[TheWoman]

I have used cloth a lot because my first 2 kids got rashes from disposables. I even had to take cloth when we went on vacation--I don't reccomend this. With #4 I haven't even pulled out the cloth. I have enough laundry with 4 kids, I don't want to have to wash diapers as well.

Both cloth and disposables have advantages. Generally cloth cost less in the long run, but that depends a lot on the type you buy (I made mine, so they were cheap), how well you shop sales for laundry soap, and the price of water and electricity/gas in your area. It also depends on how many kids you plan to use the cloth diapers for. For most of us here, if you can get rock bottom prices for disposables the difference in price probably isn't that much.

As far as convienence goes, disposables are hands down the winner. Not only can you just toss the mess, but if you don't change baby for several hours the diaper isn't going to leak. They also are less likely to leak or need changing during the night.

Some kids get more rashes with disposables, some get more with cloth. I would try cloth out before you spend lots of money on them because you may have trouble this way.

One major advantage of cloth is that kids tend to potty train earlier. I think this is because they feel the wet diaper more, so they understand it better. That can aproximated with disposables by switching to cloth when they are nearing the age to be potty trained.

If you are concerned with the environment, cloth is the better choice, but there is still water, soap, and electricity used.

Doing half and half didn't work well for me. Since I didn't want to let the diapers sit for a week until I had a full load it was just as much laundry to do cloth part time as full time--which means almost as much water, soap, and electricity. Once I figured that in, I am not sure that half and half are better for the wallet OR the environment than only disposables.