Covered Bums – Prefold Diapers, Pros and Cons
Ok, the best way to describe a prefold diaper is to think about what an old-school diaper looked like. These are typically a dense piece of fabric that is rectangular in shape and is formed to fit the baby’s bottom through the use of some type of fastener. Back in the good old days, they would use safety pins to bundle up the baby’s hindquarters in this big old swatch of cotton. Below, I am going to provide a little bit of a discussion about what I see as some of the advantages and disadvantages are of using prefold diapers on your little bundle of joy from a Dad’s perspective. As a veteran dad (I have nine kids…and yes, they are all mine) and cloth diaper user I have been around, so I feel confident providing dads everywhere with a little insight.
The first five of my kids used disposable diapers…we didn’t know any better, and it is just what everybody does. Fortunately my wife found a group that provided some very good information about cloth diapers and talked earnestly about how easy they were to use.
So we began our foray into the world of cloth diapering. Of course we began with prefolds, because that is what everyone uses right…wrong. Very shortly after getting into prefolds we discovered FuzziBunz, Bummis, and BumGenius diapers and used them for quite a while. I really liked these brands because you use them just like you use a disposable. I like easy. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to mess with a separate fastener (like prefolds use).
However, my wife would end up coming full circle on her cloth diaper preferences. She realized that while the prefold diapers were a little more cumbersome, they did the job better. Apparently they don’t smell as bad as the other brands, and they wick the moisture away from the baby’s skin a little better. She sees these as a definite up side to using the prefolds.
I am not quite as sold on them. I do agree with her that the odor they emit when the baby is wet is not nearly as pungent as the other brands, and they are super absorbent. My primary beef with them is that they do take some practice to get secured on the baby just right. Sure, anyone can strap one on there and hope it works, but in order to get the diaper tight in the right places, it takes some practice. I have gotten pretty good and getting the prefold diapers attached to my toddlers, but I am still working diligently to figure out the best way to cinch them up on my younger children. It just takes some time
Cloth diapering is just like anything else..everyone has their own way to do it. You just have to figure out which type of cloth diaper is going to work best for your diapering skill level and go with that. Regardless of which cloth diaper you go with I firmly believe you will save money over the long run.