Cloth Diaper Review

Even before I had my daughter I knew that I wanted to use cloth diapers. If for no other reason, I knew it would be the economical way to go. Plus, my parents used them for my siblings and I in the late 1970's and early 80's and they seemed to work well for them. So, it went without saying that I would use them too. As a result, I checked with friends who were using cloth to get their feedback on what I needed for my "stash." I took their advice into consideration and went from there. Here's my review based on the things I got and what worked and didn't work. (As I write this, my daughter is almost 5 months old and 15 pounds. She was 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth.)

First of all, I recommend going with prefolds and covers instead of all-in-ones (AIO) for your main use. It's certainly more economical. I prefer the Indian prefolds over the Chinese prefolds. They are softer and have even wetness distribution. However, the Chinese prefolds, particularly the birds-eye ones (which I got at Walmart from the company "Child of Mine") can more easily be stretched to fit around the baby to be fastened. I get mine from http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com and http://www.cottonbabies.com. I use Snappies to fasten the diapers. I don't fold them over and use them as an insert, but this can also be done.

As for diaper covers, I have the Bummis covers and Thirsties covers. I like them both. Regarding "hook and loop" (Velcro) and snap fasteners on the covers, I don't really have a preference but my husband seems to prefer the hook and loop closure.

When we first brought our daughter home, I was using the Cloth-Eez prefolds (from Green Mountain) in the newborn size with the gDiapers newborn cover (my in-laws bought us the gDiapers newborn pack as a shower gift). That system worked out well for the first several weeks because everything actually "fit" our daughter. When those covers were too small for her, we tried using the size small gDiapers covers with the prefolds and they just had a funny fit. That's when I started using the Bummis and Thirsties covers. They worked well.

Once our daughter was about 12 pounds, I bought the size small Indian prefolds from CottonBabies. They worked well but didn't last long before she outgrew them. Around that time, I bought the next size Bummis cover (size small). We are currently still using that cover along with the Thirsties small cover, which still fits well.

When she outgrew the size small Indian prefolds from CottonBabies, we started using the birds-eye diapers from Walmart (when she was newborn we used them when the others were dirty and they worked fine but needed to be folded over quite a bit). They have worked well but I still wanted to try other diapers because I do really like the Indian prefolds.

Recently, I bought the Econobum pack and the Flip stay dry pack from CottonBabies. The Econobum pack has 12 OS (one-size) Indian prefolds and three OS Bum Genius diaper covers (snap). The covers are great but the OS prefolds are SUPER bulky at this point (remember, our daughter is now 15 pounds) and they don't stretch very well so they don't work well as a fastened diaper. When we fold them in the cover, they are REALLY bulky as well because they need to be folded over so much to fit our daughter. The Flip stay dry pack has two OS covers and 6 OS Flip stay dry inserts. The Flip system works well and is not too bulky. It is expensive though. Both the Flip pack and the Econobum pack cost about the same but you get half as many inserts and one less cover in the Flip pack.

Overnight solutions: As for overnight solutions... now that our daughter is sleeping through the night (and has since she was 3 months), I like to use a different system that doesn't feel so wet to her when she's in the diaper for 8-10 hours a night and doesn't leave major diaper rash. Last night I used the Flip system with the stay dry inserts for the first time. That worked very well. I've also used the gDiapers disposable inserts with an AIO diaper like the Kushies. This works well also but if my daughter goes #2 it does tend to explode outside of the diaper (unless I don't have the gDiapers insert in the diaper). Another diaper I like to use overnight is a disposable one... the Seventh Generation disposables. These also hold a lot of liquid but don't feel super wet. Sometimes I use the gDiapers disposable insert in a regular cover by itself (I haven't had the chance to try the size medium gDiaper covers yet). That also works well. One thing with using the Kushies AIO without the insert is that the diaper does get really soaked and my daughter usually ends up with some minor diaper rash on her tummy (these diapers have a high rise) so I don't like using those alone unless I have to.

Away from Home: When we're away from home, I tend to use disposables (especially overnight, like at my parents house) because it's hard to pack a lot of cloth diapers in my daughter's diaper bag and there usually aren't any good sprayers that are easily accessible outside of the house. When it comes to disposables, I use what's available, unless I'm buying them, then I like the Seventh Generation ones. When we're away from home for a few hours, I'll just use some cloth diapers as I generally don't have to pack a lot then. I just put the used diaper in a wet bag in the diaper bag.

Well, I hope this information has been helpful to those of you who are interested in using cloth diapers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.