What You Need

How Many Diapers Will We Need?

The number of diapers you will need depends on the age of your child, how often you want to do laundry, and whether the diapers you are using have a stay-dry lining. If you have more than one child in diapers, you will obviously need more, but not necessarily double.

Parents who use Prefolds or Fitteds with Covers like to have at least 3 dozen Prefold or Fitted Diapers and 6 Covers to cloth diaper full time. We prefer to have 4-5 dozen diapers so that you can run larger loads, fewer times a week. Covers can be washed easily in a sink and dried quickly, so it isn't necessary to buy such a large quantity of covers.

18-24 Pocket Diapers, Stay-Dry All-In-Ones, or Stay-Dry Fitted Diapers should be enough to use these types of diapers full time. Because these diapers have a stay-dry feature, they do not require as frequent changes as ordinary prefolds or fitted diapers. The only diaper in this list that requires a separate cover is the Stay-Dry Fitted. Six covers is still a good number.

If you want to use a combination of Prefolds and Covers during the day and Pocket Diapers at night, we recommend a minimum of 2-3 Dozen Prefolds, 5 Covers, and 4-6 Pocket Diapers. We used this combination diapering system on our own daughter from newborn through about 5 months.

4-6 All-In-Ones are great for throwing into the diaper bag for changes on the go.