New here CD HELP!!!!

Welcome!

If you're wanting to keep cost down, I'd recommend washing your own diapers and skipping the service. Washing cloth diapers is really not hard or time consuming like it seems it would be. I know I was the most worried about doing diaper laundry when we first switched to cloth, because I really disliked all laundry in general. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find how easy diaper laundry is, in fact I even liked it! I really detest all other laundry(so glad I have older ones to do it all these days), but I LOVE doing the diaper wash and never mind it a bit. It takes maybe 15min of my actual time 2 or 3 times a week. It's as easy as throw the diapers in the wash, do a cold rinse, a hot wash/cold rinse cycle with a tiny bit of detergent, and a 2nd cold rinse. Then toss everything in the dryer(or pull out covers to hang dry that need that). All of the stuff I use can stand up to hot washes and hot machine drying, so it's really super easy. I find it very satisfying to take a load of fresh, warm clean diapers out of the dryer and fold them all in a nice neat stack, but you can even skip the folding if you want and just toss them in a basket to keep at the changing area and grab one as you need it. It's easiest to use a dry pail, and if you use a pail liner you won't even need to clean the pail out. Just lift the liner and toss it in the washer with the diapers. It's nice to have 2, so you can have a clean one while the other is in the wash.

As far as flushable liners.. I know some people really like them, but for us they didn't work that great. Maybe my babies were at a too squirmy age when we tried them, but often the liner would bunch up and poop would get on the diaper anyway. The liners almost never caught all the mess for us. What I like better is having a diaper sprayer. It's a little gadget similar to a kitchen sink sprayer that hooks to the water line on the toilet. It's extremely easy to install, only takes about 10min. I'm using one I got for $26ppd off of ebay, and it's working great. If you search for cloth diaper sprayer on ebay, you should be able to find it. I really, really love having the sprayer for once my babies are on solids. For breastfed only stools there's not even a need to rinse... just toss the poopy diaper in the pail then directly in the washer on wash day. Breastmilk stools are water soluable and easily dissolve and rinse away in the initial cold water rinse. If you are blessed with a toddler who has really nice and formed poops that are "ploppable", lol, then you can probably get away with just shaking the poop into the toilet with no rinsing. I've not been that lucky, so a diaper sprayer for us it is!

I don't know about the GDiapers first hand, but most of what I've read about them has been negative. I think if you do a search on here for them, you could find out more.

My 15mo has figured out how to remove her diapers too. I've learned to put her down for a nap in a well pinned prefold with a snapping cover(Motherease Airflow) or a pull on cover. She can't get those off near as easily as velcro ones. However, I still use the velcro ones during the day when she's being watched more, and it's fine. I know this place makes side aplix diapers which seems like would be more difficult for a baby to take off.. maybe that would be an option for your little houdini http://www.lucyshopechest.com

The best place to start when you're trying to decide which diapers to get is to figure out your diaper budget. Prefolds and covers are the cheapest, and fitteds, aios, and pockets are more pricey. Also, think about your personal preferrences. Do you like snaps better or velcro? Front snapping, or side snapping? If you're not sure, I'd recommend trying just one or two of a few things to see which you like best before you order a whole bunch of any one thing. Most places have some sort of starter package with a little of this and that, so maybe that would be a good place to start.

Thanks for replying, I was beginning to wonder if I had offended people or something because I really don't know anything about CDing.

I am willing to look into washing my own. I could at least try it now with our daughter since I will only have one now, and then see how it goes and decide after that if I want to continue when the new baby comes.

I am worried about getting my husband onside with the CDing just because he is so used to the disposables and just tossing them he might not be super excited about tossing the poop in the toilet part. LOL

He just doesn't like change that much.

I am going to search the web today to look at all the different diaper options and see what I think I would like, not sure even what I would like, but I will probably buy from Ebay just a couple first to see what if I like them and how things go first.

It's all a little overwhelming all of the options and all that you need to know etc.

One thing that usually helps husbands is to emphasize the money saving aspect. At least it worked for my hubby! I know he initially thought I was a little nuts for wanting to try cloth(hey, I even wondered if I was a little nuts), but money was tight at the time and so that was a big motivater at first. It can save you a TON of money if you don't fall into the trap of buying super expensive stuff. It can be addictive, but the nice thing is that the cheaper diapers are just as effective as the more pricey ones. By cheaper I don't mean the stuff you can get at Wal-Mart or Target. Stay away from that and buy good quality online. Also, be careful buying on ebay. Know how much the item sells for new before you start bidding. For some silly reason a lot of times diapers go for crazy prices on ebay, sometimes what they would sell for new or even a tad more. It seems like there is a diaper store that has a try it out program for new cloth diaper users and what you don't like you can send back. I'll have to dig and see if I can find that. I would think that might be a better route than ebay. You would know what you were using was new. Sometimes getting something used isn't the best way to see if you like it, because you never know for sure how it's been laundered or cared for. So, if it leaks it could be how it was cared for and not a true reflection of the diaper itself. Anyway, that's just my .02. It is possible to get good deals on ebay, but I just wanted to caution you to be careful.

Oh, and even though my dh was reluctant at first he very quickly saw how easy and effective it was and soon became a big cloth advocate. He jumps right in there and changes our babies when they need it, will even pin prefolds instead of grabbing for our more "easy" fitteds or pockets. At first I pretty much dealt with all the poopies, so dh wouldn't have to deal with them. He would just leave them laying on top of the diaper pail or bathroom countertop for me to deal with later. He probably would've done it on his own, but I told him just to leave it for me and not worry about it. I wanted to make it as easy a transition for him as possible, and I guess it worked because 8 1/2yrs and 4 kids he's still gung ho for cloth and will even rinse them with the diaper sprayer when I'm not home.

It is overwhelming! But not that bad once you get the hang of it. I chose to do CD with my DD, now 10mos. DH was very resistant at first but now he uses them like an old pro. I told him originally that I would use CD on DD and he could use whatever he felt comfortable with. I think that took the pressure off of him.
We use prefolds, which are cotton dipes. These are very easy to wash and take care of. With prefolds you need a cover. I really like the Bummis Super Whisper Wrap. We have never had any leaks with this. They also make a Whisper pant whis is very similar to the old rubber pants (in style not material). That one might be good for your older baby. Also the whisper wraps have a pretty strong velcro that I don't think little fingers could undo very easily.
We also use Pocket Diapers. The two we have are Fuzzi Bunz brand and SwaddleBees brand. I really like the Fuzzis for night time diapering. And with pockets you can stuff them as much as you need to. Very customizable.
http://diaperpages.com/
This is a great site that I stubbled upon when I was researching CD options.
Your DH will probably gripe at the start up cost, but you can get some prefolds and covers for the same amount as a case of the sposies. The thing is when the sposies are all dirtied they are thrown out and gone. When the CDs are all dirtied, you throw them in the wash and in an hour you are ready to go again.
I hardly noticed the extra laundry, and dipes are much mre fun to wash than regular stuff!