@tara.k, nice! Honestly I feel like if you bleach them or maybe soak them in oxy clean they would be alright but it's probably better to be safe than sorry. I need to buy extra inserts for the ones I have now. Can never have too many!

I'm excited to try cloth diapers! So far what seems to be the best advice I've received is to try different types to see what you like before buying a bunch. Multiple people I've spoken to said what they liked changed from what they initially thought they would like. I also found a total of 22 cloth diapers for $110 bn a couple of ads on Craigslist. I'll be buying new inserts for them, but was stoked to get the diapers for so cheap.

Cloth diapering is the freaking BEST!! I'm so glad I found cloth diapers! I wish I would have known about them my first 2 babies! Using them with our 3rd & plan on using them with our baby due in August! :) I also use cloth wipes & a ton of other cloth products in our home! :)

@susanna713, thanks for the info!
@mrsfreckles85 sure thing!

I want to do cloth diapers, too, when I conceive. There's a service here that washes them and delivers them. I'm allllll about that. Good luck! Tell me what you think!

I got mine by posting a want ad in my local facebook Buy Nothing group. search for one in your area! there are also "diaper banks" that will loan you a set for three years. Google search the name of your city (or the closest one to you) diaper bank and see what comes up. there are also national programs but those are mostly for military families to the best of my knowledge- I haven't looked into it much since I don't qualify. good luck!!

we love our cloth diapers!!!

@susanna713, really? How did you get a set free?

My sister seems to love them. Sure it can be messy, but it saves her so much money on diapers!

it used to be the norm- of course you can do it!! just need to prepare.
I haven't used diapers since I was young (like 12 on my younger siblings) and am expecting my first baby in June. once we move to a place with a washer/dryer we will be cloth diapering. until then, disposables, since it will actually be cheaper and much less of a hassle. some things I have learned in reading up on this- disposables may be easier for the first week. the newborn baby poop is different than any other and is much more difficult to get out of diapers. plus with the brand new baby, a week's supply of disposables may help your sanity! also line drying is best if possible, to both naturally bleach and kill bacteria. plus it saves energy. put solid poop in the toilet right away and plan to do diaper laundry every other day or so. do you need any resources for getting cheap/free diapers? we are low income so I did all that research as well, and managed to get myself a set for free.

when you start out you do need to wash them thoroughly or preferably a few times before use, with the synthetic fibers it's just wash out the chemical off gases and loose fibers, for the natural ones it actually helps improve absorbency the more you wash it. @sleepymum we have a whole pack of disposable wipes so we haven't tried the cloth wipes. I recommend practice folding and snaping the diapers

That's so good to hear. I want to do cloth wipes too.

I've been cloth diappering my newborn for about a week. I like it so far, it makes me feel good it's better for the environment and my baby, we use organic cotton/hemp blend with a wool cover we do have a few polyester ones we got from a friend but we use an organic prefold with them that way the synthetic fibers aren't touching her sensitive parts. if you think your baby will have sensitive skin I suggest going with natural material. Also yes the money it saves, we've spent about $400 on a starter pack of 19 diapers with prefolds/contours and doublers/liners 1 sm wool cover and some cloth wipes w/solution, detergent, and nursing pads. our newborn is small for the diapers to fit her yet so we just use prefolds with a cover. washing isn't really a hassle, we don't have a pail so we laundry everyday and we rinse the poop before we put it to the wash I notice it helps to not stain and with natural fibers too I find it's easier to rinse than the polyester ones.