Help! What Is the Best Cloth Diaper for Newborns and Infants?

Hi There!
We use Fuzzi Bunz, I love them because there is no velcro (Fuzzi Bunz have snaps) which always seems to stick to everything in the wash (even though you close the tabs, there's always one that gets overlooked!)
Fuzzi Buns now offers an expandable version, so you don't have to buy 3 different sizes as they grow. It will be a little bulky at first, but they grow fast!
Honestly, I used Seventh Generation for the first month. All cloth diapers are ill-fitted to a tiny new baby tush (maybe with the exception of the smallest chinese prefolds), and I needed a month to get my barings strait before jumping on the cloth diaper train.
I looked into Dydee Diaper, and in the end, washing my Fuzzi Bunz is SO easy and cheaper, I just do it myself.If you do, I recommend getting a sprayer to rinse off the runny newborn poop before throwing it in the diaper pail. Once baby gets older, the poop gets more solid and it's not nearly as messy. (I had just as many explosions in disposeables than in cloth in the beginning) I use liners, so I just toss the dirty liner in the toilet and Voila!
Also, with Dydee you have to use chinese prefolds, and while I'm sure you get proficient at all the folding after a while, pocket diapers are SO easy to use- just like a disposeable, I love them. Wonderful colors, too.
More on Dydee, really, they use less water than washing at home because they wash in huge batches, and they treat the waste water to remove the bleach, so I don't think it's a bad option. It's just that today's pocket diapers are so great, and it's only 2 or 3 loads a week, so I do them myself. Also, I know for sure there are no chemical residues on my baby's bottom. I try to be water-conscious, so I only run full loads.
Have fun with it!

I love the One Size Bumgenius diapers ... I didn't start clothe diapering until she was about 4 months old so I don't know how they would fit a newborn.

Best of luck,
J.

Dydee Diaper service has been really great for me: very flexible when I needed to change my schedule for work or travel, every clean, professional. And the best part is that my baby has never had diaper rash except for when she was in the hospital the week after being born when she only used plastic commercial diapers. We occasionally still use plastic diapers for when we're out and about, but that's it. One caveat: now that my baby is 10 months and about 21 lbs and eating plenty of solids (which means her poop is not so liquidy), the diapers never leak, but at the very beginning, until she was about 10 lbs, she had a couple of liquid poop that were not so much fun. She also had explosions in the plastic diapers, which also leaked but not quite as much. So overall, I'd still recommend cloth!

I use the G diapers. They are wonderful. Go to http://www.gdiapers.com to see more. If I ran out of the diaper inserts I would throw in a small rag inside the shell and that would work too!! I have tried other brands and I was not hapy.

We use Dy-Dee diaper services and love it. For those saying that cloth diapers are worse because it takes water and energy to wash them, they should really look into it. Dy-Dee washes a full days diapers with the equivalent of less than one flush of the toilet. Disposables take lots of energy and water to produce and package and deliver to the store, to end up in a landfill for hundreds of years. With gdiapers, if you don't flush them, which takes a whole toilet tank full of water to flush each time you change the diaper, and throw them in the trash, I have heard that they don't break down in the landfill because there is no air circulation in landfills. I have heard that the diapers that claim to break down quickly only do this if they are composted and I have yet to hear of a single family composting their diapers, but I could have incorrect information.
As for Dy-Dee or cloth diapers, we use prefolds with a Proraps cover (the cover can be bought from Dy-Dee or lots of other places on the web). As a newborn, Dy-Dee uses a newborn size prefold. When the baby is older, they use a bigger size prefold. The prefold with the Prorap cover never leaked even newborn runny poop, but disposables did when we used them while traveling. When our daughter got to be about 6 months old, she was wet in the morning, with a cloth prefold or a disposable (she can pee a lot at night!). We ended up buying 2 bumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers for nighttime and use both inserts that come with them. No leaks since and her bottom is dry 12 hours later! We just throw the bumGenius in with our normal load of laundry (no extra wash loads here!) So, in the end, we use Dy-Dee during the day...you can get a "wetbag" for the diaper bag to carry them when you are out and about (I got our medium size at http://hyenacart.com/SMJAE/), bumGenius at night, at the everwasteful disposable when we are out of town. BTW, I have found that wetbags are great for other things as well, wet swimsuits, laundry bag when traveling, etc.

We use One Size Bumgenius 3.0 diapers and started using them when my little one was about 8 lbs...which was a few weeks as his was on 6lbs 5oz at birth. They work great...and he is now 4.5 months and 16lbs 4oz and they are growing with him. They are a bit bulky at first, but again work great! We use a doubler at night...and he sleeps thru the night (has since 5 weeks).

There's another cloth diaper service that hasn't been mentioned yet. The owner gives regular demonstrations at So Childish (a children's boutique in South Park), but she may do them at other places as well. I would definitely recommend going to one of these free demos because you'll get a ton of information without any pressure to sign up.

San Diego Diaper Service
www.sddiaperservice.com

Hi, T.,

I try to do virtually everything in an "eco-friendly" way. As such, I used cloth diapers on my first-born for a few months. Because I did not have a washer and dryer, I hired Dy Dee to drop off and pick up. However, I gave up cloth diapers for the following reasons. I wish that they had come more than once a week. (Diapers can get pretty smelly over a week.) The diapers, when folded as recommended, seemed to push my son's legs apart. No folding style seemed to work for us. Babysitters and others tend to be intimidated by cloth diapers. (This part I don't understand as I, who have terrible hand-eye coordination and am not good at following long lists of directions, can handle the folding.) When my son got old enough to roll on his side and sleep on his side, his urine would roll out the side of the diaper. Finally, the price of the diaper service was close to the price of budget disposable diapers. Thus, I am doing the environmentally-unfriendly thing to do when it comes to diapering. Fortunately for the planet, I am limiting my production of children to two.

Good for you for considering cloth diapers!

L. E

We use gDiapers. They are fantastic! Sort of a mix between cloth and disposable. They are the only diaper that is certified by cradle to cradle. They are also flushable, but we throw ours out in biodegradable trash bags. I happy to hear you are considering the water consumption as well because we often forget that as well as the toxins we put into the environment by so many washes required by cloth diapers. gDiapers is a balance of both, check them out at www.gdiapers.com and have all your questions answered. Oh, and the big bonus - they're cute, cute, cute!

I'm surprised by the person who said her gDiapers leaked a lot because we haven't had any leaks with our gDiapers and our son is now one year old. I know that the company is very helpful and they are available to help you if you have leak problems - perhaps a different way of using them. Not sure, but definitely worth it to check out.

Here's some basic info from their website: gDiapers have no elemental chlorine, no perfumes, no smell, no garbage and no guilt. In fact, our flushable diapers are so gentle on the Earth you can even garden compost the wet ones in one compost cycle, approximately 50 – 150 days. Just think of the standing ovation you’ll get from the planet.

Why are gDiapers good for the planet? It is simple. Our flushables are designed using the Cradle to Cradle design principles of Bill McDonough and his firm MBDC. That means everything that goes into one of our flushables gets re-absorbed back into the eco-system in a neutral or beneficial way. So you are turning waste into a resource. At the same time, you are putting poop in the toilet, where it belongs, and avoiding the landfill issue all together.

http://www.mamasource.com/request/recent/96824/1242183310/46

Here is the link, per Mama Source, in which this question was posted recently.

Good luck,
Susan

Hi T.!
You might want to check the archives b/c someone asked the same question a few days ago. Anyway, I tried DyDee but it was expensive and they leaked for us. Do you have a new, front-loading washer? If so, you might want to consider BumGenius. I wrote all about them to the woman who asked a few days ago so you can check my email in the archives. Also, we tried gDiapers but they leaked a lot. I am staying home this year and have a washer in the house. If you have a very new, front-loading one that is conservative with water, I would recommend washing them yourself but if you are going back to work, DyDee is probably the best thing to do. My friend used DyDee and LOVED it.
Good luck!!!!!!!!!! Way to go being environmentally responsible. NOT easy to do with a child.

I am really happy with regular prefolds wrapped in Thirsties diaper covers. Very affordable.

I loved having the cloth diaper service with my first son. Did the twist fold in the middle to give him a narrow fit. So convenient and I used cheap plastic diaper covers that rarely leaked. Tried wool and fancy ones, but they leaked.
When I had my second son there was no diaper service anymore so I went online and bought a supply of the nice prefolded ones from dydee!
We washed them ourselves, it was easy, and now that he is done with them, we have a great cleaning cloth supply.

Hi there. If you can handle doing it yourself (we have always done approx. 2 loads per week, and my guy is nearly 2yrs), I highly recommend Fuzzi Bunz. The size smalls work from about 8 pounds to 15lbs, and then the size mediums have been good for us from 15lbs-30+lbs. We are still using the mediums and it's been over a year since we switched over.

The dydee service is a great idea, but when you add up energy/exhaust for transport, energy/effluent for sterilizing from high temperatures and chemicals used, it doesn't make much sense, environmentally.

Good luck!

Everyone is different, but Fuzzi Bunz have been great for our family.

green mountain diapers... orange or yellow edge prefolds

kissaluvs

bum genius 3.0 pockets

goodmama fitteds with covers

while some of the diapers do cost more, you can sell them and get a lot of your money back. check out diaperpin.com for reviews of lots of diapers. also, diaperswappers.com is a great forum for buying/selling/trading diapers and it's just a great online community.

I don't use a service, too expensive and washing the diapers doesn't take that much time... and it is so much cheaper. I don't think you can use anything but the prefolds if you use a service anyway!

I used Dy-Dee for 3+ years. Loved them. The cost was reasonable. They washed everything. No pre-rinsing. They provided the hampers, the covers, the deodorizers. They did everything but change my baby for me. I would definitely recommend them. :)

i have been recently researching cloth diapers myself, i have a one year old and im going to give birth in july and my four year still pees the bed at night so i wanted a cheaper and less wasteful solution!!
i came to the conclusion that i am better off sewing my own! because you can buy one cloth diaper for almost twenty bucks, or you can take that twenty bucks and buy enough fabric to make several cloth diapers. there are even sewing patterns for the diapers that you can find or buy online. i want to try making a bunch of one size fits all cloth diapers, that way i dont have to keep making a bunch of new ones every few months!
one of the best things about making your own cloth diapers is that you can use old wool sweaters and old t-shirts or sheets that you have lying around the house! the wool is good because it is absorbent and stays dry on your babies bottom. there are also waterproof fabrics that you can purchase at almost any fabric or craft store!

i know this kind of job isnt for everyone! its hard work, but its rewarding in the end!
i hope you find the best solution for you! good luck!

Hi T.,

I've been using Dydee Diaper service for 18 months now and love them. I have no problems
with them.
They provide the bin the dirty diapers go in and they pick them up once a week. If i need less or more diapers i just let them know. They also sell the wraps in all different sizes.
I totally recommend them.
Good luck and Congrats!

Hello T.! With both of our kids, we started with Dydee Diaper Service for about 4 months. They supply you with prefolds and covers, which are really easy to use. Then, at about 4 months of age, I cancelled the service and got diapers from many different sources, mostly other moms ready to hand down their supplies. I find that prefolds with covers usually leak the least. Some of the specialty ones need special covers, like kissaluvs, or else they leak. There really are so many different options. See if you can borrow someone else's stuff until you find the one that works for you. As far as "water wasteful", I assume you mean the wash cycle? I have found it necessary to do a cold water rinse first with vinegar added to the rinse water, then a hot water wash. Maybe that's a lot of water, but somehow I think it's better than all that solid waste building up somewhere. Maybe I'm wrong!

Hope this helps.

P.

well i think the best diapers to use are Huggies but since i can't always afford those i buy parent choice the cheapest ones but as long as u don't let them overfill the diaper than they work great

I've heard that prefolds give you the best fit for newborns. I started cloth with my baby at 7 months old and we use gdiapers which have been great. We even use cloth inserts from when we are at home. Plus pocket diapers - Fuzzibunz are our favorite. A good resource for anything and everything cloth is diaperswappers.com

Good luck! I love using cloth and wish I had with my older child.

I used Bumpkins All-in-ones. You can use a flushable poop liner that goes in the toilet. If you are using them exclusively you need about 15 and they are expensive ($15.95 for one) You can soak stained diapers in an Oxy-clean solution before washing. You can't bleach them because it ruins the waterproof cover. There are cloth "doublers" you can use, that come out and can be bleached. Might be a little bulky for a newborn. All cloth diapers of course, take lots of water to be washed, because of the pre-soaking and re-washing sometimes needed, but it is nothing like the waste generated by one time diapers in a landfill. You can also put them outside, cloth side up in the sun to disinfect, deodorize after washing. For a newborn you could probably get away with using diaper covers with a cloth diaper that comes out, but my boys were too wiggly and they didn't work as well as an All in One.

Dydee Diapers is AWESOME. I highly recommend them. They make it SO easy and bearable to use cloth diapers.