Planning to CD, but am having a hard time with where to start....

[larson]

Hi all. I'm hoping you can give me some very basic advice. I am due in Oct and am planning to CD as well as bf. I thought I'd wait and not start from day oone--this is my first and I think I'll have enough to worry about!

What I'd like opinions on are....
1) When to start cd's (one month old, two, etc?)
2) What kind to start with. This is the part that COMPLETELY overwhelms me!! I've looked around, and read, but I just feel as though my brain is total mush when I read this stuff because none of it sinks in or makes sense!! I think I get the gist of the All in ones (cover and dipe together, right?--kinda like a dispos.?), but other than that, I'm feeling clueless. I know there are a gazillion resources out there, and I should just do more research, but I guess I just want someone to tell me what to do!! I feel like I need to go to CD 101 and have some hands-on demonstrations or something...:) I know that I should plan on washing about 2x a week, and not buy a ton of covers to fit the baby right away (meaning when I start CDing...whenever that is). Should I wait and buy some when I plan to start cding? Or should I get some now so I can get a sense of how they work and maybe try one on the baby once in a while? BTW, neither dh nor I have ever used ebay and I'm not sure we will, so buying there maybe isn't a good plan for us.
TIA for all your help. Sorry that I'm acting so clueless. It must be the prego brain kicking in!

Carrie
EDD 10/15/03

[egoldber]

Carrie, all the choices and the terminology are really confusing! Here's a site I have found very helpful! She's done a terrific job of providing the basic info and has LOTS of pictures.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kfegelman/index.htm

To start with, I would get a sampler or two. I really like the one at naturalbabies.com. They are all basic diapers that fit a lot of babies and have good re-sale. You can always, of course, take a "do it yourself" approach to sampling diapers, but that can be more stressful. :) I also like Motherease diapers, and they have an introductory package on their website, motherease.com, and again these are basic diapers with good re-sale value.

As for when to start, well I too hemmed and hawed and ended up not trying it out until DD was 14 months old! You will probably be surprised at how easy it is and how much you enjoy it!

HTH,

[blnony]

Carrie-
I think Beth had some great suggestions.
I started Cding when Audrey was about 6 months. I want to cd my next baby (far far into the future :)) but I probably won't until he/she is about 10-12 lbs. I just don't want to invest in cloth until then. Thats just my decision, yours may be totally different which is fine. If I did cd really early, I'd probably just use a few fitteds and mainly prefolds. Since you'll be changing so often, and dealing with BF baby poo, prefolds are a pretty easy and inexpensive route, and you could have a few fitteds (that still need covers) and AIOs for DH or times when changing needs to be fast or something like that.
You may want to start with a couple of starter sets like Beth suggested just to see what you like and get the hang of everything. I think thats a much easier and less costly way to get started.
And, if it helps, it took me awhile to get all the terminology and stuff down too, there is a lot out there, and its really confusing. Good luck-keep us posted on how everything is going.

[jenni2]

Hi Carrie,
My little girl, Sarah, is 6 weeks old and we started CD'ing about 2 weeks ago. If you are planning on breastfeeding, I would get that well established and be confident with that until you take on CD'ing. I am also blessed with a good sleeper, so taking on something new was fun, not stressful. She sleeps anywhere from 4-7 hours at night, and takes naps during the day, so I was ready to go for it! Keep in mind that the more well rested you are, the better that this will work for you. There is a slight learning curve, so be patient. Some one on the bbd recommended that to me and I thought it was great advice!

When I was planning I took into consideration several things. First, I know that Sarah will grow quick these first few months so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Second, I wanted something easy and didn't want to fuss with all different kinds of diapers. I like to keep things simple.

What I've kept and what works for me- my CPF's and my Bummis Whisper covers and my prowrap covers. Initially I didn't buy enough covers- I'm not sure if it's my folding method, but we get poop a lot on the covers so I have a total of 8 and that works well for me. The CPF's can be used later for doublers, or worst case scenario you hate CD'ing, they are really wonderful for cleaning. The Bummis covers and Prowraps were not that expensive. I wouldn't get anything too small. I didn't use the NB Bummis or Prowraps and are trying to return them.

I know that this choice is boring- but, I figured I could try the fun covers and AIO's when she is bigger and they will last longer.

Good luck!
Jenni
Mom to Sarah born 5/28/03

[KathyO]

My standard advice on this one is to wait until the baby is a month old, maybe a bit more. This helps them fill out a touch (it can be tricky getting a good, leak-proof fit around a newborn's little chicken legs, let alone how nervous we all are about the cord stump), but mostly it's to (as others have suggested) give you some time to get a few hours sleep under your belt, and start assembling a new routine around all the newborn stuff. It's not that CDing is that hard, but you'll be on a learning curve for that first few weeks, so it's nice to take the new stuff one task at a time.

The second big recommendation is to try stuff out before you invest in it big-time. A friend passed her CD stash to me, and I was surprised to find that what had fit her two babies perfectly didn't work well with mine. So I got two Mother-Ease samplers, one with One-Size and one with a small Sandy's, and tried those. Mother-Ease is FAR from being the only option, but I'd heard a bunch of good things about them, and Canadian, which as a Canuck I thought was kinda nifty. Surprisingly, although I was convinced I'd like the One-Size, the Sandy's came out as my favourite. So I guess the moral of the story is to try stuff out for a few goes before you buy more, no matter how silly you feel laundering only three or four diapers.

Another thing that might help you decide is to work out a few more things about your needs. My husband was willing to CD but inexperienced and terrified, so I needed something that would be easy to learn and familiar-looking... so fitteds were the way to go for me. If you're on a very tight budget, pre-folds can (I gather) be the cheapest way to go. And some babies seem to pee lots more than others, so high absorbency can turn out to be a factor to consider.

I'd avoid the All-in-Ones as a general rule, because their big Achilles' heel is that the cover has to go through the wash every time the diaper does, and covers don't normally stand up to (or need) that kind of treatment. So the cover ages prematurely and starts leaking, and you are left with a diaper that you can't use. Plus, the setups where the diaper is separate from the cover are somewhat better at containing poop blowouts, since they are two separate "lines of defense" rather than just one. We only had one blowout after switching to cloth, and that was mostly due to learning how best to adjust the fit.

Feel free to keep asking questions! It's really a cinch once you get started, honest!

Cheers,

KathyO

[AmbyChelle]

I just quickly scanned the other replies, so I'm sorry if these are repeats :)

I totally agree with the sample package from naturalbabies.com I remember being very overwhelmed and confused in the beginning and kept putting off ordering because I literally didn't know where to start. But as soon as I received my first order, I gained confidence. It makes world of difference to be able to see and feel the diapers to understand how they work etc. But, since you want someone to tell you what to do ;) I'll tell you what I'd have done if I could do it all over again.

1 pail - 30 gal kitchen trash can from wal-mart that has a lid that gives a good seal. We have the one that you push a button on the lid and the rectangle pops open so it's easy to use even with your hands full

1 pail liner .. two actually, but you can always get the second once you know that you want to make that investment. Lots of places carry these.. bummis pail linders or "this old bag" janellespuls.com has some good ones. The one I have isn't even waterproof.. it's just nylon and keeps the poop off the sides so all I have to do is spray some vinegar solution in there and wipe while the diapers and pail are in the wash. You *can* get away without a liner, but you'll be doing more work trying to get your pail emptied into the washer etc.. and cleaning the insides of the pail every few days.

2 snappis. We only had one for awhile and that was okay, but I kept losing it.. so much nicer to have two.

A set of pins.. you might not think you'll like pinning, I didn't either.. but now I love to pin. I've had both the dritz and just the ones from BRU.. and both worked just fine.. I actually prefer the BRU pins with the plastic heads

18 bleached CPFs. You'll hear a lot about unbleached.. and they are nice.. but we like the bleached better because our unbleached got very "pilly" while our bleached stayed nice and soft. The pills do wear away, but ours only wore away about the last couple of weeks that my baby was in the infant size *L*.. so we prefer bleached. If they are real CPF's.. they are bleached with peroxide instead of bleach, so it's not so harsh on the environment.

IF you plan to start when the baby is very little.. go with 9 infant and 9 "regular" infant prefolds.. the regular prefolds are 4x6x4 layers instead of 4x8x4 so they are not as bulky for a smaller baby.. we really liked the few that we had and I always used them first.

18 size 0 kissaluvs. We didn't care as much for the size 1 kissaluvs, but the size 0 were really wonderful and I wish I'd have had more than I did. They also have awsome resell value. We used them until my baby was like 13lbs and 5 months old. It greatly depends on how fast the baby grows though. We could have used them longer, but I was eager to move up to the next size :)

As for covers, we didn't like proraps.. but we did like green earth wraps for a neborn. I loved the fit of bummis, but they wicked for us. I've been wanting to give them another try though now that I've found waterproofing sray. .. If I had to do it again.. I'd go with green earth wraps in size small.. maybe three of them and a bummis in size small. I might also have a ME airflow size small for good measure. Wool is a wonderful option also.. I hear bumpy wool is nice for a wrap style.

I wouldn't bother with AIO's.. simply because of the expense issue.. in that size, the baby grows so fast, I wouldn't feel like I got enough use from them.

Lastly, 30 wipes. I like velour and sherpa wipes myself, but everyone likes something different.. and most are very nice. Baby washcloths will get the job done too if need be. Another thing is a wipes warmer. I thought it was the silliest thing before I had my baby.. and then, she screamed every time she got a diaper change.. and out we went to get a wipe warmer.. it made a big difference. I just take a stack of wipes/washies folded in half... run tap water over them.. squish out all the excess water so they are about the same wetness as disposable wipes.. and put the stack in the warmer. Easy. Then they get washed right along with the diapers.

That's it.. that's what I'd do if I could go back in time. We weren't die hards, and still aren't. Some disposables are always hanging around our house. My baby was 5lbs when she was born, and none of the cloth would even come close to fitting her.. it was all HUGE on her.. so it was at more like 7-8lbs that things started to work well so we used a lot of disposables until I got into the swing of things with cloth. Go with a simple system for a tiny baby. There's always time for delving deeper and trying variety later. If you want to splurge on something nice diaper-wise.. get really nice plush wipes.. those are something you can justify because you'll be using them forever and even if you decide not to cloth diaper, they make great after meal clean-ups, washcloths for the bath, etc etc.. When the baby is growing out of the newborn/smalls you'll know better what works for your baby and what doesn't and your money for "cute" or "neat" diapers will be better spent then because the baby will be in mediums for a MUCH longer time than he or she will be in the smalls. Even though we love fitted and AIO's now, prefolds still have a very significant place in our stash and I can honestly say that even without any other diapers, I'd be thrilled to cloth diaper with just CPF's.

I hope that helped a little and wasn't just repeats of what everyone else said. Good luck!

AmbyChelle