Cloth Diapers: Where to Start

This diaper is sold in our store. 

** Jess is one of my dearest bloggy friends. Her and I had our babies on the same

week and she's awesome at handing out any advice when I need it. Hope you enjoy! **

Hi! I’m Jess from Sparkles and Crafts! 

When The Mushy Mommy asked me to guest post about cloth diapers I was thrilled, because it’s one of my favorite topics to talk about! If you are looking to save money on diapers, this post is for you.

My son was born 5-7-13 and we began cloth diapering him when he was 9 days old. I had done extensive research on the topic while I was pregnant and learned a lot of great tricks along the pregnancy so we were very prepared when Billy arrived.

Many moms think, “My baby has already been born, it’s too late to switch to cloth.”

WRONG!

You don’t need to make the decision to use cloth diapers while you are pregnant. In fact, as long as your child is still IN diapers, you can still make the change and save a boat load of cash. However, if you are still pregnant and looking into cloth diapers, the best advice I can give you is to create a cloth diaper registry and request cloth diapers as gifts.

The common stores like Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby offer cloth diapers, but the selection is limited for a registry. I suggest using an online registry through Baby List with The Mushy Mommy or even Amazon if you need to, so your guests can purchase the diapers you’ve researched and request.

On your baby shower invitations, add a simple line such as “Baby Boy Smith will be cloth diapered. Every cloth diaper gift will receive a ticket for a fabulous raffle prize!” Because I added this line to my baby shower invitations, we did not need to buy any diapers for Billy.

Can you imagine never needing to buy any diapers?!  Welcome to the wonderful world of cloth.

When you begin researching cloth diapers, first decide your budget or goals. I find there are two main reasons to use cloth diapers: budget and environmental.

I want to cloth diaper to save money.

Good for you!! You are not alone since it costs about $2,500 to use dispoable diapers on one child. Prefolds and covers are the most affordable way to cloth diaper – it’s the “old school” way of cloth diapering. However, today we use Snappis instead of pins to fasten the diapers and there are no more “plastic pants” to keep moisture from seeping through to the babes clothes – we use adorable diaper covers instead. All available in The Mushy Mom's store! 

You can cloth diaper your baby using prefolds and covers for about $110. You will need 24 prefolds and 6-8 covers if you anticipate doing laundry every other day. If you take proper care of your diapers, you can use them on a second child down the road, That’s roughly $4,800 in savings! 

I want to cloth diaper to be more eco-friendly.

Hooray!! Being green is an excellent reason to use cloth diapers. You will want to look for cloth diapers that are made in USA. This method is slightly more expensive - around $450 for your babe which can also be passed down to the next child (that’s about $4,550 in savings).

You will most likely use All-In-One or Pocket style diapers with these made in the USA brands. Cotton Babies and Thirsties are two USA diaper companies that I love, with Thirsties available at The Mushy Mommy. 

All-In-One and pocket style diapers are said to be “easier” to use so they are great options for husbands. There’s no folding or twisting or Snappi-ing, just snap or velcro the clean dipe into place!

That said, my husband has admitted prefolds and covers are perfectly easy and he prefers them because he doesn’t like the fuss of stuffing pocket diapers.

This is why I recommend registering for a few different styles of diapers. Start with 24 prefolds and 6 covers if you KNOW you want to cloth diaper, because even if you decide AIOs or pockets are your diaper of choice, the prefolds make the best burp cloths!

If you already have a baby and are looking to make the switch - start slowly. You can start by buying new and gently used diapers on websites like

ClothDiaperTrader.com. This way you can build a stash without a huge financial commitment and adjust to the washing routine slowly. Or you can of course buy new from The Mushy Mommy herself! 

Learning about cloth diapers is the most intimidating part about using cloth diapers. Once you find what system works for you and build your stash, the rest is gravy! I absolutely love using cloth and find that prefolds with covers by day and pockets by night work perfectly for our little man.

I hope this post has taken the edge off and a few more mamas will consider cloth! If you’re hungry for more information, please feel free to shoot me an email: sparklesandcrafts (at) gmail (dot) com or find me on

Any cloth diaper mama readers?

What's your take on cloth diapers?