Hey ladies and gentlemen!

I left this community not because of anyone here who’s a true cloth‑diaper enthusiast, but because of a few trolls who wouldn’t leave me alone. Even after blocking them, they kept finding their way back. So I took a long break from the forum and admittedly ignored some superstar ladies who reached out privately encouraging me to return. The mean people have left me alone for quite a few months now, so I’m giving this another try.

I received a very warm, tearful message from a person who reached out to me the other day and helped convince me to come back, and I truly thank you for that.

For those who don’t remember me — or for the newer parents — I’m the “crazy lady” with several family members, from infants to adults, in cloth diapers. I’m happy to share thoughts, ideas, and suggestions freely. I’m also more than willing to share my story if anyone is curious or wants to know more and doesn’t want to search back for it. You’re not being nosy — I think we all have a little curiosity when something is a bit different.

I’m excited to be back and to help in any way I can.

I have a 1½‑year‑old, a 16‑year‑old, and my husband who all actively wear cloth diapers day and night. I have four children total, all of whom have been in cloth diapers. So yes — lots of experience and lots of different ages.

Please feel free to ask any questions!
Love you all and I’ve missed you!🫶🫶🫶

I started looking into cloth diapers when I was pregnant. We were going down to 1 income and I was worried about being so broke we wouldn’t be able to afford diapers. So I bought a stash and shoved them into a drawer and said “hopefully not, but just in case”. Well, that day came when baby was about 7/8 months. (Using gifted disposables until then)

I was SO nervous, about rashes, proper cleaning. This thread helped immensely, and I will be cloth diapering any more babies we have!!!!

Thank you wonderful parents of this thread!

Hey guys. Im hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

Ive been doing cloth diapers with my baby since about 4 weeks old. I got some cloth-eez prefolds from Facebook marketplace. Ive just been using them as inserts, folding them into 3rds and then Inserting into the diaper.

They were working great until baby was about 4 months old. Then they started leaking at night. Ok no problem we will just use disposables at night. But then it was like every time baby pees it leaks out.

Any tips or ideas of what I should try? Will using the prefolds the way they are intended with the snap things solve this? Idk why, but learning that method seems so daunting especially with a wiggling baby lol

does anyone know when esembly will have their fall sale? I’ve heard it’s better than Black Friday. Our second will be here soon and I need to invest in size 1.

We get leaks on her bum on the right side almost every single time. Within an hour or two of wearing. The pad is wet, but not saturated. Insert is microfiber.

Help!

Esembly cover size 2 (18-35lb) with GMD flats. My baby is 16lb.

Ftm here, I really want to do a mostly cloth diapering situation but no one I know has ever done it before. I've been doing lots of research about how to make it work and am feeling pretty good about it, but my mom (who used disposables and is worried I'm needlessly complicating things) was asking if cloth diapers cause diaper rash easier and I didn't really know how to answer because I haven't done either before. She was saying that disposables are designed to be very absorbent but cloth might just be like wet fabric sitting against their skin and might get irritating. It's made me a little worried and I'm just wondering if anyone with experience can speak to the diaper rash issue, is it worse with disposables or cloth, how to manage it with cloth diapers if it occurs, etc. Thanks!

I'm new to cloth diapering and have run into something I need some advice about. I'm using the Alvababy diaper covers with 5 layers charcoal inserts and they are much more absorbent than I expected(though it took 5 or 6 washes to get there). The flaps of the covers almost always end up getting wet and I need to switch to a new one which is fine. But my baby doesn't use as many as I expected he would and I think it would take a whole week to use almost all of what I have and have a load worth. It's not good to let them sit that long right? I've been hand rinsing them and hanging them to dry before putting in a basket to help, is that enough to make it ok for them to wait longer to be washed or am I totally messing up by doing that? How long is the safest I can go and should I alter my wash routine because of it? If so how? How long are y'all going between washes? Sorry for so many questions, I really wasn't expecting this to be an issue.

Here’s a picture of my first set of cloths. I use primarily pocket diapers. Well I was doing great for a few months and recently hit a tough patch in my life, you know busy mom stuff, sick babies, and work. So I didn’t wash about 10 diapers for a few weeks, now I’m trying to save them and was wondering have any other parents gone though something similar and would it be possible to save them or should I toss about 10 diapers. I saw a few had some molding and I was about to just toss and figured I can try and learn from this but I am willing to take the loss as a lesson learned.

Hello! I am a FTM and new to cloth diapering. My baby is 2 months old and 12 lbs and I haven’t found a great fit for him yet that isn’t too bulky but absorbent. He needs to be worn in a wrap carrier for naps multiple times a day.

Things I’ve tried:
Alvababy newborn pockets with microfiber liner - the fit was fine but he always leaked through. Now he’s technically too big for them

Ozocozy flats in origami gold with a cover - these absorb great, but I feel like his mobility is really restricted by the bulk? I’m hesitant to wear them in my carriers for fear of messing with his hips.

1. Is there something I can do to fold differently?

2. Do I just need to wait for him to be a little bigger?

3. Is he just fine and I’m being overly paranoid new mom?

Thanks!!

Good afternoon!

Hope everyone is doing well.

I am currently pregnant and starting to build a stash of products for when baby comes. I purchased the MotherEase Wizard Duos in the NB and One Size sizes. I just purchased the Cheeky Baby Cloth Wipes. I am now looking for disposable liners for the cloth diapers. I am currently between buying the Alvababy Viscose liners or the Grovia Disposable Liners. I need some recommendations before I make my purchase and I was unable to find any reddit posts on the subject so I thought it would be good to post here. I am also open to other disposable recommendations too.

Thank you for any and all help received!

Hi! I just bought these diapers from FB marketplace today. They came with like 50 or more liners.
Baby boy isn’t due until December. Just looking for some recommendations on how is best to use them?
We are going to be buying a portable washer because we don’t currently have a full size. When did you start cloth diapering? What is the best way to wash? How often do you wash? Do you rinse? Do you place the liners in the pockets or outside? I’ve heard of both. How many liners do you use?

Any and all recommendations/tips are appreciated.

I really wanted to love Redwood, the prints are so beautiful, I love the inside of their AWJ, the feel of the material is nice. Their pockets work well, my baby was initially a OS but as he’s getting bigger they’re becoming a little more snug (so cost wise, doesn’t feel as I’m saving money there as compared to Kinder) their preflats, get the job done, but they get this weird piling that the texture of it bothers me and they’re the only brand I’ve noticed that does that, their covers so cute but I have never been able to use a cover for more than 1 diaper. It holds onto to the smell of urine and I can’t stand it. I also use Esembly’s covers and after multiple uses (I’ve gone using it 6x before with not issue!). I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else has had some similar experiences?

All my cloth fb groups say the Esembly laundry detergent isn’t cloth diaper approved and I’ll run into future build up due to lack of ingredients. Has anyone used this detergent long term with no issues ? I’m confused how it isn’t approved despite specifically stating it’s for cloth diapering !

Everyone told me I wouldn’t be able to buy one-size diapers to use on my newborn and that I’d have to buy newborn size cloth diapers starting out. My baby was 7lbs 15oz at birth with tiny tiny thighs. I even had mentioned that I don’t have small babies and I was assured that no matter how big my newborn was that I wouldn’t get a good fit with one-size diapers because of thigh sizes. My baby ended up fully fitting my one-size from the start. He’s a month old now and they fit better but they fit perfectly fine to start without any leaks ever so far. I’m happy I didn’t listen because I would have wasted so much money on newborn size cloth.

I use Kinder Luxe and regular essentials pockets.
The Luxe does fit a bit nicer but there’s no problem with the essentials at all.

I’m just sharing my experience!

I’m a first time mom due in early December, hoping to use cloth from the beginning but also wanting to be prepared for feeling overwhelmed so planning to have some disposables on hand (also for those sticky meconium poos).

For newborn cloth I have:
13 newborn lil joey all in one (was told on here that these aren’t the best but they seem user friendly and I got them for free)
20 ish newborn prefolds
5 Clotheez newborn workhorses
3 newborn shells/covers

For disposables I have:
72 newborn Huggies (labeled as up to 10 lbs)
32 size 1-2 Attitude (labeled as 7-17 lbs)

Is this a reasonable amount? I’m wondering if I should get more newborn or the size 1-2 disposables to have as backup? I can easily get another 24 newborn Huggies for free through their free sample box program, and there’s currently the same 32 count box of Attitude size 1/2 diapers on fbmp in my city for $5. I’m super frugal and don’t want to be wasteful so I don’t want to waste money buying a big box of disposables I won’t end up using.

Looking at the potential of 2-3 babies coming in spring with the plan to cloth diaper because I would genuinely rather do laundry than deal with disposables and the cost of them when diapering in bulk. I currently have a Whirlpool WTW4850. It works. It gets things done. But I am wondering if it's actually heavy-duty enough to handle what is likely to be at least 2 daily loads by the time you do diapers, baby clothes, adult clothes, and bedding/towels/etc. It's a high efficiency top loader with a low profile impeller instead of a central agitator.

If you were planning all this, what washing machine would you put on your baby registry/stalk the open box outlet for? If not a specific machine, what would you be looking for in a machine?

(Already posted in r/laundry)

FTM here and need help! My LO is about 11 lbs and just outgrew newborn sized diapers so I’m ready to try him in cloth diapering.

I have the Thirsties Duo wrap (covers) and a plethora of inserts but when I put them on him, the inserts always get bunched up and he ends up leaking out of the diaper. Please help! Should I be using prefolds in these? I’d really like to make the inserts work because I have so many but I don’t see how they’re supposed to stay and provide fully booty coverage.

At 3 months old we are beginning cloth diapering. We are using a combo of prefold in a entirely PUL “pocket” diaper. These were hard to find and I ended up ordering from Petit Lulu in the Czech Republic and Little Lovebums in UK. Has anyone else used this diapering duo? Any recommendations?

https://www.petitlulu.eu/floral-cubes-one-size-prefold-cover-with-pul-flaps-snap-p16206/

https://littlelovebum.com/products/snap-wrap-max-cloth-nappy-cover

Hi, I have been cloth diapering for a year and have been experiencing repelling with my Mama Koala AWJ liners, my Nora's Nursery microfleece liners, and my microfiber inserts. My bamboo inserts are all absorbing just fine. I currently use Molly's Suds enzyme powder and have done the occasional bleach cycle to take care of a yeast issue (now resolved, yay!). I am due soon with my second and need to get the repelling resolved on my nb sized and one-size diapers asap. Here are my washing specs:

I have very soft water and an ozone system (specifically, the rainsoft cleanstart). I use Molly's Suds and wash my diapers every 2-3 days, first with a cold heavy duty wash (no detergent) to get all of the gunk off. Then I do a hot heavy duty wash with one leveled scoop of the Molly's Suds detergent. I then dry them in my dryer on the lowest heat until they are totally dry (usually a gentle cycle + 20 minutes). I have tried scrubbing with a bit of dawn dish soap and that has not seemed to fix the repelling. I also noticed that the diapers recently gifted to me were very soft and fluffy (no repelling) until I used them and put them through my wash routine. Now they are not as soft and seem to be starting to repel as well.

I have not done an RLR strip only because I have soft water and it seems like RLR removes mineral buildup. I have done the swish test as well and don't see any suds. Putting my microfiber inserts under water shows that they are completely repelling. Please help me, I am so lost on what to do! I love the cloth diapers and don't want to give up.

NOTE: I also have a sulfate allergy so if I need to swap to a different detergent routine, it has to be totally sulfate free, please!

UPDATE: I did the RLR strip and wash cycle as listed by FluffLoveUniversity and when I put water on them, it still just beads up and slides off... should I do another Dawn scrub? I am losing my mind!

I have been given 100+ nappies as well as liners? Wipes?... Covers?? And I have no idea where to start begin how to wash?

Is there anyone out there who is able to help me understand what to use with what? I am so daunted by them all I've had them since I was pregnant and baby is now nearly 5 months and still in disposables :(

Brands are mainly totsbots?, thirsties, pop ins?, daisybirds. As well as maybe 10ish from a variety.

Questions:

Some liners and nappies have holes I assumed because they were well loved but still seem usable. Are they worth keeping?

How do I wash? I am in the UK and baby has eczema so I wash his stuff in bioD washing powder which is unscented, is this suitable?

How many liners if any do I use during day and night?

How do I know what size these are?

Some are just covers for these go on the plain more cotton feeling nappies??

I can only attach one picture but I have another box of nappies too these are the daisybird ones and the totsbots that aren't patterned and seem to need covers..? the

I'm just very overwhelmed and have no idea how to start lol

Thanks for reading all this any help is appreciated!

My daughter is just over 2 weeks old. She has taken after me and has very sensitive skin. We realized she needs a diaper cream because she will get a rash if there isn’t one. What ones would you recommend? We use mother ease all in twos and do have bamboo inserts for them if needed.

Safe to say my model wasn’t wiggly!