I guess it depends on why you want to go cloth.

if it's to avoid nasty chemicals you might want to think again.

normal disposables have many very nasties in them, including formaldehyde (carcinogen, sensitising agent) TBT- tributyl tin - v. v. nasty, organochlorines including dioxin (mutagen, carcinogen) etc. not to mention the latex and dyes which can be highly allergenic.

Disposables also contain Sodium Polyacrylate, a powder which absorbs moisture very quickly and turns into a gel. These gel crystals are often found on babies' genitals when they come out of the nappy - the huggies packets even warn about this possibility. Sadly, the disposable manufacturers say that it's an inert, harmless substance, however:
-it (SPA) has been linked to scrotal and perineal bleeding
-SPA used to be used in feminine hygeine products but has now been removed as it was linked to toxic shock syndrome
-as it is a chemical process that is keeping bub dry, it tends to absorb more than it should and dry out their skin
-the material safety data sheet says that spills should be cleaned up immediately adn that people handling the stuff should use gloves.

so - do you want that near your baby's genitals?

there have also been NO long term studies on the safety of putting superabsorbent chemicals in our babies' nappies.

bambo nature are a good nappy that are formaldehyde, latex, TBT free etc. however, they do still contain sodium polyacrylate, although the australian distributor says that they contain less than some mainstream brands.

the eenees pads also DO contain the stuff, so I decided not ot use them, although I had been planning on it before I found out (and I had to look hard, they certainly didn't advertise the fact easily, I had to enquire directly, and quite frankly, it seemed like their marketing was trying to hide the fact, which made me generally unwilling to go with them.)

as far as I have been able to ascertain, the only disposables with no polyacrylate are safeties nature nappy (and I"m not 100% certain about this, but i think so) and Tushies Gel Free. unfortunately both are expensive, the latter more so, and the tushies are a terrible nappy that leak like billy-o all the time, especially runny poos.

compared to cloth the tushies really suck.

so for a chemical free option, which is what I insisted on for my dd as I have lots of chemical sensitivities, the eenees pads aren't a great one.

however, you can use cloth inside the pants instead if you want.

two other issues with them: I have an eenees newborn wrap, which works slightly differently to the eenee pouch pants, but on the same theme. this didn't work for us at all, the poos shot straight out the side and the pee soaked through the leg elastic immediately. the company wouldn't even consider a refund even though I could only use the nappy twice before it became perfectly clear that it did not work the way it was supposed to. I cannot imagine that a newborn, b/fed, with the standard projectile poos would work well inside the eenee pouch pants. there's just not enough protection at the legs. others may have found they did work but I can't see it myself. just my opinion.

the other issue, is that the cloth inserts they sell for them - the microfibre cloths - are not real nice on their skin so if you did want to use the cloth inserts I'd get non microfibre ones or just cut up terries.

as for the environmental impact, the REAL in depth study on the environmental impact of cloth vs disposable showed that disposables use 10 times the amount of water that washing cloth does, so even if you feel you use a lot to wash cloth nappies, it'is still much better than sposies. and yes, they take forever to break down. the safeties are the best disposable as they're 100% biodegradabe.

environmentally speaking, the best option is EC combined with cloth nappies as a back up so you are minimising washing. We did this as no nappy contained her projectil poos adequately and I would have gone mad without catching most of them in teh potty. of course the other benefit is we will never have the "issues" some people have when ttraining with their toddlers being scared to use a potty, or addicted to using nappies etc.

I have found folded terries as a basic workhorse nappy, plus great covers (only needed during naps now thanks to EC) and some good quality AIOs or pockets for outings is all we need. I don't even own any sposies any more.