FWIW, and hate to say it, and eco-people please don't flame me, but we have tried most kinds of washable nappy, liners, wraps and plastic pants over the years, and associated laundry methods, and they all ended up with the kids getting horrid nappy rash that was eventually diagnosed as a kind of wet eczema, and which took ages to go, and caused them (and me) a lot of distress. So that's mainly why I use disposables.
I am a big Pampers Newborn fan at the moment, because they have a special mesh to deal with messy newborn poos. The Moltex eco-disposable nappies I bought four bags of before the birth are sitting unused, because they leak badly, and I reckoned quadrupling your washing load was not very environmentally friendly either.
In terms of creams, panthenol based ones and sudocrem work well on different babies. For extreme nappy rash we used to get Timodene on prescription (a mild steroid I think) and then wallop a layer of prescribed Antipeol on top as a barrier. Sadly they don't make Antipeol any more, but any barrier cream can be used, it just doesn't sit as well on top as Antipeol used to. Perhaps Juwes can tell us if Timodene is still available and still used for things like this?