Ready to buy diapers

Not sure if anyone is still checking this thread.....but just wondering is anyone has bought any cloth diapers yet. I will be investing in some soon. I think that I will go with the Bum Genius 3.0.

I'm still on the fence between cloth and gdiapers. Both are good for toilet learning (you have to change diapers more often - they feel the wetness, etc and don't build up the heat that disposables do.

Cloth diapering is environmentally friendly but uses water, bleach and gasoline for delivery.

The gdiapers are biodegradable and flushable (so they also use water).

Costwise.. I'm not sure of the difference. Gdiapers would be a bit more convenient that cloth.

So, as a FTM I'm trying to do the right thing but also keeping in mind that I need a system I can deal with.

I'm still researching...

You arent supposed to bleach the cloth diapers..it breaks them down too fast.

Here is a great snippet of info. on disposables:

Top Ten Environmental Reasons For Choosing Cloth Diapers
1. Disposable diapers use 2x as much water as cotton diapers.

2. Disposable diapers use 3x as much energy as cotton diapers.

3. Disposable diapers generate 60x more solid waste than cotton diapers.

4. Disposable diapers use 20x as much raw materials as cotton diapers

5. One billion trees per year are destroyed to make disposable diapers---approximately 4.5 for each baby who uses them

6. It takes between 200-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose.

7. Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent 30% of non-biodegradable waste

8. 1 ton of garbage is created for each baby who uses disposable diapers

9. 1 cup of crude oil is used for the plastic in 1 disposable diaper

10. 18 billion disposable diapers are used in the U.S. each year ­ enough to stretch to the moon and back 9 times

The sources for the facts listed above are the following: Sierra Club, Californians Against Waste, Rhode Island Solid Waste Management Agency, Lehrberguer Report on the Impact of Diapers on the Environment, Greenpeace, Environmental Defense Fund, Center for Policy Alternatives.
http://www.diapersandwipers.com/info.htm
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Taking into consideration the amount of water and detergent used for cloth diapering, it is MUCH LESS than used in disposables. Cloth diapers can also be used for subsequent children further lessening the costs of the diapers to you and your family. If you wash them at home, you eliminate the waste from the diapering services including the gasoline

As for the OP, i haven't purchased anything yet. We'll go w/ prefolds and covers for a while. I have infant prefolds but will need some preemies for a bit as my kidlets are tiny for a while. I've made a pair of wool longies, but I'd like to make a few more. I have yet to try my hand at soakers but I have a few patterns available when I'm up to it!

We are going back to cloth for DD. I have a good stash of prefolds and wool covers for her, but I've found that AIO's are much more handy. Sadly, I only have one AIO but I'd LOVE more! Just can't afford it at this time

I'm a FTM, and I plan to use a cloth diaper service for the first 3-4 months, since it seems like too much for me to do the laundry while learning to be a mom. Then, I'll buy Bum Genius diapers, which I will wash at home.

My sister did pretty much the same thing, and it worked really well for her. She said that the Bum Genius, although they are "one size filts all" didn't fit her baby that well for the first few months, so that makes me even more happy to use a diaper service in the very beginning.

I think it's a nice compromise. I realize that the diaper service uses gas and is a recurring expense, but I think that I'll want to have things a bit easier in the first few months. It's still better than disposable diapers.

I looked at g-diapers, but they basically are still part disposable. Also, I've heard that flushing all those inserts can really do some damage to the plumbing. My sister loves the bum genius diapers, and I have to say that they are as easy to change as disposables, with their velcro closures. They even carry them at Target, so I can register for them, although they are online-only and I can get them for less elsewhere.