diaper recs for a first time CDer with reluctant DH

[COgirl19]

I am pregnant with my second due in August. I did not CD my first one, kind of wanted to but everyone talked me out of it. This time I really want to do it provided DH gets on board. A friend at church recommended BumGenius so I am thinking of going that route. I would prefer an all in one or a pocket diaper system. What would be some that are easy to use, particularly for an inexperienced DH who may be staying at home and doing a lot of the diaper changing?

[EricaE]

BumGenius are wonderful! I also have a quite a few pocket diapers custom made from www.rainshinedesigns.com that I love

My DH also wasn't on board in the beginning. But I started small - I just got a few CDs and showed my DH just how easy they were to use, then ordered more and more. Just the other day my DH said "are we using cloth diapers full time now?" But since I do 99.9% of the diaper changes, he's really not affected that much.


By the way - where in Colorado are you from?? I grew up in the Carbondale/Glenwood Springs area.

[abiyhayil]

bumkins are also a great bet and no stuffing or stinky issues of microfiber. Maybe Gdiapers so you could use the flushable linserts on errand and laundry days and transition DH to the cloth inserts. I think bumgenius makes something similar now too (flips maybe?)

[inky leeuhhh]

we love our bg. they dont fit well during the newborn stage, but we were able to use them from fairly early on.

[schreiberwriter]

The idea of spending $60/month on diapers for two swayed my husband, who has also been a SAHD.

BGs with aplix were appealing to him

I washed them, stuffed them and had them ready for him.

He really got on board when there weren't any disposables in the house.

[buckeye_bebe]

I recently started using gDiapers, and honestly, my husband won't touch them. He is much better with the all in one types. If there are any parts other than the diaper and the velcro, he's out. That is why the gDiapers and pre-folds are a no-go for him. Doesn't matter; I use the gDiaper or cloth diapers alone, and when he watches the newb, he can use whatever he likes. However, he does like the fact that *MY* cloth diapering saves us a boatload of money.

[buckeye_bebe]

I forgot to mention...with my first kid, I wanted to try cloth too, so I just bought a random assortment of cheap cloth diapers on eBay. I ended up with tons of different styles including handmade and commercial. I found what worked best for my kids just by trying all of them. It wasn't real expensive because I bought the bottom of the barrel kind of quality, but it worked. They just weren't pretty. But it wasn't like I was entering any kind of diaper pageant.

[Pat899]

A husband will use what is easiest and is in front of him.

I wanted to know years ago how to get my DH to stop using the trashies and start using the cloth.

Well... simple answer is stop buying the trashies. He will use the cloth diaper or he will use a towel LOL. Don't worry about making it easy on him. He has a brain and he will learn to use what you have.

It is sort of demeaning to men that we expect that they are incappable of learning simple child card duties. Give them some credit.

[sunflower.mama]

I am CDing for the first time on child #3. DH was def. not on board...but this past weekend I dragged him to a local CD store and they offer one on one consultations - and by the end he was wandering around choosing soft diapes for himself. Like a new man! I was thrilled. I see you are in CO which I know has some crunchy areas - perhaps you could find something similar? For him, hearing about CDing from someone other than me helped a lot. Our plan is to use prefolds and fitteds with covers for the early stage, until 3-4 mos, and then decide where to go from there. I have 2 doz prefolds and will be getting 1 doz fitteds for him/middle of the night changes. I hear the all in one/BG etc don't really work until the baby gets older, and you'd hate for the diapers to be too big and to get discouraged early on...good luck!

[lalemma]

I think the conventional wisdom on dads is that things that are more-like-disposables are easier to figure out than things like prefolds or flats - but I kind of agree with a PP that it makes me cringe when the assumption is that dads can't possibly understand Complicated Crunchy Activity X.

I just recently polled my husband about his diapering preferences, since we're going to need more medium-sized diapers. We diaper with a mix of flats, pockets, and fitteds. We did the newborn stage with prefolds. So he's seen a pretty good range of diapers, and here's his preference in terms of ease of use (I SAH, so I handle the diaper laundry - I don't know if his ranking would remain the same if he handled that part of it as well):

1) pockets
2) fitteds with velcro
3) fitteds with snaps
4) prefolds

Flats are a distant #5. I actually really like flats but I get that they seem kinda intimidating.

So I guess if I had to build a stash over again, for dad-friendliness, I'd go with prefolds for the newborn phase, when they need changing constantly and also grow out of those first diapers too quickly for me to feel okay spending a lot of money, and then a mix of pockets and fitteds for later.

[averlee]

My husband created the newborn diaper technique he calls the "renegade" which involves basically stuffing the newborn's diaper into their onesie and calling it good. But I had some cloth diapers- Kushies brand all-in-ones- that were pretty much exactly like disposables, with velcro closures and an outer waterproof layer.

[COgirl19]

Originally Posted by Pat899

A husband will use what is easiest and is in front of him.

I wanted to know years ago how to get my DH to stop using the trashies and start using the cloth.

Well... simple answer is stop buying the trashies. He will use the cloth diaper or he will use a towel LOL. Don't worry about making it easy on him. He has a brain and he will learn to use what you have.

It is sort of demeaning to men that we expect that they are incappable of learning simple child card duties. Give them some credit.

Did I ever call my DH "incapable", "stupid", or otherwise "inadequate"? I don't recall those words being typed in my post. I am sure he can figure out prefolds and flats, its just since HE is the SAHD, and HE does the laundry for me while watching a very active 3 year old DD that I wanted insight on what others found to be the easiest and be a good transition from sposies for him based on what I already know his preferences are. I thought I was being rather considerate and understanding of his already expressed feelings on CDing. FWIW we are looking at flats or prefolds combined with diaper covers as well, I am just looking for advice on what others found to work for them.

[octobermom]

I knew I'd CD but wasn't sooo into it that I cared if DH did or not so originally I figured I'd CD when I was with our child which was almost always and DH could use sposies the handful of times he was around.. Then the baby arrived and she was too tiny for the cloth we had so she was in sposies full time. And she went through a TON of diapers. We lived in a small town and there was no place to get say store brand diapers it was all Huggies and Pampers and nothing bigger than the mega packs.. I was sending DH t go get more diapers like every 2 days and at arond $16 a package the costs were incrediably large...
So when she grew enough to start fitting and I discovered easier CDs DH came right on board and hes never looked back.We do use sposies sometimes but we don't "HAVE" to have them around.

What he likes
1) AIOs true AIOs we have Nanabottoms currently and I have 9 in my stash there the nap diapers and the "daddy" diapers

2) trifolded prefolds and pull velcro covers I'll make up a few and leave them ready to go and they work just like an AIO

3) simple fitted and MEAF covers. One of our first CD were snugglebottom diapers there super easy to use and super affordable while I prefer prefolds ect for someone wanting somthing more "disposable" like but inexpensive these were great.. He loved the full cover of the ME and the snaps..

What he hates
1) pockets neither of us can stand them but he DESPISES them where I jsut dislike them

2) AI2 diapers they confuse him don't ask me why...

3) one size anything also confuse him

4) anything he has to pin or snappi...


Deanna

[COgirl19]

If you do prefolds, can you simply use them with a wrap style cover (i.e.-Bummies, Thirsties) without having to use pins of snappies?

[Casha'sMommy]

I just asked dh his opinion and he said he prefers to use pf with a cover. His second would be our bumware aio's but we don't have enough of those to last a day, they're mostly for outings.

[hildare]

my dh likes them all ok, we've used disposies like 3 times on a trip and the leftover hospital bag, and he absolutely thinks there's no difference in the time it takes to use them.
however, he HATES CD's with any kind of snaps. He says he cannot work the wee snaps as well as I can. (that being said, i wash and stuff them all as well so all he does is take them off/ put in the bag or put them on.. i do that not because he's not capable but because i like to do laundry MY way and my way only, kwim?)

i think many times people feel like cd's are harder to use because of preconceived ideas about them, or worries about doing it wrong, and many (most) times are surprised at how simple they are. we both like prefolds lots, too, and find them just as easy. the action of taking off the diaper and putting it in a bin is the same whether it translates to cloth or throw away...

[mamadelbosque]

We *LOVE* bumgenius here. I had 40 2.0s for my first DS1 (I gave away all but like 8 or so of them to a friend last weekend... DS1 still wears one to bed at night so's I don't have to worry about changing sheets/clothes/etc at 3am.... ), and 36 3.0s for DS2 (nearly 9 months). Love'm!!

[octobermom]

Originally Posted by COgirl19

If you do prefolds, can you simply use them with a wrap style cover (i.e.-Bummies, Thirsties) without having to use pins of snappies?

yes you can just trifold the preold and lay in a wrap it will go on baby as fast and easy as a disposable. Investing in proper sized preolds works best with this method.

Here are a few pics..


bummi SWW with prefold trifolded and ready to go
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...m/100_1904.jpg

fastened on the baby
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...m/100_1905.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...m/100_1906.jpg

A cover with prefold all ready for the next change..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...m/100_1909.jpg

[Mom2SammyJoe]

We used BG one size pockets on our first child from about 9 months. They didn't hold up as well as I would have liked, and we only had 16, so I didn't want to buy a whole stash of those for the second child. Now we use premium prefolds, Snappied and usually a Duowrap, though we also use Proraps and Dappi Nylon pull-ons. I asked my husband what he prefers. He said that he likes how easy the BG's are to put on, but he really like prefolds, too. If he had to do the diaper laundry, he would definately choose prefolds over the pockets. He has a hard time stuffing the pockets with his big hands, and the microfiber inserts require a little more laundry work to keep them clean and fresh.

[Pat899]

Originally Posted by COgirl19

Did I ever call my DH "incapable", "stupid", or otherwise "inadequate"? I don't recall those words being typed in my post. I am sure he can figure out prefolds and flats, its just since HE is the SAHD, and HE does the laundry for me while watching a very active 3 year old DD that I wanted insight on what others found to be the easiest and be a good transition from sposies for him based on what I already know his preferences are. I thought I was being rather considerate and understanding of his already expressed feelings on CDing. FWIW we are looking at flats or prefolds combined with diaper covers as well, I am just looking for advice on what others found to work for them.

Um, yeah. What I posted was based on the question posed by you and relayed to my DH. He said that he dislikes the gender sterotype of the incapable father who needs the easiest diaper system. He said men can learn anything. Just stick to one system and dads will get it.

He likes the softest diapers for babies . He tests for softness by rubbing a potiental fabric for diaper making on his cheek. He likes stay dry inners. He loves wool in all forms. But footies are his favorite. He likes soft terry wipes.