When it comes to diapers, what kind is better?

TACOMA, Wash. — When it comes to diapering baby bottoms, Lakewood, Wash., mom Christine Young has tried it all.

She has laundered diapers at home, sent cloth diapers to be sanitized by a diaper service, purchased and tossed disposables.

At first, washing cloth diapers for Young's oldest son, now 7, worked well, she says. But by the time he was 2, he was "running out of them."

There's no right way, the mother of four insists. You just need to find whatever works for you and your baby. And that can change over time.

"Both have advantages and disadvantages," says Young, whose youngest child, at 21 months, has worn disposables since birth.

She finds that she's out and about more with this baby than with her older children — mostly while she drives the older kids to preschool, gymnastics and other activities.

"It's easier to put on a disposable to go out," she says.

For Leah Dennis, a Lakewood mother of three kids ranging in age from 1 to 5, the decision to go disposable was "automatic."

"Everybody I know uses disposables," she says. Cloth diapers, she says, sound like "way too much work."

Likewise, Bekah Olson, a Tacoma, Wash., mom to three kids ages 9 months to 7 years, has always used disposables.

"I didn't know anyone who used cloth diapers," she says. "I didn't know anything about it. I can't keep up with the laundry I have now. Adding all those diapers would be a bit much."

But cloth diapers are making a comeback among families searching for a more natural lifestyle. Mothering magazine, the Bible of the natural parenting set, has a cloth diaper cover story in its current issue. The story features testimonials from moms, along with a guide to new products that make cloth diapering easier than ever.

Hillary Ryan, a Tacoma mom, is betting her business on the trend.

In January, she launched Wai Baby, a home and online business selling cloth diapers and their accouterments to parents. (The business name, pronounced like the word "way," derives from a Buddhist greeting of respect.)

"The inspiration for the business is showing respect to the baby and to the planet," says the mother of a 9-month-old and a 3-year-old. "I really think (the cloth diaper) is the green product for 2008."