what are the pros and cons of each.

personally, i dont see a pro in cloth diapers....except maybe price. but seriously, the money you save from not buying disposable gets thrown away on the extra water and detergent and time you spend soaking, and washing, and rinsing, and drying the cloth diapers. i would never do it! DH actually tried to get me to do it too....and this was his reasoning....

"....since babies dont poop that much." :inshock :rolleyes :crazy he had noooooooo idea! lol

a con to disposables is the prics. i mean they arent that expensive, but if you go through them as quickly as we do, it adds up. other than that, i dont see any other problem with them. and they have those cute little designs!

personally, i dont see a pro in cloth diapers....except maybe price. but seriously, the money you save from not buying disposable gets thrown away on the extra water and detergent and time you spend soaking, and washing, and rinsing, and drying the cloth diapers. i would never do it! DH actually tried to get me to do it too....and this was his reasoning....

That is not necessarily true! We cloth diapered DD for quite awhile & we saved big time! I only did 1 more load of laundry than normal every week. :dunno

The biggest pro with cloth diapering is helping to save the environment! Most don't give a rats ass about that but I seriously fear for my children & grandchildren's future!

The cons? Hmmmmm. Nope, can't think of any!

I am seriously considering cloth diapering with this next babe because of all the trouble my first 2 had with eczema and skin irritation with the materials of disposable. It didn't matter what brand I used and the only cream I could use was a topical steroid or something close...

I don't have kids yet but I will definitely cloth diaper. I've been reading lots about it (i'm one of those people who likes to "research" and be prepared wayyy ahead). Among the pros are:

no sausage-links of dirty diapers wrapped in diaper genie plastic in landfills

saving a huge amount of money, especially if you have more than one child (because then there are no "start up" costs for the second, third, etc) There is a savings calculator here (http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/Calculator.asp). I put in 700 dollars for "start up" costs.

cloth, not plastic, touching your baby's butt all the time means less diaper rash and irritation. I can't imagine wearing plastic undies (or even period pads) everyday.

convenience. if you keep up with laundry, you'll never run out of diapers and have to go to the store at midnight. :)

the above poster said that disposible diapers have "those cute prints" but cloth diapers come in TONS of different colors and patterns!!! Can't beat them for cuteness.

PS I've talked to Topher about it already (even though we don't plan to have kids for another 2-3 years) and he is definitely on board. Any time I do anything or suggest anything that saves money he goes, "and this is why I'm marrying YOU." haha.
We're both cheapos.

personally, i dont see a pro in cloth diapers....except maybe price.

spoken like someone who has never cloth diapered!

I have 2 in diapers still...2yr old is potty training and we would go broke if they were in sposies! Also, with all the chemicals in disposables my kids get red rashes anywhere the diaper touches them. They have NEVER had rashes in cloth.

pros to cloth:

you have an endless supply of diapers
they are 100% better for the environment
they come in (or you can make) tons of cute prints
they are natural and chemical free
the over all price is so much less than disposables

cons to cloth:

you'd have to bag up a wet or poopy one and carry it with you if you have to do a diaper change while your out.
you have to shake out the poop and rinse the diaper. I found this kinda gross

pros to disposable:

less work

Cons to disposables:

They are very toxic to the earth. Did you know the average baby will use a TON of disposable diapers in its life time and that each one of those diapers will take 1000 years OR more to degrade.
the chemicals in them are very bad for baby and have even been linked to causing boys to become steral (sp? Im drawing a huge blank on this word)
they cost so much
they run out

I disposable diapered my son because I didn't know better. I spent about $50 on diapers and wipes each month for about 2 1/2 years. thats roughly $1,500 just for it to be pooped on thrown away.

I cloth diapered my daughter, until she got toddler diarreah (that was horrible) I spent a total of $70 on her diapers (not including the 6 months of disposables we used when she had the diarreah) not only did I save money on the diapers but my garbage bill was smaller because my can wan't over filled.

there are lots of diaper companies that will come to your house and pick up the dirty diapers and leave you fresh ones. that saves you from washing them yourself if you really really don't want to do that.

did any of y'all use them together. like disposable when out and about for a long day and cloth at home or short trips? providing y'all's child/ren didn't have any allergies or skin problems from disposable

I use sposies sometimes with my kids. Bradley has yeast issues every now and then with cloth (and yes, I do properly wash my dipes. I use TTO and bleach..he's just a yeasty boy!) And when we're taking long road trips or trips to visit family I'll use sposies.

I did loads of research into the cloth vs. sposies debate when I was looking into the switch since DS was 10 months and DD was 25 months at the time. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that you can recoup a large amount of your investment when you are done with your diapers. Since cloth diapers are made to have a long life span they outlast the children they are diapering. So, when your kids are potty trained you can resell them for more then 50-75% of your initial investment (depending on the condition). This was a major selling point for DH. When you finish diapering a child in sposies you are out about $1500. Even with a great stash (where you spent $2000) when you resell them you still end up out less.

Oh and to address the "cute little design" :lol My cloth dipes are WAY cuter then ANY sposie I have every seen. I don't have many pics of my dipes on my computer but here is one I had custom made for DH. :giggle
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/FuzziFanniesCreations/th100_3919.jpg

If you want to see more I can show you pictures of more dipes done by the girl that did that one. Basically, if you want it on a diaper you can have it!