Infant CDing

TeaForMe

Hello! I'm new here (sort of... I've been lurking off and on) and have a question about infant CDing.

Our firstborn is due to make his arrival sometime towards the end of this month and I finally made my first CD purchase yesterday, with more to come soon, I'm sure! (I now understand the excitement of buying diapers and sharing your "stash"... I *cannot* stop looking at every diaper store online, ebay, and reading the sew-your-own-diaper websites!)

We're planning to use disposables for the first couple weeks - just because we are clueless about diapers and babies and that's what most of our friends have done . The CDs I purchased are all one-size (a couple Flips with inserts and then a boatload of regular-sized prefolds with econobum one-size covers because we are on the frugal side). I'm wondering now if we'll have trouble with fit and leaking as I've heard the one-sizers don't fit infants too well until about 15 pounds or so...?

Should we invest in a small quantity of newborn/small size prefolds and covers too just to be on the safe side? Or has anyone had good luck with using one-size diapers on a small infant? I guess we could just keep using disposables until he reaches the "right size" for the one size if they don't quite work. But I don't want to wait to start CDs for more than a few weeks.

 PS: Since my husband and I are both a little "chunky" ourselves, I expect our little dude may be as well, if that makes any difference in diaper fit

JordanB23

I used prefolds with thirsties xs covers until DS fit into our one size diapers.  Your econobums will probably be the first one size covers to fit.

flyer23

My one concern would be bulk. I'm not sure exactly which "regular size prefolds" you're talking about, but if they're the ones that are the same dimensions but a lower ply than premium prefolds, they'll be HUGE on a fairly new baby. To give you an idea, I still find premium prefolds to be too large on DS right now, at 1.5 years old. When he was a few weeks old, they literally swallowed him up.

I think the covers will be OK, but you might invest in some small or infant size prefolds. (You can skip newborn size if $$$ is a concern, especially if you're planning to do disposables for the first few weeks.) I paid around $20 for a full stash of (used) infant prefolds, and DS wore them until he was 13 months old -- WELL worth it!

Dr.Loretta

OS diapers typically don't fit until at least 10-12 lb. In our case, that wasn't until DD was 13 weeks. A newborn stash was a good investment.

This might be a time to consider a CD trial or buying used. You could get some good deals on diapers that weren't on the butt for very long.

IMO it's worth it, and if your LO grows out of the diapers quickly, you still have decent resale value.

GL and congrats!

TeaForMe

Thanks for the input. I think I'll buy a couple dozen small prefolds to add to the collection just to be ready. There's a diaper store/service not far from home that sells their "retired" prefolds for $1 a piece so I think I'll go that route and maybe get a few small covers as well. I know it will be a learning experience either way, but it doesn't hurt to be well-prepared!

The "regular" prefolds I bought are, in fact, the premiums (from cotton babies). Now I hope we have a large child so they will actually fit him. 

hispenguin

I opted for a stash full of one size pockets. This is what worked best for our family. DD started wearing her BG 4.0's around 3-4 weeks old. She was about 8lbs at that point. We never had any problem with leaks, and she is on the skinnier side. I didn't think the diapers were overly bulky.

 We also did sposies the first few weeks. I wasn't interested in prefolds or a stash of separate newborn CD's.

sweetpea18

If you are going the prefold routine, I would skip the disposibles and use cloth from the get go. It sounds like you can get nb prefolds pretty cheap. If you want cheap covers, go with nb prowraps. They're $7ish/ea and they have the cord notch. When the babe outgrows the nb prefolds, they are great for doublers, burp cloths and dust rags

pixy_stix

We cd from birth.  I was able to sell off all of my newborn stash for just about what I paid for it.  It was worth it from us to cd as soon as we got home from the hospital.  Everything is a learning curve in the beginning, so I wasn't too worried about throwing in one other (in all honestly) small thing.