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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

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Diversifying Your Diapers

There are a variety of opinions about how best to build a diaper stash. Some people are loyal to one specific brand, like bumGenius or Rumparooz. Other people like to stick to one type of style: all pockets, all AIOs, etc. However, what has proven to be the best for our family is making sure that we have a collection of diapers from different brands and styles. After all, what worked well on my squishy one-month old didn’t work as well on my leaner one year-old; what worked for easy night-time changes at 2am didn’t work as well for 12 hour stretches of sleep; what was the easiest to use last year wasn’t our preferred diaper style this year. Plus, sometimes it’s fun to mix things up! Here are some suggestions based on our experiences – and all of these styles are available at Kelly’s Closet, our favorite diaper store.

First home from the hospital: We started out with a wide variety of styles, ranging from fitteds and covers to newborn AIOs. During the day, we liked using the Blueberry Newborn Simplex. I liked the fact that this AIO is made with natural fibers – and loved the fact that it was incredibly absorbent. We never had leaks! For night time, we decided to use Kissaluvs size 0 fitteds, paired with a Flip cover.

First few months: Once my son outgrew his newborn diapers, we moved on to one-size diapers. It seemed like he needed to be changed almost all of the time, so we looked for something easy to use. Aplix/Hook and Loop diapers were great in this period, especially since we had lots of offers from friends and family members to help. In particular, we really liked the Rumparooz pocket diaper, with its double gusset in the leg. (This was my first free diaper from Kelly’s Closet!) Tots Bots also makes a diaper with strong aplix, and you can’t go wrong with all of their adorable prints.


After starting to crawl: My son started to crawl at 8 months, and we found that aplix diapers would sometimes irritate the skin on his stomach. At this point, my husband and I were split between two favorite styles from one favorite brand. He loved the ease of the bumGenius Freetime, while I liked the customization possible with the bumGenius 4.0. (I didn’t try to debate him too much since I was happy he felt so passionately about using cloth!). These diapers remain our go-to diapers.


Sleeping through the night at 4 months: Once my son stopped waking up at night, I knew that I needed a super absorbent diaper to keep him comfortable for 12 hours at a time. We found our nighttime solution in the Blueberry Simplex AIO diaper. The diaper would be soaked when he woke up, but his pajamas and sheets always stayed dry. More importantly to this mama, my son never experienced any redness or rash with this diaper. We ended up buying five of these diapers, and we used them in a rotation.

Sleeping through the night at 14 months: We discovered last week that my growing son was outgrowing the absorbency of an AIO diaper at night. After reading lots of reviews and posts in the Cloth Diaper Support Group, we ended up ordering Overnight Bamboo Fitteds (OBFs) from Sustainablebabyish and paired them with a Flip. We are only two days into this new system, but he’s woken up happy after 13 hours each time. (And, as a bonus, the OBFs are super soft!)


So, over the course of the last 14 months, we’ve bought diapers, sold a few, and then bought a few more. The one thing that has never changed, though, has been our happiness with our decision to use cloth. If you are just starting out your stash, I recommend trying out a couple of different styles from a few different brands, keeping in mind what may work for you now may change in the future. If you are looking to expand your stash, try something different! You may find a new favorite.

Bio: Dana lives in Los Angeles with her husband and toddler son.


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5 comments:

Amanda said...

We bought a variety when we first bought cloth. Helps you to know your likes and dislikes! We bought our first little stash from Kebbie's Diaper Bag, kebbiesdiaperbag.com
She offers a rent to own program, which we did, and are so glad! She even has a newborn rent to own package. She is so helpful with building your own package. Highly recommend her site!

Amanda said...

We bought a variety when we first bought cloth. Helps you to know your likes and dislikes! We bought our first little stash from Kebbie's Diaper Bag, kebbiesdiaperbag.com
She offers a rent to own program, which we did, and are so glad! She even has a newborn rent to own package. She is so helpful with building your own package. Highly recommend her site!

Unknown said...

I completely agree with this post! My little guy is only 3 months old, and it seems like I've changed favorite every week! He's growing so fast that what was great last week doesn't do well this week and what was terrible last week is great now! Two diapers in our stash have made it the whole three months: Riyal Fluff and BG.

Julie said...

Right now I'm LOVING Thirsties pockets, BumGenius 4.0 and want to try some Best Bottoms!

Julie said...

I just bought a bunch of Thirsties pockets after I fell in love with them and am going to try to de-stash some BG Freetimes!