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I strongly recommend that you purchase a few prefolds, whether or not you’re going to actually use them as cloth diapers. They are incredibly useful for the EC’ing family or any family with a young baby. You can tuck one inside a sling, lay one under your sleeping, diaper-free baby, or spread one out under your baby when he’s sitting up but not mobile. They’re also useful to have on hand to wipe up any messes that you might encounter. You can easily purchase a dozen good quality prefolds for little more than you’d pay for a big package of disposables. (One warning: most of the prefolds you see in a baby store are not the highly absorbent, good-quality kind. Avoid wasting your money on these. See resources on page 203 for a list of reputable cloth-diapering websites.)

Fitted Diapers

Fitted diapers are diapers that will stay on the baby even without a cover. They have gathers sewn at the legs and waist and they fasten either with snaps or Velcro fastenings. Think of them as thick, absorbent training pants that can be unfastened from the side like a disposable diaper. Being able to take them off in this way is useful if your baby has pooped inside the diaper and you need to take it off without pulling it down your baby’s legs. The biggest advantage of fitted diapers is that they make a fabulous diaper–training pant for an EC’ed baby who is fairly reliable but is not yet in underwear or training pants. Of course, you can put a waterproof cover on top of the fitted diaper, but in general, a lot of EC’ing parents find that they keep their babies in these alone, especially when they are at home. You do have to be more specific about the size of fitted diapers than you do with prefolds. Fitted diapers need to fit your baby well, especially around the thighs, to be effective. Kissaluvs are one of many popular fitted diaper brands.

Pocket Diapers

One special type of diaper that I must make note of are pocket diapers; the best-known brand is Fuzzi Bunz. These are diapers made of a waterproof outer layer and a fleece inner lining with an absorbent insert (a prefold, a special insert made of microterry, or any rag or scrap of cloth will work!). When the baby pees, the fleece next to her skin wicks moisture away from her bottom, which makes these cloth diapers suitable for situations in which an immediate change is not always possible or for use as a backup or nighttime diaper. An additional benefit to using these diapers is that you can feel inside the pocket to check whether the baby has gone. One caveat: some parents I know feel that while fleece pocket diapers are very convenient, they are similar to disposables in how well they prevent baby from recognizing that she has gone to the bathroom. In an older baby, especially, this can impede awareness and communication between the two of you. You may want to consider increasing your vigilance during the times when your baby is wearing a pocket diaper (by loosely keeping track of timing or being more alert to your baby’s cues), or else be sure to alternate use of pocket diapers with other forms of diapers or training pants.

All-in-Ones (AIOs)

My husband loves all-in-ones. He invested in a huge stash of Bumkins, the all-in-one diaper that we relied on the most. Why did he like these so much? He never really felt like he got the hang of laying a prefold in a diaper cover, but all-in-ones are so similar to disposables in their shape and convenience that he was quite enthusiastic about them. Basically, they are a flannel diaper and waterproof cover sewn together and fastened with Velcro straps at the sides. They can be put on or taken off your child in as little time as it would take to change a disposable. All-in-ones are pricier than other diapers. But if you invest in them once, you can use the same diapers for two or three babies (especially if those babies are being EC’ed part-time and aren’t using the diapers all that much!). We invested a couple hundred dollars in all-in-ones ranging from newborn to