How Many Types of These Are There?

Hello everybody!  Raconteur Daddy sharing a few of my thoughts.

Happy UnderCover month to you all.  Here in the home of the Trophy Wife we are all busy singing diaper carols and gently hanging prefolds up by the mantle.  Everybody has their own traditions.  But however you celebrate UnderCover month, I hope it is filled with joy and light and in the company of those you love.

When I heard that a few blogs out there were spending an entire month talking about all the diapering options available with covers I immediately wanted to be a part of it.  Thus began a campaign of constantly badgering my wife until she finally gave in and gave me access to guest post on her blog.  The "relentless begging" strategy has worked well for me in the past.

So here I am, and I am thrilled to share with you my experience with cloth diapers.  To be fair, the vast majority diapers in our 'stash' are pocket diapers, but we were generously given a cover from Zookies to try out so we could participate this month.  

Let me tell you a secret.  Lean in close to your screen.

<whisper> I change way more diapers than the Trophy Wife. </whisper>

So I feel I am in a position to give you the real story.

I'll start with the fact that I really love our diaper cover.  I dig the funky design, I dig the fact that it is a medium size and fits well, I dig being able to use it a few times before washing (provided the little man doesn't 'unload' on the thing), and I dig being able to customize how we fill it depending on our absorbency needs at the time.

One thing I have noticed with purchasing a good stockpile of pocket diapers is that we have more inserts than we could ever use.  We use them to stuff all our diapers and still have dozens left over to clean up household spills, insulate the hamster cage, and make improvisational toys for the kids.  So we always have plenty of pocket inserts for use in filling our cover.  

One of my favorite fillers for our cover has been a hemp insert with a prefold wrapped around it.  The prefold is excellent for wicking away moisture and the hemp insert is unbeatable for moisture storage.  I know that our prefolds are nine years old, but while there may be some new fabrics out there with different properties, there haven't been a whole lot of advances in prefold technology in that time. You can still buy a dozen cotton prefolds for about a buck each and, without some serious modification or accessorizing, they're still pretty much only good for burp rags.  However, when you combine them with a quality cover they can certainly meet your diapering needs, especially if you're on a budget.  Remember that (if you're lucky) you'll get a handful of changes from each cover before it needs to be washed.  So a person could conceivably create their entire diaper stash using covers and prefolds for a fraction of the cost of other diapering options.  Seriously, CD advocates should really make this their first response when confronted by people who balk at the idea of the start-up costs of cloth diapering.

That is what makes prefolds so useful.  On it's own its pretty much useless, but when you mix a little ingenuity and creativity into it they become exceptionally useful for a number of tasks.  Combining that with the fact that they are arguably the most affordable baby accoutrement makes them an indispensable staple in the nursery.

See more from The Raconteur Daddy at http://raconteurdaddy.blogspot.com. You can also 'like' him on Facebook.  Which you should do because he would totally 'like' you if you asked him to.