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Monday, January 23, 2012

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Preparing For My Adventure Into Newborn Cloth Diapering

When my now 18 month old son was born, I didn’t even consider cloth diapering. The whole idea of it was completely foreign to me and therefore, I never bothered looking into it. What got me into it was hearing friends that did cloth diaper rave about it and about how much money they saved. So, I looked into it, started a diaper trial and was hooked. Now I am pregnant again and due in March with our new little boy and I plan on cloth diapering him from day one.

When I started to look into newborn cloth diapering options I felt like a cloth diapering newbie all over again. I had no idea which brands would fit my new baby better or how many diapers I would need. My older son was a big newborn (9lbs 2 oz and 23 inches long) and I am anticipating our new baby to be about the same size. To get a feel for how big the newborn diapers would be, I went to my local cloth diaper store and took a look at all of them. There are a few things that I realized.

1) There are a few brands that would not fit a baby that big for very long, namely the Lil’ Joeys, BumGenius AIO XS and the GroVia Newborn AIO. So I decided not to get any of them.
2) The brands that do look like they will fit really well are the FuzziBunz XS, BumGenius AIO S, Thirsties Duo Size 1, and the Happy Heinys Mini One Size.
3) There are a few one size diapers that look like they will fit a 9 lb baby just fine and they are the FuzziBunz Elite One Size, Rumparooz One Size Pocket, Itti Bitti Tutto and the Babykicks Bumboo (I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones I looked at. The Happy Heinys One Size MAY fit, but it has a higher rise, so I’ll probably need to wait for the cord stump to fall off.)
4) Buying purely pocket or AIO diapers for a newborn would be pricey, especially with the tight budget that I have, so I needed to start looking into a cheaper option.

I did purchase a few newborn and size small AIOs and pockets (5 BumGenius Small AIOs, 1 FuzziBunz XS and 1 Happy Heiny Mini One Size). I also plan on using the one size FuzziBunz and Itti Bitti Tuttos that I already use with my older son (along with Happy Heiny One Size when they start to fit). However, this only left me with 13 diapers (not including the Happy Heinys)… nowhere near enough to cloth diaper a newborn full time while washing every other day.

I then read an article by Kim at Dirty Diaper Laundry called “Cloth Diapering a Newborn Without Breaking the Bank + Pro Tips”. In this article Kim suggests using prefolds and flats with covers. I decided to start looking into flats as I had been hearing that they are the best low cost cloth diapering option out there. So, I bought a dozen flats and started playing around with all the neat folds out there. My favorite fold is the diaper bag fold (seen here). I love it because it is super customizeable. You can really make the diaper as small or as large as you need it to be with this fold.

So, after doing all of my research and making my purchases, now I have a healthy stash of about 40 (13 pockets and AIOs, the rest are flats and prefolds with covers and a Snappi) newborn diapers and with the use of flats and prefolds, the stash didn’t cost me very much at all! I even bought all of the newborn pockets and AIOs at a gently used sale so I saved money on those as well. I still need a couple more covers, but once I get those, my newborn stash will be complete! Now I just need to wait for the little guy to make his appearance in March!!  

About the author: Christina D is a 26 year old wife and stay at home mom. She has an 18 month old son named Alexander and is due with their new little boy, Cooper, on March 20, 2012. She also writes her own cloth diapering/green parenting blog, Geeky Green Mom.

7 comments:

Jo Jo & Bella said...

I'm so glad you brought up flats and prefolds. So many people don't consider them, but they are the most cost effective option and do a GREAT job!

Katie said...

We're doing infant prefolds with Thirsties covers with the little girl we're expecting in March until she's big enough to fit into our OS stash. We're only getting 24 dipes and 5 covers, since I'm going to be home the entire time we're doing the prefolds (at least I hope) and should be able to manage the laundry. A girlfriend of mine went this route with her newborn and it's going really well so far! It's nice to have friends willing to act as your guinea pigs. ;)

Good luck with your new little one!

dannyscotland said...

I just had a nine pound baby a week ago, and we've been trying out some newborn diapers around here. The babykicks bumboo fits but not as well as I had hoped it would, especially before her cord fell off. I actually love the little joeys even though they won't fit her for long, they were the best in my stash for going under her cord. We also used some Thirsties x-small from their older line; I don't have any of their new styles. The one size bumGenius!, Smartipants, and Fuzzibunz definitely didn't fit her. I also used a Katydid (fit really well actually) and some prefolds and covers, which also fit. I hope this helps!

Katie said...

any ides for cloth diapering a newborn smaller than 9lbs. I got all set up to cd before my baby was born, but at a month old she is still about 8 lbs and the leg holes just look too big for her little legs. I have Thirsties size one, Apple Cheeks and Itti Bitti's - all too big still.

Anonymous said...

what do you do with the meconium? does it wash out? I used CDs with my first baby, but was advised to use disposables the first week until the meconium was gone, which worked great for me.

One Sassy Mama said...

What an helpful article! I've been doing a lot of research into newborn CD'ing lately. I too am pregnant with my second son. I didn't start cloth diapering my first until he was around 14 months old - so all my "one size" diapers are going to be a tad too big for a small newborn I think. You've done a lot of the detective work already. :) I think I'm going to go with Thirsties Duo Wraps in size 1 and a bunch of infant sized prefolds.

Babyoye Coupon said...

I am so glad to heard about new born diapers. I had a doubt, by this diapers new born baby will infected. I think many people didn't accept this diapers for a new born baby. But, its nice information. Thanks for sharing it.