Prefolds with a cover

These cloth diapers may be more what comes to mind when you think “cloth diapers.”  It’s a piece of cotton fabric, extra thick in the middle.  The kind I use are from Green Mountain Diapers, and they come in several sizes.  You can also just get a standard size and fold them down to fit your baby.  That results in a lot of extra bulk though.

I got these mainly to try them out with Natalie to see if I’d even be interested in doing them for Little Man.  I think they will fit better than the pocket diapers on a newborn, and they’re quite a lot cheaper than pocket diapers.  I don’t think I’d be able to (or maybe even want to) invest in enough pockets for diapering two children at once.

Anyway, this is a large sized prefold for Natalie.

You simply fold it into thirds to get it ready to wear.

I think there are a few ways to fold these things, but I kind of make a Y out of the top (where her back will be)…

Then lay her down and pull the front up.

I fan out the sides a little and pull the back around enough to grab some fabric.  Then I fasten it with a Snappi.  You could also pin it, old-school style, but I like this better.

The Snappis are kind of like those metal ace bandage clips in how they grip the fabric.  You have to put a cover over them; you don’t want little fingers messing with these.  Even though they’re plastic, they’ve got a little bite to them and are not to be played with.

Once she’s all fastened up, I put a waterproof cover over the diaper.  This one is a medium from Thirsties.  It goes on just like a disposable or a pocket diaper.

See – how cute!  You need to make sure the diaper is all tucked in at the top and back, otherwise it will wick moisture out onto her clothes.  These covers are made of PUL and have elastic at the top and around the leg openings.  When you fold and fasten the diaper this way, most of the mess stays in there and only occasionally gets on the cover.  If the cover stays clean, you can just wipe it and use it again for another diaper change without having to wash it.  This means you can have much fewer covers than diapers.

If you’re a little pressed for time, you can also just put a prefold in the diaper cover like this and put it on.  It’s more likely that the cover will get soiled if there’s a dirty diaper, but, it all washes out.  This is the medium sized prefold, which is a little small to fasten on Natalie, but works just fine like this.

Here’s my little drawer of prefolds. 

I have a half dozen diapers and two covers.  That’s plenty since I really prefer the pocket diapers.  I use these when I’m behind on laundry or we’re just hanging around the house.  I don’t like to travel with them; they are more work than the pockets to clean up.

For Little Man, I have two dozen newborn sized prefolds and 6 newborn covers, which I’m hoping will last him two days between laundry.  He may also fit into the one-size pockets I have so I’m sure well figure out a system that works!

When the diaper is just wet, I leave the cover out to use again and put the diaper in the pail.  If it’s dirty, I dump the solids into the toilet, using the sprayer to get it all off.  Then I put it in the pail.  If the cover is dirty, it goes into the pail too.  It all goes in my cold rinse/hot wash/cold rinse washer.  The prefolds often go into the dryer unless there’s a stain, and the covers get line-dried.

I need to add this at the end of my other posts as well.  My favorite diaper resources/suppliers:

• www.amazon.com: They have a lot of the diapers and accessories at competitive prices.  Often no shipping charges and no tax.
• www.nickisdiapers.com: This is an online store with TONS of diapering products at competitive prices.  They offer free shipping on orders over $75 and on a lot of their products with no minimum order.  My friend Kathy told me about this site because they have cloth diapers for baby dolls!  (Shhhh… but the girls will be each getting a little cloth diaper for one of their baby dolls at Christmas.)  Too cute!
• www.greenmountaindiapers.com: The is the best place I’ve found for prefolds.  They have all sizes in organic and nonorganic, bleached and unbleached.  There are tons of pictures and FAQs here for cloth diapering with cotton prefolds.  Their prices are fine, but there is a $6.95 shipping charge on all orders.  Seems huge when all you want are a few prefolds.
• www.diaperswappers.com: This is an online forum where you can ask and answer questions to/from other cloth diapering parents.  You can also find preowned diapers or sell what you have.
• www.babycheapskate.com: She’s got a cloth diapering section (I think this is where I first started researching.) with lots of links. 
• www.diapers.com: I wouldn’t call this one of my favorites, but believe it or not they actually have cloth diapers.  Occasionally they’ll run a sale, and if you’ve never ordered from here before, you can always find a 15% off coupon code.  There are rarely coupon codes for repeat customers.  Free shipping on orders over $50, I think.