Prefolds, Part 1

Although we have a number of prefold and pocket diapers the Prefold diapers are the diapering solution that my wife and I use most regularly. Prefolds are our "go-to" diapers when P will be playing aroud the house. In the next few posts I will go through some background details on prefolds as well as what prefolds we own, why we chose the number of diapers we chose, and how to fold, use, and care for prefold diapers. I'll cover pocket diapers in a similar series once this one is complete. In part 1 of this series I will provide a basic overview of cloth diapering with prefolds.

Some Background

Prefold diapers can be an extremely cost effective way to diaper your child from birth to potty training. If you just get the basic supplies, and can resist all the cute cloth diapering accessories better than I can, you can probably achieve that goal for under $250.

What makes a cloth diaper a prefold? Prefolds have mutliple layers of cotton throughout the diaper but more layers in the center. A diaper that has the same number of layers throughout is said to be a "flat" diaper. We chose to use prefolds because they looked more absorbant and seemed to be more popular than flats. The following picture highlights the area of extra absorbency.



Prefold diapers tend to come from either China or India. In our house we have only used the Chinese prefold diapers. What's the difference? Chinese diapers are said to be very durable while Indan diapers tend to be softer but less capable of handling a lot of wear and tear. I don't think the Chinese prefold diapers are rough at all but I don't have an Indian prefold for comparison. I do know that P has never had a problem with the diapers and she seems to be happy with how they feel against her skin.

We own 18 newborn sized and 24 premium sized Chinese prefold diapers. We only bought 18 newborn diapers because we were unsure we would stick with cloth diapering and we supplemented with disposables for the first month of P's life. The newborn sized diapers have a green stitching while the premium sized diapers have a blue stitching. All of our diapers are bleached white but you can also by unbleached fabrics. My wife and I didn't really put any thought into buying bleached over non-bleached fabrics, we just purchased what was in stock. All of our prefolds were purchased online from Cotton Babies.**

Here is a side-by-side picture of the premium and newborn sized diapers.

After 6 months of use and laundering the newborn diapers are currently 10" wide x 12" long. After 3 months of use and laundering the premium sized diapers are 12" wide x 17" long. My measurements are a more accurate measure of diaper size than the new and unwashed sizes often listed on retailer Web sites. Prefolds will shrink some over time.

Notice that the diapers in the picture have a texture to them? When you buy your prefolds they will be smooth and a bit stiff. Over time, as you wash the diapers, they will get much softer and take on the fluffy look of the diapers in the picture.

The Basics of Using Prefolds

Here's a quick overview of how to use prefolds. I'll expand on each step in more detail in the 2nd post in this mini-series on prefolds.

Before you use your prefold diapers you need to run them through 6 to 8 full wash and dry cycles to break them in. Unbleached fabrics may require more washes but that should be noted by the diaper retailer or manufacturer. Prewashing your diapers softens them up and gets the fabric into a state of increased absorbency.

Using cloth diapers is straightforward. You apply the diaper using one of several folding techniques. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few YouTube videos of popular diaper folds.**

• Angel Wing Fold
• Bikini Twist
• Newspaper Fold

My wife and I use all three folds but we primarily use the bikini twist because it fits P the best. The fold you choose is based on a number of factors that include the size of your child in relationship to the diaper, the activities the child will be performing in the diaper, and which fold fits your child's body type.

Once the diaper is folded and around the child you need to secure it using either diaper pins or a Snappi. I have NO idea how to use diaper pins as we only use Snappies. The Snappi is an awesome little invention and I can't recommend them enough. Here's what a Snappi looks like.

Since prefold diapers are cotton they require a cover to keep the fluids from absorbing all the way through the cotton fabric and onto you and your child's clothes. Diaper covers go over the cloth diapers to build a seal between the soon-to-be wet fabric and the rest of the world. We have tried several brands of diaper covers but have settled on using the Thirsties Duo Wraps for P. Our stash currently includes 3 size 1 Duo Wrap covers and 3 size 2 Duo Wrap covers. The type of diaper cover you choose is dependent on the size and shape of your child. I'll talk more about diaper covers in part 3 of this series.

Once the diaper cover is on you are all done! It seems like a lot of work but it isn't that bad once you get the hang of it.

When the diaper is soiled you just unwrap everything in the same order that you put it on. You don't need to wash the diaper covers after every diaper change unless they are soiled. If the diaper cover is just wet you can clean the inside with a wipe and lay them out to dry so they are ready for the next diaper change.

Some Additional Points on Changes and Washing

We don't leave P in a prefold diaper for more than 2 hours if we can help it. The fluids are absorbed by the prefold diaper and will eventually spread to make the entire diaper wet. This can get really uncomfortable for the baby and you may risk giving your child a diaper rash in a very odd spot.

We try to launder our cloth diapers every other day but we never go longer than 3 days between loads. Once you smell the diaper pail you'll understand why!! Diaper covers get washed with regular baby laundry, not cloth diapers (usually), and only when they get soiled by solids or begin to smell. We probably wash ours once a week.

"Wrapping" It Up

This is just a basic overview of the process for using prefold diapers. Hopefully this gives you an idea of what is involved. In part 2 of this series I will talk in more detail about using and caring for your prefold diapers. I will also focus on adapting your folding technique and the fit of your diapers as your child grows.

**Please note that just because I list a retailer it doesn't mean that I am endorsing them. I am also not getting paid for mentioning any retailer in my articles. Over time you will notice that my wife and I have bought our cloth diapering supplies at a number of retailers.

Our Diaper Stash, What It Cost

Before I go into discussing our diapering process I think it is important to divulge what cloth diapering supplies my wife and I own. This post will not explain why we chose to outfit our stash as we did nor will it explain what each item is in detail. I will save those discussions for future posts.

"I find most discussions of cloth diapering on the Internet are lacking in that they don’t include specific information about what was purchased and the price paid per item."

I have chosen to include that information in this post. I won't be linking to the sites where the items were purchased at this time. In a future post I'll review some of the retailers we've used.

After reading this you may also be wondering what type of diaper bag we use or what type of storage bins we use to hold our diapers but I am restricting this discussion to cloth diapering specific items only. Any supplies that are common to cloth and disposable diapering have been omitted (changing table, wipes carrier, diaper rash cream, etc.).

So what diapering gear do we currently use? Our daughter is just turning 6 months old and below is a list of the items we have purchased, up to this point, to cloth diaper her.

Our Diapers

• 10 Bum Genius 3.0 All-In-One diapers – $152.57
• 18 Newborn sized Chinese prefold diapers - $27.00
• 24 Premium sized Chinese prefold diapers - $48.00

Diaper Covers

• 1 Bummis whisper wrap in newborn size - $12.95
• 1 two pack of Dappis vinyl pants in small - $5.00
• 1 Thirsties Wrap Extra Small - $11.25
• 3 Thirsties Duo-Wraps in Size 1 - $38.25
• 3 Thirsties Duo-Wraps in Size 2 - $38.25

Diaper Accessories

•  4 Snappies - $15.80 total
• 1 Diaper Pail – $16.99
• 2 Large wet bags for the diaper pail - $25.50
• 1 Large portable wet bag - $16.50
• 7 boxes of Tiny Bubbles laundry detergent - $66.75
  (used for all laundry and bought in bulk to save on product and shipping costs)

Sub Total - $474.81

Gift Certificates Used - $46.99

Grand Total - $427.82

Our total cost, so far, for cloth diapering supplies is $427.82. This is right in line with the $500 we have budgeted for cloth diapering supplies from birth until potty training.  This is roughly the same expense as 11 months worth of disposable diapers (200 diapers for $40) and we should see a break even point for our cloth diapering expenses in only a few more months.

In our case, my wife and I are only planning on having one child. We know we are saving money by choosing cloth, the proof is in the numbers. These numbers get even more appealing when you consider that you can amortize your cloth diaper expenses over several children. Sure, you'll need to replace some diapers and supplies along the way but larger families will see a significant savings by using cloth instead of disposables.

But wait, there's more!!!

"Cloth diaper supplies can be resold and/or donated to charity. Your initial investment can be partially recouped!"

Disposable diapers go straight to the landfill along with the money used to purchase them. When it comes to cloth diapers there is an active market for used cloth diapers and supplies. There are also a number of charities looking for good quality, used, cloth diapers and supplies to help families in need. You have the ability to pass your diapers on to other families and make a difference in someone's life. In return you can receive some of your initial investment back as cash or a tax deduction. Even if your diapers are a bit too grungy to donate, older cloth diapers make great cleaning rags. Look for a future post talking more about how to sell or donate your cloth diapers and supplies once they have served their purpose.

As our stash grows I’ll be sure to revisit this list and make updates as necessary. We definitely have some new purchases on our radar for the near future!

So what are all of these things in our list? How do you properly use and maintain them? Why did we choose to buy these specific items? How does cloth diapering effect your water bill and electric bill? Stay tuned for future posts to find out!

* Most cloth diapering forums refer to a collection of cloth diapering supplies as a “stash.” I like that term so I’m going to stick with it on this site. 

84 Disposable Diapers and 1 New Bathroom in 2 Weeks

Our old bathroom was an aberration of both functionality and design. Not only was it small, but it was configured in such a way that one was required to put their elbows on the sink when sitting on the toilet. When T was pregnant with P I was positive that I was going to have to remove the sink so she could use the toilet. To be honest, I don’t know why I didn’t just rip it out because the sink had been broken for nearly 2 years and it was essentially just sitting there getting in the way.

After 2 years of using a bathtub like a sink we decided we couldn’t take it anymore and took some of our hard earned savings and decided to gut the bathroom and do it right. Since our super tiny house only has one super tiny bathroom we had to move in with my parents for the 2 weeks it would take to get the job done.

It took us some time to decide how to best handle the cloth diapering situation while we were going to be at my parent’s house. We could have just kept cloth diapering as normal and let Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop use disposables for when they were watching P. This seemed like the most straightforward approach. My parents aren’t huge fans of cloth diapering and I can’t blame them as they used disposable diapers on me and my brother and it is what they know. The other option on the table was to go all disposables. We ended up choosing the latter option.

T and I decided to go all disposables mainly because of the laundry situation. In a future post I plan to explain the process for laundering cloth diapers in detail. For now let’s just say laundering diapers isn’t as simple as just throwing diapers in the washing machine and adding the detergent (although some people do just that and have no problems). 

So what were the concerns? First of all my Mom does a lot of laundry and we were unsure of the type of detergent she used. At our house we have adopted Tiny Bubbles** laundry detergent for all of the clothes we wash, both adult and baby. We know that in our washing machine we have achieved a state where any leftover detergent that may mix in with the wash is not an issue because we only use one kind. At my parent’s house we would be doing laundry in between the loads my Mom was washing and we were concerned about having some of her laundry detergent end up in our load. In addition to the type of detergent being used it is also a big no-no to use fabric softener on cloth diapers. I know my Mom uses fabric softener regularly and it could also cause problems if it isn’t totally rinsed from the machine between loads.

What types of things can happen to a cloth diaper if you use the “wrong” detergent or add fabric softener? Well, I’ll start by saying that nothing might have happened. It was possible that everything could have worked out fine. My Mom’s washing machine is very high-end and if there were to be any detergent left in the wash basin it was most likely going to be very small amounts. Were T and I willing to gamble on that? No. Some things that can occur to cloth diapers if they are washed with the “wrong” laundry detergent, or come into contact with fabric softener, include lingering odors, loss of absorbency, and an increased chance of diaper rash.

What other problems could have occurred? Well, we are blessed to have very good township supplied water at our house. My parents have well water. In addition to using the “right” detergent to clean your diapers there is also the major consideration of how hard or soft your water is. There is a delicate balance between the quality of water and the type of detergent used when laundering diapers. T and I took close to a month to get our diaper cleaning regimen into place. At my parent’s house we wouldn’t have the luxury to experiment and find an optimal solution and, to be honest, we really didn’t want to have to deal with any of this while we were staying at their house. It was bad enough I was moving back home for a couple of weeks. The cloth diapering issue just seemed like one additional thing that could cause tension between my parents and me. We get along famously by the way so I’m not sure why I should have worried about any points of tension.

To make a very long (2 weeks to be exact) story short, we used disposables for the entire 2 weeks. I will admit that it seemed nice to not have to wash diapers, but that was about the only thing that appeared to change from our regular diapering process. After some additional reflection I have come to the conclusion that I didn’t even save that much time from avoiding the extra laundry. It only takes a few seconds to throw a bag of diapers in the washing machine. Since our home washing machine is in our basement it doesn’t take much time at all to attend to the full process of cleaning diapers.

Additionally, we almost ran out of disposables! You can’t run out of cloth diapers. If the stash is getting low you simply wash the dirty ones and you are set to go. On top of these issues we had to deal with the added expense of buying more disposables then we had planned for in our budget and the growing pile of diapers headed for a landfill.

So here’s the math. We used around 84 diapers in 2 weeks. That’s 6 diapers a day. P is 21 weeks old this week. Figuring that P would average 6 diapers a day since the day she was born works out to a total of 882 disposables that we would have used to this point since her birth. Keep in mind that this average is probably LOW because it doesn’t count the newborn months where diapers are easily changed 10 to 12 times a day.

Using a price of $40 for a 200 count box of diapers that means we would have already spent at least $200 on diapers. At this rate we will easily recoup our cloth diaper investment in the first year of P’s life.

So how much have we spent on cloth diapering supplies so far? How quickly will we recoup these costs? Stay tuned for the next post! I will be posting a line by line list of expenses for all of our cloth diapering supplies and talking through the overall costs of going cloth.

Oh, and since our bathroom is back together I don’t expect any more long breaks between posts. I probably should have waited to start the blog until after we moved back into the house and got settled ;-)

**This is not a paid endorsement in any way. This is simply an informational link that goes to the retailer I buy the product from. There doesn't appear to be a products site for this brand of detergent. This is not an affiliate link or a link posted at the request of the manufacturer.

The Why & Zen of Cloth Diapers

Since this is the first post to the blog I feel as if I need to take some time to try and explain why my wife and I chose to cloth diaper our daughter (P) as well as to discuss our general philosophy on the whole process of cloth diapering.

I wish I had a clear-cut reason for why we chose to use cloth diapers but I don’t. A lot of our friends and family think it is a bit odd that I can’t provide a clear answer when they ask why we chose to do this. Although there isn’t one defined reason why we chose to cloth diaper P I think a few things led us down this path.

I’ll only be briefly touching on each of these following items as I’ll be expanding on all of this in future posts.

• We’re cheap
  My wife and I have been on a fairly strict budget for the last few years and we couldn’t fathom spending thousands of dollars on disposable diapers. Some quick Googling estimates the cost of diapering your child from birth to potty training is roughly between $2,577 and $3,470. These figures are from sites that sell cloth diapers so I’m going to guess they’re on the high side.
  
  I think a number like $1,500 is a reasonable estimate of disposable diaper costs if you are extremely frugal over the life of your child’s diapering needs.  Our expenses on just cloth diapering related items for P should be no more than $500 over that same time period (although after you read our cloth diapering philosophy you’ll learn why our costs will probably be somewhere closer to $1,000 ).
  
  
• We’re somewhat/kinda/sorta environmentally conscious
  I don’t like the idea of sending thousands of diapers to rot in a landfill. Even the organic diapers that label themselves as biodegradable can only do so properly in a compost heap. There is plenty of evidence that shows items in landfills do not deteriorate over time but are, instead, preserved by their environment.
  
  
• We’re a bit anti-conformist
  Basically, if everybody is doing something we don’t want to do it. It’s that simple. Cloth diapering is a bit of an alternative lifestyle in modern parenting culture and we were definitely drawn to that aspect of leaving disposables behind.
  
  
• Disposables smell gross (even before the pee and poop)
  I gag at the unnatural plastic smell of nearly all disposable diapers. If you don’t know what I mean walk through the diaper section of a local store and take a deep breath. If you don’t agree with me you’re just weird ;-)
  
  
• I’m a gadget freak
  Cloth diapers aren’t gadgets in the same sense as an iPhone or GPS but they satiate my yearnings as a gadget freak in nearly identical ways. I won’t go too deeply into this for now but look for a future post where I try to explain how my love of technology is the same thing that drives me to cloth diaper.

Those are just a few of the reasons why we cloth diaper, but what is our driving philosophy when it comes to cloth diapers?

“Sometimes you just have to use a disposable.”

That’s right; we still use disposables at times! Sometimes when traveling, sometimes when there’s a bad diaper rash, or sometimes in the morning when we know P is going to have a poopy diaper and we don’t feel like dealing with it we’ll use a disposable or two. You need to find out what mix of cloth versus disposables works for you and your family and hopefully this blog will help you to figure things out in a reasonable and honest manner. Our diapering philosophy is also fodder for a more detailed post in the future so I’ll leave it at that.