Is this a good idea?

I seem to have developed an addiction to cloth nappies even though I don't have a baby yet and as a result I'm starting to build up a little collection. I have some pocket nappies & an AIO (all size small) but I'm not sure if these will fit baby when he's say a month old?? I guess it will depend a lot on his size.

I am thinking that I'd like to only use disposables for a couple of weeks at most (maybe I'm dreaming??!) so I've been thinking that prefolds & covers might be a good way to go for a young baby.

I know a lot of people say to use disposables for the first few weeks but I'd really like to be onto cloth by then. Does anyone more "experienced" than me have any comments?

I think disposables for the first couple of weeks is often recommended as the meconium is pretty sticky.

I wanted to be using cloth by 4-6 weeks, and it ended up being about 8 weeks when I made the change (straight to OSFA pocket nappies by the way - and he would have been approx 5.5kg then).
But I hadn't got organised and bought MCNs beforehand, so had to find time to choose them, order them, and wait for them to arrive.

Sounds like a good plan, I was going to get a box of Huggies newborn and when they run out start using MCNs.
Esp as it will be first bubs and don't wont to make life too difficult for yourself.

You can definitely start off with cloth!

When I have my next babe (wtf?!?!) I'm going to!

Prefolds and covers are a good idea to start with as you seem to be able to get a good fit with them (as I've heard) and they are really cost effective. Then you can use the prefolds as inserts in your pockets later.

If you are worried about meconium you could always use a liner, but that is generally passed in the first couple of days anyway.

Welcome to the addiction! Let's just say that it doesn't end with toilet training

Well I am now slightly more "experienced" than when I first posted a similar post.

My little one is 3 1/2 wks and in cloth fulltime. I used sposies in the hospital and we weret here for 8 days but as soon as we got home I tried the cloth nappies I have been stock piling.

I bought a newborn "special delivery" kit from snazzipants and that consisted of about 18 prefolds, a snazzipants fleece wrap (brilliant!) and 3 bummis whisper wraps. I had initial trouble with them but I think that was me not being vigilant about the prefold being INSIDE the wrap and not poking out.

I found the fleece wrap great on a newborn as it was nice and small and just fitted him perfectly (my boy was 7lb 5). I initially found the bummis wraps a bit too big but this week they seem to be better....maybe he isjust that little bit bigger.

I also have various pockets...joel-eze which are great and swaddlebee which I am not enjoying. I have a mommys touch which I personally find too tricky on the little fella so I avoid using it (laziness on my behalf) and I just purchased a bubblebubs which has been brilliant..no leaks.

So I guess I am saying YES it can be done...and why shouldnt it. Our parents had to use cloth on us from day dot!

I did have a couple of nights when I went back to sposies as I was having a baby blues meltdown and we were getting leaks and I had to change all his clothes every time in the middle of the night while he screamed the house down.....I chose the easy way and after beating myself upabout that too I felt better. Then when I was more in control I took a deep breath and went back to cloth....with no problems.

Wow!!! that was long...sorry!

You will probably find that people will give you bags of nappies for your baby shower etc. I was given a few and had bought a couple of packs as well, which worked out quite well because Kryssi didn't fit size small FB until 8wks/9lbs. I didn't want to buy smaller nappies because I didn't think they would work out cost effective.

We only used sposies for a couple of weeks. It would have been sooner but wanted to use up the little stash that I had got before deciding on going cloth otherwise I would have had him in them from when he was a week old probably

We used sposies for the first 4 days until the meconium stopped and then went straight into newborn prefolds and newborn bummis wraps and have had no problems at all. We were given 1 pack of newborn sposies which we still have half the pack as we only used them for emergencys (like when I hadnt got the washing done). It depends on the size of your baby, our boy was 6lb 3oz and is very long and lean and so was in the newborn size until about 12 weeks when he moved to smalls. We had 24 prefolds and 6 wraps, but you might be able to get away wih less.

fleury wrote: So with fitted/prefolds and covers do you only need to change the insert and reuse the cover?

If you avoid getting poo on them then yep, just change the prefold or fitted. But it does pay to air them between uses so you'd change the cover each time but you could reuse it after a couple of hours airing... does that make sense?

I think with the fitted/cover combo there is more opportunity to stop leaks/explosions too as there are two layers to get through.

With wool soakers/longies you don't have to wash those every time either... just air between uses.