Cotton or cellulose fluff, cost savings or convenience, laundry or landfill: For some new parents, choosing between using a cloth or disposable diapers can feel like a big decision. How do you know which kind of diaper will work best for your family?

Advocates for both cloth and disposable Baby Diapers make strident and often conflicting claims about the benefits and drawbacks of each. Depending on who you listen to, you may hear that either disposable or cloth diapers are the cheaper, healthier, more ecological, more convenient, and/or more enlightened way to care for your baby.

In our full reviews of cloth and disposable diapers, we go into detail about the materials, construction, and performance of both types, but here we will address