Cloth Diaper Covers

We should talk about covers. If you’re using fitted diapers or prefolds, you’ll need a cover over them. The cover is there to protect clothing (& people!) from getting wet. Deciding on which type of cover to use depends mostly on what is most important: Water-proof..ness or Breath-ability. With some options you can somewhat have both, but the fact is…you can’t REALLY have both..just an fyi…

Waterproof: Vinyl & PUL (Polyurethane Laminate). These options are actually water-proof, so baby can be hanging out in a sopping wet diaper & unless you actually get in there & check, you’d never know (if you have a good cover). These are great for out of the house cloth diapering and any time you don’t think you’ll get a chance (or will be too distracted to remember) to change as often as you ‘normally’ would (for me that would be longer than 1hr).

Just my two cents..but vinyl pull-up pants (think gerber)…yuck. Don’t do it. My kids actually SWEAT in them. Pul however is a bit ‘kinder & gentler’. I have no idea why. I’m not into science. Some popular brands of PUL covers: Bummis, Mother-ease, ImseVimse. We’ll talk in more detail tomorrow.

Water-resistant: Wool, Fleece. These two options are not water-proof, so you can’t leave a sopping wet diaper in them for 2 hours & expect to be dry when baby sits on your lap. They create a water-resistant barrier (& Wool actually absorbs a good bit before it starts to wick or leak), which only works as good as the diaper underneath. Typically what happens is just walking around or even lying in bed sleeping, even a really wet diaper will not cause moisture on the outside of the cover. It’s when baby is sitting down on it & squishing it into the fibers, you get “compression leaks”. So baby might sit down on a cotton couch & leave it a bit damp (you’d have to have a REALLY grossly wet diaper for it to be significantly wet)

Wool is hands down the MOST breathable cover option & most natural. There is special care involved, but I PROMISE it’s not as daunting as you think. You don’t have to wash them nearly as often as all the other options, so it’s not so bad. However, due to the necessity of the care-giver being really on top of changing duty, a lot of people use it only for bedtime &/or at home. More details later.

Fleece is certainly more breath-able than PUL & is cheaper & easier to care for than wool (in fact, they’re easier than diapers, it’s even a GOOD thing to use fabric softner on fleece to add more of a water-barrier!). The downside to fleece is if it does actually get wet, it’s one-time use. The smell hangs on with a tight fisted grip. Fleece is the ONLY cover I’ve found that I can use on diaper boy & not get even the smallest hint of red (he’s apparently allergic to wool…gets large welt-like areas that he claims don’t hurt or itch, but yikes!). So he owns 4 pair of 100% polyester fleece sweatpants that we rotate through for naps & bedtime.

Related Articles You Might Enjoy:

• Wool Cloth Diaper Covers
• Fleece & Cloth Diapers
• PUL Cloth Diaper Covers
• Cloth Diapering to Save Money Pt. 1
• Diaper Rash Problems & Chemical Aversion