I don’t know about you, but my budget requires I get a whole lot of mileage out of my baby’s cloth diapers. Even if you plan on using them for future children (like I did) I’d still recommend avoiding newborn sized prefolds and opting instead for the next size up, infant prefolds.
With almost no extra effort at all, you can easily use infant prefolds from birth until at least 4 months of age and save yourself the hassle and expense of buying both newborn and infant prefold diapers.
When my first child was born, I was a complete newbie to cloth diapering. I didn’t know any cloth diapering parents and had never handled a prefold, pocket, or any other kind of cloth diaper in my life. Okay, I admit, I’d never even changed a baby’s diaper.
I did a whole lot of research before purchasing my daughter’s newborn diaper stash. Having read enough CDing posts to make my eyes googley, I opted to buy newborn sized prefolds to start out. They worked like a charm for two months. Only TWO MONTHS?! I did eventually resell the diapers here.
Save money and time by folding your infant prefolds to fit a newborn.
The photo tutorial below is how I diaper my son, who needs more wetness protection in the front. If you’ve got a baby girl, simply fold down the back of the diaper rather than the front. Just for reference, my son weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. at birth and this is how we’ve been diapering from the very beginning. Here’s how to use an infant prefold on a tiny newborn.
Using this cloth diaper folding technique, also referred to as the bikini twist, all newborn covers should fit over the infant sized diaper with no gaps or leakage. The cover pictured below is a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap in newborn size.
Happy diapering!
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How do you find the prefolds on a larger baby? We went between prefolds and all in one’s with our little guy and I stuck with the one size all in ones because I found them a bit easier. Although I did like that with prefolds, you didn’t have to change the cover every time so it meant a bit less laundry.
We used prefolds on my daughter until she was potty trained at 17 months and had no problems with it. I like the convenience of a fast-drying prefold to all-in-ones or pocket diapers, the latter of which we only used for nighttime. All in ones make for a faster diaper change, but once you’ve got a month or so of prefold changes under your belt, it goes faster and you don’t even notice.
That’s a new one on me! I’ve *never* had success with prefolds no matter what the size (of the diaper or baby), but lately, I haven’t been able to get the pocket diapers washed and dried before we run out of clean ones resulting in supplementing with paper diapers.
I’m so glad I found this tip! I have a feeling ill be trying it (like, probably today). 🙂
Elise, prefolds are a little trickier in the beginning than other types of cloth diapers, but it’s definitely worth a try! Before my first child was born, my husband and I googled all sorts of videos on how to fold prefolds and practiced with a teddy bear. If you have trouble, try googling or email me. I’d be happy to help!
I use pre-folds and the rumparoo newborn covers as well as the thirties duo snap. The rumparoo are SO bulky and I am getting frustrated with them! We do the angel fold on our boy as he poos a lot and the bikini twist doesn’t seem like it will hold a stool. He’s breastfed so they are quite runny. The thirsties leak! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but I’m ready to throw in the towel. 🙁
Jennifer, if you know other CD moms, I’d recommend meeting up to share what’s going on and ask for advice before throwing in the towel. I know it can be frustrating. All my kids have been breastfed exclusively and the bikini twist is my go-to even for those terribly runny poos. Maybe try that and for sure check out the forums for Q & A on diaperswappers.com for solid “been there done that” mama advice.
Thank you for the good tips , but may I ask you please what type of predols u used ? And how many did you buy ? Still new to cloth diapering :))) thanks
Hi Dania. We used some secondhand prefolds like the ones from Green Mountain Baby for our kids. In fact, I’m still using them as we speak though after 3+ kids they’re well in need of replacing. I’d say that if you’re only using prefolds to buy at least 3 dozen if you plan to wash every other day. That still might be too few though.
Hi! Came across your blog post today and am expecting in October… I will be a first timer as far as CDing goes. I plan on using prefolda during the day and pockets at night. How many prefolds do you recommend to have on stash?
At least 12 worked for me. We don’t have a dryer either, and somehow we managed. 🙂