Cloth Diapering 101
♥ New Baby Checklist ♥
- 20+ Extra Small (3-15+lbs) or Small (8-20+lbs) cloth diapers per day
- 1-3+ Absorbent inserts recommended per diaper
- 20+ Cloth wipes and a homemade cloth wipe solution
- 1 Diaper liner for every diaper
- 1-3 Wet bags
- 20+ One Size (12-35+lbs) cloth diapers per day (can wait to purchase until baby is getting bigger)
CLOTH DIAPER NECESSITIES
We suggest starting with at least 20 diapers in your stash PER DAY. You should also stuff your diapers with 1-3+ inserts in each diaper. This amount and type depends on your baby's wetness level, which is likely to fluctuate as they reach different milestones. Adding a diaper liner to every diaper will help tremendously with toddler poop once you start needing to pop it off or spray it off into the toilet before washing (babies who only drink milk and no solids have water soluble poop that can just be thrown in the washing machine. Using cloth wipes with a simple cloth wipe solution in a spray bottle will make diaper changes a breeze. Wet bags come in handy when you need to run to the store, or are going out of town and need a place to put your dirty diapers until they can be washed.
HONEYBUNS SIZES
You'll need to decide which diaper will be best for the first months. Either our Extra Small 3-15+lbs size diaper, or our Small 8-20+lbs size. They are a pocket style diaper, which has an opening on the inside of the diaper for stuffing absorbent inserts. Having XS or SM diapers helps in those first months, especially if your babies are born under 12lbs. Our sons wore their Extra Small Honeybuns from 0-3 months, and the Small Honeybuns 0-9 months. They were both almost 10 pounds at birth. Many of our customers report their children wearing the XS and SM diapers longer though, sometimes past their 1st birthday! I have not heard of anyone successfully starting with the one size diaper from day 1 without leak issues due to leg gaps and general poor fit. The OS diaper is just too big for babies until around 3 months of age. The XS and SM diapers have one row of rise snaps to help fit your baby as they grow taller. They also have a fold-over tab for extra small waists. Extra Small/Small inserts are available in our shop to slide inside the diaper pocket. These inserts will fit inside both XS and SM Honeybuns.
See this customer's 5lb 10oz baby laying on a 12-35+lbs OS Honeybuns! He is wearing an XS 3-15+lbs Honeybuns.
Read more about deciding whether newborn diapers are worth the investment!
When your baby outgrows their Newborn Honeybuns, we recommend using the popular Honeybuns One Size pocket diaper from there through to potty training. One Size inserts are available in our shop to slide inside the diaper pocket. The One Size diaper has a few rows of rise snaps that adjust the height of the diaper to fit most babies 12-35+lbs. It also has a fold-over tab for extra small waists. The baby in the pictures below is 13lbs. She is within the weight range for all 3 Honeybuns sizes. She fits well in both of the diapers pictured below, but the XS is trimmer/less bulky and the OS has more room to grow.
HOW TO ADJUST THE SNAPS
Lots of snaps + Honeybuns shape = Diapers fit better, longer, trimmer!
Rise Snaps: The snaps that adjust to make the diaper longer/shorter (seen in the top row of pictures below). Fold the extra fabric up not down when adjusting the rise snaps, creating wings as shown in the top 3rd picture.
Foldover Tab: The snaps that adjust to fit around Baby's waist (seen in the bottom row of pictures below). The tab that the Honeybuns logo tag is sewn close to (only 4 snaps on it) can be "folded over" to snap onto the top of the other tab (8 snaps on it). It can also be snapped anywhere along the belly. Read about fit problems and troubleshooting diaper leaks HERE.
HOW TO USE A DIAPER LINER
Our soft microfleece diaper liners are awesome at catching "toddler poop". They're basically a cloth diaper "hack" to make your life easier. Sounds right up your alley, am I right? We recommend using them once your baby starts eating solids. This is when their poop is no longer water-soluble and must be rinsed off prior to putting in the washing machine. Babies who only drink milk may have their dirty diapers thrown directly into the washing machine (you can totally spray them off anyway if you want to!). You start by get a clean diaper shell and stuffing inserts into the pocket. Then you lay a microfleece liner over the microfleece lining on the inside of the diaper (as pictured). Next, you snap the diaper on your baby! Once it's time to change Baby's diaper it's like Russian Roulette! If it's a pee diaper, just throw the diaper in your wet bag or diaper hamper. If it's a poop diaper - BAM! Time to rinse a diaper in half the time it would take you without a liner. The liners are lightweight, so you can easily pick it up after the diaper is dirtied and plop that poop into the toilet! You can also spray it off easily with a diaper sprayer that attaches to your toilet, or swirl it in the toilet bowl as you flush. Cleaning the poop off of this little liner is much easier than off of the diaper, as the diaper is bigger, has elastic wrinkles to clean out, and gets heavier as the inserts stuffed inside of it get wet while spraying/swirling during the flush. You can throw the liners in the trash after use if you wish, but we recommend washing and reusing. Get liners HERE!