1. Pick a hemp/cotton blend as they are soft and fold very easily. A couple from our prenatal class bought some hemp inserts that were not blended with cotton and they are apparently VERY stiff and make it very hard for the baby to move around while wearing one.
2. Wash your new inserts separately for the first few washes. This is because they will have a lot of lint (fuzz) in them that needs to work itself out and its a pain to pick it off the diapers after the fact.
3. The maximum absorbency is achieved after having been washed and dried several times (I found about 3 times). After this is done they are awesome.
4. Always dry them in the dryer if you can or hang dry and fluff in dryer. The dryer makes it them softer and thus easier to put in the diaper and easier for baby to move around in. Line dry and fluff is a more economical and results in a soft insert.

[ The post "Are you considering hemp inserts?" originally appeared on Ivany.]

So how did we get started…. Well you can blame it on a good friend of mine for putting the idea in my head, she had tried many different types of cloth and had found Fuzzi Bunz to be by far the best. Now what i find so wonderful about the Fuzzi Bunz is that you can customize the absorbency for day, night and nap time, they are adjustable (ie: they have snaps) and they have fleece as the wetness barrier. That’s right apparently fleece is a natural water repeller so baby’s bum stays dry while the insert absorbs the wetness. Wouldn’t you prefer to be sitting in fleece then plastic and chemicals? I would! Oh, and with Fuzzi Bunz there are no “plastic” pants to put your baby in or safety pins.

Now there are a few “catches” with the Fuzzi Bunz diapers that we have discovered. First of all the “mother of eden” microterry inserts that come with the diaper are just crap. Well, not really crap but if you want to change your baby every half hour they are fine but if you want to go a little longer we have found that a hemp insert (hemp/cotton blend) work wonders. We use the hemp inserts 100% of the time with no issues.

Now if you are considering cloth diapering for purely financial reasons then Fuzzi Bunz probably aren’t for you as they can be pretty pricey especially if you are planning on getting the hemp inserts. I have heard some decent reviews about motherease diapers although I wouldn’t use them as they involve plastic pants and don’t have the fleece liner to keep wetness away. I have heard that many Mom’s just cut up some polar fleece and put them into the diapers… but isn’t that more work?

[ The post "Cloth Diapers are great!" originally appeared on Ivany.]