Cloth Diaper Tutorial

This blog is taken from The Crunchy Baby blog, but I thought it might be useful here too since I know I have a lot of readers interested in cloth diapers. I did this for our families to see how amazingly cool cloth diapers are, but wanted to share here as well for those of you who are still just reading this blog.
Anyway, here's the gist of it!
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First of all, we are choosing to cloth diaper for many reasons which include things like the environmental factors (even doing a few extra loads of laundry each week is nothing compared to the resources that go into making disposable diapers and then them sitting in landfills), cost (MUCH cheaper!), and the idea that we'd rather have Lucas sitting in natural fabrics instead of plastics, dyes, and toxic gels. Oh, and for some reason I cannot stand the smell of the diaper aisle at Target.

Anyway, before we get started, I also wanted to share this new picture from his nursery. I bought this cute little bird hook weeks ago and Matt put it up last night. I thought it would be a good place to hang a towel, blanket, or whatnot, but for now I have hung up the first outfit we got for the baby. My mom and I were out shopping the day after I found out I was pregnant (12/27) and of course there were some great sales and I had to have this little one piece.

Also in this picture is a basket of cloth wipes which we plan to use mostly instead of disposable wipes. I've talked to many parents who cloth diaper and they find it actually much easier to just use cloth wipes as well. Some are little baby wash clothes and some I made myself with flannel and bamboo/cotton terry cloth. We do have some eco friendly disposable wipes and diapers to use the first few days though!

Now, onto the diapers! (Yes, I am really am that excited over diapers)

First, these are the PREFOLDS. This is probably what you think of when you think old fashioned cloth diapers and honestly, I didn't plan to use these at all. I thought it was a little too out there for me, but after talking to so many parents who have tried a bunch, I found that prefolds are very popular still because they are so easy, the cheapest option, and work very well for newborns. So we ordered a dozen or so organic cotton prefolds in the newborn size.

You can simply fold it in thirds and place it inside a cover (this cover is by Thirsties and is their new Duo cover which means it is adjustable and will work when Lucas is first born and up until about 15 lbs or so I believe it is).
There are also many different special folds you can do, this one is the "angel wing" fold and seems to be pretty popular so we're going to try that. Special folds like this seem to help with containment more than just laying the diaper in the cover.

(Meet Mister Giraffe, he's our model for the day...)

You just lay the baby down with the prefold unfolded and coming about halfway up his back or so.
Leaving what is on his back alone for now, you fold the front in as shown.
Then you fold that up and over the baby and take the "wings" that are left from the back and fold those in on each side. Now to get this to stay? (Keep in mind, our model here has a bit more junk in his trunk than we expect Lucas to have as a newborn, so it's not quite the exact fit!)
This is where a "Snappi" comes in! (No, no diaper pins!) The snappi is a cool stretchy accessory that has "teeth" on each of the 3 round parts you see that hook into the diaper and keep it secure. You start on the left side and hook it in, streeeeeeeetch is to the right side and then stretch it down. Super secure!
Then you can go ahead and cover with any diaper cover. So those are prefolds. They come in all different sizes and if we like them and Lucas does well in them we will likely continue to order new sizes for him as he grows and bigger covers because it's a very affordable and simple option!
Next are FITTEDS. There are many different brands of fitted diapers and we have a couple different kinds.

We have 3 of these ones, which are by Bum Genius and are made of bamboo. These Velcro on just like a disposable would (and are so tiny, even our model is busting out of them!)
Then you just cover with any cover. This blue one is another Thirsties cover, but unlike their new Duo which we only have one of, this is sized in XS for the newborn stage. We have a few of these, as you generally rotate through a few covers each day before you need to wash them.
Here is another fitted diaper. This is a Kissaluv diaper in size 0 which is extremely popular for newborns. We have about 12 of these I believe. These snap on just like the one above, just like you'd put on a disposable. These are great because you can adjust the middle to fold and snap down for the umbilical cord and also snap them in different places so it can grown with the baby a little before needing a different size.
You cover these the same as the others. This fun cover is by Bummis and seems to be a tad trimmer than the Thirsties covers which might come in handy if Lucas is tiny.


Next up are diapers that don't use covers! These are All In Ones (AIOs) or Pocket Diapers.

These are the most expensive options, but are often the easiest (though so many people still love their prefolds and fitteds if given the choice. It really depends on what works best for each baby, so we'll have to see what we end up liking). The good news about many AIOs and Pockets is that they come in one size and are adjustable. Many do not work for the newborn stage, but once the baby is over 10-12 lbs these are actually a really good investment because they will last until they are potty trained without having to continue to buy new sizes every time they grow.

Bum Genius makes AIO's in sizes though and we bought 3 XS AIO's to use right away thinking there will be times when we'd really like the ease of that type of diaper. They are so adorable too! Here is one of ours on our faithful model. It is truly all in one and you put it on just like a disposable and then throw the entire thing in the wash!
Here are a couple of my new diapers I just got in a swap with a friend who cloth diapers her one year old.

This one is a pocket diaper. Similar to the all in one, except you can (and need to) stuff the diaper with inserts. These are great because you can really adjust the absorbency of the diaper and there are so many different types of inserts available that finding exactly what works for your baby is not too hard. This particular pocket diaper is one size, however it's fairly bulky so I don't think it will fit Lucas well for some time.

Here is a Bum Genius organic all in one, one size diaper. The pieces you see laying on top are attached, so there is no stuffing, covers, etc. You put this on just like a disposable as well and wash it all together. We hope to use a lot of these (or possibly just the original Bum Genius one sizes that are pocket diapers) after the newborn stage.


So that is our current stash! It's pretty basic, but there are SO many adorable cloth diaper manufacturers out there that it's hard to resist not buying a ton!