Fleece & Cloth Diapers

Fleece is an amazing invention. You can use fleece liners INSIDE cloth diapers to provide a moisture barrier between baby’s skin & the wet diaper & oddly enough, you can also use it OUTSIDE the diaper to protect the world from the wet diaper as well! There are plenty of companies that make fleece diaper covers. Some popular brands are: Stacinator (the Cadillacs of fleece covers, but like the car seriously ENORMOUS), Calico Baby & Bear Bottoms. I have tried the Stacinator Delux Fleece (basically heavy weight for night-time use). It worked wonderfully, but it was definitely a NIGHT-TIME diaper cover. We always laughed watching diaper boy try to walk around in it.

Fleece is not like PUL in that it can withstand just about any amount of wetness & not wick onto clothing, but (depending on the weight of the fleece) it can provide plenty of protection. The upside to fleece is that it is more breath-able than PUL & softer on the skin, usually eliminating any elastic red-marks on the waist & thighs. The other good thing is that it’s very durable, so you can wash & dry these with no worries of ruining them. In fact, they’re easier than diapers, as you don’t have to worry about how much detergent to use & fabric softner would actually help add on more “water-proofing” to it….so you can just wash them with your regular clothes. They do have to be washed more than wool, as they have no ‘anti-bacterial’ properties to keep the stinkies at bay, so if they get too wet, they will smell like pee.

Another secret that for some reason I JUST discovered a few months ago (arg!!) is that you don’t even have to use a “real” diaper cover!! You can simply use (100% polyester) fleece sweatpants! The thicker they are, the better & watch out for the cotton blends. Make sure to check that they’re 100% poly or you’ll get leaks. Now, covers made specifically for cloth diapering do tend to be a bit more, “bulletproof” as far as wetness protection goes, but there are plenty of mommas (myself included) that love their Old Navy sweatpants (we actually bought some at the Gap recently that are pretty tremendous as well). In fact, since I made this discovery diaper boy sleeps in nothing but fleece sweats. He seems to be allergic to wool (gets what looks like very large hives, but they don’t itch or hurt..), & gets rashes in PUL & even disposables. In fleece he wakes in the morning with a sopping wet dipe but clear happy skin. He can seriously soak a night-time diaper but the bed & sheets remain dry. The pants are for sure stink city & have to be washed after night-time usage, but no biggie. That’s what washing machines are for!

Even if you’re just in love with your PUL or Wool covers, if you’ve got some leaking issues a simple cost-effective solution is to use fleece pj pants or a fleece sleep-sack over the usual diaper/cover-system that you normally use. This will help protect the sheets if there is leakage. The only time I’ve ever had to change diaper girl’s sheets due to a leaky wet diaper was when she was in a disposable diaper & no sleep sack.

Related Articles You Might Enjoy:

• Cloth Diaper Covers
• Wool Cloth Diaper Covers
• Diaper Rash Problems & Chemical Aversion
• How do I know what Brand Of Cloth Diapers to buy??
• PUL Cloth Diaper Covers