Cloth Diaper Opinions Needed

I used a specific brand Ecobebé from ecuador and they do recomend at least 13 covers with 26 diapers. They were a wonderful election and one size fit all with little buttons to adjust. Great election!

We really like thirsties covers with our prefolds--I would highly recommend not using the gerber plastic pants--my son got a terrible diaper rash when we used those--but thirsties are the best--I thought our bummis got a little smelly and you couldn't wipe them out like you can with thirsties. Also, we really liked making fleece inserts to use inside the prefolds so that fleece could wick the moisture away.

I love my prefolds! I really recommend the prefolds from greenmountaindiapers.com. They are fabulous and really hold up well to lots of wear and tear. I also highly recommend the Thirsties Duo Wrap. We bought 6 covers when my daughter was born and they've lasted us almost a year. That may not seem like a long time, but each one is used at least twice a day and they're washed every 3 days. That's a LOT of life! My daughter is really tiny (14.5 lbs now, 5 lbs 8 oz at birth) and they fit her really well. Almost no leaking. They make them in snaps and applix (velcro) and will fit way longer than a sized cover will. I'd stay away from the ones that are totally one size. In my experience, they don't fit smaller babies well and gap really bad at the legs.
As far as how many you need..it depends on how often you want to wash. I like to wash every 2-3 days. The diaper gurus usually say to average about 12 diapers a day for a newborn. I think we went through a little more than that, so maybe 14 a day. I bought 3 dozen of the orange edge (newborn) size from greenmountaindiapers.com and it was more than enough. You can buy prefolds a little big, but you might get some leaking issues.
This is my suggestion. Don't buy anything JUST yet. Wait until the baby comes. You'll have a better idea of what's going to fit if you wait a little bit. You don't want to go buy all small sized diapers and have them be too big. On the flip side, you don't want to buy all newborn and have them only fit for a week or two. We waited until my daughter was about a month old until I ordered my prefolds and covers. By then I knew how she was going to grow and what her body shape was going to be (skinny minny in our case). You'd be safe ordering a cover like the Thirsties Duo Wrap since it's adjustable.
If you decide to not go with greenmountaindiapers.com, you'll want to get a good diaper service quality prefold.
I'd also recommend looking into getting a few Snappis. They're used in place of pins and MUCH easier to get on a squirmy baby. You'll want something to keep the diaper in place, at least at first.
Check out The Cloth Diaper Whisperer as well. They have amazing tutorial on how to fold a prefold as well as how to use a Snappi.
Congrats on the baby! And thank you for wanting to help save our planet!

If you have the money, I would suggest Motherease One-Size and the Airflow covers. They are amazing...a bit big at first, work great at about 12 lbs. We had a few of them for bedtime and did prefolds with the Airflow covers all day. My husband was very happy with it all and was willing to do it too. The AF covers are so nice b/c even with a prefold, you don't have to pin or snappy it. They are hard to find resold b/c people love them so much but they are worth it. Check out diaperswappers.com for resales and WAHMs and motherease.com for the originals. Great job on CDing. You'll save a ton of money!

I recommend 24 prefolds at a minimum (you will probably not want to wash more than every other day). I also had a few hemp diapers to double up with at night. I used prefolds and covers as well. I highly recommend the snaps over velcro. My velcro wore out long before the diaper cover. I never had an issue with the snaps. I did go through about 3 different sizes of covers/ prefolds during the span of newborn to 2+. But overall this was still drastically cheaper than disposables. Not sure about "one size covers....I only know the bummis brand and there is no way the larger size would have worked with an infant. Good for you mama for making this choice.

Oh and I needed more covers earlier than later. As an infant, I had 6 covers, because you can reuse them until they are dirty (I ended up washing them with my every other day laundry). By the time he was two, I only had 4 covers since he avg only two BMs per day.

Congrats on the upcoming baby! My advice is to buy a variety of different covers - most moms find that some work and some don't depending on their baby's shape and other factors. When I was pregnancy someone recommended the site nickisdiapers.com and I love it. They have a good selection and return policy, good prices, and they ship very quickly. The only one-size cover I have experience with is the Flip, but I LOVE it! But, we didn't start using it until my daughter was about a year, so I'm not sure if it would fit a new born. I've found it easiest to buy a selection of different covers in different sizes as she grows. It's so much cheaper than disposibles, it isn't that big a deal to buy three different sets (S, M, L) of five covers at a time. When my daughter was really young I loved the Bumkins.

Also, in case you have any trouble with diaper rash, read the blog I wrote about it here: http://urbansuburbanfamily.squarespace.com/home/2010/5/26.... We had major problems with diaper rash and finally realized one big key was using something called Grapefruit Seed Extract in the rinse cycle. It's been a godsend!

Good luck!

J. Sassack
www.UrbanSuburbanFamily.squarespace.com

I have a blueberry one-size and Thristies Duo size 2 (18-40lbs) and I really like them both. Thirsties Duo size 1 cover will take you from 6-18 lbs then you pick up with size 2. If I had it to do over I'd go all one-size products with snaps. The Bummis are a great cover though. A real work horse but you have to keep buying the different sizes. But my daughter is just now starting to out-grow the covers I bought when she was 4 months old so I've been lucky to really get my money's worth.

I always suggest investing in a couple of types and trying them out before getting your big diaper stash established. That way you don't spend money on products you don't like then feel stuck.

As far as prefolds go greenmountaindiapers.com have the absolute gold standard for prefolds. My daughter is 25 months old and we are still using the same prefolds I got for her when she was 4 months old! Talk about savings! You may really only need 2 sizes of prefolds. Check out the greenmountain site. It has comparison pics of babies in the different size prefolds so you get a really good idea of what they are talking about.

You can safely get away with 24 prefolds and 8 covers. You would be washing every other night but that's really what's recommended. If you find you need more covers it's easy to order more.

Invest in some hemp liners for when baby is older for nap and nighttime. I liked to use pocket diapers for night and now that my daughter is older I'm having great luck with a Thirsties Fab Fitted, a thin microfiber liner and a cover.

Make sure you use a diaper approved detergent (diaper jungle.com has a list I think), only about a tablespoon, cold cycle no detergent, hot wash cycle w/tblsp detergent, and another hot wash cycle with no detergent for a major rinsing. Use the diapers in rotation to extend their life, hang your covers to dry, no bleach, vinegar, etc as it is h*** o* diapers and covers.

I use a Bummis medium wet bag for when we are out and about. It is awesome-no smells and no wicking of moisture into everything else in my bag.

Also, consider using cloth wipes. Talk about another huge savings opportunity.

I love using cloth, being able to control what's next to my baby's skin and saving money too!

We use the Fuzzibunz One-Size diapers and love them. We have 20 of them and have used them since our daughter was about 7 weeks old (she was just too tiny before then!). They are still working great and she is 18 months old now. They have adjustable elastic legs and sizable snaps. They come in a great variety of colors. A friend has been using the regular Fuzzibunz (not one-size) for two years and has had a good experience as well. Whatever kind you choose, good luck :)

www.fuzzibunzstore.com

I would suggest Thirsties, I really like them. I too decided to use them on our last baby, he's 3 months now and we mainly use prefolds with covers. I researched and ended up starting with 5 covers, 2 were regular thirsties, 1 thirsties duo wrap, 1 bummis super brite and 1 bummis super whisper wrap. I don't like the bummis. The super brite was ok, but thirstie I feel do a much better job. But the whisper wrap I don't like, it's very cute but leaks a lot, the material is different. Anyway, I got my newborn prefolds from diaperjunction.com, they were on sale.

We also use BumGenius 3.0's and I love them. We use them as night time diapers but I would love to get more and use them during the day. Good luck!

We love our prefolds so good choice on that! As for covers we use Gerber plastic pants. They are diaper covers but no frills type. The only place we have been able to find them is Babies R Us, but they are about 3 for $5. They sometimes do tear or if you throw them in the dryer have potential to scrunch up and become unusable, but we really like them anyway. They are great for the cost! They do not leak and it is very hard to have a blow out with them. They also come in various sizes, so by the time they might get a tear it was about time to move up to the next size anyway! I would have about 10 at any given time.