cloth diapering?

[Twisted Cinderella]

Dh finally agreed that I could try cloth diapering! (although he probably won't change any poopy diapers ) Now I have to find a cost effective way to get started. Anyone have any advice? I have been looking at some All-in-one, one size, cloth diapers online, but I am open to suggestions from anyone more experienced than I am.

[nummies]

Hey there!

I have been cloth diapering my son since he was 2 months, so I have some experience in this area. If you go on my blog under the Cloth diapering link, I have lots of info on the different types and what has worked for me. I would copy and paste it here, but it is fairly long.

I will also be cloth diapering these babies. Probably starting out with prefolds and covers while they are itty bitty. Then once they fit in one-size pockets, I will be switching to those.

[remijo]

This will be my first adventure in cloth diapering too. I am excited...and nervous. Thanks for the info!

[circuitsndaisies]

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice.

This will be my third baby to be cloth diapered. With my previous two, I used sposies at the beginning and started cloth around a couple months old. I haven't decided what I will do for the first days this time, but it will likely be mostly cloth. I am not a stickler for ONLY cloth and do like to have sposies around for certain times, but I have friends who have never purchased them and only ever use cloth, even when traveling, so it's just a matter of what you want.

For a newborn, I would prefer prefolds hands down. Most of the time they don't need a cover because they poop so much. . .At least that was my experience with a tiny one. It was COLD when my last DD was born, so we rarely went out anyway. I also felt like everything else was bulky on their tiny little butts, and prefolds were/are really trim.

I think you'll like cloth, once you get into a groove. My plan for this one is prefolds, a few covers and some longies since it will be arctic here when the babe comes.

[Sharlla]

I really like to use Fuzzi bunz. I got 12 of them for $75 shipped. I also have lots of flats and covers for when the baby is NB.

[wildlavender]

We cloth diapered our dd from birth (well, once past the meconium.) We used Fuzzi Bunz and are excited to use them again! They are a little pricey, and not every diaper system works for every baby, so you might try a couple different types before settling on one. I'm grateful the FB worked for dd, because I didn't know that they might not fit well on every baby and had my entire stash washed and ready to go when she came home! FB are great because one side is fleece, pne is the water-proof lining, and you just stuff it with hemp, fleece inserts, whatever. My dh loves them. We briefly picked up a Swaddlebee, where we had a prefold and a cover (I was so curious to try the organic velour cover!) and my dh didn't like them at all. He preferred to just have the diaper stuffed and ready to go. We also used cloth wipes and made our own wipes solution spray.

[Gray's Mommy]

We started using cloth with our second about a week after he was born. Haven't turned back to disposables yet (except for vacations). I work outside of our home & it is very "do-able".
I found that as my baby got older-the diaper we needed changed. We started out with covers & Kissaluvs, then moved into covers/prefolds, then moved to pockets/Fuzzi Bunz. My DH loves the pocket concept. Easy & he'll use them.

There are tons of ways to start, http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/ is a great review option.

[Twisted Cinderella]

Thanks so much for all of your help! I am taking notes and checking out sites as I read this.

[ratrodgrl]

I exclusively CD'd with my son for the first few months. Then I tried some disposables for 'convenience'... OH MY I never had a blow-out til I used 'sposies! So then I stuck to cloth 99% of the time.

Because I was primarily doing it to save $$, I did prefolds (Indian is softer cotton than Chinese, and I prefer Indian) and prorap covers, also some bummi's covers. Then I got into knitting wool covers, that's another obsession! Even if you don't knit or crochet, you can buy wool sweaters from the good-will and wash them hot to felt them, then cut them up and sew wool covers or pants ("longies").

This site helped me a lot in figuring things out:

http://diaperpages.com/index.php

it's written by a mama who has tried a variety of methods and she goes into good detail about them. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but like with anything you get the hang of it as you go along. Have fun! nothing cuter than a cd'd baby butt!

[Mulvah]

I'm excited to cloth diaper, both for the earth and for my pocketbook.

[AfricanQueen99]

I'm still debating if I want to go with NB or just wait. My daughter grew fast so she would have been out of those in a heartbeat. I'll probably wait until a week and just use prefolds before making a decision.

[acordio]

This is my 3rd baby but the second to be in cloth. We do it for money saving oh and the cuteness factor too Last time we had some pfs then mostly pockets. This time we plan to start with pfs, covers, and maybe fitteds in the beginning. We will have some pockets that ds is still using now so we will see how the wear on them is when this one comes. We will then move onto pocets, fitteds, and pfs when baby is a little older.

[carmen358]

I'm also planning on cloth diapering exclusively. I'd like to try and make my own. Prefolds, covers, fitted, etc. Starting with prefolds though - does anyone know how much fabric I would need per prefold (for a newborn)? It seems that some of the "diaper specific" fabric is quite pricey and would almost be the same as if I bought them ready made! Also, suggestions on what type of fabric?

[djinneyah]

third go round with cloth here. i've always done mainly prefolds and wool covers, with a few fitteds thrown in for convenience when we go out. the prefolds are cheap, you can keep them for the next babe, and they're easy to use and wash. i make my own wool covers out of recycled wool sweaters, plus i knit and crochet.

when it comes to fitteds, i'm kind of a snob. i really like bamboo velour for next to baby's skin and prefer side-snap to front-snap or velcro (for the right price, though, i'll get the others just to increase stash size and have more options).

[THBVsMommy]

DH & I didn't start to CD DS til he was 9 mos old. He was a really big baby, so we're well stocked in larges. I just need to start buying smalls and mediums. We are probably going to go the sposie route until the baby can fit into smalls. I just remember how many times DS would pee/poop again while I was changing him. I don't think I could ever buy enough cloth for the newborn stage We'll see, though. DH is more pro-exclusive cloth, so hey, if he's willing to let me fork over even more $$ for dipes, why not?

DS took to Fuzzibunz really well. I'm sure those will account for the majority of our dipes this time around again.

[b_light]

I've never tried this program, but have heard good things about it--> http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/produ.../tryclothfor10

You pay a deposit ($110), get an assortment of diapers. Wash them, send back all or part and get a refund (minus $10, minus whatever you keep). Sounds intelligent.

As for what I'll be doing this go-round. We started with gDiapers last time. Ended up hating them and getting "real" cloth by size medium. I sold all our gDiaps, so I need new newborn and small diapers. I think I'm going to do prefolds and woolies. Our babes will be born in cold weather time so I think it'd be just adorable to have plenty of longies.

[MEcatlady17]

This will be my first and we are going to use cloth. Fortunately I got to practice and learn on my cousin's baby She used cloth for 2.5 years on her son. I really liked the one size pocket diapers, they were her favorites as well. She found several websites you can buy used systems on, and sold her whole system after 2.5 years and made ALL her money back.

Not sure what we will do early on, maybe both. I will probably try a prefolds just because of the economy of them.

There are a couple of companies here that sell cloth, either homemade or resale. I would like to support some of these WAHM's in my area when I do make my purchase.

[annettemarie]

Moving to the Diapering forum

[djinneyah]

personally, i never liked fuzzibunz to begin with. i tried one and hated it. it didn't fit right and the microfleece kept repelling. i've known many mamas who've had issues with the microfleece on those things and had to constantly strip them.

some people swear by them. but i'm not a fan. i googled and couldn't find anything about the WAHM stuff, but did find the made in china info.

[smokeylo]

FWIW, my husband and I found CDing to be the easiest thing to get used to that was new to us as parents. It's really not that different from using disposables. So don't be too intimidated!

With Robin, we used kissaluv size 0s and bummis covers when she was a newborn, and were very happy. Then she grew out of them and we didn't know what we wanted to do, so we used disposables for about a month (sucked!! stinky, leaky, way expensive!!). Then we got a bunch of bumGenius 3.0 one-sized diapers, and we're still using the same diapers 12 months later. I can't say enough about how much I love the bGs -- I think they're fantastic and so worth the investment. And they have lots more adorable colors now!

With this little baby, we're not sure what we'll do. We sold all the newborn diapers we used, so we're thinking we may try and use the bGs the entire time (they're kind of big for a newborn, though, so we may use disposables for the 6 weeks or so he/she is too small for the bGs). Depends on how big this baby is -- Robin was 8.5 lbs, so if this baby is that size or bigger then it wouldn't be too long before the bGs would fit.

We used bG AIOs a few times, and they are so cute and very trim, but take FOR.EVER to dry compared to the pocket diapers.