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Before commenting please use wise judgement with your words. This forum is solely to provide answers to cloth diaper questions and make the whole process easier. Thank you for your participation!
36 prefolds, home made covers and Tide... good enough to start?
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I've spent a lot of time reading on this website trying to figure out the cheapest but most effective way to go about this. We have a very tight budget because of our student loan payments. I was hoping to get some feedback on what my master plan is... My first daughter is due the end of December 2012. So I'm trying to get this figured out before she gets here.
I plan to buy 3 dozen of these prefolds from our local cloth diapering service in regular size...
http://stores.dydeebaby.com/-strse-10/Cotton-diapers/Detail.bok
I am under the impression that while my baby is a newborn, I can pretty much just fold the regular sized prefolds smaller to fit in the cover. It might not look the greatest but she'll grow into them. Is that somewhat accurate at least? I really don't want to buy a whole set of newborn sized prefolds that I only use for a month or two.
My mom is very crafty and is sewing me PUL covers based on the one Thirsties cover that I bought. I hope to have about 6 of them and perhaps purchase two or three econobum trial packs to have those covers and prefolds as an alternative.
I bought a huge box of Tide Ultra at Sam's Club yesterday to wash the prefolds with. I understand I could have issues in the future but it works and is cheap. I used to wash with borax and washing soda only and that has worked fine for me on my regular clothing. Should I just stick with the borax and washing soda or continue to buy Tide?
I plan to buy an XL monkey foot wet bag and a small one for travel.
Does this sound like an OK way to start out? Do you see any additional costs looming in the future that I should prepare for?
Thanks for your help. 
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I've mainly used GMD prefolds (and 2 econobums), so I can't speak for the ones you are going to purchase, but trifolding did not work at all for us when my son was a newborn. (It was such a failure I have been scared to try it again after those first two days.) We had to use a snappi to avoid leaks and also contain the poo.
The prefolds I use are sized newborn 6-10lbs, small 10-15lbs, medium 15-25lbs and large 20-35lbs. It looks like the dydee baby newborn size would be comparable to both newborn and small in GMD. I didn't start using the medium size GMD until my son was about 6 months old but he is rather long and lean. Depending on the size of your daughter and how she grows the newborn size might really be worth it.
I would definitely buy a CD safe diaper cream and a snappi (or pins). Plus, I would make some cloth wipes and have some microfleece on hand for a stay dry layer or a barrier if you have to use a cream with zinc oxide.
I can't really help with the detergent question. I started using Tide Free and Gentle, but had build up. I rocked a soak with Rockin Green and have never switched back. Honestly the best washing tip is to rinse. I need to rinse before I pail or else my diapers just aren't that fresh. -
I am new to cloth diapering (my son is a month old) but I agree with what Rg1234 has said. I looked and I can't tell what size the prefolds are that you are planning to buy, but I would make sure they aren't super big. My son was almost 8 lbs when he was born and the GMD newborn prefolds (11" x 11.5") were the best choice for the first couple weeks, and I found that just folding them and placing them into the cover didn't work very well -- using a snappi and actually putting the prefold on him worked much better and didn't leak. I was able to make the small size (12.5" x 13") work, but honestly it was super bulky at first so I washed pretty much daily the first couple weeks so that I could use mostly the newborn size. I have a dozen newborn and 2 dozen small.
What size of covers is your MIL making? Are they sized or the Thirsties Duo Wrap size 1? I liked newborn covers for the first couple weeks, but now the Duo is my favorite cover that I have. It did work ok even on my newborn, but it might be a little big for a smaller baby.
We've also had rash issues from the start, and the 2 CD safe ointments/creams that I had bought originally didn't help much, so I've just ordered another to try :/ I've also spent more $ to buy microfleece to make some stay dry liners as Rg1234 mentioned (I'm just unwilling to wake up my baby to change his diaper as then it's very hard to get him back to sleep, but I didn't like the idea of him feeling wet for so long overnight/during naps). I've also used flushable liners and grapefruit seed extract due to rash issues, and I'm probably going to buy some oxy-boost soon as well to use in the wash. All that stuff is extra cost I wasn't expecting. To me, it's still worth it though. Disposables leak and even if you try to use liners to flush poop, they still smell awful. Not to mention the yucky stuff they're made out of.
I've read that washing soda/borax are not a good choice for cloth diapers -- I posted an explanation that I found in an earlier thread ("I make my own laundry soap") if you want to check it out. I think you can start with the Tide, but be prepared to have to try something else.
I agree that at least you need to also get a snappi (or pins) and cloth wipes (you can just use water with these), and maybe diaper cream, but you can see if you have any rash issues before you get that I guess. You can probably wait on everything else if you really need to -- newborn sized prefolds and covers, an alternate detergent, some kind of diaper wipe solution (you can probably start with just water...I use distilled-- again due to baby's rash issues).
Also not a necessity...but my favorite thing so far with using cloth is my potty pail http://www.pottypail.com/order.php?pp100094. It is awesome! And makes rinsing off the diapers so easy. I've had no pail stink and no stains and I think it's due to the potty pail.Whitney
Mom to adorable son born 10/20/12 -
Thanks for your responses!
The covers my mom is making are based on the Thirsties Duo Wrap size one, yes.
Diaper creams, snappis, and cloth wipes. :) got it! The microfleece sounds like a good idea, too. I wonder if I can buy that at any local fabric store?
Now I'm looking at a basic package that includes newborn sized prefolds as well as regular sized ones... I read that I might be able to use the newborn sized ones as an extra layer for at night after she grows out of them... Either way, buying newborn sized prefolds, renting them, or doing the diaper service for the first two months all cost around the same (buying them being cheapest)... so I guess I may as well buy some newborn sized ones and covers.
That potty pail thing is pretty handy looking. :)
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you should be able to get the microfleece at a fabric store. i had to buy mine at fabric.com because the only store near me that has fabric is walmart, and they only have regular fleece. microfleece is thinner than regular fleece, sometimes it is called 100 weight fleece. i actually ended up buying microchamois which is very similar to microfleece but i read it doesn't pill as much. to me it is just a very thin, soft fleece fabric.
you could definitely use the newborn prefolds as an insert or doubler, it may add more bulk than other types of inserts (hemp or microfiber etc) but it would work.
good luck :)Whitney
Mom to adorable son born 10/20/12
