Cloth Diaper 20 Questions

     Recently Hubby's aunt spent the morning texting me questions about cloth diapers for a friend of theirs who was expecting. I'm not really surprised about being asked questions, We're asked A LOT of questions. We also get a lot of looks and some people who just don't get it.
     There were a variety of reasons we opted to use cloth - primarily that I thought it was cost effective and limited our waste. We had purchased some cloth diapers when Big Brother as little but didn't follow through with using them. When Froggie was born I had pushed to use them again.
     Let me stop here and mention types of cloth diapers. Yes there are different kinds. No, you don't need diaper pins (unless you want to use them) and no they're not just boring and white. We typically use prefolds with a cover (what you think of when you think of cloth diapers), pocket diapers, or all in one (AIO) diapers.
     With the prefolds you fold them in thirds and then set them into the cover, velcro/snap around baby, voila! Pockets have a microfiber insert (or 2) that need to be stuffed in between a soft layer and the cover before use but then you just velcro/snap around baby and voila! AIO's are the easiest by far, you just put them on!
     Next question, how do you wash them. Answer; in the washing machine. Seriously though, you just stick them in there ever other day with a dye free detergent and run a double rinse and they're clean. We need to strip our diapers soon which means we'll just run them without detergent. We also typically add Oxyclean free and clear to help with the staining as well. We hang the covers and AIO's to dry since they have a plastic-y lining and the rest goes in the dryer. I know a lot of people who hang everything, I think it's just a mater of space and preference.
     I should probably also mention that we use cloth wipes. By cloth wipes I mean I found a TON of clearanced out baby wash cloths for like a quarter a package at Wal-Mart and bought them out and now we use those. They work well and since we spent so little on them I'm not heart broken if they go missing or get ruined. I think this was a better idea than buying actual cloth wipes simply because they're expensive. People also make them out of the flannel of extra receiving blankets which are nice but I don't have the equipment to do this and make them last.
     Lastly, what happens to the poop? Well this may be the most complicated part of using cloth. As newborns everything really just goes into the wetbag and then into the washer. If you rinse them they probably get a little cleaner in the wash but we never rinsed Froggie's infant diapers. Once you start solid foods you just have to shake the diaper over the toilet. We don't have a diaper sprayer but may invest in one; they attach to the toilet and are like a little hose that you use to rinse the diaper before you put it in the wetbag.
     Well that's about the extent of my knowledge regarding cloth diapers. Hope it was helpful for anyone who wanted to know.