Within minutes after birth my son is in his first cloth diaper. You can see his umbilical cord is clearing the cover. The cover is a Prorap newborn size, which has a dip for the area. He is 8.5 lbs 22.75 inches long.
I am an advocate of using newborn sized cloth diapers. This post is just to convince you of their greatness, not to discuss the different styles of newborn diapers, etc., which I'll do soon.
I knew without hesitation I was going to cloth diaper from birth so I invested in a small number of newborn sized diapers. With the birth of my second baby this September, I purchased a full supply of newborn sized diapers since I know how much I enjoyed it the first time around.
I knew without hesitation I was going to cloth diaper from birth so I invested in a small number of newborn sized diapers. With the birth of my second baby this September, I purchased a full supply of newborn sized diapers since I know how much I enjoyed it the first time around.
Here are the basics about newborn sized cloth diapers:
* they fit better than all-in-one diapers, and therefore better contain leaks
* they fit better around the umbilical cord stump to allow for healing in the early days
* because they fit better, they are generally easier to put on a tiny newborn
* while they can be an expensive investment, given they usually only fit for the first few months, the above reasons prove their worth and the short-term usage usually leads to fairly good resale/reuse value--plus, you can always use a service that provides a newborn sized cloth diaper. Or, you can also simply put disposable (biodegradable) inserts into a newborn size diaper shell if you want to go a middle road.
As far as "types" of newborn sized diapers I'm talking about--these usually include newborn sized all-in-ones, prefolds, and contour/fitted diapers. If you are new to cloth diapering, check out my breakdown of these types here: (put link here when it's ready!). Larger flats or adjustable folding style diapers can be folded down to size, but they, too, are often a bit on the bulky side so I'm not including them.
Above you can see the difference in the newborn sized (bottom row) compared to the larger sized/one-sized fitted diapers. On the left is Kissaluvs' organic cotton/hemp snap fitted diaper, which has a newborn cord dip snap-down; and on the right is a discontinued (but beloved in our house) Imse Vimse terry cloth contour diaper, which is secured with a snappy--but has no newborn cord snap-down. These all need covers to be waterproof. We used newborn sized waterproof covers as well as wool covers.
Why not just use one-size diapers, which are "supposed" to fit from birth to underwear?
Newborns have tiny legs and itty-bitty bodies, especially in the first few weeks. One sized diapers often don't get small enough for diapering from birth. Even if they fit, they are usually super bulky and are ill-fitting so prone to leaks. When you are exhausted and changing 20 diapers per day, the last thing you want to deal with is leaking. I also credit much of the success I had with my wool covers to the absorbant, fitted diapers I used which helped keep messes from leaking out.
Newborn diapers for use from birth--before the cord has healed--should have a good umbilical cord dip, or a way to adequately fold down material so it's not too bulky, to allow for healing in the early days. Even once the umbilical stump falls off, the area is still very delicate so you want to keep it clear. Most one-size diapers don't have an umbilical cord dip, or one that's good enough for very small babies.
Above is the Kissaluvs' newborn fitted organic cotton/hemp diaper with the umbilical cord snap in place. Notice that while the Kissaluvs has this snap down, the Imse Vimse newborn does not, so you cannot use it until the cord has healed. Not all newborn sized diapers are created equal.
Ease of dressing and diapering a newborn is important to your sanity. After what feels like the 50th diaper change, at 3am, the last thing you want to be doing is fumbling around with adjusting an ill-fitting too-large diaper or having to change an entire outfit and sheet set because of a leak.
Other considerations:
You might have heard about meconium, the tar-sticky black newborns poo out in the first few days or week, and that it doesn't wash out of cloth diapers. I did not find this to be true at all! We just threw them into the wash right away and they all came out clean. We used a little organic olive oil on his tush and that helped wipe it off his skin.
As a side note to using organic olive oil--and other oils like coconut works just as well--we used a wonderful herbal healing powder on his cord site that really helped it heal quickly, despite taking him in the bathtub with me every other day after birth! It's called Wish Garden Cord Care.
http://www.confidentbeginnings.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=190
Concerns about purchasing newborn sized diapers:
The expense!! We probably spent nearly the same amount of money on our newborn stash, which we used for about two months, as we did on our larger diapers which he has been wearing for the past year. But with no regrets!
(put link here for other newborn cloth diaper posts--several to come!)
