Overwhelmed? Confused? It's ok! That's normal.
For first-time parents: The quick course on choosing cloth diapers.
What do I need? How much will it cost?
First, determine your dedication to cloth. This will help you decide if you want to invest in a full time system, or just give cloth a try. If you just want to give cloth a try, get 2 covers, a half dozen or a dozen diapers and a pack of wipes. A sample order for someone who just wants to give cloth a try is
6 or 12 Cloth-eez prefold diapers
2 covers (usually 1 Bummis Super Brite and 1 Thirsties)
optional: 1 pack of cloth wipes
optional: 1 Snappi fastener
But if you "just know" that you want to use cloth, then you should purchase a full system up front, before the baby is born. So if that is you, then determine your budget. Here are some ideas of what to buy:
Modest budget:
6 size small Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and 3 dozen yellow edge size small prefold diapers. Cost about $150.00. If you add 4 packs of Premium Wipes and an large Pail Liner, the total is about $233.00. Those items are used for a very long time, so it makes sense to buy them right away so you can use them to make it easier right away. The diapers it from about 9 or 10 pounds to about 5 months or 15 pounds. The diapers are used later as nighttime doublers. The wipes and pail liner are used the whole time until potty learning. But this will not fit well for the first 6 weeks on a typical newborn. You can make it work if it's important to save money by skipping size newborn, but really to get a good fit on an average newborn, you need newborn prefolds and newborn covers. On a large newborn, birthweight of about 9 lbs 3 ounces or larger, do start with size smalls.
Cloth diapering a newborn:
To the items listed above, add 2 to 3 dozen Orange Edge Newborn prefolds and 5 or 6 newborn covers. This is nice for the first 6 weeks even for bigger than average babies, but if your baby is average or small, these make the difference. Instead of "these diapers are HUGE on my newborn" or "I can't cram these huge infant prefolds into these teeny tiny newborn covers." you'll instead enjoy diapering during your "babymoon". With the Orange Edge Newborn prefolds, you'll have diapers that truly fit in the Newborn Bummis Super Whisper Wrap covers. Orange Edge Newborn Diapers are less expensive than double diapering the Preemie size prefolds. They are shorter in length than green edge Infant prefolds you'll find elsewhere, so they really fit. But be aware they will get outgrown quickly. See the prefolds for pictures. At just $1.75 each, orange edge newborn prefolds they are far less expensive than newborn fitted diapers, for comparison, and one-size fits all diapers just don't work right on a newborn. Consider our Newborn Setup Kit for around $200 or so.
Medium budget:
If you spend more, you are mostly buying convenience. All of the items we sell work, so spending more doesn't give you a more effective system, but might give you a system that is a little easier to use. (Well, sort of. The fitted diapers do hold runny newborn breastfed poop in better, so in that sense they work better, but don't get me wrong, prefolds work great, too. If you Snappi Fasten the prefolds, they work almost like a fitted does for containing poop.) The easier-to-use fitted diapers might be important if one spouse is reluctant to use cloth. If your budget allows fitteds, they can be worth it. Put together your own fitted diaper setup and save money by choosing GMD Infant Fitted Diapers, or if you prefer organics, then Growing Greens or Under the Nile. Sometimes 2 dozen prefolds plus 1 dozen fitteds is a nice setup.
Large budget:
If price is not of importance, consider 12-18 All in one diapers and 12-18 fitted diapers and 5 covers of your choice.
Summary
This is just a quick idea of some popular new parents choices for budget comparison. What products interest you? The most popular covers are the Bummis Super Whisper Wrap and Bummis Super Brite. The next most popular is Thirsties covers. Nearly everyone loves those covers! But some moms know right away they only want the highly breathable wool covers. Some find the idea of the Stay-Dry effect really important to them. Choose what is best for you. Typical amounts are:
3 dozen diapers
6-8 covers
4 or 5 packs of wipes
1 pail liner
Economy budget/handwashers:
4 dozen Cloth-eez Unbleached Birdseye Flat Diapers These wash and dry the easiest and fit birth to potty learning. Add about 5 covers per size as budget allows. Or consider 4 Bummis Whisper Pant pull ons per size newborn to large and 2 Mommys Touch one-size covers. Make your own wipes from cotton flannel, get 1 triple pack of snappis and 3 or more packs of high quality Diaper Pins. That is birth to potty for around $250. Or check out our Economy Kit for birth-to-potty for just over $200.00.
Other info and our opinions
What about the stay-dry all-in-one type diapers and pocket diapers I see everywhere online?
Polyester (suedecloth, microfiber, microterry, fleece) is made from petroleum. Some babies are sensitive or allergic to polyester, polyester fleece or suedecloth, and stink issues are often reported because synthetics are hard to wash, often requiring stripping. Synthetic diapers hold odors and detergent residue, unlike cotton. We recommend cotton diapers, especially for newborns, as the tried and true best material for diapers, proven over many generations. You'll need to make your own decision about synthetic diapering. We have been selling cloth diapers since 1998 and we choose to sell 100% cotton diapers. We do not sell synthetic pockets or synthetic fitted diapers. You will not find any microfiber stuffing or inserts here. Successful washing is very important to successful cloth diapering. Clean diapers help keep baby rash-free and cotton is easy to get clean. I cannot emphasize how important it is to have diapers that don't hold stink. Even a 90% cotton/10% polyester diaper will hold the stink more than a 100% cotton diaper. Get all-cotton. All of the diapers we sell are 100% cotton. Plus, cotton is not sweaty like synthetics. I love cotton! (sorry about the cotton sermon, but I'm quite passionate about it.)
Bamboo? Sorry, we don't care for that either so we don't sell any. It's really rayon, and if you research the chemical process that it must go through from plant to fabric, you might also wonder how this can be referred to as "natural". Besides, as a diapering fabric I found it very heavy, hard to wash and very hard to dry. I still love cotton the best.
What about "stay dry"? Personally, I am unconvinced about this, but we do offer 2 stay-dry doublers and a stay-dry fleece liner for those customers who desire that. I know the TV commercials say "keeps baby dry". We are "overmarketed" into believing that damp cotton next to baby's bottom is a problem. It's really not! Just change baby before it's totally sopping and baby is fine. Every 1.5 hours or so for a newborn in daytime, 2-3 hours for an older baby for daytime. This varies of course. Frequent changing is healthy. When you have cloth diapers, you have freedom to change often if you want to. A few "extra" diapers to wash is no big deal. It's not like throwing a quarter away each time you change baby. It's a wonderful freedom to change baby as often as you want to without the guilt of throwing away money and adding to the garbage pile. I love the freedom of cotton diapering, with real cotton. 100% cotton next to baby's bottom, in our experience, is the best for a rash-free bottom.
Karen's opinion on breathablility: The only covers that you can really tell are very breathable are wool. All of the synthetics (non-wools, or "regular covers") are fine inside, but in real life I notice no difference in breathability from one brand of cover to the next. So don't get hung up on trying to figure out which regular cover is the most breathable. Pick which one suits your baby for fit, price and other reasons instead.
Yes, there are a lot of choices. But remember, picking out your diapering supplies is the hardest part about cloth! Take a deep breath. Spend some time reading the site and studying the pictures. There is a lot of information here, so expect to spend time studying and learning. Then just go for it and choose what seems interesting to you. We do have an easy return policy, to help relax the difficult decision process. Cloth is so soft, fun and cute! You will be very glad you have chosen cloth (and perhaps happy to finally have this product selection process over with, too!) Please stay awhile and browse with us. We are happy to share our love for safe cloth diapers with you. Sincerely, Karen.
Don't miss the pictures of a newborn baby in cloth!
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