Early Morning Musings.... Snaps vs. Aplix

When I set out to buy my first cloth diapers, snaps seemed quite daunting.  I mean, this is my first baby...I've changed ONE diaper in my entire life (and it was disposable, and he peed on me)...who am I to think I can handle snaps?  So the first diapers I picked up were mostly aplix.  I had one lonely Nubunz that I bought in snaps.  I had read that snaps made it harder for toddlers to take off their diapers...that was about it.

Fast forward to when I began to cloth diaper.  The aplix was so easy to put on!  JUST like putting on a disposable.  I then purchased more aplix diapers (this time it was the gro via AI2's).  A few weeks into washing,.aplix was no longer my friend.  I had to worry about laundry tabs and one of my diapers had a serious design flaw...the laundry tabs were too small!  Aplix likes to curl and stick to other diapers, and pick up lint.  By this time my one snap diaper seemed to not be too bad.  Snapping really wasn't that hard at all, and let me tell you my son was NOT cooperative at all during the changes.  I began to love my snaps, so I picked up some more.  Snaps are now my preference.

That being said, there are a few aplix diapers that really take the cake.  So far I've had no issues at all with my Bummis Tot Bots Easy Fit.  It has GREAT laundry tabs!  I haven't ventured into too many more aplix diapers since I am tired of dealing with them in the laundry.

I recently considered changing all my diapers to snaps.  The truth is, I really can't.  I wish I could, but there is the cost factor of getting them converted, plus the relative factor.  My husband, sweetie that he is, helps me out with diaper changes sometimes, but he has trouble remembering to put aplix back on its laundry tabs.  He does seem to prefer to put on snaps (which is a wonder to me).  So the issue does not lie there.  My MIL however, she has never had to deal with snap diapers, and it is hard on her fingers.  She never can figure out where to snap the diaper so it's snug, and it's just easier for everyone to have the aplix around.  I've never had my mom change a cloth diaper.  I tend to do disposables when I go visit for the day, but that was due to not having enough wetbags at the time.  I doubt she would like messing with snaps either.

If you are trying out cloth diapers for the first time, buy a few of each for your test runs.  Keep in mind that things may change along the line after several washings or after you get into a routine.  I probably should have done one of those test runs with companies that let you "try out cloth" before purchasing to figure all this out, but I couldn't wait to buy my son his very own diapers.  Your opinions may be different than mine, you may LOVE aplix and hate snaps.  There's nothing wrong with that!