Go read the Disclaimer again. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. Seriously.
With the exception of some Cot'N'Wraps, I bought all of my supplies online. I tried to order from places on the coast I was on at the time to minimize shipping costs. This was especially important for the diaper pail.
On the East Coast, in New Hampshire, my preferred source is Green Mountain Diapers, which is in Vermont.
The good diaper pail is unnamed on most sites, but appears to come from Busch Systems. We bought one on the West Coast from Baby Bunz. We bought the East Coast one from Diapers and Wipers. We have the 2 of the 7 gallon size, since our house has two floors (and a basement). In the apartment, we only needed one pail, and got along for a while without one by using the washing machine as our pail (it was in the main bathroom where we changed diapers). That was the only time we used wet-pailing.
In addition to some Gerber prefolds (good when Teddy was very tiny), Gerber flats (more versatile, once we got the hang of folding them), we tried Cotton Clouds and some "Chinese" prefolds. The Cotton Clouds were good when he was small, but even with doublers, they were not absorbent enough when he was older.
We tried some fitted diapers that we got hand-me-down. I also bought some Kissaluvs. Even with doublers, they were not reliably absorbent enough.
Cloth diaper wipes are a logical thing to do with cloth diapering -- you're doing the laundry anyway, and this way you know exactly what chemicals are present. I do not recall now which ones we bought. We got a couple dozen early on and have never bought more. They also make good baby washcloths. Most of the baby washcloths out there are partly synthetic and aren't very nice.
Our favorite cover by far is the Bummi's Original. Simple, works with any diaper you have available, fits well, washes well, lasts well and not very expensive.
We used two sizes of Dappi Diaper Covers, which are very scratchy. They are, however, incredibly cheap, and last well.
The Cot'n'Wrap is the snap and velcro cover we used for a while. It is a very nice cover, but Teddy's legs were so chubby he busted out of the snaps a lot. We think the muscles he had as an early walker were part of the problem.
If we'd known about them sooner, and could have justified the cost, we might have kept Teddy exclusively in the Bumkins All-in-One right from the beginning. Every bit as convenient on-and-off as disposables (and a lot like them), very absorbent and they fit well, too. As it was, we had a half-dozen in the outings bag(s), and bought a dozen more later for training pants and to make it easier on child care.
The Elimination Communication Store usually carries wet bags in various sizes, for soiled clothes, diapers, etc., and also for carrying a small potty along on outings.
Consider switching to Lunapads when your period starts again. You've got pails and you're doing loads of this kind of laundry anyway. Save yourself an emergency trip to the drugstore ever again.
A General Discussion of Diapering
Copyright 2007 by Rebecca Allen.
Created February 22, 2007 Updated February 22, 2007