Newborn Diapering the Long and Lean Baby

This is my second time around on the newborn diapering bandwagon. Though I am by no means a pro, there are a few diapers that I love more than others. I should start by saying that my youngest is a traditional “Long and Lean” (L&L) baby; born at 7lb. 12oz at and 20 inches long. He is now over 24” and weighs just over 9lbs at 6 weeks. The trouble with L&L babies is they tend to eat, a lot, ALL the time. I breastfeed and it’s not uncommon for him to be ready to eat every 2 hours, on the dot, sometimes starting from when he started eating. At night he loves to cluster feed, eating every hour for 4 or 5 hours straight. All of this affects how cloth diapers fit and how much they can hold (all that milk has to go somewhere).

For the first few weeks we use BumGenius (BG) AIO NB’s. They are perfect for the hospital, and for new dads to use. They also help you get into the swing of things. The other great thing about the NB BG’s is your baby can still wear a lot of those cute NB onesies everyone gave you since they aren’t very bulky! The biggest issue is that in a few weeks (~6 in our experience) they are done. On my L&L baby he wets through them after an hour once he reached 9.5lbs. If you plan to have a few kiddos they are worth the money. I loan mine out to friends who want to try cloth diapering, and have made a few converts!

Our favorite OneSize (OS) diapers are the FuzzyBuns Elite. I didn’t use them right-away on our first kiddo, but this time around they are the first pick for a few reasons:

1. Slim Fit. There is nothing worse to me than getting a great little guy outfit and then it doesn’t fit because your CD is too bulky. Little boy clothes are hard to find as it is, and I don’t want to use disposables just to be able to fit into my favorite outfits.
2. Adjustable/replaceable elastic. Your baby will grow; faster than you may want. It’s easy to up the size on the elastic once they grow-out of the NB stage. And believe me, you will want easy to replace elastic in a few years (when you hit #2 kiddo).

Honorable mentions are Rumparooz, Swaddlebees, and BG OS. I LOVE the extra leg elastic on the Rumparooz. And when our little man gets older I am sure we will use this diaper more and more. Swaddlebees have the best prints- owls, cows, and dinosaurs. Our oldest always picks these diapers for little brother. BG OS are great. We used them almost exclusively on our first, and love the way they fit. They all are great brands that hold in the wet. But they are super bulky on NB’s. And are not umbilical cord friendly. However they will certainly grow with your fastly growing baby and nothing is simpler to change the size than snaps.

Of course there are a LOT more brands out there, plus prefolds, (which we are just starting to try). But for us these are the ones I gravitate to the most. Of course in a few months when our littlest starts crawling I might have new favorites.

Until then - Happy Cloth Diapering - Mary

Bio - I’m a ‘busy’ ‘work-at/from-home’ mother of two little boys in eastern Oregon. I coach cross country, and try to stay in shape so that my sons will not be able to out run me till they are at least 10 (maybe 12), and, oh yeah, I help manage a 400cow family dairy J. Mary Chamberlain