Containing poop and other questions

So I'm going cloth for baby. And have a few/LOTS of questions.
Im mostly going to have prefolds and have a few ittis and a OSFA bumgenius.
The prefold covers can be reused if they dont have poop on them right. But surely BF poo's gets everywhere? They recomened 4-6 covers is this really enough?

Is it worth getting biodegradable liners? Some people say they dont work that great with newborns as the poos is so runny.
Would the liners stop the cloth fabric from staining?
If not, should I get some cloth liners to stop staining, or do they not really stain anyway.

Also, to start with baby will be in bassinet in our bedroom. What to you ladies do at night for nappy changes. The change table etc will be in babies room, and I had thought that I wouldnt have to leave bedroom at night, ie feed then back into bed. But its not like with disposibles where I could just do it on bed and throw them into a bin.

And lastly, cloth wipes. Does anyone have recommendations for the type of fabric to use to make some. I figure I could manage making my own, rather than buying.

WOW, thats a lot of questions. I just dont have any real life friends that do cloth nappys that I can ask.

Thanks in advance

Night changes we had a portable change mat (padded one that sits on change tables), which I loaded up with nappies and wipes (small bowl of water on my dresser) and just changed her on my bed. Easy peasy! Nappy bucket with lid in corner of room (which has a small piece of fabric with a drop or two of tea-tree oil on it to deal with any smells)

With prefolds, depends on how you use them - pad-folded you would have more chance of poo going on cover, wrapped and snappied on baby, not so much. Disposable liners I used, liquid poo does seep through and stain the nappy. I haven't bothered to use liners at all anymore, personally see them as a waste of money, only good for if we're travelling/out and about for easy clean-up. At home its just as easy to rinse under the laundry tap.

Cloth wipes I made my own, one side flannel, one side cotton velour. I love them. Other fabric to use is sherpa or towelling.

Re staining - Sunlight is your friend - and good frosts too

The others have pretty much covered it. We use prefolds and covers exclusively on DS (apart sposies at night, and the odd one when I'm out.)

4-5 covers will be enough. We have 5 and I wash a load of nappies every second day. You don't need to change the cover unless you get a poo leak.

I've never mastered the snappi fold - so always just used the tri-fold and found it to be pretty good. It's only when you get the GIANT poos that we've had leaks through to his clothes (maybe 2-3 times ever.)

We use micro-fleece liners with our prefolds. You can quite easily make your own with fabric from spotlight. The theory is they wick moisture away from his skin...

Having said all that, we didn't start using cloth until DS was 6 weeks old. There were a number of reasons for it (see here for some helpful tips) but mainly because everything else was SO daunting at first I was glad to have one less thing to worry about! And, as mentioned, I still use disposables on DS at night. He sleeps 12-13 hours and I REALLY don't want to jeopardise that with a wet nappy wake up!

Like Lilfatty said, the sun does an incredible job of getting stains out - it's amazing the difference even 10 mins on a slightly overcast day makes!

ETA: Cloth wipes - I just made about 30 muslin squares - 4 layers thick, and about 15cm x15cm before DS was born, and they're still going strong...

HTH


Edited by Joscia