Prefold Diaper

This is a prefold diaper. Like the flat diaper, it is plain old natural cotton and they are my first love when it comes to cloth diapers. Unlike a flat diaper (re: a flat diaper is a single layer of fabric that you fold to fit your baby) a prefold diaper already has several layers. Typically 6 layers on the sides and 8 layers in the middle section. You can pin them on your baby, or you can fold them in thirds and lay them in your diaper cover. I do both ways and the only time I ever had a preference was when she was a newborn with super runny poos. Those days, pinning was necessary. But I don't use diaper pins!!! I use a snappi, like this:

This y shaped claw hook thing is super handy. I love prefolds for 5 reasons.

1) They are natural. Selah has extremely sensitive skin. Synthetic fibers give her a rash. I use a stay dry liner (a strip of fleece to lay on top of the prefold that keeps her skin feeling more dry) at night, but not during the day because too much exposure to the synthetic material and she gets a pimply rash. We keep it as natural as possible when it comes to our girl.

2) They are inexpensive. A prefold costs around 1.50-2.00 dollars a piece. Since we started cloth diapering for economical reasons, affordability was key. What makes them an even greater value, is that being cotton, they get softer, more absorbant and there for better over time. These will last for several little mooslings. And we want several little mooslings, so that is perfect.

3)I never have leaks with these. They are SOOOO reliable which is what you want in a diaper. I use them a night and never worry that she will leak and that I will have to change her sheets in the middle of the night.

4) They are easy to clean. People talk about stripping their diapers monthly (basically wash them and rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse until the suds are gone) but I have NEVER in 12 months of cloth diapering with prefolds needed to strip my diapers. That makes my life easier and my pile of laundry smaller.

5) I like matching her cover to her outfit. Silly? Yes. Do I care? NO WAY! The biggest perk of cloth diapering, aside from the health of my baby and the well being of our planet, and oh yeah the fact that a small pack of diapers is 13 dollars (Ouch!) is that they are cute! They are a fashion accessory of sorts, and as crazy as that sounds, if her dress is yellow I want her diaper to be as well! With other kinds of diapers you have to change the whole cute part of the diaper every time you change them. Not with these, you can reuse the cover over and over...unless there is poop or it stinks.

Well, there you have it, prefold diapers! Again, HOW CUTE IS THIS?!