Chinese Prefolds (ok, these ARE your Mom’s cloth diapers…)
FEB
13
2008
These are the classic diapers that most of our lovely bums were wrapped in back in the day. I know them well as the dust rags in my mom’s house, and lots of us buy them to use as burp rags with our newborns. They are the nice, cotton rectangles with the big absorbent pad in the middle.
For most of us, these cloth diapers conjure up images of diaper pins, soggy bottoms and those horrid plastic pants. They have come a looooong way since the 70’s. Diaper pins and plastic pants have mainly been replaced by soft waterproof diaper covers with hip prints and Velcro tabs. You do still need to pin them, but there is a fabulous new pin replacement on the market that I’ll talk about below! They are also cheaper than their other pricier cousins we will be exploring in the next few week. I’m considering these for a newborn because I don’t want to spend a fortune on a huge stash of the pocket diapers I love for my toddler. Newborns go through about three times as many diapers so when exploring whether or not to cloth diaper your newborn, explore the cost really well.
Another close choice to the Chinese Prefolds are the Birsdeye Flat Fold diapers. These are about 4 times the size, but thinner. They make for really easy cleaning and drying, but require more folding. Here is a great site that talks more about it! http://www.thediaperhyena.com/diaper_folding101_flatfold.htm. These would be a good option if you were planning on sewing your own cloth diapers!
Costs:
The prefolded diapers run anywhere from $1.75 each to around $10.00 for the organic cotton ones. You can get a good stash for a newborn when the diapers are under $2 each. But consider how many you will need, assuming that you will do a load of wash once every 3 days… for a newborn that could mean a stash of up to 30 or 40 diapers. You will also need to get covers for them, and those run around $5-$15 apiece. If cloth diapering a newborn, you might be able to skip the cover, since they are changed so often, or reuse the cover if it isn’t messy. You will also need to buy pins or fasteners like the Snappi Diaper Fastener (http://www.snappibaby.com/generic0.html); this is a t-shaped elastic strap with a claw on each of the ends that grabs the cloth diaper and holds it closed! FANTASTIC!
Another aspect of the Chinese prefolds that we need to mention is that you will need to upgrade sizes more often. It’s great that they are so cheap! You will need to buy more sizes of the diaper as your kid grows out of them. OR, you could buy a good medium size and fold them down to your baby’s siz, a good option because they re moe. But as I mentioned earlier, they make great dust rags and burp cloths! I can’t see myself swiping Pledge all over my coffee table with my old Fuzzi Bunz!
Total Cost to get started (going with the cheapest):
For a OLDER BABY/ TODDLER (fold them down for a newborn): 30 diapers at $2 each= $60. 15 diaper covers at $5 each= $75 and the Snappi ‘s are $2.50 each, but we’ll get 4 to be safe (these are reusable with every change) = $10 TOTAL= $145
The Bottom Line
Pro’s:
Easily washed and dried at home
Cost effective, you can reuse the larger diapers for a smaller baby
Reusable as rags and burp cloths, also as diaper doublers for other cloth diapering options
Con’s:
You have to learn to fold and pin them
You have to buy diaper covers as well.
Some Top Brands to look out for:
Diapers:
Cloth-eez diapers are great, they have color coded stitching on the edge to distinguish sizes! GENIUS! They also have a great webpage for more information on pining and folding prefolds! http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/prefolds.htm
Gerber makes a great set that you can buy at your local huge baby store, they are cheap too… $12 for a dozen. You won’t get size options though.
Covers and Wraps:
Bummi’s Whisper Wraps require no pining, and are really cute ($12 each)
Proraps are nice with a Velcro closure ($9 each)
Litewraps are breathable and inexpensive, and come in a few prints ($7 each)
For the frugal mama’s out there, you can still buy the plastic pants for around $2 each. They also make neat side-snap plastic pants for about $5-$8 each! http://www.tinytush.com/sidesnapdiapercovers.htm
Cheryl said on February 18th, 2008:
I have 5 children, and my fifth baby is the first one I decided to cloth diaper. We have a handful of pocket diapers, but our main stash is Chinese Prefolds! I LOVE them!! I even use pins, call me challenged, but I can’t get the hang of the snappi fasteners. We use the pull on plastic pants…there are some really nice ones from tinytush, that are not even close to the ones our moms used.
GreenBeanBoutique said on March 2nd, 2008:
We love cloth diapering! I make all-in-ones, and we have 5-10 in each size, but also dozens of ‘CPFs’ that are our staple. They are great and economical, the premium size go from newborns-potty training!
GreenBeanBoutique said on March 2nd, 2008:
Oh, just saw the Gerber recommendation. I’ve gotta say, “Ack!” Don’t use those, you’ll be turned off of cloth diapering for EVER. They are ‘burp rags’ and are filled with polyester, which is *not* absorbent. That means you’ll be changing your baby every 20 minutes. With Chinese Prefolds, the good 100% cotton ones (that still only cost about $3) I change my baby every 2 hours, and she doesn’t soak through at night or nap time either. Georganne.etsy.com also has great covers. I also only change the cover if it gets poop on it ~shrug~ or two a day. So I just rotate through 5 covers, rather than 15 :o)
MamaKate said on March 11th, 2008:
GreenBeanBoutique~~
Thanks for the great rec on the Prefolds!! And I’m sure you are not even close to the only one who lets the covers be reused unless poopy!! I know that is very common with lots of other CD types as well!!