Prefold mamas

What's the deal with all the different types? Bleached, non bleached. Chinese cotton or Indian? Hemp or cotton? How many should I get for a NB stash? Boy, I thought this would be a little less tricky! Lol

What type do you think works best?

Bleached or non-bleached is really a personal aesthetic preference thing. I have a few of each and it honestly doesn't make a difference for me. The type of cotton might matter but I've never paid attention. I don't even know what mine are. The fabric DOES make a difference. Cotton absorbs the most quickly. Hemp holds the most. Though most cotton prefolds will hold an incredible amount. I've never EVER had one leak because it was over full. How many you get depends on how frequently you want to wash. The typical recommendation is 10-12 per day and its nice to be able to wash every third day. My DD went through diapers at an incredible pace so we needed more like 20 per day.

My favorite prefold source is Green Mountain. They're some of the best quality and most affordable prefolds out there.

I agree with all of this. We had organic cotton PFs from Green Mountain Diapers, and 24 was just perfect to get us through, washing about every 3rd day. All kids are different in their volume, but that's a good place to start.

Thanks so much ladies. I settled on some cotton ones. I like something that will hold up for longer. I never knew bleached/unbleached really was a personal pref. I truly thought that it *meant* something more. Heh heh. Live and learn. :)

Bleach scares some people. So, for them its "more". I don't buy into the bleach fear. Especially since they're bleached and then washed like crazy before they ever come in contact with a baby. I think GMDs are even "eco" bleached. Real bleach does break down fibers ever so slightly but that one bleaching to change their color has a negligible effect. Therefore, IMO, bleach is a personal color preference thing.

Where did you get them? You have to come back and tell us how they work!

Oh I can't WAIT to try them out! :) A few more months to go, though. I found two lots on diaperswappers that were still in great shape (almost new) One GMD and another Bummis. Both bleached cotton NB size. Then I got 9 diff covers, to see which we like before getting more. Which wraps/covers do you think work best? The Thirsties look really great too me.

9 covers will be MORE than enough! I really liked the XS Thirsties covers when DD was a NB and size 1 Thirsties later. The XS were ever so slightly too big on DD for the first week or so but were still quite usable. She was 7.5 lbs at birth. When she hit about 9 lbs (in her second week!) they fit perfectly. Having velcro closures at first was a life saver. DD hated diaper changes and the velcro made things faster. I mostly use snaps now because they hold up longer, don't cause "diaper chains", and DD has a harder time getting them off. The other covers I used for NB diapering were Prowraps. They're cheap and have cutouts for the cord. They fit really small babies really well, probably down to 6 lbs. But they don't fit well over 9-10 lbs. But who cares because they're cheap. When DD hit maybe 10-11 lbs, I got some OS Mommy's Touch covers. They're a little pricey but cute and I still use some of them. The velcro ones that I got haven't held up super well but the one snap one still looks brand new after about 20 months of use. I also use Blueberry OS covers. I didn't get them until much later (9 months or so?) so I can't say how they'd fit a NB. All the Blueberry covers I have are snaps and they're mostly holding up well except for a little bit of tearing of the PUL around a few of the snaps.

Wow--we had four OS covers (Flips) and that was plenty! :) She wore them from 8lbs (after the cord fell off at around 1 week old) to...not sure, around 13 months old...and they were still going strong when we had to quit for other reasons.