cd support or i'm giving up!

[xmasbaby7]

nak

I have tried EVERYTHING, it seems, and I so wanted cd's to work out, Nothing works! i got the nb essential starter kit with lots of types.

just got my shipment in of smalls and am not impressed. everything leaks, every cover gets used only once, etc.

I have already tried:
chinese pre-folds with pro wrap covers, polar fleece covers(totally useless), wool cover
flleece contour diapers and above covers
pro-wrap and bumkins AIO
kissaluvs with prowrap cover (best option for me so far)
happy heinies (don't waste your money! how does anyone get them to work?!?)
dd is trying her kushies aio right now.

please help! What is your most successful combo!

[Trishy]

Hi there, I am not on the DDC but hope you don't mind my advice. Newborns pee a lot! When ds2 was new I would use a fitted with a preemie prefold folded inside of it as a doubler. Sometimes he still leaked through. You are going to need to start using some doublers. This amount of peeing keeps up until around 3 months when it starts to balance out some. If you use sposies they are going to leak too. Before I used cloth, when ds1 was a baby I would find him laying in a puddle of pee. I sometimes wondered if I had even put a diaper on him.

What are you stuffing your Happy Hineys with? Are the inserts soaked through when you change the diaper? If so, you need to add more absorbency to that as well.\

Come over and check out the Diapering forum, there are lots of mamas that have cloth diapered newborns that will have great advice!

[mkoontz]

I confess to using 'sposies at night, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be much help. Dh refuses to use cloth - even the AIO's so we use sposies whenever he's around - otherwise I have to change all the time and as I'm sure you know sometimes it's nice to not have to

But for cloth, my fav is by far Harleyz - which are I think a wahm, who is on maternity leave at the moment. But if you can find any second hand GRAP them - they really are great.

Kissaluv's and prowraps work well for Aveena too, but I wonder if it's got something to do with body shape?

Some people talk about using waterproofing on the outside of their AIO's - could that be the problem?

I"m sure that someone elce here with more experiance will have better tips, just though I'd say Goodluck and good on you for hanging in there for so long.

[iamama]

I use Mothers ease one size and a wrap and I never had a leak poo or pee. They have snaps are easy to use not all that fancy but they hold pee and poo and they work for me all the time.

[JennP]

you might also check that you have the right size. Ds is not quite 15 lbs and he is in med. size for everything, wraps and prefolds, VB AIO and Darling Diapers pockets (though these are getting small around the waist)

I have been trying to continue to use the infant prefolds with the med covers and it is a disaster so I have just moved to premium prefolds. Every poo is in the cover and pees need to have a doubler.

Good luck

[carla72]

I use motherease too and ove them. I use the onesize my dd is 20 months and they never leak.

[Taedareth]

Bummis Super Whisper Wrap covers have been a perfect fit for DS from size NB to S to M (at 15 lbs he's wearing M). Proraps and Kushies didn't fit him at all (but I'm sure there are some babies with differently proprotioned middles and thighs who fit in those brands).

I second the "newborns pee a lot" comment! I used to go through 12 diapers a day just because he wet so much. I bet you'll have better luck with those doublers that someone recommended, and frequent changes. But even if you decide to use disposables for a little while, you can switch back to cloth after the 3 month mark and probably have an easier time

[Attached@TheHippie]

i hated prefolds and contours when dd was little!!! i still dont care for them. nothing stays in them for me! one of the best diapers for newborn, young baby poo (for us) was absorbit-alls.. or something like that. i think you should check out the diapering board, and if you can- get on the tp! it took a while to figure out what worked best for my daughter. we did lots of trades, and finally found a good system. a lot has to do with body shape. you will notice that some mamas will be raving about a certain diaper, but when you try it, it just doesnt do the trick. What are you stuffing your hh with? is the fleece repelling? what is your wash routine like? these are all things the diapering board could help with. cd is fun and worth it. it takes some time to figure it out though. and not to make you feel bad.. but some of the diapers you listed dont have the best reputation anyway. so.. maybe you just need to sell those to someone that does like them, and try a different method.

[spiralmg]

How often are you changing the diaper? I do EC with cloth as my backup, but we still use lots of diapers...so anyway. We change her AS SOON AS humanly possible after we realize she is wet. That way, you only get one pee per diaper, which keeps the mess way down.

At home we mostly use prefolds with cloth or a wool blanket. When we are out, we use Fuzzibuns (my favorite) or Bummis with a liner made of fleece/microfibre. The microfibre is super absorbant and the fleece keeps the baby pretty dry. If I were a serious full-time cloth diaperer, I would probably have a huge stash of Fuzzibuns. I have never used HappyHeinys so don't know how much different they are.

[hottmama]

I use prefolds, and I find them very absorbent- did you wash them several times before use? It takes about 10 washes for them to get up to the max. absorbency. My favorite covers are the 100% cotton Nikkys, but I also really like Bummis SWW, and have some fleece and wool as well. I'm not as impressed with wool as many folks seem to be. I do have one or two Proraps and they seem to work okay, although they seem to run really small (Luka barely squeezes into the medium at 8 weeks!). If any diaper sticks out over the top or out of the legs, the cover is useless- so try a bigger size if that's happening.
What are you washing your diapers with? Some detergents will cause them to leak.

[DesireeH]

I will second (or third) that newborns pee alot!!!!!!!! Daph can pee through stuff that Jevin never did (I didnt start cloth with him until 2.5 months cause everything leaked as a newborn on him so I gave up for awhile.) But I like pocket dipes the best (in plain PUL, no prints, those leak) but I still have to stuff the crap out of them! I've been stuffing them with a hemp prefold AND a preemie prefold. I found that if you put a preemie prefold (or something microfiber) over the hemp inserts, it sucks up better and doesnt leak.

I did just go on a mini vacation and I did buy sposies cause I didnt want to mess with cloth there but those suck too. She can pee out those and poop shot up her back cause they have no elastic in the back like cloth does.

[iris0110]

I will only use solid PUL AIO's or Pockets. I don't have the energy for fitteds or prefolds and covers, and all of those pretty print aio's end up leaking. For Tharen I use fuzzi bunz because they hold in the poo really well too. I stuff them with a micro towel or insert (I love cotton babies one size inserts) and then a hemp insert or doubler. The cotton babies insert only needs a doubler if he will be using it overnight. We rarely have leaks, and when we do it is usually because I have gotten build up on my fleece and it is repelling. (I have laundry issues because of hard water) My older son can pee through anything, so I was prepared to really stuff for Tharen. I really recomend that you go to target and buy a pack of micro fiber towels. They are cheap, and super absorbant. You can find them in the automotive section. Add those to whatever you stuff your happy heiney's with and they shouldn't leak. Another thing to keep in mind is that you have to dry your PUL in the dryer ever so often to keep them sealed. And if you have hard water you have to watch out for repelling. If you unstuff a pocket and the stuffing is dry but the diaper leaked then you have repelling problems.

[Turtlemum]

I'm in the Mother ease camp which doesn't help you troubleshoot your current stash . They make it so easy. I have the Unbleached One-size diapers and 4 covers (you can fold and snap them to make three different sizes - we are currently on medium). I find them super absorbent and don't have as many changes in day as I expected (sometimes they are REALLY saturated though). And NO leaks! Hurray! I also don't have a dryer and so I hang them on a rack in the apartment and they are dry in hours!

Unfortunately I have never used any of the dipes you have so I can't compare...

Good Luck!

Kelli

[aisraeltax]

we have almost everything b/c i wasn't sure which one to use but now i like the FBs best. we also have Ecobaby one size that we use alot (with a cover).
i would check though to see if the diapers are washed enough..i washed ours 4-5 times before E was born. and i do love wool...he's 7 weeks old and i just relanolized his wool covers. i do love the wool.
i do find, though, that if he poos in the sling, almost no diper will save me b/c of his position, so i try to monitor how he is lying and whether he is wet, etc. when he's in his sling and im shopping, etc.
good luck and hope you find whats right for you.

[allnaturalmama]

I'm late to the thread here, Robin, but I hope you've not already thrown in the towel.

Before we decided to go completely organic with our stash, I used a mixture of PUL covers and wool covers on DD2. I have to say, the only time we had leak issues, it was with the PUL covers. Will has been in wool since birth, and man can that kid pee, but I've never had to change his clothes because of pee leaks, ever! There have probably been a handful of times when a bazooka-poop made it through to the wool and beyond, but that's it for issues for us.

(Oh, and DS1, who was completely sposied : leaked like a sieve. I can remember many, many times, unsuccessfully trying to get that onesie shirt off over his head without getting poo in his hair. We used to call it "poopin' out." All of his onesies were poo-stained. I can only assume it would be the same with Will if he weren't in CDs.)

I sew my fitted diapers from the Very Baby pattern, and think they work great. I really, really like the internal soaker style, and it also happens to be the cheapest option when buying them premade. There are lots of WAHMs who make these:
http://www.verybaby.com/licensees.php

My mother-in-law and I knit just about all his covers, but I have picked up a few on ebay. My favorite wool covers are the knitted pull-on style, either longies or soakers, rather than the fabric wrap style. I think they provide better coverage, are much more absorbent, and are even trimmer, believe it or not. That overlap from the wrap style adds a lot of bulk.

I'm sorry you've had such a frustrating experience. I do think you should take a PP's advice and ask about this on the diapering board. Lotsa mommas over there with losta experience.

[veganf]

I had to change my son every 1 to 1 1/2 hours until about 4 months old. He would pee soooo much. Nowadays I change every 2-4 hours. At night I triple layer a cover with a contoured prefold, a chinese prefold, and a hemp doubler. It really doesn't seem to matter what the brand of cover I use is, just that it's the right size and is stuffed sufficiently to soak up all the nighttime pee (stuff up front for boys, in the middle for girls, it makes a big difference!). I use ProRaps a lot. I also like Bumkins covers, SnugWee fleece, and Little Lambs. I only use Happy Heinys during the day; my husband loves them, but they do need to be changed every 2 hours, even on a toddler.

- Krista

[Minoh]

I too love Motherease. IME the air flow wraps are the only thing we have that has yet to leak. Some of the AIOs are less reliable, but those air flows seem to work great!

[lilyka]

OK haven't read the replys but thought I would chime in quick.

first of all have you washed them lots? diapers need to be stripped before using. wash and dry them 4-6 times in very hot water or boil for a while (20-30 minutes) and then wash as normal and dry. then wash and dry again. this makes a huge difference in absorbancy.

are you changing often enough? you do havbe to change more frequently than disposables.

are yoru diapers big enough and your coveres small enough?I only have experiance with a few covers (prowraps, pull ons and mother ease) but they needed to actually touch the skin at the legs and belly and the diaper neds to be completely inside the cover (I have seen a lot of babies with diaper sticking out and wonder how on earth that keeps them dry).

just because a cover is wet doesn't mean you can't use it again. hang it to dry and ue it at he next change. they only need to be washed when they pick up a funk or get poop on them. And I always had a ton of overs. I don't know how people on here get by with so few. I kept 6 prowraps and 6 pull ons handy at all times. I washed with whatever load I was doing next and hung to dry.

night time i would use disposables. she wouldn't leak but she would be dripping wet and stinky. I figured ubnder those circumstances disposables were a better choice for nightime.

HTH

[Thursday Girl]

nak

there is a certain learning curve with prefoolds. you have to try a bunch of diffrent ways of wrapping it. for newborn i twisted in the center, once she got a little bigger i experimented with folds. the two best folds for little one are a traditional fold witgh the flaps folded down in the center. or take the sides as you are putting the diaoer onand put them right into the fold where the thingh meets the private area. (i am talking the thin sides here) then continure folding the diaper around her.

now the biggest ky here is you HAVE to check the legs, make sure that it fits well, if one side is to lose around the legs just undue that side and pull it a little tighter. and well it sounds difficult and time consuming it's not (for the main daper changer anyways )you will get into a groove and diaper changes will be quick and easy. just experiment try diffrent ways of wrapping, if one doesn't work, fihure out which oart was the weakness, and try to find a ay to correct it. i don't really like proraps, they worked for her as a newborn, but not once she got into small the fit wasn't right on her thighs. bumpy works good, and diaperaps work good on her. she also has little thighs big thighs would probably need a diffrent wrap.

good luck

courtney

ps i truied pocket diapers andlike them but i thin prefolds are better you get the right fit as soon as you figure it out. anyother diapers, IMHO, are so genreal that the fit won't aways be rigth

[xmasbaby7]

nak
I want to thank everyone for all of the suggestions.

Once she outgrows my current stash, I will definitely get the mOtherease diapers in medium. I am stuck with what I bought for a while plus 7th generation sposies for night. (which work great).

Confession: I didn't understand the concept of a pocket diaper when I started using them , so I ordered liners for them yesterday.

The Kushies AOIs aren't bad for day time when I am aware of when she goes, but couldn't be used at night.

I have finally washed my kissaluvs enough to start using them today, and i do already have a wool bumpy cover i was afraid to use b/c of complicated washing instructions.

so yes, it is better now in babeland!

robin