talk to me about wool covers + prefolds

[mommabeehilly]

I am planning to CD my second child. I CDed my DD...however had some troubles in the beginning, so began when she was about 6 months old.

I am considering using the prefolds that were inserts for our pocket dipes and adding some more prefolds and a few wool covers from day one.

Would love, thoughts, suggestions, experience. Thanks.

[NewMoonMum]

I could probably offer better advice about prefolds than wool.
DH actually knits-but not a huge amount of free-time, so DS was in Thirsties covers most of the time.
As long as there is no sensitivity to wool, it is fantastic!!
(I say because I am HORRIBLY sensitive to wool, but luckily DS was fine with it. Just watch for redness and scratching.)

Prefolds rock! Not everybody uses them, but I LOVE Snappis. I was always able to get a super-trim fit with them. Prefolds allow you to try a huge variety of folds to meet your needs-boy vs girl, heavy wetter, exploding poop protection(jelly-roll fold was the best for us). It's easy to use an overlarge prefold on your baby, if you need to save some money by not splurging on newborn-sized dipes for maybe a few months of use. We did this by folding the top edge of the diaper backward until it was short enough in the front-this also created a nice "shelf" in the back to help prevent explosions.
Then of course you can fold up an extra one and use it as a doubler.

If you are used to sposies for a newborn, know you need to check VERY frequently in the early months to change wet dipes asap. My son was a heavy wetter, granted, but I checked him about every 5-10 minutes and more often than not, he'd wet about every 15.

Not sure what else helpful I can say about prefolds, since you obviously know the basics of CDing. Have fun!!

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by NewMoonMum

If you are used to sposies for a newborn, know you need to check VERY frequently in the early months to change wet dipes asap. My son was a heavy wetter, granted, but I checked him about every 5-10 minutes and more often than not, he'd wet about every 15.

What do you suggest as far as quantity of prefolds and do you have a particular brand, etc. that you love?

TIA!!!

[AKislandgirl]

I love prefolds and wool covers. I really wish I hadn't spent money on other things and just stuck with the prefolds with maybe a few workhorse diapers thrown in for DH. I just don't have the energy to sell the rest of our stuff.

I've only used the Green Mountain Diaper prefolds but have stuck with them because I really love them. I love the sizing they offer. When we went to red edge I bought the organics and really do love them! I use the smaller ones as doublers in our night diapers (orange edge trifolded in a red edge). The rest are tucked away for our next baby.

I have 2 dozen in each size but also have about a 12-15 of various other diapers. I wash every other day.

Wool is wonderful! We use it full time but do have some PUL covers which were handy when DD was sick and for when we play at the beach. I didn't get into wool (besides bed time)until DD was about 6 months though. Used PUL covers in the beginning which was nice during the runny poop phase.

Soo... I have a wool addiction and have way more then I "need"! LOL We have about 5 soakers (most of which fit under clothes just fine) and about a dozen longies (some knit, some recycled wool, and some interlock). We use the longies as pants and because I live in a cool climate wear them year round. I hand wash all knits but actually machine wash my interlock. They are great and oh so cute! Diaper Swappers is a great place to buy used wool pieces. But don't say I didn't warn you of the addiction! lol

[clovergirl]

I love prefolds, and I love wool, but not together. Mostly because I found that when using prefolds with wool, there was always a chance that poop would get on to the inside of the wool cover (even when using a Snappi). That meant I had to handwash the wool and wait for it to air dry before being able to use it again. I love that wool can go weeks without washing, so for me having to wash more frequently then really necessary was a big downside. I preferred to use fitteds with wool since the elastic at the legs of the fitted meant it was extremely rare that the wool got poopy.
So, if you don't mind having to wash the wool more often, prefolds and wool are a great choice. But you may just have to try it and see how it works for you... because some babies poop a lot at one time and some don't.

[treeoflife3]

I personally prefer flats and wool but I can rock a prefold quite happily! I definitely prefer jelly rolling the sides though. This always holds in my kiddo's runny poop. the trick is to really make sure its a tight roll and then to pull the front up nice and tight so it can't gap around the legs. I roll flats and prefolds both because it works so well.

It was a learning curve to get good at it though. It took a lot of trial and error to get the perfect fit. This is in part due to the fact that I didn't try prefolds til kiddo was older and in a very wiggly stage making it hard to really practice. Starting out newborn and I think the learning curve wouldn't have been a big deal since newborns usually are better about hanging out whille you fold and refold til you get a decent fit. Once I was proficient at prefolds, I gave flats a try and now I prefer them. I find them easier to put on since I can fold them exactly how I need to get the most layers in the wetzone with fewer layers in the area that is just getting folded up anyway. They also hold folds better too so that I can fold before putting kiddo on top, helping it go faster since I don't have to wrestle her and the diaper.

GMD is my favorite place to get prefolds and its the only place I've tried flats. I have medium sized unbleached. They are so soft! I also find that using pins will help hold diapers on better to catch poop instead of snappis since they hold both the front and back wings, however pins in my opinion are a lot harder to learn. I'm still not great at them but I hope to eventually use pins the vast majority of the time. Again, i'd probably be better if I had started on a newborn who would let me redo the pinning a few times rather than running away before I'm quite done with the first try haha. I prefer all metal locking head ones though and they are hard to find in america. GMD had to stop selling them so you can mostly juts find the plastic head ones.

[mommabeehilly]

@ AKislandgirl...very helpful. I imagine I will have a wool addition too...seeing as I dress us in wool most winters and seem to collect thrifted wool sweaters and recraft them . DD has repurposed wool longies and I am envisioning more of the same for this LO. Thanks for the details on GMD and sizing. I appreciate that so much!

@ clovergirl...ooh thanks for this insight in prefolds and wool together. I have been looking at Disana's Tie Nappy which might help some. What are your thoughts? I am just trying to avoid spending so much $ on *organic* fitteds. I have thought about Kissaluvs...but they seem so spendy. I welcome thoughts and suggestions on this, please.

@ treeoflife3...I had to look up what flats are . Never heard of them before. They look like a nice fit ultimately. However I don't envision myself mastering the folding...whew. I am hoping that something like the Disana Tie Nappy might do the trick (link is above). What do you think? I am trying to find an organic marriage b/w prefolds and fitteds. Hmmm. . Lots to think about.

[clovergirl]

I really like the tie nappies, but again because they have no elastic at the legs they may be more prone to poop blowouts. If you shop around, you can definitely find lower priced fitteds then Kissaluvs. I do like the Kissaluv size 0 a lot, but the bigger sizes did not fit my kids as well (the rise was a bit too low, yet the diaper was still very full cut, just a weird fit on my kids).
Green Mountain Diapers has their new workhorse fitteds that are made from their prefolds, though I'm not sure if they will be making them in organic. But if you were to get some of those in the newborn size (I think they are only like $4 or something!) and then get some one-size fitteds to use once the baby grows out of the newborn size you would save a bit of money there. One size fitteds don't tend to start fitting well until between 10-12lbs, in my experience, but if you have good sized babies who gain weight quickly that may only be 4-6 weeks before you can use them.

[chely7425]

I use prefolds under my wool/fleece/whatever 95% of the time and I have had just as many poop leaks with newborn poo in fitteds as with prefolds. I think it just depends on how good you get at folding it!!

[mum4vr]

I love both prefolds and flats in wool soakers. This was my standby. Tried a lot in almost 10 years of dipes, and PFs and wool soakers stayed! (ie addiction to wool-- I confess, I kept knitting wool woakers long after all PL was done-- even after my "baby" was in elementary school! I'll put them in her hope chest, I guess, LOL)

It was nice to have a couple heavy duty AIOs for night time, and a few fitteds for dad or gma who can't pin or snappi a dipe securely,

Could not agree more w the jelly roll fold! You can also jelly roll w the tie-nappy-- those are adorable-- I would so buy a set if I had any babies around here! (although they may end up being an "extra" not a regular use dipe...). They are just precious.

blessings

[Mom2M]

I have the tie nappies and they are really cute and so soft but hard to put on if you have a squirmy baby.
Maybe over time I will get more proficient but right now I am still having to readjust a few times for a good fit and DD runs out of patience.

[cristeen]

Personally, I really dislike prefolds and wool. I do use the combo sometimes, but only with wool wraps, never pull on. If the PF leaks, that's handwashing and 2 days of wet wool.

I can speak to the disana tie nappies though. I loved them before he was mobile! They do need something absorbent inside - I used a PF in angel wing fold. There is definitely a learning curve. I have not seen a single pic online where it was put on in such a way where it wouldn't leak. You have to put it on so that the part around the leg is stretched tight, or you're looking at leaks. It doesn't really need a cover, which is good because the only cover that really works well is shorts/pants. The cloth comes far enough down the thighs that a wrap is not really workable. The way it's knit it doesn't really feel damp on the outside until the inside is pretty well soaked. So we just used it coverless.

Once he became mobile though, he could squirm right out of it, so I stopped using them.