Lurker coming over from GP

HoneyBee973 · August 2015

Hi Ladies,

I posted a handful of times on GP board, and lurked a bunch here to learn a few things. I am currently 20 weeks pregnant, due January 2016. I really want to use cloth diapers when little one arrives. Can anyone tell me which brands they like, which ones to stay away from, and anything else you are willing to share? TIA

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

We're also planning to use cloth for our LO arriving in December, we have no experience, but I'm happy to share advice I've gathered from others. I snagged a lot of bumgenius elemental all in one diapers at an online yard sale, these are not cheap new (~$20/diaper) we got 23 for $150, most people I've spoken with say these are pretty much the "best of the best" when it comes to cloth diapers, so we felt comfortable with that. the AIOs also are the closest thing to a disposable as you can get when it comes to ease of changes (super H friendly).

I don't think 23 diapers is going to be enough to do laundry every-other-day, most places I've read recommend 24-36 diapers to ba able to do that, so it gets us close, but not quite all the way there. I'm planning to supplement that AIO stash with prefolds, because they're cheap!! I picked the prefolds on our registry based on amazon reviews...I'm also thinking the AIOs may not be great for a newborn, so we'll probably start out with prefolds for the first month or so.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AJHDQW?colid=36INP0PI67PGF&coliid=I1P85VTO486IPS&redirect=true&ref_=br_it_dp_o_nS_ttl&vs=1

For covers for prefolds, you really only need 2-3, most people I've spoken to have recommended trying out a few different brands and then getting another 1 or 2 in the brand you like best. We've got a thirsties and have some rumparooz on our registry.

In general most people say stick to the covers/AIOs with snaps, not velcro.

carcrashheart · August 2015

I'm pretty positive I had a long response related to this topic somewhat recently but I'm mobile and can't search easily. Maybe you can find it. I'm tired, so let me see if I can sum up:

With the toddler we did prefolds until he was one. At any given time we had anywhere from 25-30. I don't think I've ever done cd laundry every other day. Ever. We only change overnight for the first 4-6 weeks. I don't change every two hours unless I have to. I'm not a daycare provider. We moved to AIO's after that, but that's because I loathe pockets. Most like pockets and they're certainly more affordable. I own a mixture of new and old bg elementals (prefer the old) and swaddlebee simplex. I actually don't know that everyone would find the elementals to be THE aio to use. There are so many. Kawaii, moraki, sweet bottoms, sweetpea are other brands you'll hear a lot about and there are hundreds others that aren't coming immediately to mind. With the toddler the swaddlebee's fit him well and the elementals were not at all my favorite. Our youngest now actually seems to fit the elementals better than the swaddlebee's. I don't know how many AIO's we have, but probably around 20.

So, much of cloth diapering preference has to do with how it fits your kid. I had bg free times and hated them. I actually haven't spent that much on our diapers. I caught a lot of windfalls since I had time and didn't have to buy anything (we never planned to do AIO's, only prefolds). I traded 6 free times for 10 swaddlebee's, traded random 4.0 pockets for elementals, and caught someone selling her artist print elementals for $12/ea, which rounded out our stash. If you have time to troll local for sale or trade boards you could find deals. When it comes to prefolds I feel they're all about the same, so as long as they aren't gerber prefolds from the store you should be fine (those work best for burp cloths but not diapers). I preferred sweetpea prefolds personally because they were softer. But I had several brands from buying them second hand and they all worked the same.

We also have bamboozle fitteds that we used with our oldest when his overnight diapers got out of hand. I liked them. I bought aplix and they aren't showing any wear yet but they haven't been work in excess.

Snaps are definitely the better way to go. They hold up better. We have some aplix covers that DH preferred. I highly recommend sweetpea covers. I want to try their AIO's but haven't yet.

Another thing to keep in mind is that as they get older they pee more overnight. I've only known one family that didn't have issues overnight. Everyone else I know has had to experiment with different diapers, inserts, etc. at this age (10 months) our toddler was impossible to keep from soaking through every night. Our current 10 month old is fine with an insert of any kind (I have a mixture of hemp and charcoal). He hasn't started with sippie cups yet though so we'll see if water intake changes that.

I think that's all I've got at the moment. Jillians drawers and Kelly's closet have good FAQ pages. We took a class at our local cd shop. But none of it really made sense until we started doing it. I'm terrible at doing laundry, worse at folding it, even worse at putting it away. Except diapers. So much easier. I'd rather do diaper laundry any day. I probably wash every 4ish days. Right now it depends on how the baby's bum is looking. Also, research cd myths. Some things of note: cd specific detergent is a bad idea and a really great money maker for those who make it; you can use regular diaper creams with cloth as opposed to only cd safe; bleach soaks are your friend; hot water strips are actually useless; blue dawn strips are actually bad for your washer and don't do anything; powder or liquid detergent are fine; homemade detergents don't have enough soap in them to be effective so diapers get funky build up faster. I now buy whatever is on sale, though stick to free and clear to humor DH.

With that, I'm going to bed. Good luck!

pb&fluff · September 2015

I loved the swaddlebees AIOs when we did cloth (we are cloth dropouts). I initially started with a huge stash of 4.0 pockets and rump a Roos pockets. I loved the diapers, but I came to realize that I hated pockets. I hated stuffing them. It was a PITA, even though it was easiest for daycare to use. If I were to do it again, I'd do all SBs. Check out clothdiapertrader dot com for decent used deals.

brij2006 · September 2015

We use Bumgenius Freetimes, and I absolutely love them. They're all in ones, so no need to stuff them or anything, and they hold a lot. DD is a heavy wetter, and these work marvelous.

I have some pockets that I never use. I'm too lazy to spend time stuffing diapers at night. And I have found the freetimes are very easy for daycare and H to use as well.

My opinion, the easier the better. If you make it complicated for yourself, you won't stick with it. There's so much information out there and so many options, it's overwhelming. Just be true to yourself. I knew I wasn't going to spend the time stuffing diapers, no matter how cute the covers were on them. So I went with the all in one options and haven't looked back. Now that we're a few months into it, I have a few prefolds and covers for overnight, but didn't get into those until a month ago.

liall09 · September 2015

I'm a fan of pockets. I like how easily you can customize their absorbency. We almost exclusively use BG 4.0s. I prefer the snaps, but some people prefer the easy of aplix. I'd recommend getting a mix of different types of diapers (we found that BG Elemental AIOs were not good for our daughter's sensitive bottom) and then once you figure out what you like, sell off what you don't like and stock up on what you do like.

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