDC, and I am really loving them too.

Good luck! At first, all the choices may seem overwhelming, but then you realize it just makes it really fun!

[maptome]

I recommend getting a few different kinds, seeing what works and getting more of the ones you want. Some may not all fit well. Some may give babe a rash. I like prefolds because they don't leak and pocket diapers because you can customize the inserts based on circumstance. (I use Fuzzibunz)