Ames reading upside-down. He’s very talented.
Using the regular row of snaps for a perfect fit.
Honor showing off an extra chin and her newest trick… bicycle kicks.
Notice the diaper is folded down to a second row of snaps.
After it’s snapped down for a lower rise, it looks just like it does on Ames.
My favorite place to diaper shop is DiaperSwappers. The lingo can be overwhelming at first, but it’s amazing once you get the hang of it.
I buy my diapers used for three reasons:
1) Diapers that have been washed more are almost always more absorbent.
2) Used diapers are cheaper, and usually for the same quality.
3) I’ve found the resale value of used diapers to be great.
Some people might think it’s gross, but we’re talking baby pee & poop here. It’s sort of gross regardless, right? Used diapers have been washed more often than any other item of clothing ever has, though, and they usually haven’t been used for very long.
Because of that, all of our diapers need covers. We use PUL and wool. I’m devoting a whole other post to the magic of wool, so stay tuned! Our favorite brands for PUL are Thirsties, Bummis, Flip, and Wonderwraps. Once again, we try to stick to the one-sized covers, so everyone can wear everything. We use the same cover until it becomes soiled. Sometimes a baby will go all day in the same one, and sometimes we change covers with almost every diaper change. Newborn blow-outs? Blueberries? Raisins? Anyone? When I take off the cover for a diaper change, I flap it in the air to dry it off. Sometimes, I spray it with our diaper spray to freshen it up. It’s really no extra step or hassle for us than a pocket diaper. It’s an extra few seconds of putting the cover back on after the diaper change.
Both prefolds & flats must be fastened closed. We use Snappis instead of pins. As far as creams & sprays go, we don’t want any build-up in the diapers. Residue will make the diapers repel waste, and that is a hard issue to fix. A baby will wake up with a dry diaper, yet a soaking wet belly & pair of legs. So we use cloth-safe creams & sprays. During diaper changes out of the house, we use California Baby diaper spray. At home, we use the peribottle from birth, filled with water and a few drops of tea tree oil & lavender oil. Tea tree oil is a natural antimicrobial, so it fights yeast & other yuckies. We buy a combination of the two, in a bottle available at Earthfare!
I hope I’m not leaving anything out! Please feel free to share your favorite products here. That’s the beauty of cloth diapering. There are many different options, and every family seems to find their own set-up. I’ll be talking about wash routines next week. So exciting, right?
18 Comments
I have 15 month old twins and we use cloth diapers (Bum Genius one-size pockets). Instead of a “wet bag” we just have a step-can style garbage can that all the diapers and wipes go in. For wipes we just use some really cheap wash cloths that we got at Target.
Everything I found said not to use diaper creams with cloth diapers and my daughters are prone to rashes (they’ve had them frequently since they were in the NICU). Can you be more specific about exactly what products you use? I’m very interested.
I love knowing there are other moms out there using cloth diapers with more than one baby. Thanks for sharing your info!
Sandra, congrats on keeping your twins in cloth this long! That’s awesome. I have always heard that California Baby products are safe with cloth, and I’ve never had any issues! Here is a link to a hopefully helpful chart: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/diaperrashcreams.htm
The products I use are in the picture! Good luck!
Sandra, I also used Northern Essence diaper cream on my daughter when she had some rashes. It was really nice and diaper safe!
Thanks for pointing out the ease of reusable wipes…I usually use disposable wipes, but then i’m left having to pick them out to throw away, which is really nast. Think I’ll throw down and buy some washable wipes today!
I use all Thirsties covers and Indian prefolds. Bought a bunch of other stuff starting out, but quickly realized this was much simpler!
A cloth dipe tip my mom passed down to me, is putting clean/wet dipes on the grass to dry. The combo of sun and chlorophyll from the grass creates a powerful stain fighting combo :)
I’m nowhere near having kids as of yet, but when I do I’d love to use washable diapers. My mum used them on me, but not with my 3 younger brothers.
This has given me such an insight, and I so glad to hear that there are actually Mums out there ‘doing’ it with reusable nappies! You have already boosted my confidence in my future choice!
I have cloth diapered from the beginning with prefolds and covers. We like wool covers, Thirsties, and Weehuggers…We usually use a snappi to close them however we have found that they also work fine folded in thirds and laid straight in the cover although there is more likely to be a mess on the inside of the cover around his legs if he poops.
(A nice discovery when all the snappis seem to have magically disappeared!)
Oops…the poop on the cover isn’t a nice discovery…being able to lay the diaper in the cover without a snappi is convenient at times!
Also a fabulous, natural and safe for cloth diapers cream is Suuthe Skin Repair by Mari (formally Mari’s Magic Skin Healer). The stuff is wonderful!!
hi there…wondering what kind of detergent you use to wash the diapers? I am having my first next month and I am still up in the air about which brand to use.
Thanks!!
what about sized prefolds? do you need to buy infant and then toddler prefolds or can i just buy the bigger ones?
Thanks Rachael and Jocelyn!
I knew about sunning, but not about grass! Excellent idea.
I’ll be talking about washing next week, but right now we use Tide original powder and Rockin’ Green Soap.
As far prefolds go, we use the newborn-sized up until about 15lbs, then switch over to the regular size. I’m not going to buy toddler prefolds because I’m hoping Ames won’t need any diapers soon (as in, the next six months or so). The newborn-sized can be folded up into covers even after the baby’s bum is too big for them to fold, so that’s a nice option!
I didn’t know you had your twins! Congrats! Wow, three in cloth. You are my hero. I have 19m old twins. We did cloth for a little while, but I sadly gave up. You are doing a great job. I read your other post on the night waking and tapping it out (awesome by the way). Its so hard. It was so hard I don’t even remember it being so hard, because it was all a blur…lol. You WILL get through it though! Josh was a much better sleeper than Jules. We had to keep going in and pacifying her.
this is a random question, but I tried to CD my son Judah, I still do it on and off and decided on FuzziBunz before he was born. He seems to really not like the Fuzzibunz and I was later told by a friend that boys typically don’t like that brand of CD. I did purchase some used BumGenus online and he likes those more.
Im keeping the CD for the next baby when we decide to have another but I am wondering if I should stock up on another brand than FB.
Just a quick question, do you put anything in your diaper pail with the dirty nappies? I’m looking for a way to combat the smell!! :P
As far as brands go, Jessica…maybe Fuzzibunz just isn’t your diaper! Ames leaked out of the legs in those because he was a slim baby. Have you looked into Kawaii? It’s an affordable pocket diaper, so you can try a few for not a lot of cash! It’s gotten rave reviews.
Beth, have you tried leaving your pail open? Depending on how old your baby is and what they’re eating, you might have to do this in the garage or the laundry room. As far as products go, we’ve used the Bumgenius microbe spray for soiled diapers (not bums) and Rockin’ Green’s powder pail. Both have helped, but the only 100% cure has been to wash more frequently.
My girls are just now fitting comfortably into the newborn prefolds and thirsties covers, although I did buy some Kawaii Baby covers from re-diaper.com and we’ll see how they work too. We were given some Bummis covers, but the girls aren’t quite big enough for them yet.
Although we used disposables up till now, we always used reusable wipes – I cut up a BUNCH of old/hand me down receiving blankets into squares. They work beautifully. I do recommend washing them in a mesh/lingerie bag, though, because they can get stuck in places in the washer, especially a front-loader.
We get them wet in the sink and sometimes spray on some CB Diaper Area Wash if the poop is sticking. Thanks for the post! I like reading what other twin mamas are doing with cloth.
GREAT post! We’re looking at all of the many options right now, but it’s looking like fitteds & covers, pockets and some AI2’s will be top choices. From what everyone says, there is no “perfect” diaper, but some diapers are better for certain situations, so our stash will likely have a good variety of types.
Question- how many diapers do you have or how many would you recommend for twins? Also, did you CD right from the beginning or did you use disposables while recovering from your C-section? Last question- (gross, sorry!) What’s the scoop of breast milk poop and CDing? Is it easily contained? Does it stain? Sorry- critical details lol!
THANKS!!!
Stephanie – They say to plan on changing a newborn every two hours. For twins, that could easily be two diapers a day…but you don’t want to have to wash every night, so that puts you at three or four dozen diapers! That’s why we started out with prefolds. Super versatile after they outgrow them – burpcloths, inserts for other diapers, etc. And cheap, too!
We started using cloth when we ran out of disposables from the hospital. I think they were two weeks old on the dot.
Breastmilk poops are super runny and bright yellow, but they soak into the diaper pretty much like urine. They don’t need to be washed off or anything. They do often stain the diapers, but the stains come out in the wash or in the sun VERY easily!