Experience with Esembly or other cloth diaper systems?

We had our little one about a month ago and are somewhat hybrid cloth diapering (we’ve been using disposables from time to time). I prefer “all-in-one” (AIO) diapers personally, because they’re easier than stuffing diapers. 
Our son was born on the smaller size (5lb 12oz) so we’ve been getting a lot of use out of newborn size diapers. My favorite brands so far are Thirsties (I especially like their Newborn Natural AIO) and GroVia. We’ve also been using KangaCare Lil Joeys but they’re not as adjustable as the others. 
I’ve also heard good things about Alva Baby but I don’t know if they have newborn size AIOs.

Hope that helps!!

Hi Elena!

Congratulations on the little one! I'm so happy to hear that you'd like to go the cloth diaper route. we had two little ones and both times we used the bumgenius all in ones. I was reading a blog (young house love) and they waxed poet about them and I was sold. They worked out well for us and we actually bought a new set of elementals for our daughter which had small improvements that were nice. I would say that people are pretty passionate about their cloth diapers so figure out what would work for you (hard to know if you haven't done it before) and go for it. we liked the idea of not having to assemble things and stuff different things in but the downside is that it takes longer for the diapers to dry. we dried everything outside and occasionally used the dryer so that worked out well for our set-up. happy to answer any questions you might have. my partner did a great job of cleaning them and keeping things in order and we were really happy to have been able to go this more ecological route. if you decide the bumgenius elemental are for you, i never got around to selling my set and we could work something out, but definitely pick the system that works for you. good luck! 

I'm not familiar with Esembly, but I'm on my third child using Bum Genius 4.0 or 5.0 pocket diapers. They are insert ones and I find them easy to wash and stuff. They do sometimes leak a little but I find we have less blowouts than disposables. They also make an all in one (called Freetime), but I feel like pocket one fits my kids better. But I had a friend who loved them. My extended family who come and have no experience with couples diapers can use these no problem, as long as I am in charge of the washing. :)

We use the Grovia hybrid system. It works great! Our baby is 2.5 months and we haven’t had any leaks so far. It’s advertised as fit for babies 8 pounds and up but I think it’s best starting at 9-10 pounds. Before it looks very bulky (although our baby didn’t mind at all). 

My daughter is almost 6 now, so it's been a while, but we loved G-diapers (no relation to the search engine). I really liked how flexible they were -- you can use either disposible inserts or reusable cloth ones.  My daughter has super sensitive skin, and kept getting a rash from everything else we tried.  Plus, no leaks EVER -- not even from blowouts (a few of the others we tried did leak).  They were super easy to use, and to clean.  When we had her in daycare our provider loved them too -- you can set them up ahead of time so they basically go on the exact same way as traditional disposable diapers. Hope that helps.

Prefolds worked best for us-the secret was finding a cover that fit well. But we didn't try the kind you mentioned. Recommend trying a few--babies' shapes vary. Good sprayer was helpful.

Hi Elena. I tried different brands, read about different cloth diaper system, read a book on diaper free, etc. I chose 1) "diaper free" or elimination communication and 2) cloth diaper Ai3 and 3) Ai2 for the night. Sometimes I bought disposable diapers. If you are interested in 1) I suggest you read this book Diaper Free, the gentle of natural infant hygiene by Ingrid Bauer (a bit hippy, but very informative). If you go for cloth diapers: boys are slightly more difficult concerning pee accidents. I used culla di tebi (italian brand, perhaps not in the US available). But I was also happy with Charly Banana. Bambino mio and Bumgenius are also very good (according to many reviews). At night a chose a very thick diaper at the beginning (snug outerlayer with two cloth inlays), but I also tried a few nights in summer to let the baby sleep naked on a waterproof blanket. That worked well (if boy, you have to put a blanket over him...). AiO =all in one, this system includes outer and inner layer,but you can add an extra layer if necessary. Ai2=all in two, outer and inner layer are separate. Ai3 outer inner layer are separate, but the it has a third out layer made out of cloth. If yoi don't mind trying out second hand, you should look on Craigslist or next-door or berkeley parents for used ones. Some parents barely or never used them and are selling them for far less. I think a mix of cloth diaper and natural infant hygiene worked best for me.my baby is diaper free at 18months. Good luck choosing;)

I've been using pocket diapers by a variety of brands (Alva, Nora's Nursery, Mama Koala).  They are very user friendly, particularly for day care/nannies as there is only one piece that you snap on.  I use fitteds, which are the style of diapers that Esembly is based on, for overnight use.  They are great but bulkier than pockets or pretty much any other diapering system. IMO this is their main draw back!  Reddit has an active cloth diaper community (https://www.reddit.com/r/clothdiaps/ ) which I've found to be very helpful, especially for things like troubleshooting your wash routine and getting advice on purchases.  A few people posted their experience of using Esembly and I think it was really positive.

My little one is out of diapers but I did cloth for her and enjoyed AIO (all in one). I tried many different brands before investing in multiples and built my collection slowly. Awesome thing is that it’s the easiest thing to sell on Mercari/EBay so you can try things out without stress.

Favorites:

Blueberry Organic AIO (make sure absorbent material is rolled into legs) honestly this brand held in all of the soft infant poop like no other. I could really trust this one and I used it 4m- 2yrs old 

Smart bottoms AIO are also great with a layer of stay dry fabric until ready for potty training.

Mother-Ease out of Canada is super high quality and easy to use. Leak proof of a fitted but with removable cover to save money and laundry drying time. All-in-Two

Lighthouse Kids diapers was also good but the absorbency was not enough after a year or so. Liked it a lot for the 0-10m and they have a larger version for later.

feel free to reach out to me. I did a lot of research and can talk about pros/cons of different fabrics etc.

I highly recommend POWDER Tide for washing them since we have soft water in the East Bay. Fluff Love University is a good wash routine resource.

Good Luck!

For what it's worth, we use prefolds with a diaper service, and found them really easy to use and also have never had a problem with blowouts (first slight leak ever was a week or two ago, and our baby is 14 months now).  We don't use the snappi clips, just fold and put in the cover (we like thirsties brand).  There was a great youtube video that I can't find now, but basically the suggestion that worked for us was to set up several of them ahead of time (fold the prefold and put in the cover) and then actually doing the diaper change is no more work than disposables or all-in-ones.

Where'd you get the idea prefolds lead to blowouts? I had zero blowouts with prefolds. That was the main reason I used cloth diapers! After a blowout when I tried disposables, I never looked back. I recommend https://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/. They have a lot of useful info on their website, like photos of actual babies wearing different sizes.

Thanks for all the advice - it seems like the best approach might just be to get a handful of different types and see what works best before stocking up on any particular style or brand!