A little Bit of Crunchy - Our Cloth Diapering Experiance/Tips & Recommendations

I was pretty much in denial about my whole pregnancy, but the one thing I knew is that I wanted to cloth diaper. Why? They're cute, economical, cheaper, and did I mention cute? The beast is almost 2 and we've learned a couple of things. So here's my guide to cloth diapering.
 
The first thing to know, is you've got options. And I mean lots and lots of options.

• Prefolds; Covers w/ snappies or bongo's
• Old school birds eye cotton
• Fitteds with Covers
• Pockets (one sided pockets, 2 sided open pockets, pockets in the front, pockets in the back)
• Single gusset, double gusset
• All in Ones (AIO's)
• Hybrids
• Snaps, Hook & Loop
• Liners
• Soakers
• New born
• Sized
• One size

And in addition to all the different styles of diapers, there are a variety of materials you can choose from natural fibers (organic or not?) and man made fibers.

• Cotton
• Bamboo
• Hemp
• Velour (it's cotton folks)
• Microfiber
• Micro suede
• Minky
• Wool                     

When asked by a mom to be or a new mom about my cloth diapering advice, I always give the following. Don't commit to one type/one material early on. Things that work for some mom's may not work for you. All babies are a bit different, take the time to figure out what will work best for your babe. It's advice I wish I would have gotten. The good news is, if you've got diapers that you don't like, you can sell them and make some of the money back and buy more of the kind that you do. If you live in the Ann Arbor area, I strongly suggest you take a field trip over the The Little Seedling. The have a free cloth diaper workshop the first Saturday of every month where they'll talk you and show you through the options. You can touch, see and feel the different diapers. 


So what did I decide on on for Ani? We'll I've got a huge collection. And in the next couple of posts I'll go through the pros and cons of what I've used on her.

Here's some stats on my kid. She is a big baby. She was born three weeks early at almost 7 lbs, and just became huge in the subsequent months always at the top of her height for her age and about 80% for weight. She's got a big pot belly, chunky thighs and an average little booty. 

The brands I've tried and I'll comment on as I go through:

• Osocozy Prefolds Size 2
• Green Mountain Workhorse fitted diapers in organic cotton
• Thirsties Covers
• Thristies All in One
• Bumkin's Covers
• Bumkin's Pockets
• Blueberry Covers
• Grovia Kiwii Pie Fitteds
• Grovia Hybrid Diapers w/ cotton soakers and disposables
• Grovia All In One Diapers 
• Swaddlebee Simplex Sized Microfiber & Cotton
• Kawaii pockets w/ microfiber
• Charlie Banana's pocket
• Fuzzibuns
• BumGenius Elemental and 4.0j
• Joey's Hemp Soakers

Newborn:
Full disclosure, until we were through the meconium, our little girl was in disposables. 

My newborn stash consisted of prefolds (Osocosy) and covers (Thirsties & Bumkins). When I did my initial research on cloth diapering, I was terrified of the stink that everybody talked about in regards to microfiber. Terrified. I vowed that I would never have man made fibers, but I do now. Remember, don't commit until you've had your own experience.  With that said. I LOVED my prefolds. I did the jelly roll fold with a snappi and it worked. Really worked, no leaks, no blow outs, no stink. It was great. They were a bit bulky, but it was no big deal, she wasn't really going anywhere. Prefolds were also the cheapest newborn option. I loved both of the covers. The Bumkins seemed a bit softer, but it was also a one size option that Ani outgrew quickly. The Thirsties were sized and we just had a better fit down the line.

Ani in a prefold and Thirsties cover.

I spent about $150, got 28 prefolds and 5 covers. The covers were reusable between changes, and kept everything in. A new baby goes through about a diaper every two hours, so having the 28 was definitely worth it and I never ran out. If I loved the prefolds so much, why did I move on? Well, I was cloth curious, but even more importantly, she was outgrowing the jelly roll fold. Her belly and thighs were getting too big for it by the end of month 4, and she was not yet ready for the simple tri-fold (too much baby poop). So it was around the 4 month mark that I started looking for other cloth options.

What I wish I had: As I said above, I was really happy with our newborn prefold diapers. If we have a second, what I will purchase is probably a couple of the Green Mountain Workhorse sized fitted diapers.  I'll talk more about these in in the next segment.