It's not clear why there would be ammonia in a cloth diaper... or whether the damage is in the finish, the wood fibers below the finish, or both. Ammonia darkening can sometimes be bleached out with oxalic acid. Dissolve the crystals, brush onto the entire surface (not just the stain, because it may lighten the area). When the bleaching is complete, sponge off the bleach with a solution of baking soda and water (to neutralize the acid). If it's urine in the diaper and you're assuming the ammonia comes from that, realize that it may be impossible to fix; professionals usually remove and replace urine-stained boards, at least for pet stains. Even sanding through often won't remove them.

I did all sorts of stitches to make edges. I used a large yarn needle with a large eye to make the perforations for the crochet hook to pass through the diaper. I would weave the needle through the edge several times, gathering the cloth edge on the yarn needle. Then I would slide the diaper off the eye end of the needle, one hole at a time, single crochet through the hole, ch 1, and then repeat by releasing one more hole over the eye of the needle. I found this method also helped me have more evenly spaced perforations along the edge. I went around the edge with doing 1 sc, ch 1, over and over. Then sometimes I make a second row of all sc. Then I do a pattern. Shells really look good, and I made them with 5 dc -- or *1dc, ch1 4 times. I also made clusters, or a row of *1 hdc, ch2 that was sometimes my last row or a next to a last row with a row of sc and picots as the last row or shells. Or I made Vs--*1 dc in stitch, ch 3, 1 dc in same stitch, skip 3 stitches, and repeat across from *. Sometimes after the row of all sc stitches, I just did a row of 3 sc, picot all around. Picots are cute. You have to be careful how you turn the corners and make your stitches closer together so the corner will lie flat. Another way to make the first row was suggested by Donna. I was having trouble piercing the double sided flannel with a crochet hook, and she suggested I sew the first row in a small blanket stitch using the crochet cotton or yarn. Then I could use the bar of the blanket stitch to anchor the 1st row of sc. That works too. If I were good at embroidery, I think I would have put a small initial in a corner, not in the center where you want all the absorbancy and where stitches might be too rough when you wipe baby's face. I also launder the burp cloths before giving them away to get the sizing off the cloth diapers (or flannel) and the crochet cotton too, and I do not use fabric softener to keep the absorbancy at its best. Washing also blocks your stitches and makes the edge softer and prettier. If you want to primp it up for gift giving, you could always steam iron the edging and cloth.

I use a top loader that does HE with my diapers - the Fisher & Paykel AquaSmart. I love the machine. I use prefolds, polyester/PUL covers, and polyester pocket diapers (I also use a wool cover but I hand-rinse and lanolize it). I use Charlie's soap and Calgon to wash the diapers (we have slightly hard water). I don't do any soaking or bleaching and rarely wash a poopy diaper anymore, just urine ones (I potty my 8 month old and have since 4 months, called elimination communication, infant pottying, etc.). Even when I get a diaper with poop, I just throw it in the washer and do my normal loads. Then again, I'm not completely satisfied with the washing process because none of the preset programs match exactly what I'm trying to do. What I want to do is a simple soak, short agitation, and rinse, all on cold with 1/2 the normal detergent. This gets out the urine and stuff without setting the stains. Then I run a hot cycle with full detergent. What I have to do with this washer, though, is run a full cold cycle with a 2 hour soak (because there's no way to shorten the soak). I usually set this going overnight because it takes so long! I love so many things about this washer, including the delay feature, but I need a shorter cold rinse cycle with maybe 1/2 hr soak. I also love how this washer can flip between HE and conventional. I wash the diapers using the conventional method, which is not too water-piggy compared to true conventional washers. I've been using the hot cycle on my pocket diapers for 8 months and the elastic is fine. I think I can contact the F&P techs to program my own cycle. Anyone have experience with this?

You can probably stick w/ the 3T's, esp. for the first part of the summer, unless she's a kind of chubby kid. But if she's pretty lean, those 3T's will last her for most of the summer. The thing w/ shorts is, they've usu. got elastic waists, plus they're made w/ room, bcs of diapers and the manufacturers making them roomy to fit the rounder kids. So kids can wear stuff for a while, in terms of how big around it is. It's the HEIGHT that they grow out of quickly. Shorts that are shorter this year than last, don't look funny. (Pants do, but shorts don't) They're only an inch or so shorter on the kid than before, so it doesn't matter too much. Shirts can be a problem, also because of height--my lean kids always could still fit inside their shirts, but the shirts started to get too short. My kids always wore their shorts for 2 years.