Some detergents to try. Soap nuts bio Kleen perfume and dye free Charlie's soap Country save Just to let you know, many who have problems with charlie's in cloth diapering do not follow instructions, or can not due to diaper manufacturer instructions. In fact, the whole problem realy started when charlie's was in colaberation with a diaper manufacturer to develope a detergent. The detergent failed. Few years later, Charlie's came out with Charlie's soap. Charlie's soap began to develope a good reputation. Ex-business associate became quite pissed at this and all of a sudden there were reports of burns on babies butts from charlie's. Not only does this diaper manufacturer tell people they can not use bleach, but they can not use a sanitize cycle on the diapers either as it will damage the diaper. Of course kids are gonna get rashes if you have no way to disenfect the diapers. That's common sense. In fact, the detergent she does recommend has a high concentration of borax in it which can help, but many babies are sensitive to borax, but you won't hear her mention that. I did a lot of reserach on this particular dilema. I found out several things. Many mom's admitted they did not follow Charlie's instructions. Some admitted they did not contact the company when there was a problem. Some refused to or could not use bleach to disinfect, nor did they mantion any form of sanitizing at all. (Ya know even the sunshine can help with that.) Some reported that the only place there was a rash was on the butt where it got wet, but still felt no error on their part even though the child had a rash no where else. Many never took the child to the doctor to find out if it could have possibly been a food allergy expressed in the urine. Some refused to wash the rest of their laundry in the same thing there in by depositting other harsher deposits onto the baby's clothing. Also, unless a detergent specifically says it disenfects, it doesn't. You can wash and wash until the cows come home and may still never completely remove bacterium. Bacterium found in waste matter whether it is fecal or urine is particularly nasty. Would you use a wash cloth on your face that someone had wiped their poopy butt on if it had not been disinfected? I wouldn't. That's gross. But it's ok to make a kid sit in a cloth diaper that has not been sanitized in anyway? Something is not jiving here. Not to mention an independent lab tested charlie's on their own and found no residue left behind. If there's no residue then it can't be the detergent causing the rash. Something else has to be causing it. Common sense folks. Use what you feel comfortable with by all means. I just hate to see a product bashed because of a witch hunt started by some pissed ex-business associate from years ago. Even to this day she has refused to have testing done to support her claims. Makes ya wonder doesn't it.

newmama, I own a Maytag Bravos washer. It is the best washer I've ever owned and I highly recommend it. It rinses all my laundry very well. You could add an extra rinse (an option on the Bravos) if you wanted to be sure the diapers were rinsed well. Whether you use an extra rinse or not, using white vinegar in the final rinse is a wonderful way to be sure all detergent is fully rinsed out of laundry. I would recommend you get a washer with an internal water heater, regardless of what washer you buy, so that you can be sure the water is hot enough to sanitize the diapers. I used cloth diapers, and this is what I did to make laundering them quick and easy: I used a 5-gallon diaper pail for soaking them between washings. I filled it up with hot water, 1 cup borax, and 1/2 cup Clorox, stirring well to dissolve. When I took off a soiled diaper, I dumped the poop in the toilet and put the diaper in the soak pail. When I took off a wet diaper, I put it in the soak pail. When the pail was full and/or I was low on diapers, I dumped the whole thing, diapers and soak water, into the washer and used the Spin cycle only to drain the water out. I washed the diapers with hot water and Ivory Snow (I don't know if that's available anymore). I used white vinegar in the final rinse to ensure there was no detergent residue. (This was recommended by a nurse even for a traditional washer w/agitator.) 1 cup of white vinegar in a traditional washer and 1/2 cup of vinegar in an HE washer would be sufficient. The diapers always came out of the dryer very soft and fluffy -- no vinegar odor at all. Hope this helps! :-)

I didn't read the other responses so some of this might be repetetive, but here's my story: We use cloth diapers on DD who is now 3 months old. We use disposables for traveling but that is the only time we use them (a jumbo pack will last 4-6 weeks in this case). The only reason we don't travel with cloth is because they take up too much room in the diaper bag and are messier than I want to deal with. I bought all my diapers from organic bebe.com. (No, I don't work for them.) (I believe jardine diapers has a good website too - has lots of FAQ on cloth diapering. Type the name in a search engine. I've never ordered from them though.) After trial and error and several orders I've decided that 3 dozen diapers and about 5 wraps is a good amount to have on hand. This leaves you doing laundry every other day. We only use the prefolds because it's the cheapest and not any less convenient than all-in-ones or fitted diapers. Plus, I don't have a lot of space to store several different kinds of diapers. With the prefolds, I just stack them up and put them on a shelf. Works very easily. We have a wet pail and a dry pail. Basically a wet pail is a bucket of water that we keep in the bathroom that has a presoak in it (we use BIZ - look in the laundry aisle). Poopy diapers go in here. We also have a dry soak that lives by the crib. It is a diaper pail with a trash bag in it. Wet diapers go in here. We were just using a wet pail but it was filling up too fast and I wasn't sure wet diapers needed to really "soak" anyhow. Since DD only has a poopy diaper about once a day it's very convenient to have the dry pail so close to the crib! The wet pail lives in the bathroom so that you can dump the solids in the toilet before allowing the diapers to soak. When it's time to do a wash I dump all the diapers in the washer and run it on hot. We use dreft detergent on the cloth diapers but any detergent will do. (Somebody gave it to us and I thought we should make sure baby's bum isn't sensitive to Tide or other detergents. Plus, somebody said Dreft gets the diapers the whitest-don't know if that's true or not. When we run out of Dreft we'll probably use the family detergent. I use Tide on all her clothes as well as ours.) I do not dry the wraps in the dryer. I let them air dry. But, I do use the dryer for the prefolds. When buying prefolds you want to make sure they are good quality. Chinese prefolds and Baby textiles are supposedly the best but I go by their absorbancy chart. 4x8x4 is what I buy. That means there are 8 layers of absorbancy in the middle and 4 layers on each side. You can also buy diapers in 4x6x4 or 2x4x2 depending on how much absorbancy you want. I don't go any less than 4x8x4. I also don't use pins. What's great about prefolds is they will fit into a wrap very easily. Just fold into thirds, slip into a wrap, and slip under baby, velcro up. I like the Bummis Super Whisper wrap. (Look at the www.organicbebe.com diaper packages.) I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to use cloth diapers. I placed several posts similar to this one (Kara_PA is a lifesaver!!!) to get a general idea of where to start. Like you, I wanted to use them for financial reasons and because they're better for the environment. I hate seeing all those disposables going into the landfill. I guess this is how I'm doing my part to help. My folks used cloth diapers so I got a lot of help from them. They taught me about the presoak and how to diaper the baby. Things have changed since my brothers and I were babies, but the basics are still the same. Some people don't like cloth because the clothes fit bulkier. That is true, but it's not that bad. Besides, I figure if I'm taking DD anywhere that really matters she'll be in disposables anyhow! Who cares how their clothes look around the house! If you do decide to cloth diaper you will go through all kinds of trial and error and find a system that works for you. And, like me, your system might even change a little until you're comfortable with what you have. We had several fitted and all in one diapers on hand until I decided they weren't that much better and I couldn't justify the cost. An all-in-one Bumkins diaper costs about $11 (give or take). It will last about 6 months according to the manufacturer. You can buy disposables cheaper than that! So, I sold all of my all-in-ones and fitted diapers on ebay! Don't hesitate to ask more questions! Good luck to you!

If you are breastfeeding, you will not need anything special for diaper disposal as a breastfed baby's diapers do not smell. DD uses a garbage can. I suggest that you will need a crib and a chest of drawers. A changing table is not a necessity. I used a water proof pad I would put under the baby on his bed to do a diaper change, and DD is doing the same, only she is using a disposable water proof pad for less laundry. She buys them at the drug store. It is easy to manage without the changing table. I suggest that you get lots of blankets, sheets, water proof mattress pads and newborn to 3 months onesies with feet and gowns so that you will not have to do laundry too often. You will be doing laundry enough! If you live where winters are cold, buy 6 or so baby undershirts. I like bumpers in a crib too. I like that large sponge pillow to lay the baby on for baths. They cost just a few dollars. Helps you manage their slippery bodies as you learn to bathe them. I do like those baby towels with the triangle of terrycloth at one corner to pull over their heads so you can wrap them warmly after their baths. Get some baby shampoo too and a mild bath soap. I like to make baby washcloths for baths from a little square of cotton flannel. If you have a friend or relative who sews, or you do yourself, ask for a few of them. Also buy a dozen cloth diapers to use as burp cloths. You will go through these quickly. Target sells printed cloth diapers that are cute in packages of all pinks or all blues. You could also ask your crafty friends to crochet or sew some edges on them. Get some Original Desetin for any bad diaper rashes that may develop. You want to get on a rash right away if it develops. You could also have another type of diaper rash cream to use if the rash is milder. Have some kind of wipes to take with you in your diaper bag as well as at home. Keep a receiving blanket in your diaper bag to use under the baby if you have to change him or her in a public place. Of course you want a nice stroller and a car seat. If you will be traveling, Graco's Snap and Go is great--it's a stroller and a car seat all in one. If you will breastfeed, an electric pump would be great. I never had one, but a friend gave DD hers, and it does a great job of offering the mother options. We love the Bumbo seat, which you can use with supervision once the baby can hold up its head well. DGS loves his. DD also valued her Bjorn baby carrier and would even use it around the house if she had lots to do and the baby was fussing for attention. Also great for getting around the big city with a new baby. Hope this helps. Warmest congratulations.