Prefolds - bleh

[quantumleap]

Someone teach me how to use/like prefolds, please!
I like the absorbancy, and I have a good stash of them with some nice covers (mostly wool, and some super whisper wraps). The main online tutorial I find only shows two folds - newspaper and twist. I like the twist one better, but it's all so crazy bulky! I can't make things lie smooth, and I end up with so much diaper around her legs that the covers don't even fit! Like the prefold sticks out past the properly sized cover, on the outside of her thighs. Is there another way to fold?
I've tried just folding in thirds and tucking them inside the whisper wrap, but massive blowouts occured (not past the cover, but the inside of the cover was coated in poop). I don't mind the bulk of a cloth diaper, but the prefold bulk is a whole new class of bulk, and I don't like it. There's got to be a better way to do this - what is it?!

dd is pretty average sized. She had crazy chicken legs as a newborn, but is chunking up a bit now. She's about 12lbs and 26".

Thanks.

[lifeguard]

I found the prefolds very bulky at first too. I only had one size - that I made myself & I wonder if I wouldn't have been happier if I'd also made some smaller ones.

I have been using the twist a lot lately but find to get it fitting nice I need to tuck in all around his legs after I finish snappiing. I also find I need to pull & adjust the covers a lot to get them into place.

I've actually started using my prefolds around the house without covers most of the time. Sometimes I get bad poop blowouts due to this but our house is pretty wash & wear so it is fine. The plus is I notice immediately when he has peed & so he spends more of the day dry. With covers I find I don't notice until he's pretty wet.

[MissE]

Are you pinning or using a snappie to keep the diaper tight around baby? I never got the hang of just putting on prefolds without a snappie. I love those things and I think that it also tightens the pf around my LOs legs a little.

I usually just do the angel wing fold and we do have blowouts but not many. Whatever sticks out the cover I just stuff in there, it usually is not much.

Good luck.

[confustication]

Which size of prefold are you using?

I find infants go a long way on skinny kids- I can still use them on my chunk of an 8 month old as well- but it's not comfortably snappiable (pinning the corners still works though.)

If it really bugs you, you can also consider having some prefolds trimmed to better fit your wraps.

Personally though, I like the versatility of flding the little extra down in the area I need extra absorbancy-with my son I fold in the front, when my daughter was small I put the bulk in the back.

If I bikini twist I don't find that I have much bulk between the legs at all. I tuck the extra around the waist around as you would a fitted, I pull the sides on the front around to the back, then bring the back over the front and snappi.

[Llyra]

It might be that your prefolds are just too big. My kids didn't really properly grow into the premium prefolds until they were 10 months old, and DD2 still would need one folded down in front to fit.

[Michigan Mama]

I like this fold:

http://www.littleturtleknits.com/sidewallpf.htm

So what size pf's are you using?

[quantumleap]

I do use a snappi, and we have small/infant prefolds. The rise on them is just about right, I just hate all the diaper over her thigh, and then having to fold it all up into a big wad under the cover. I'll check out that fold footprintsbaby.

[verdepark]

We use the angel wing fold most of the time. Then, we take a few moments to really tuck in around DS's legs. This works great for us.

[ldsmom06]

We like the jelly roll fold here All you do is roll the the sides towards the bum and roll even thinner for between the crotch then pull top out so you can snappi or pin. Just google jelly roll fold if I didn't make sense to you. I use the Green Mountian Diaper "reds" on my 14 m dd and they work great and are really trim. Before I used the infant prefolds until she outgrew them. I like gmd becasuse they have special sizes so they fit better. My dd still can't wear a prem prefold without it being way to long(even with the twist). I have used the jelly roll fold since she was a newborn and NEVER had a blowout! For covers we only use wool-longies, shorties and imse vimse wool wraps. If you have anymore questions just ask! HTH

[heidirk]

like the diaperaps covers,which seem to have more room in the cover to contain extra diaper. I do a trifold and fan the back out. I used tiny, med, and large prefolds.

http://www.babysorganicnursery.com/

They give good folding directions too.

[Googy]

Personally, I think the fastest, easiest way is to just trifold the prefold and lay it in a wrap-style cover, then put the cover on. No complicated folds, no pinning, no snappis. Fast and easy, and decently trim.