Prefolds: My Drug of Choice

Welcome to the First Annual Freedom of Cloth Carnival


This post was written for inclusion in the Freedom of Cloth Carnival hosted at Natural Parents Network by Melissa of The New Mommy Files and Shannon of The Artful Mama. This year’s carnival will run from Sunday, July 3rd through Saturday, July 9th. Participants are sharing everything they know and love about cloth diapering, including how cloth has inspired them.


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I’m a self-proclaimed cheapskate. When I heard how much disposable diapers cost (an average of $1,500-$1,800 per child for the diapering years), I knew we’d be using cloth. Environmental, sure. Cute, I had no idea. Cheap, yes!! When I first got interested, I was visiting with my friend and doula who happily showed me “how to do it” with prefolds. Gosh, I thought, that was easy. Done. I was sold.

Prefold Heaven

A year or so later, I was prego and saving up money for our own cloth stash. Prefolds were it for us- none of those fancy AIOs and whatnot. By the way- and I don’t mean this to offend anyone because to each his own, but AIOs really confound me. One, they are way too expensive, in my opinion, for something that gets poo and potty all over it. Two, it’s used once and it’s done till it’s washed. Or, even for the pocket diapers, all that stuffing and unstuffing seems like it would take too much time. I have TWO, count them, TWO BumGenuis diapers that I use at night and it’s really too much work to consider using them all day every day. I love the prefolds (heck, at around $1 a piece, what could be cheaper?) and we have several kinds of covers. Drop the prefold in the diaper pail and reuse the cover. All. Day. Or even for a couple days in a row, unless the baby decides to really let one blow.

Burkley, showing off his Flip cover

For covers, my personal favorite is the Flip cover. We have the adjustable ones so they can get super tight on little newborn legs, or super big for when your little one is, well, not so little anymore.















We also have Bummis covers, which I’m not crazy about, though they come in super cute patterns. One thing I don’t like about them is that sometimes if you wait too long to change the dipe, the cover will get kind of wet and soak through. That, and to get it tight enough around my little man’s tummy, it gets really tight on his thighs. However, they do work well in lieu of bathing suits. :)

Our two Bummis covers

We also have several Econobum covers. These work pretty well too, and same as the Flip covers, they are adjustable so will fit for his whole diapering life. They are a little thin though, so they will get pretty wet if you want too long to change the prefold. (Diaper changing happens to be my Mommying downfall- I tend to forget to do it.)

Burkley modeling the Econobum in his 3-month pictures. :)

We have several of these (they're the cheapest)!

I mentioned we only have TWO BumGenius pocket diapers. I put a doubler in there and also a prefold, so he can wear it all night and not need to be changed. We call this his "Ghetto-Booty-Nighttime-Diaper" look. Pretty cute. :) Here is with Daddy reading bedtime stories.

BumGenius close-up. Ours are a little...used. :)

All in all, we love our prefolds. They are cheap as well as simple to use. What more could I want?
Oh, yes, a Snappi. That's important, too. :)

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Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants on the following themes. Articles will go live on the scheduled theme day:

• Sunday, July 3rd, 2011: Cloth Related Recipes — Writers share their best cloth-related recipes and tutorials.
• Monday, July 4th, 2011: Choosing Your Cloth Style — Today’s posts discuss parents' individual journeys to finding the cloth diapering "style" that best suits their families.
• Tuesday, July 5th, 2011: Cloth Diapering Must Haves — Parents talk about the most important items in their diapering “stash” and why they love them.
• Wednesday, July 6th, 2011: Wordless Wednesday, Inspired by Cloth — We asked parents to share their favorite cloth-related photo with us and turned them into a fluffy Wordless Wednesday photo montage on Natural Parents Network. Link up your own Wordless Wednesday post there!
• Thursday, July 7th, 2011: Cloth Through the Stages: From Infancy to Potty Independence — Today’s participants explain how cloth diapering has served their families throughout one or more stages of their children’s lives.
• Friday, July 8th, 2011: Cloth Troubleshooting and Laundry Day — Seasoned cloth diapering parents share their best tips and tricks for handling common cloth problems and tackling the diaper laundry.
• Saturday, July 9th, 2011: Inspired by Cloth — For today’s theme, we’ve asked writers to explore the ways cloth diapering has inspired them to become "greener" overall.