CD from birth

[poppylove]

I have a pretty massive stash of newborn prefolds, flats, and diapers (like kissaluvs). As a result, I cannot bring myself to buy disposables. However, DH thinks that CD'ing a newborn seems completely overwhelming. Like adding a washing schedule to a newborn schedule, figuring out leaking, etc. What is your experience?

[fruitfulmomma]

works fine for us...last 3 have never been in a disposable. i'd rather walk to my washing machine than drive to the store or take out the trash.

[Siouxsie]

I found CDing right from the start really wasn't hard at all. First off you can just toss all the diapers right in the wash, assuming your baby is EBF. ( oh how I miss the pre solid foods CDing days......) also you don't really deal with leaks so much at first because they don't pee a lot. At that stage it's all about poop containment and I did not CD with my oldest and I can tell you I had crazy blow outs every day at least once with disposables. I'm talking up to his neck. I have never had it that bad with cloth. Only once or twice has it even gotten out of the cover( and when it did it was because well intentioned grandma didn't want to put it onto tight) My older son also had horrible diaper rash. It was so sad on his new little baby butt. So between that and having to run out at night for diapers I honestly found disposables more stressfull. (oh yeah plus the nasty diaper trash smell)
The wash routine isn't bad because after you put them in the wash it's very little effort to add soap and set the cycle then a little while later add the final rinse. I mean you don't have to take them all out or anything so it's not very labor intensive and it's all sorted for you beforehand. Also you won't have to deal with stripping or build up or anything at least for a while so its just a straight forward wash.
I would say the one thing I wish I did to make it easier was to have more of the same diapers. Although you need to find what works best for you I suppose.
I do recommend cloth wipes too so you can just toss everything in your pail. And olive oil or something like that as a barrier for the first few days until the meconium has worked its way out.
You can always do a combo of the 2 as well. They give you a ton in the hospital so if you get home and you find the wash is just too much and you want to use disposables you can always get more. Or buy some to have on hand ( to make hubs feel better) and keep the receipt.
Congrats and good luck!

[katt]

Ditto everyone else

We CD'd from birth and it was no big deal.  

Breastfeed baby poo is water soluble, just throw everything in the wash.  No biggie.

I did a rinse, a hot wash, and an extra rinse.  But, if you have a super washer that can all be set up ahead of time and you just press a button.  (we don't have a super washer and it's still not a big deal)  Just reset it when it's done and you have to walk past anyway.

PP is correct, newborns aren't going to move around a lot so you aren't going to have much leaks, just make sure you've got a cover.  

[wanderinblues]

totally not a big deal i don't think. it's just another load of laundry. i used sposies for 3 or 4 days after he was born because i didn't want to do laundry, i just wanted to snuggle with my baby. once i was moving around more, cding was easy and i was already sick of throwing out so much garbage and using perfumed wipes on his skin.

also, i never had any poop leaks until recently (5 weeks or so) when his poops started being much bigger and more explosive. i found his prefolds kept in the newborn poop better than the fitteds i had made because they were too big for him and really covered his legs and made a nice big poo pocket while the fitteds didn't hug his skinny little legs properly. now it's the other way around.