Talk to me about tri-folded prefolds vs. fitteds?

[Juvysen]

I'm due with my third baby in March and my kids both were skinny, so we used the size mediums from the time they were too big for the smalls (I dunno, 4 or 5 months?) to the time... well, my potty-training 2 year old is still wearing the mediums. Most of them are pockets and are pretty beat up, the elastic on a lot of them is wearing out. Sooo, I guess two kids wearing the diapers for a year and a half each is long enough to wear out a diaper? Anyway, my stash for bigger babies needs to be renewed.

I was wondering what you all think about tri-folding prefolds and using them in a cover? It seems simple/easy to clean/cheap. What am I missing. Is there a good reason to not go for this, if I have a good cover that holds stuff in pretty well? Is there a good cover for this?

Also, i want to use some wool sometimes - is a snappi too catchy for knitted wool? Seems like it might be a pain in the butt. Would it be smarter to just go for a bunch of fitteds?

Thanks

[Pepper44]

I love prefolds, but I found that trifolded did not work well for my DD. It seemed like it was uncomfortable for her because the pee would get the inside of the cover wet, and then the cover would stick to her skin. If she pooped it filled the cover and made a huge nasty mess. I folded my prefolds by laying the baby on a flat open prefold, leaving it flat under her butt, then trifolding the bottom half of the prefold so that the creases were right up in her crotch. Then I pulled up the trifolded half and fanned it out over her belly button and used a snappi. That worked great, it made sort of built in gussets at the legs.

[HeatherB]

We just spent almost two weeks doing exclusively trifolded PFs (okay, I snappied one!) and PUL covers (mostly Thirsties Duo covers, which I really liked). We were traveling and it made sense to have a simple, predictable, and easy-to-wash system.

The upside of the PFs is they're cheap; they're simple, easy, and predictable; and they're pretty absorbent. The Thirsties Duo Wraps were great, adjustable, and held everything in quite well. We had no poo leaks, and while we did occasionally have wicking, it was mostly in covers other than the Thirsties, and pretty much could all have been remedied by more frequent changing. (Though DS is at this almost-ready-to-potty-learn stage where he holds it for 4 hours or so and then floods!)

The downsides to the PFs include getting a 3 piece system (we used flushable liners for our trip, too) on a wiggly baby! I can so see where "all-in-twos" were dreamed up - the need for a way to keep the inner attached to the outer! Once on, a PF is far from the trimmest diaper out there. In fact, in his PFs, my DS had pretty much outgrown his carseat! It was quite a shock! Now that we're home, and he's in trimmer dipes, he fits just fine.

Also, trifolded PFs aren't going to hold in a lot of poo, so you're likely to have a dirty cover with each BM. Of course that's not guaranteed, but you'll need a lot more covers than if you're snappying the PFs.

I would certainly consider snappied PFs and wool. I don't tend to do it just because I don't snappy PFs often enough to be entirely confident in my abilities, and I fear the wool getting dirty more than snagged. But once a Snappy is on right, it's really not got much to snag with.

Hope that helps a bit! I actually came home to our huge assortment of diapers, and was kind of sad not to have to use the PFs anymore!

[dziwozony]

i've used trifolded prefolds with covers for both of my boys (one is 8mo now, the other 2yo & not fully potty trained yet). they've worked fine for us! someone gave us about 30 hand-me-down prefolds when i was first pregnant, so that made our nappy decision for us!

we use PUL velcro wraps or PUL sandwiched in fleece velcro wraps. i tend to use a snappy when they're quite little & gradually move away from it when their poo is more solid.

all-in-one nappies take a loooot longer to dry, so it depends on how many you have & what your drying system is. (we don't use a dryer). but mabe you mean fitted inners with a seperate cover to go on top? haven't tried that myself...

but prefolds with a cover certainly feel like a simple system to me! and cheap compared to some of the very-cute-but-pricey ones out there.

[Juliacat]

I thought trifolded prefolds and snap covers were absolutely perfect for dd when she was one year old and walking around, only pooping once or twice a day and the poops were fairly solid.

[NorthernPixie]

I hate trifolding PF's - they didn't fit dd well at any age, didn't contain anything that was runny, and gave her a big rectangular blocky butt that certainly would not have been comfortable to lay (lie? I never know) down on. Up until about two weeks ago I was snappi-ing a prefold under a wool or PUL cover with no problems...and now she's potty trained! Woohoo! We still mostly do a snappied prefold under a large wool Aristocrat at night and at naps. I'm all for the snappi.

[Michigan Mama]

Originally Posted by Pepper44

I love prefolds, but I found that trifolded did not work well for my DD. It seemed like it was uncomfortable for her because the pee would get the inside of the cover wet, and then the cover would stick to her skin. If she pooped it filled the cover and made a huge nasty mess. I folded my prefolds by laying the baby on a flat open prefold, leaving it flat under her butt, then trifolding the bottom half of the prefold so that the creases were right up in her crotch. Then I pulled up the trifolded half and fanned it out over her belly button and used a snappi. That worked great, it made sort of built in gussets at the legs.

This is exactly how I use my prefolds. The trifolded prefold has just not worked well for us, especially for poops - just way too messy. I know a lot of people do it trifolded, but they really must be snappied for us. Everytime I try to trifold, I always regret it! i use Thirsties covers, primarily, but the hand knit ones i'm using on my nb seem to be fine with the snappi, I just have to be slightly careful when i pull the soaker up. But really no big deal.

All that said, I really am a fitted lover! I have a bunch of everything, but generally i really prefer to use fitteds. : ) Sort of depends on my mood.