What (Cloth) diapers would you recommend for a young single mother?

[BeccaB-D]

Last week a young women joint our mother group, she's mid-twenties and expecting her first child.
Recently she lost her fiance, house, car, job, savings account, well everything. (various circumstances)

She has worked very hard on finding a place too stay and a new job (not nearly as good as her old job)
The mothers in our group have allready given her a lot of baby stuff our kids grew out of.
To save money she wants to use cloth diapers, she liked the system I'm using (BumGenius) but I think it will be a above her budget (unfortunatly for her I still need mine for my own boys and our new addition) and she wants to buy her diapers new (I can't blame her, personally I wouldn't buy used diapers either, especially if you don't know the history of the diapers, covers/AIO's that have been used for a long time ussually aren't that leakproof anymore)

What would you recommend this situation?
I was thinking something like Econobum? With two full kits she should have enough.
Would these diapers last the whole diaper period, or would it be a better idea to invest in something a little more expensive (like Flip, or Thirsties covers with prefold)

And what about a really cheap newborn solution? or would a few weeks of disposables be more cost effective in her situation (personally I think a few covers are not (much) more expensive than a few weeks of NB sposies, and the NB prefolds can be used as doublers later on)

[mikala]

Last week a young women joint our mother group, she's mid-twenties and expecting her first child.
Recently she lost her fiance, house, car, job, savings account, well everything. (various circumstances)

She has worked very hard on finding a place too stay and a new job (not nearly as good as her old job)
The mothers in our group have allready given her a lot of baby stuff our kids grew out of.
To save money she wants to use cloth diapers, she liked the system I'm using (BumGenius) but I think it will be a above her budget (unfortunatly for her I still need mine for my own boys and our new addition) and she wants to buy her diapers new (I can't blame her, personally I wouldn't buy used diapers either, especially if you don't know the history of the diapers, covers/AIO's that have been used for a long time ussually aren't that leakproof anymore)

What would you recommend this situation?
I was thinking something like Econobum? With two full kits she should have enough.
Would these diapers last the whole diaper period, or would it be a better idea to invest in something a little more expensive (like Flip, or Thirsties covers with prefold)

And what about a really cheap newborn solution? or would a few weeks of disposables be more cost effective in her situation (personally I think a few covers are not (much) more expensive than a few weeks of NB sposies, and the NB prefolds can be used as doublers later on)

We love cloth diapers but in her situation I wouldn't go cloth for the newborn phase. She'll have so much on her plate as a sleep deprived single mama and I don't know how much she'll save with cloth at that point when baby is going through that first rapid growth period. I'd look for really good diaper sales because even with cloth she'd likely still use some disposables. Babycheapskate.com has a great list each week, also Amazon subscribe and save with the Parents coupon.

What is she doing for childcare? Does her childcare provider allow cloth diapers?

Assuming life is calm enough for her to do some extra laundry after the newborn phase I'd look at either pre-folds with covers or used Fuzzibunz. I'd vote FB over BumGenius because I think the snaps are more durable over time and the elastic is more easily replaced. We didn't use pre-folds with covers much so I don't know which brands are best but I've heard great things about Flip covers.

All of that said, while I love cloth diapering it does take time and initial start-up money and I wonder whether in her case whether that time would be better spent taking care of her baby, exercising and cooking nutritious food for herself and babe and continuing to get her life back on track.

[larig]

I think prefolds and covers would be very economical. Green Mountain Diapers are a great place to look.

ETA: after about the first 3-6 months, like pp said.

[AnnieW625]

We started with prefolds and covers when DD2 was a week old (we would've done it from birth, but I had to order newborn vs. infant diapers). We did it until she was 3 mos. old and had a really bad yeast infection that didn't go away until we put her in 7th Generation diapers. We were using a diaper service so we think she developed an allergy to the diaper service detergent.

We thought about starting cloth using Green Mountain prefolds or fitteds w/covers again at 6 mos. old, but honestly we had gotten too used to disposables (and by that time had spent less on them than I did when we had diaper service) so I honestly think it's best to start with cloth prefolds very early on to get used to it vs. putting it off for 3 to 6 months because if you do that you are never going to do it. That happened to me with DD1 I was going to start diaper service (in 2006 unless you were really in the know cloth diapering was really still very underground and I thought the only way to do it was to use a diaper service :.....didn't visit this forum when I was pregnant!), but had zero time off work to nest before having DD1 so it never got started.

Also Gerber still makes the plastic pants so those are very economical too. My mom cloth diapered three children in them with no problems. Sure the snaps and the prints are really cute, but the basics still work.

[RunnerDuck]

Also Gerber still makes the plastic pants so those are very economical too. My mom cloth diapered three children in them with no problems. Sure the snaps and the prints are really cute, but the basics still work.

Gerber pants will do in a pinch but are really pretty awful. However Dappi makes nylon pull on pants which are 2 for $5, generously sized, wash and wear very well, and waaaaaay more comfy. (The gerber pants are stiff and the leg binding tend to come apart over)

The problem with pull on pants is they are very messy in the newborn poo stage, and annoying when in the out and about with a bigger kid stage (as you can't remove then in case of a poo dipe without removing shoes and all as well) - but in their favor they are thin and super trim under clothes, and poofy and light so you can use them even over something thick without making your kid all stiff and tight and uncomfortable like wraps can do. We use them over night time dipes now.

I agree with not trying to skip cloth the first few months and then getting in to it - but I do often tell people skip it the first week or so as you adjust to the shell shock of having a baby. Generally, CDing a newborn is super easy IMO - since you don't have to rinse the poopy dipes at all. Newborn prefolds laid in a NB pro-wrap = very simple to do and pretty cheap. (I do not suggest pull on pants in NB because of the runny copious poo - it ends up all over the legs as you remove the pants... unless you use really well fitting fitteds to contain the poo which offsets the savings of the pull on pants tremendously. NB prowraps are not too pricey at dy-dee diaper's site.

For later - Cotton Babies now makes a diaper called econobum which people seem to like pretty well. I have the inserts, which I use in Flips covers. (it's basically a prefold) Flips covers are cuter and seem slightly better made than econobum covers, though people do like the econobums covers. The flips covers are like $13 a piece which seems steep BUT they are one size so that takes some of the price factor out. Flips inserts - there is a stay dry which I don't think holds much pee as I'd like (it's supposed to compare to the Bum Genius but I don't think it holds as much) and an organic which holds a LOT of pee but costs like $6-7 each I think. The econobums inserts are 3 for $6 and somewhere in between the two. I use econobums inserts in the flips covers esp. for out and about as it's slightly less bulky than all bumgenius which is my normal dipe. Anyway I would say to make it cheap but easy - granted not as cheap as CPFs but still pretty cheap - prefolds and prowraps early on, flips and econobums later. So simple to use. You might be able to get by with infant prefolds in flips covers, but they wouldn't be quite as trim or easy to fold without bulk - the econobums have seams to make the folding easier.

At night I use prefolds with a flips stay dry insert (they're great for extra night time protection! just not amazing on their own) under Dappi pants. Pins on the diapers. The stay dry inserts are like 3 for $12 so still pretty affordable.

Other than the pro-wraps you can get all the above at cotton babies website - which actually has some sort of program to help moms in need so you might even be able to get a discount on that. Not sure if they have prowraps - dy-dee always had those cheapest when I looked.

[AustenFan]

Kudos for helping out a mom in need!

We were broke when we started CDing and did the infant stage with prefolds and Bumkins covers. I think that is the cheapest and easiest option for new parents who have to be frugal.

We had 18 infant size prefolds and tried the Gerber rubber pants but hated them. Then we discovered Bumkins covers, which I like better than many of the cheap cover options because they have a flap that holds the folded diaper in place. DH and skeptical in-laws were totally sold within a week. We had three in each size (though we've slowly acquired pockets along the way since then).

Cloth Diaper Clearance has the old version of Bumkins covers (which we used with no problems) on a pretty good clearance sale.

If there's a group of friends who are going in together to throw a shower for her, you could easily buy her 3 NB covers, 3 small covers, and 18 infant prefolds for about $80 (off the nickisdiapers and clothdiaperclearance sites).

[WolfpackMom]

We love cloth diapers but in her situation I wouldn't go cloth for the newborn phase. She'll have so much on her plate as a sleep deprived single mama and I don't know how much she'll save with cloth at that point when baby is going through that first rapid growth period. I'd look for really good diaper sales because even with cloth she'd likely still use some disposables. Babycheapskate.com has a great list each week, also Amazon subscribe and save with the Parents coupon.

What is she doing for childcare? Does her childcare provider allow cloth diapers?

All of that said, while I love cloth diapering it does take time and initial start-up money and I wonder whether in her case whether that time would be better spent taking care of her baby, exercising and cooking nutritious food for herself and babe and continuing to get her life back on track.

This sums up my exact thoughts! Especially the childcare part because most wont work with cloth.

[Puddy73]

I agree with the PPs that cloth diapers might not be the best choice for her right now. If she is really determined to use CDs, I'd suggest that she start with something inexpensive like prefolds or Mother-Ease to keep the initial investment low.

[BeccaB-D]

Her parents are taking care of the baby when she's at work, and they are positive about CD's

A few of the other moms and myself were thinking about buying her a nice stash of prefolds and cover (and present them to her in a 'Diaper Cake')

She is really determined on using cloth diapers, it's something she and her late fiance decided to use even before she was pregnant.

[chottumommy]

She can even buy Green mountain prefolds from diaperswappers second hand and that might work out cheaper. I have also seen people use flannel receiving blankets which she can buy from any second hand shop for very very little. There are lots of threads on diaperswappers on how people fold receiving blankets. She can buy covers and all other accessories from diaperswappers too. I have seen covers go for as little as $5. She can resell the diapers on craigslist or diaperswappers after she's done.

I managed to CD my son with as little as $300 from birth to 2 years and then donated most of the diapers (didn't need the money). I do agree about the newborn phase being a tough time to cd and I would definitely prioritize breastfeeding and sleep over CDs. But newborn cd's are very easy to wash due to ebf poop.