In week 1 of our School of Cloth we’re going to be talking about how to get started with cloth diapers. Be sure to check out the schedule of live classes listed on the RDA website and Attend the School of Cloth!
Variety is the spice of life!
If you're just looking into cloth diapering, thinking about cloth diapering might conjure images of crinkly plastic pants, big squares of material, and diaper pins. That was what I first thought of when I started thinking about how I'd diaper my (then) future children! That was no deterrent for me, though I have to admit I was very relieved when I learned about modern cloth diapers! So I don't have to use pins, great.... but where do you start?
The number of different brands out there can feel overwhelming, but there are just a couple different styles of diapers, so the best way to get started is learn the different types of diapers and see what sounds best for you and your household. There is a great chart to compare different types of diapers and learn more over on Kelly's Closet that can help you learn more.
The main thing to remember is that what works for you might not work for someone else and vice versa, so try to keep an open mind to the different types. For us, Pocket Diapers were what fit our family when we first started. They didn't require any special folds, just stuffing something absorbent in between the waterproof layer and stay-dry layer of the cover. That simplicity appealed to both me and my husband, so we decided to look into different brands of pockets. We looked up different brands and watched different youtube videos showing how they worked until we decided on FuzziBunz One-size diapers.
The one thing I wish someone told me when I first started out was this: "Try a variety of brands. Different brands fit differently".
In retrospect, that should be obvious. Different clothing companies have different fits, so why not the same for diapers? We didn't do this, however, and started with a couple individual diaper purchases, and then a diaper package that had 18 diapers and included wipes, a wetbag, and a diaper sprayer. If you're looking to wash every other day, you'll want 24 or more diapers (regardless of what style diaper you are using). You will want at least 12 if you plan on washing every day. We wanted to wash every other day since my husband was in school and I worked full time, so we went for 24 to start out with.
We didn't want to branch out to other diapers because we agreed on one brand/style. That's all we wanted. Thankfully, our first few orders qualified for a few coupons for free diapers, and we got a couple different brands of pocket diapers. Admittedly, I was a bit sad that they weren't FuzziBunz. That's all I wanted. I'm very thankful, however, that I was introduced to other brands so early. We quickly found that we liked certain brands for night time more than others, and we used all of our diapers and loved all our diapers.
We started trying other brands of pockets, eventually venturing into other styles of diapers. Today we have a large variety of diaper styles and brands, and they all work great. We have different preferences for different occasions (long car trips, night time, child care, etc.), and now that we have two children, we are very thankful for the diversity of our stash since our second is built much differently than our first!
Contributed by Christine
Blog: Thoughts Of Fluff
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