- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Eco-Friendly Family
New to board - cloth diaper question (long)
Hi ladies,
The posters on 3rd tri said this board is a great resource. I'm looking for some first-hand wisdom on cloth diapering. Most likely, we won't begin using cloth until my guy is a month and a half, at which point we will have moved and will have a washer and dryer.
I'd like to register for or buy some cloth diapers, covers, etc. now, but I'm totally lost as to how many of each is reasonable/necessary (especially since I don't know how big my baby boy will be).
So -- what I'm wondering is:
- How many cloth diapers should I have on hand in the beginning?
- Do you recommend the "pre-folds," and if so, what brand?
- What type of diaper cover do you recommend, and how many of these should I have?
- Do the wrap style diaper covers that eliminate the need for diaper pinning/snapping actually work, or do the diapers get loose/bunchy?
- Thoughts on the one size fits all Bum Genius, and similar all-in-one diapers?
- Any additional tips on laundering?
TIA -- I'd really appreciate any and all advice you have on the subject!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: New to board - cloth diaper question (long)
In the newborn stage I would want around 3 dozen diapers.
Prefolds are great, I love mine from green mountain diapers.
Covers, I love Thirsties. You can buy these on most cloth diaper store sites.
You still need a snappi with a cover, unless you just lay the diaper in, but I don't really recommend that if you think baby might poop. BF poo is really runny
As for BGs. I love them
I use them at night, though they won't fit a newborn.
I also use BG AIOs during the day on my DD.
Everyone has different opinions on this but here's mine
- How many cloth diapers should I have on hand in the beginning? Depends on how often you want to do laundry really. I had somewhere around 13 KL0s, 12 prefolds (which I didn't really use much at the time), and a couple XS Thirsties Fab Fitteds. Since I didn't use the prefolds much I was doing laundry every day almost because I preferred the KL0s.
- Do you recommend the "pre-folds," and if so, what brand? Most people recommend the Green Mountain Diapers but we used Bummis and they worked just as well IMO.
- What type of diaper cover do you recommend, and how many of these should I have? We had some Thirsties and some Bummis but I rarely used the Bummis. It's personal preference really.
- Do the wrap style diaper covers that eliminate the need for diaper pinning/snapping actually work, or do the diapers get loose/bunchy? I recommend still using a Snappi to contain the poo otherwise you'll have to launder the cover after every change most likely. Otherwise you can go nearly all day with the same couple of covers.
- Thoughts on the one size fits all Bum Genius, and similar all-in-one diapers? We didnt really use these much although we had them. Since you don't plan on CDing until at least a month or more old you might be ok with the AIOs or BGs since they tend not to fit newborns until they are around 10-12 lbs.
- Any additional tips on laundering? Be sure to use a CD safe detergent and diaper cream!
We used prefolds exclusively until DD was about 8 weeks old, and then we used them partially until about 15 weeks. After that, we started using OS pockets.
1. My favorite prefolds are from moderndiapers.com.
2. My favorite PUL covers are Thirsties. They work great and are easy to use. 4-6 is generally recommended. We had 4.
3. I never tried not folding and snappi-ing, so I have no idea how that would work. My first instinct is to say that with a new baby, you would get poop on too many covers doing it that way, and thus would need a lot more covers.
4. Right now we use OS pockets. We love them. They are easy to use and fairly easy to care for. My favorites are blueberries and baby kangas.
5. For laundry: we do a cold rinse, hot wash and cold rinse. For us, it has worked great. Sometimes the laundry can be a bit of a trial and error thing.
If you are waiting until your baby is a month and a half to start, you can most likely skip all the newborn size diapers (unless he ends up being small like preemie size). You will be able to go straight into the one size diapers on the smallest setting (like Bum Genius, Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiny, Blueberry, etc), or a small size diaper that's not an all in one (like a Thirsties Fab Fitted or AIO, or BG AIO). You could also try some one size fitted then like a BuBuBeBe (my fav!) or Goodmama. As far as prefolds go, you could skip the newborn size, and get the infant size. Green Mountain Diapers have the best prefolds and you'd probably want the yellow edge size. I'd rec having an assortment of different types of diapers but not too many of one kind. You can try the different types out and then get more of what you use the most. We have prefolds, fitteds, pockets, AIOs and covers and use all types depending on the situation. I'll use fitteds at home without covers b/c they breathe and since we aren't out we don't need a cover. My husband only uses pockets and AIOs b/c they are easier to put on. I put prefolds on during the day when I'll be changing her more often since they aren't stay dry. We use Bum Genuis pockets at night and double stuff them. Having prefolds is a nice "stash booster" so you can have more diapers without breaking the bank. We have about 2 days worth of prefolds.
I'm not sure what you're refering to in regards to wrap diapers? The basic type of diapers are:
Prefolds with covers
Fitteds with covers (most of these snap or velcro on)
Pockets (no covers, outside is waterproof, they snap or velcro on)
All in Ones/AIO (no cover, soaker is sewn in so no stuffing like a pocket)
I like our Bum Genius diapers, but we only use them for night time. We've never had a leaking issue with them at night, so I reserve all of our BGs for night diapers. I stuff them with a prefold and the insert that comes with the BG.
For laundering I do:
Rinse and spin with BacOut
Hot wash with Crunchy Clean detergent
Dry on medium
Washing is quite easy!
1. I think 24 diapers is a good amount to have on hand.
2. We use prefolds and love them. We get ours from www.nickisdiapers.com, just because they sell a lot of the other brands I wanted (for covers, pocket diapers, etc.) and so it saved me on shipping. I have been very happy with them.
3. I like Thirsties covers the best of anything we've tried, hands down. But a lot of it has to do with your baby's body type (chunky, long, etc.) I think 3-4 covers is plenty. Probably 4 in the early stages when the baby is pooping more. FWIW, I think Thristies covers run a little bigger than what they say. We used our extra small ones forever.
4. I don't know about "wrap style" (do you mean fitteds?). We have used the Snappi and it is great!! I highly recommend.
5. We use pocket diapers at night and for babysitters (BumGenius and Fuzzi Bunz), so we have 4-5 of those. The FBs are not actually one-size, but DS has been using his "small" one since he was born until now (one year old). I like them okay. The velcro on the BGs is starting to lose its "stickyness," so I think the ones with snaps might hold up better over the long haul.
Wow, this is great -- thank you all so much! I'm seriously sitting here taking notes....This does seem like an awesome board -- glad I finally learned of its existence!
I don't usually post here but lurk often to learn.
Per cloth diapering - here are a bunch of links that I've found helpful and you should be able to find a lot of info on them.
https://www.diaperswappers.com/
https://www.diaperpin.com/home.asp
https://www.jilliansdrawers.com/
https://www.nickisdiapers.com/
https://www.cottonbabies.com/index.php
https://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/
https://clothdiapermamas.com/
https://www.simplewondersdiapers.com/
https://beccasbabyblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/cloth-diaper-101.html (another Bumpies blog)
https://www.cding101.blogspot.com/
https://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/ (especially the basics section)
GL!
To get DH on board, we ONLY went with Happy Heineys and Bum Genius ONE SIZE pocket diapers that fasten with velcro. Nothing else was deemed acceptable, and that is A-OK with me. Still gives lots of flexibility and has fit pretty well the entire time.
We bought 24 HH, 12 BG and that would be enough with laundering every 2-3 days depending on frequency of changing. Now with more water drinking [due to the heat] we are changing lots of wet dipes daily.