Prefolds, Fitteds and contours

[elle630]

I am so confused! I am leaning towards trying to do pocket and all in one dipers a lot of the time but for budgetary reasons I am also inclined to try the other kinds with covers.

If any of you use these can you tell me which you like, dislike and what the pros and cons are?

Prefolds, fitteds and contours....and what you have found to be the best covers for each?

Thank you!

I've gotten hubby on board!

[brittone2]

If you are planning on cloth diapers for a newborn, an advantage of prefolds/covers is that because they outgrow most newborn sized dipes so quickly, you won't be investing a ton in pockets/AIOs. We used primarily prefolds and covers with our son when he was a newborn, and I'm glad we went that way. We still use our prefolds quite a bit actually. Prefolds usually allow the baby to feel the wetness sooner, but that's actually good as the more often you change the baby, the better for their skin. We usually changed DS every 2 hours or so with a prefold. Pockets or AIOs sometimes allow you to go 3+ hours (depending on how heavy of a wetter your child is) as the wetness gets absorbed better. Newborns poop so much you end up changing them often anyway, so prefolds can work really well. Fitteds can absorb more than a prefold if they have a soaker inside, but it all depends. Fitteds can be as expensive as a pocket dipe, and you still need a cover. So if you are looking for budget friendly CDing, keep that fact in mind. They do have more breathability though and allow you to re-use the same cover several times. You can also do this with prefolds (reuse the cover several times as long as it isn't soiled, just let it air dry and use it again the next change). With a newborn, especially if you are breastfeeding, you'll want covers that can contain explosive breastfed poop. Common but inexpensive covers are Proraps and Green Earth covers. We used the Green Earth covers based on a recommendation here and liked them a lot. They are softer than proraps but still have nice gusseted legs (which holds in poop). There are tons of other covers, but these are a good place to start IMHO. If you don't "miss" the fancier covers, there's no need to buy them :) (unless of course you want to have fun shopping for fluff!)

For night time, you may want a pocket dipe as it holds much more and the baby won't feel it. If you plan to CD at night, I'd recommend at least 2 pockets. Not everyone uses pockets for night time, but that worked the best for us. As DS got older, we started using pockets more and more as he was able to stay in each size a lot longer. He's 14 months and still can fit in medium fuzzibunz, but with all of the "stuffings" inside, he needs a petite toddler for night time use. So, we use a lot of pockets. For the summer, we'll be using lots of prefolds/fitteds and wool covers for breathability.

I think prefolds and covers are a great place to start. They are budget friendly, and the prefolds can be used for a long time. You can start with them and see what you like from there. If you buy a ton of pricier dipes, there's no telling whether they'll fit your babe well or whether you'll like the system you've chosen. If you start with prefolds/covers, you can try one or two other types of dipes as you go and figure out what you like. Soooo much of it is a matter of preference and baby's body type. It can be hard to predict what will work.

I don't know much about contours, so I didn't address that.

HTH.

[mudder17]

Wow, good for you for getting DH on board! That will make everything much easier.

Okay for budgetary reasons, the cheapest way to go, truly, are prefolds. Even if you decide you don't like folding them on a wriggly baby, you can always trifold them and lay them in a cover. The type of cover you would need would be a "wrap", which is basically one that opens up like a disposable diaper, rather than pulling up like underwear or shorts.

If you do learn to fold the prefolds, you can snappi them, and then use pull up covers/shorts as well. This is nice because then you can put on wool shorts, which can be beautiful. :)

I think contours (kissaluv makes these) may not be the most absorbent, but I don't have much experience with these. They work sort of like prefitted in that they're shaped like a diaper, and they easily fold up, but you need to fasten them with pins or a snappi (much easier, IMO). Prefitted are basically prefolds that have been converted into something that looks like a diaper, but with no fastenings. Grow Me a Rainbow and Funny Farm Creations (one of our own members is the owner of this one) both make these, but they're currently closed for customs, I think. Shandelle of FFC can correct me if I'm wrong about this.

If you don't mind PUL, proraps, litewraps, green earth, bumpy's, and bummis are all good, affordable brands, readily available, some with cute prints. Most of these are velcro, I believe.

Other types of "wraps" are those made from fleece or wool. I think fleece may be on the warm side for summer, depending on what region of the country you reside, but wool would be very cool. Both have a high potential cuteness factor. :) You can have snaps or velcro for these.

All of these covers can be used with fitted diapers. The price of fitted diapers can vary quite widely, but the prices are generally between $10-20 each. You can also find quite a few fitted diapers on the Diaperswap2 yahoo group if you're not sure what you want to try. For chunky thighs and heavy wetters, my 2 current favorites are Bijou Baby Gear Basic hemp diapers ($14 for a large) and Kindhearted Women hemp diapers (not sure where to get these as I've gotten both secondhand). I also like the Tykie diapers a lot, but they're a bit more pricey ($14-$20/large), depending on the material). These also work for chunky thighs and heavy wetters. I know you're not sure whether your daughters are heavy wetters, but they do seem to have chunky thighs. Rashmi (papal) will probably give you some other good ideas as well, since her daughter is similar in size to yours.

Where can you find covers? Well, depends on whether you're thinking PUL, wool, or fleece. I would get a couple of PUL proraps, maybe, because they're cheap, and they'll give you an idea as to whether you want to do PUL. Litewraps are also pretty cheap PUL covers.

Give us an idea of what you might be looking for and we'll try to narrow your options.

Welcome to the club! :)

Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya, www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif , 14 months & counting
Kaya's cousin, due October 9th!!!

[mommyj_2]

I've never tried contours, but I don't think they could be all that great, because they don't seem to be as popular as the other kinds of cloth diapers. I'm sure there are some moms who love them, but most people tend to use prefolds, fitteds, pockets, or AIOs.
My son has always had super chunky thighs. My favorite fitteds for him were Mupdie babies with side aplix (these aren't cheap, but they are great quality), and Lucy's Hope Chest. Lucy's Hope Chest fitteds have a ton of snaps, so it's easy to get a good fit. I think her dipes might be a little less expensive, but I haven't looked in a while. If you use fitteds, I think the best option for covers is nylon pull on covers (like Bummi Whisper pants). They're only around $5/cover, and they last forever. I've been using the same ones on my son for one and a half years. They also work great over training pants when your babies start potty learning. I love nylon covers, since nylon is more breathable (and thus cooler) than PUL. Whisper pants also work really well over a snappied prefold. You can also use wool covers over fitteds.
Prefolds really are great, since they are the cheapest option, and they are really versatile. If you have prefolds to use at home, you can splurge and get some cute covers and/or dipes for going out. I have used prefolds at least 95% of the time I've CDed. I think they will seem like more work than disposables at first, but that after you use them for a few weeks, you will love them. If you want to fold them in thirds and just lay them in a cover, Bummis SIWW are a great option, because they have a little flap inside where you can tuck in the diaper. There are also velcro covers like Cotton wraps (which are more breathable but can wick a little...they are nice for summer, though), Bumpy, and Bumkins. A lot of moms also like Proraps. I hated the plasticky feel of Proraps, but they work for a lot of moms. All of these will also work if you decide to snappi the prefold. If you snappi your prefolds, you can use pull on nylon or wool covers as well.
You can easily use prefolds at night if you add a hemp doubler. If you want to keep them dry, you can get a fleece topped doubler. Or, some moms like pockets or fitteds for night time use.