Teach me everything you know!!

Well, I would highly recommend joining a cloth diaper group on fb, just search for cloth diaper and fluff love. I use Alva Baby, which is one of the cheaper brands, and they are a bit bulkier but they work for me just fine. www.thefluffypenguincompany.com is a good place to start.

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As far as washing goes, it depends on your water hardness, but don’t over think it. Right now my girl is exclusively breastfed (ebf), and breastmilk is water soluble, so I simply throw the diapers in the wash. Hot wash followed with cold rinse on heaviest/longest wash cycle. Once she starts solids poops will have to be rinsed off. I plan on buying a bidet sprayer to rinse off in the toilet, and placing diaper in pail in the bathroom. I will use micro fleece liners (you can buy cheap blankets and make a lot of liners out of them) once she starts solids also. These will make it so when she poops I simply rinse off the liner (or toss is if it’s a bad one) instead, also it helps wick any moisture away from baby’s body and quickly onto the main insert. Don’t do wet pails, as they are not sanitary. I wash every other day.

Night diapers: I am currently using 2 microfiber inserts inside of a pocket diaper, but my girl is getting bigger and more active in her sleep. Microfiber is notorious for compression leaks. I will buy some hemp inserts and flour sack towels (cotton inserts) and that should help with that. I used disposables until she was one month, because I got tired of having to deal with blowouts every single time she pooped, so we switched to cloth sooner than I had anticipated. We were going to use up the disposables I had gotten from my baby shower before switching. There’s some more, but that’s a compressed version haha.

Youtube. Honestly I came on here and asked for similar advice when I was about at your stage and someone suggested watching youtube videos(search cloth diapering 101 for starters). At first I was annoyed, because I just wanted answers, but now its the advice I give too.The other advice I’d give is to not commit to one brand or style before your baby arrives because different things work for different babies/parents. Some websites will do a trial period where you can try the diapers and return for store credit what doesn’t work for you. Many also have sampler packages where you get a variety of styles/brands usually at a lower price than if you buy them individually.My favorite websites:Nickis Diapers (they have a variety of brands including their own brand - and they donate one diaper for every nickis brand diaper purchased. Also have sampler packs and rewards program)Fluffy Penguin (lots of the cheap brand diapers and also good for cheaper but good quality inserts)Green Mountain Diapers (best for flats/prefolds)Fluff Love (not for purchasing diapers - tons of info on wash cycles, detergents, diaper creams, etc)There are also facebook groups that can be helpful, I think maybe “Cloth Diapering Mamas”. Nickis also has a FB group.

As for what we do/like...My son was 9 lbs at birth and we started cloth diapering when we came home from the hospital (3 days old). He is now 3 months (not sure on weight), but he is a very tall but slim baby.We do not have a washer/dryer and we hand wash and hang dry every day (I am American, living in East Africa).For newborn stage, we had:2 All-in-Ones (AIO) - Imagine brand3 Fitted diapers - 1 Imagine, 2 Cloth-eez from GMD6 Half size flats - GMD cloth-eez6 small prefolds - Imagine12 flour sack towels - Target7 NB covers - 2 Nickis, 1 rumparooz, 1 happy flute, 1 imagine, 1 buttons, 1 thirsties size 1As far as newborn goes, we generally used flats/flour sack towels folded onto him and secured with a snappi during the day and AIO/fitted/prefolds at night. Fitteds, flats & prefolds all need a waterproof cover, the cover doesn’t need to be washer with every change just if it gets poop on it. If the cover was particularly wet we usually wipe it down and set it out to dry, alternating between 2 covers throughout the day.As far as our favorites, we really liked AIOs overnight for the newborn stage, we were usually changing him 2 times during the night and those were easiest/fastest for night time changes and we werent too worried about absorbency as it was only a few hours between feedings/changes.I personally much prefer the actual flats to flour sack towels as the FSTs quickly lost their softness and also seem thin. The snappy doesn’t grab them as well as the flats either.As far as sizing, he outgrew the happy flute cover, AIOs and imagine fitted first (maybe around 1 month), then the GMD fitteds. We still use everything else at 3 months, though we use two of the half size flats (one pad folded for absorbency and one to wrap and secured to baby). We use the newborn prefolds usually stuffed in a one size pocket.

For one size stash:1 AIO - Imagine brand3 fitteds - 1 thirsties, 1 nickis, 1 imagine10 pockets - 9 Alvas, 1 Imagine3 AI2s (cover with snap-in insert) -Best Bottoms6 one size flats - GMD clotheez6 stretchy bamboo flats - Imagine4 OS diaper covers - 3 Imagine, 1 Nickis6 microfiber inserts, 5 cotton bamboo inserts, 5 bamboo inserts, 4 thirsties small hemp insertsWe use pockets or flats/cover during the day and fitteds or pockets stuffed with prefolds & hemp insert at night.If I was to start over I would have gotten more cotton and bamboo inserts as they take long to dry (especially if its rainy). But if we dont have enough inserts to fill the pocket diapers I just fold a flour sack towel into a pad.The AI2s are really not all that practical at the moment as EBF is fairly runny and gets on the cover every time, but the covers can be used over flats/prefolds/fitteds as well, so we generally use that that way instead.We also have the following that we havent used yet as they are still too big:6 medium prefolds - Imagine6 large prefolds - Imagine6 large muslin flats - GMDWe use the prefolds as changing pads sometimes, but not yet as diapers.The flats are great as they dry quickly (ideal as we hang dry) and wash easily. I find the pocket shells also dry fast, just the inserts arent dry, but you can use anything absorbent in a pocket which is great so that you can customize based on your child and the situation/time of day. Plus once you have stuffed them they are more convenient to grab and throw on.

I have the newborn starter pack of prefolds from green mountain diapers and 3 wool wrap style covers in newborn, 3 in small, 3 in medium. Then a dozen of size small prefolds. Waiting to buy the bigger ones until I need them but the prefolds are lovely and not expensive. Will use the smallest size prefolds as doublers when needed. Using tide powder for wash routine every other day.

Alright. I'll try to make my experience brief. We decided to get a newborn stash and then move on to one size pocket diapers (because one size diapers don't fit for a couple months, and sized diapers generally don't save you money) . We figured out that that would be most economical as long as we use them for a second child. For the newborn diapers we got a variety of brands and types because we had no experience. I'm glad we did because we learned that we didn't like 2 piece diapers (cover and insert) and all-in-ones were okay but took too long to dry. The only pocket diapers I could find in newborn size were made by Alva baby and they were great, so we decided to do pocket diapers for his one size stash (that last from 2-3 months until potty trained)

Thank you guys for everything!! I will look into all of your recommendations! Thank you❤️