For many the thought of cloth diapering one child is overwhelming enough, but what about families that cloth diaper 2 or more children?!
When Paisley was born, Haven was still in cloth diapers. The nice part about my children being 2 years apart is by the time the newborn arrives the toddler isn’t going through that many diaper changes. Unfortunately, when your child is 2 (and 3 :D ) and still in diapers you may develop a bit of resentment.
One Stash or Two?
At that time, I cloth diapered the children with completely different stashes. This can actually make the task even more difficult and time consuming.
My suggestion for cloth diapering 2 or more children at the same time is to either use one-sized diapers or prefolds. If you choose prefolds you can use the infant prefolds as doublers for the older child.
I prefer the one-sized diaper route. Every diaper system has a one-size version: All-in-ones, Pockets, and Fitteds. You may opt to have gender neutral colors for a boy and a girl or choose to have one color for each child. Either option makes it easier for dad, grandparent, or babysitter to help out with diaper changes…does this actually occur?? ;)
But What About All The Cute Prints and PINK??
Perhaps youare concerned about losing all the super cute prints available in one-sized fitteds. I suggest you buy whatever prints you want and remind yourself that they will be covered up, no need to worry about your chunky boy wearing pink ballerinas! lol, my husband would not agree with that statement.
I have purchased many one-sized fitteds for the new baby but have opted for more gender neutral prints. However, I do have a couple of cute pink ones I couldn’t resist and will use if necessary on a boy.
Covering fitted diapers gives you many options for personalizing the children’s stashes. Whether you go with knit wool, interlock wool or PUL covers each child can have a variety of colors and styles.
By choosing to purchase a combined cloth diaper stash, you also eliminate laundry stress. Other sites I have read suggest having 2 diaper pails, this to me adds more work. I toss them all in the same pail and do laundry every other day.
How many diapers should you have for 2 children?
For a newborn atleast 12 and a toddler atleast 6. This might mean doing laundry daily, but by bumping the total up to 24 diapers you can stretch it to every day and a half to two days. Washing and folding the diapers is much easier if they are all the same type. If you are using pockets have one type of insert that will go in all the diapers. My favorite are the one-size hemp/microfiber from Blueberry diapers.
Another consideration is a diapering system like the brand new Softbums one-size diaper. With this system you have one cover and multiple inserts. Hiney Lineys and gDiapers are similar in that you can reuse one cover a few times before needing to change it. Softbums makes cloth diapering more than one child a breeze! (Next week I’ll be introducing you to Sarah of Softbums and her brand new design!! It’s a real keeper!)
Cloth diapering 2 children doesn’t have to be any more difficult than feeding or clothing 2 children. As with any new adjustment to the routine time (and patience) is the key to success.
so my partner and i are preparing for triplets (i know it’s pretty crazy!) but we really want to use cloth diapers. i really love the rumperarooz and funnibunz as well as the softbums you mentioned. but i am wondering where to start and how many we are going to need. and i know it is a lot of questions, but do you have any thoughts?
YEAH! Triplets! You’ll need a lot…that was an obvious statement lol. For one child I recommend at least 20 diapers. A system like Softbums would be much, much more affordable and simple. Fuzzi Bunz (or any pocket) you’ll be stuffing forever! Here is a link to the Softbums Good to Go Pack http://www.softbums.com/Echo-DryTouch-Good-to-Go-Pack_p_20.html It contains 8 covers and 24 pods + 8 mini (newborn) pods. If you got 2 of these plus additional pods then you’d probably be set for a while. Unfortunately, until you’re actually in the trenches you won’t know exactly how many you’ll need. You may have 1 child that poops a ton while the others are easy. Or they may all love to poop :P As far as affordability and ease I think Softbums are the best option.
hey! i’m doing research on cd, found your site & it’s amazing. i have a 3 yr old, 2 yr old & a 3 month old. my oldest is potty trained but still needs to wear diapers to sleep. so i’m buying pullups & diapers for two. needless to say it’s getting so expensive. i just hit me the other day about cd but when i started to look into it i was overwhelmed. i dont want to spend tons of money but want a good product. do you have any suggestions. thanks
lacey
Lacey, I would look intoSoftbums and Flip. Flip is my first recommendation. For cloth pull-ups check out the selection at Banana Peels Diapers.
Hi, I found your website while doing research on cloth diapering 3 kids. I have a 3 yearold who is more of a special needs child so she is not ready to be potty trained. I also have a 18 month old and am expecting in July. I’m hoping someone will be potty trained by then, but if not 3 in cloth diapers seems overwhelming. I quite a while ago and switched to dispoables, but I really want to go back. One thing I really didn’t like was getting mushy poop off the diapers properly and how do you wash them so they come out clean. My diapers got to the point where they permenantly stunk. I think I need to relearn how to properly care for them and have a better system down. I really want to make it work. Any help you can offer I would appreciate. Thanks for your time.
Amy
Amy, there are 2 options you might look into for the mushy poop: a diaper sprayer or rice paper liners. My washing routine (it’s currently a little different b/c of an experiment) is prewash with bac-out, cold wash with kirklands environmentally friendly, 2nd rinse, dry.
I would definitely look into a system like Grobaby, Flips or Softbums if you are cloth diapering more than one baby.
I love love love cloth diapering! It is rather addictive . We have been cloth diapering my daughter (2years) with supreme support from my hubbie since she was born. It has been very easy. Now we have babe two who just turned 2 months. I have been happily cloth diapering him since birth, however I have been washing their diapers separately. I am wondering if it is okay to wash them together? We use a variety of diapers, which has worked well for us. My son is mainly in flat muslin sheet (perfect for new babies!!) covered with Bummis SW Wraps and my daughter mainly in FB Pocket diapers. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks
Jo, you can wash all of your cloth diapers together.
I am very new to Cloth diapering and I would like to transition my 2 year old and start Cloth diapering my Newborn ( due late April) what is your recommendation for starting my stash? I have looked at the BumGenius 3.0 One size diapers and they seem to be the most user friendly (for dad and grandparents) but are a little spendy. do you have any suggestions?
Hey, mama. Congrats on choosing to cloth diaper! I would browse through my categories for different recommendations. If you are looking to start on a budget I have recs for that as well. My #1 recommendation though is hands-down Softbums Premium PerfectFit AI2. You can find my posts on them in the AIO category.
I have 2 in cloth. At first I thought of using one size for both, but my son is a BIG boy, so I was afraid to spend the money the find out they wouldn’t fit him. So we do prefolds & fitteds for our daughter(7 mo), and AIOs, and fitted for our son(2 years). I started cding when our daughter was 3 months so I have no idea how easy it would be to just have 1 stash! To say the least its alot of fun to have diapers all colors of the rainbow!!! =)
I wish I had used cloth diapers on my first two kids! They wore the same size diapers for a long time, and it would have been easy to get some CDs for them. Sounds like a fun challenge to CD two kids at once! :)
I currently have 2 in cloth: a 15 month old and a newborn. Our stash consists of prefolds (in two sizes) and one size pockets. The newborn is still a little skinny for the pockets at this point. Once she outgrows the tiny prefolds, they’ll both be in the same size prefolds (the 15 month old is small) and they’ll both use the same pockets, so it should be very easy. And yes, my son does wear pink pockets!
I actually started CD when I had three in diapers and buying three sizes of disposables was getting to be ridiculously expensive. We found prefolds and one sizes to be our answer and it helped switching when we did because it really sped up training for my two older boys. Having all boys… I have to admit I have also succumbed to cute pink diapers, I bought the sweetest pocket for my only one in diapers (currently) in hot pink! He is mostly diapered with pockets now, they are my preference lately… but that changes often.
I am currently diapering 2, a newborn and a 2yr old. I invested in a second wetbag…to have one on each level and due to the increase in # of dipes. I have a combo of dipes that I use on both, and one of each gender so I know my boy will have some pinks…but when I recently bought a few new AIOs I did opt for neutral or more boy colors. I wash every other day instead of every 2 days as I was before my son was born. Still not a big deal, but since I use a variety, sorting and folding, plus having some at both changing stations is a task I have yet to master with 2 in dipes.