Cloth Diapers

From the moment I found out we were pregnant I knew I wanted to cloth diaper. What I didn’t know was that the cloth diapering industry is not the same as it was 30 years ago, let alone 10 years ago.

The rubber pants, large flat sheets and safety pins of the past have moved over for the new and innovative cloth diaper of the future.

And with these enhancements came new lingo, new wash routines and a thousand different ways to cloth diaper your babe. Over the past 6 months I’ve watched hours and hours of YouTube tutorials and reviews, reading hundreds of cloth diapering blogs, joined the Cloth Diaps Reddit, scoured used diaper sites and finally feel I have a decent understanding of what my options are.

Lets start with the basics and lingo! I’ll do full blogs on each with Pros and Cons based on what I have purchased and try over the coming months.

Types of Cloth Diapers

Starting the most Bells and Whistles to least

All-in-One/AIO - Just as the name suggests, this is a diaper that is a single unit that works very similar to a disposable diaper. It contains all of absorbent parts inside of a water resistant shell.

All-in-Two - Similar to the AIO above. The main difference is that the absorbent pieces snap into the shell. This sometimes means you can use the same shell and just clip in a new absorbent piece if the shell isn’t soiled.

Pocket - Like an AIO these are one time uses only before needing to be laundered. they contain a shell with a micro fleece or micro suede lining the inside for a “stay dry” feel and contain a pocket typically in the back where you stuff “inserts” which are the absorbent part. You can really stuff anything absorbent into it.

Covers - This might be more like what you imagined when you thought cloth diaper. It is similar to those old school rubber pants with a new school twist. A cover has no absorbent pieces it is normally made out of PUL and comes either one size (OS) or sized options to grow with babe from 6-35pds. They do require an absorbent part to be added which could be any of the following:

1. Flats - old school here but making the list because they are tried and true. Large cotton, bamboo or hemp pieces of fabric that is folded around baby and snapped on with a snappi

2. Prefold - a step up from a flat where most of the folding is already done for you, there is more absorbency down the middle. Similar to the flat you fold and snappi to babe. Also can be “pad folded” and stuffed in a pocket or when babes poo is more “solid” pad folded in a cover.

3. Fitted - another step up from a prefold, this is a cloth diaper fully absorbent that is shaped like a diaper. A lot even have snaps on them so no pinning or snappi required.

So those are the basic choices out there in the world. I say basic because then there are flour sack towels, pre-flats, fitted hybrids, and the list goes on and on!

It’s easy to see how one can get lost going down the cloth diaper rabbit hole. Since my reasoning behind cloth diapering isn't expense related and mostly environmental and the want to potty train faster as I started to build my "stash" (as cloth diaper moms call them) I wanted to get a little bit of everything. Here is what I've ended up to start with and you will get to hear about in my adventure

1. 5 Size 1 Covers (6-15pds)

2. 6 OS Covers (10-35pds)

3. 31 Prefolds

4. 15 Small Fitteds

5. 9 Medium Fitteds

6. 17 OS AIOs

7. 5 OS Pocket Diapers

8. 2 OS hemp fitted

9. 8 OS Fitted Hybrid

10. 1 OS Wool cover

11. 1 Night time fitted diaper

PHEWWWW that is a lot! And I know I could have started with a smaller stash. The cute prints overwhelmed me though!

I did not invest in a newborn set of diapers. Being a first timer in this adventure, I did not want overwhelm myself or Husband by introducing another new thing to the mix from the beginning. Additionally, I was a LARGE baby, and think D will be too and be able to fit into those size 1 covers sooner rather than later. Also, I've seen newborn poop.... Its not pretty! In those first few weeks they get changed every 1-2 hours. That would be a LOT of diapers to purchase to only wear and wash to only be needed for a short period of time. And although saving $$ wasn't my driver in buying cloth diapers, I still couldn't justify the New Born Stash.

Stay tuned in the coming months for when I review each of the different types I bought! In the mean time I'll give you a tour through my stash.