Cloth newbie, please help!

[victoria1987]

Hi ladies,
So I am now 22 weeks pregnant and have begun the task of creating my registry. I know that I would like to use cloth as my best friend has cloth diapered her 3 children. She has offered a lot of advise on the subject but I need a bit of clarification as to what I will need. My friend has a huge stash of all types of cloth that she will be passing on to me once her youngest is toilet trained (he just turned 2). She also makes them and plans on making me some for my shower and has a stash of newborn prefolds. I don't think that she has the covers though.

So what should I get?? Is it worth getting newborn diapers or just get a few? Should I get a few of each kind? (prefolds/covers, AOI, pocket diapers/liners). Very confused as to what I will need to start out, especially considering my friend has a large stash to give to me but we are not sure when that will be available (her son is very reluctant to potty train)

ANY help would be wonderful! I'm lost lol...

 

[Rachel_C]

Do you want to use only cloth from birth? If so, I'd get some newborn nappies, mostly fitteds and wraps with a few AIOs/pocket etc to try out as well.

If you're okay using disposables at first, you probably won't need newborn nappies and could go straight to bigger S1s/smalls or one size nappies. In that case, I'd get one or two of each kind of nappy to try out but don't buy more than one or two of any nappy as you don't know what will work for you and LO. When LO is big enough for them, you can start trying them out while still mostly using sposies, work out what you like and then buy more/get more from your friend.

If your friend has a big stash, perhaps ask if she can put together a demo kit for you! One of each type of nappy for you to play with before LO arrives and then try out when baby is born.

 

[TTC First]

ok, I can tell you from plenty of experience. I am a foster parent and have a stash of cloth diapers and have had them for newborns to 15 month olds.

I use diaper covers with inserts. I go through no more than 2 covers per day. I use kawaii diaper covers and they cover from newborn on. They say that it starts at somewhere like lbs however with some fancy buttoning you can get it to fit a smaller baby. You may have to change them more often or get some leaks every once in a while however it saves you from buying newborn diapers. You get newborn diapers and the baby will be ready for the regular ones in no time so it's really not worth it in my opinion. If you do laundry once per week 14 covers will definitely do. I wait for a sale and get them for about $5 each.

Now it comes to inserts. You can go with so many different types. I started with micro finer because they were cheap. People say you can not use them because they can't go next to the baby's skin, just cut a piece of material and put it in between. I then moved to 3 layer bamboo but found them not absorbent so I went to 4 layer bamboo. The last couple kids I had were big wetters so I combined the inserts. Just think if you are changing the kid every 3 hours, you can calculate how many you need.

This is what I have all my kids in and it works. It's cost effective and simple. You really don't need much if you do it right. Some mamas just get addicted and go overboard, it's addictive.