Today, with the influence of this forum, I made the decision that my daughter deserves cloth diapers, and our budget deserves them, too, lol! Except, now what?

Doing the research, I absolutely cannot afford AIO's. The cheapest I saw were about $15/diaper, which adds up to about $300 for my initial investment. Can't do that right now. So, I've decided to go the pre-fold/cover route, but I know I need more than just a diaper and a cover. What do I need, lol? Is there anything I can get to end my dependency on wet wipes, too?

Please, someone educate me! I really don't know what I'm doing, here! :oops:

Ok, we normally just use a prefold and a snappi and a cover for during the day. I normally will throw in a hemp doubler or two for night.

Have you read Aalena's thread on husband's opinion on cloth diapers yet? Towards the end of the first page, sothernmom put a link up to a great, reasonably priced site for cloth. The starter packs are very reasonable, IMO. Also, have you checked out ebay? My MIL bought us tons of diapers there very reasonably. Including some pocket AIOs.

Also, other than the link that's in the other thread, check out www.diaperaps.com. We've decided to check them out. I received a sample and they're really nice. We've expanded our budget to get the birth to potty bundle and it's only about $250 with shipping. This includes everything needed for birth until they're potty trained. They seemed extremely reasonable. But the link that southernmom has also has great prices. It was a hard decision that we talked through since they're both great prices.

Prefolds are so inexpensive and easy to care for! We've never used pins, just a snappi. You can also just fold them and put them in a cover but covers get messy this way so you'll need extras. Here's a great link to help: http://www.diaperpages.com/ I still use the same prefolds that he wore as a newborn, except now they are pocket stuffers or doublers for larger prefolds. They make great burp and all-purpose rags too. Once you get the hang of it, you can change them almost as quickly as a disposable.

Prefolds are awesome! I've tried a few kinds, and so far I found that Indian prefolds from www.little-lions.com to be the softest and most affordable (I think I paid $15.99/dozen for the 15-30lb size). And for covers we stick to plain old reliable Proraps; they are inexpensive ($7.00/each) and very soft. Sure they are kind of boring, but you can always dye some Proraps and prefolds if you want to snazz them up a bit :wink: . I do keep a couple of Bummis Super Whisper Wrap prints on hand in case we are going out (gotta show off the cute stuff!). Liners really aren't necessary (or just cut up an old flannel baby blanket), doublers are only nedded if you have a very heavy wetter. My start-up stash from Little Lions cost about $70 total, and that got me 2 dozen Indian prefolds and 3 Proraps. That leaves us with 2.5 to 3 days between washes. Also, the really good thing about prefolds is with some creative folding you can get more use out of them before you need to get the next size up (unlike fitteds, AIOs etc where you need the exact size or you'll have major leaks). I bought ds' 15-30lbs size when he was about 12 months old and they still fit at 21 months old and will most likely take him straight through potty training.

We use a dual system--Fuzzi Bunz, AIO's for nighttime, homemade fitteds with covers, prefolds folded into covers or Snappied. I would love to use only Fuzzi Bunz or AIO's but wiith my daughter going through 18 diapers a day, it's just not in our budget. LOL.

So I'm a diaper junkie and collect all types. It's a lot of fun. I haven't bought any of my covers--they've all been free. My mom and my MIL both volunteer for community service centers and occasionally they get CD's or covers that come in. I guess people try CDing and don't like it or something, because I have some very nice covers that I didn't pay a dime for. Such as Proraps, Stacinator, Nikki's, etc.

My favorite prefolds that I have are my Chinese prefolds. Those will probably last through every one of our kids. I got Gerber prefolds as a baby gift and surprisingly they actually work on Hannah. I wouldn't recommend them though. I think that Chinese prefolds are better and they don't cost much more.

Oh, and as for your question about how to end your dependence on wet wipes, here's what I do:

1) Take some baby washcloths, the cheaper the better! My favorites are the small ones from the Dollar Tree because they're soft on baby's bottom, small, and cheap.

2) Run under water. You can add tea tree oil or something else but it's not absolutely necessary.

3) Throw them in an empty wipes container.

4) Each time you use one, throw it in the diaper pail to be washed with the diapers.

5) Wet a new batch of washcloths each morning.


This has worked great for me. Also, it cleans baby's bottom more thoroughly after bowel movements if you use water and a washcloth instead of a wipe, so that's a plus for helping to minimize diaper rash.

Best of luck!

I want to give all of you a great big hug right now! When I discussed this with DH yesterday, he agreed that we should give it a try. But then, we were both absolutely clueless about what to get, lol! I said, I don't know, but I'll check C-moms. Someone there should help me.

THANK YOU ALL FOR NOT LETTING ME DOWN! I didn't know what I would need, but I think now that I'll probably get one of the starter kits someone posted on the thread about Aalena's DH and a couple of doublers. Even if I end up buying more, that should get me set for starters. Hopefully, lol.

And thanks for the diaper wipe tip, Blessed Mommy. It sounds fairly easy, like it will work pretty well, plus it gives me an excuse to go to Dollar Tree. I love that place! :lol:

I don't think anyone mentioned wet bags. If you are going out and about, you need a bag to transport the wet diapers. If you are out a lot, you'll want 2.

Also, do you sew? You can make your own wipes out of flannel, terry, or terry velour. Cloth wipes are a snap when you are already doing cloth diapers...