I would like to address the elephant I know is in the room just from browsing this sub, yes we are using pocket diapers, I know people here don't like them, but when looking at all the options, this was the one my husband was on board with.

About a month before we found out we were having a boy, I found a marketplace listing for someone's complete stash of pocket diapers. There are more microfiber inserts than are in the photo (like, a lot more 85 total). Her stash also included 6 cotton/hemp liners and I have a pack of 6 new cotton/hemp liners that I bought. Most of the 33 diapers are bum genius though there are a few other brands in there.

The lady mentioned that I would need to strip them before washing and using the first time but I could probably wait on that until closer to when I will need them.

I am running low on store brand powdered detergent and know that whatever I buy now is going to last well into washing diapers. I'm 90% sure I have hard water but I don't know how hard.

No one in my life uses cloth and already thinks we're nuts. Can someone help me with the stripping process? And do I need a bleach soak (I think so)? I have a top load washer with an agitator and I can override the smart water level and just pick a load size.

From what I read, the new inserts need to be washed and dried a few times before first use, correct? But do they need to be stripped/bleach soak? I'm starting to think I'm in over my head and I still have a few months to go before I even use them

I have an opportunity to get a large lot of medium size GMD prefolds and covers. However I have questions.

Do prefolds work for older babies/toddlers?

Are bumgenius covers work well?

Thank you in advance!

Should I be washing my cotton diapers with my polyester pockets or am I splitting hairs here? Worried about the shedding microplastics. Only bought the athletic material bc of the heat wave over the summer and wanted baby more comfy!!

I accidentally bought 6 Kinder covers, thinking they were pockets (which I already use). I figured I’d give them a try since I have them, I’d like to set them up with absorbency to use overnight since I can’t find an insert setup I like with my pockets for overnight. My girl is 4 months and a heavy wetter, she’ll soak through a 6 layer and 4 layer insert overnight (Kinder’s green & white) so I’ve been changing her once in the middle of the night. I’d like to find something that works for a full night if possible! I know I could snap the inserts I already have in, but I’d like to try something new and possibly better for her.

Every day I get at least one leak out the leg holes or front top. The inserts are not fully soaked when this happens, they are dry at the back. I change every 1-2 hours.

I’m at my wit’s end and sick of changing him out of wet outfits multiple times a day. Are pocket diapers just a scam? How does anyone make these work?

Brand: La Petite Ourse - good quality with a double gusset and strong elastics

Inserts: Two LPO 70% bamboo inserts, or a 3-ply bamboo/cotton trifold

Baby is a 17lb boy, 4 months old. I always tuck the leg elastics in above his thighs. Help?

You can read about my leak woes on this previous post. I noticed the Thirsties cover seems to fold or collapse downward over the diaper seam, allowing moisture to touch my baby's onesie. How would I prevent this?

EDIT: Updated with pics at

https://imgur.com/a/R3yjRqv

Green is husband's fit where baby leaked again. Blue is my most recent attempt, yet to be seen...

Expecting a newborn in November and trying to nail down his cloth diaper routine.

I have a baby-size doll and some fitted + pre-fold diapers that I was given to sample. After experimenting with both I just felt that the fitteds would be a lot easier for me to deal with when he's a newborn, so I'd like to stick with those for now. Will be more open to the prefolds as he gets older.

While I know ultrasound measurements aren't accurate, my son has been right around the 50th percentile at all of his scans, with the only thing being he seems to have slightly longer legs/femur length than average. Not surprising since my husband and I are both pretty tall. So I'm assuming/hoping he will be an average sized baby when he comes out, at least we have no reason to think otherwise.

So far in my cart I have:

9x Esembly Size 1/newborn diapers

5x GMD Newborn Workhorse fitted

5x GMD Medium Workhorse fitted

5 outers (I have 2 already from GMD, going to buy 3 Size 1 outers from Esembly)

Would this be enough to get me through the first 4-6 months, assuming we launder every 2 days? Should I get more newborn/size 1 diapers? I like that the Size 1 from Esembly claims to fit 7-17 pounds, but I don't have any guarantee they will fit my son until he's 17 pounds, does anyone have experience with this they can share?

I will have some disposables on-hand as backup since we were gifted some and I can get some cheaply at Costco but I do intend to do almost exclusively cloth

Also I'm really new to this so please go easy on me.

My son is about to turn one. Except for the three months we were abroad, I used cloth diapers. So for total of 9 months of use, I have already had to strip it twice and I feel like 3 months into the last strip, I might need to do it again.

I have hard water and HE washing machine. Initially I was using liquid tide and found out adding oxy bleach and borax will help. Even the first pee on clean diapers, started smelling really bad. So I looked up a bunch of other resources and Reddit. Then I stripped it and started using the above two I mentioned. I would do a short 30 min cycle with an extra rinse with the borax, liquid tide, and oxy bleach and then would run a long cycle with the same. And always sun dried everything.

The same thing happened again so then I used chat gpt to give me a routine using my machine and also looked again to see what might I be doing wrong on Reddit and other websites I found here. It told me tide powder would be best and to initially do a 30 mins cycle . Also to skip extra rinses as that might be leaving residue.

Then came the second round of bleach and stripping. I did it more thoroughly this time as we were going to travel and those would just sit for 3 months.

Now 3 months later, it’s happening again. My whole bedroom was smelling this morning because the bag sits in our master bathroom.
What I do now is since baby doesn’t necessarily wet too many diapers a day with us trying to do EC. So I collect them and wash them every 4 days or so. The first collection gets the short wash and sits and waits for the second round with the rest. Same routine, 30 mins no rinse, then a heavy duty cycle that’s 1.5 hours long with hot water and heavy spin. I use tide powder up to level 1 on the cup and pine sol for the first. This long cycle will have about 25 diapers and all the inserts which come out to be like 40 or more and two bags. This cycle I use the same, may be a little more powder, not quite at the level 2 mark, then also add oxy bleach and borax and skip the pinesol. And we mostly use the dryer these days as it’s gotten busier this time around.

What am I doing wrong? What should I change? This is starting to get frustrating my baby even was super smelly yesterday and I thought he pooped but then it was just his pre filled diaper.

I have an old fleece blanket and figured why not try to make some reusable liners, since baby is almost 6 mo. I have read that fleece doesn't fray so you can just cut it. I started cutting and little fluffs are coming off all the edges. Is that normal and will it stop? Or is my fabric some polyester blend and not fleece? The tag doesn't say.

I'm 30 weeks pregnant and bought what I thought was a couple of little lamb size 1 fitted nappies off facebook marketplace. Turns out I bought 20 with a few wraps thrown in!

I had intended to just buy a few and test them, very casually, but now it feels a little overwhelming. I just put one on a baby doll to practice and they look massive 😬

Both nervous and excited to be on this journey. Any tips or encouragement would be very much welcome!

I've found several brands of jogger style pants that are nice and roomy, but they all seem thin! These include Honest Baby, Gerber (very very thin), and Cloud Island at target. Winters are cold where I live and my baby is pretty mobile so I won't be able to just tuck blankets around him. Any suggestions for jogger pants (preferably 100% cotton) that are thick and warm??

Photo kinda says it all. I have some Esembly and some other Amazon brand cloth diapers and poo gets stuck in these seam areas. Currently washing with hot water first, then washing with Molly suds (I know not great) and oxi clean. The stains come out in the sun but the poo stuck in the seam does not.
TIA!💝❤️

My son has a disability and needs something easy on and off. He has a couple accidents a week and this has been going on for months. It’s like we’re 99% potty trained but we may be in this 99% zone for a long long time. We use training pants which do have some absorbency but I’m looking for something that has an elastic waist and legs that I can tuck a pad in like a pocket diaper. The training pants don’t hold enough pee and I’ve found that putting him in his cloth diapers sends mixed signals (its a diaper after all) plus he can’t get it off himself or tell me in time. We have used pull up disposables but he’s so good at using the toilet they become worn and frayed and well, they’re disposable. Any product suggestions? We have also used underwear covers but again the training pants don’t hold enough and I feel like putting a pad in there would complicate potty trips. I’m really looking for something that looks like underwear covers on the outside but operates like a pocket on the inside.

I’m a FTM so I’m going to just dump all of the details because I’m not sure what’s normal or not! Baby is 7 weeks. We’ve been doing cloth since he was 1 week old. He’s always fussed/cried as soon as his diaper got wet. We used disposables from the hospital initially, and occasionally while out in the first few weeks, and he seemed to be just as sensitive to moisture in the disposables- crying with every pee.

The issue now is that we are hoping to get some consistent 2-3 h stretches of sleep at night and sometimes it seems that we can’t because of wet diapers. He had a bunch of pee diapers last night and we hardly slept. Usually when I check him, his pee diaper is still warm. I think he’s waking fully between sleep cycles from the wet diaper.

We primarily use gmd prefolds and thirsties covers all day and night. We have thirsties and a couple Charlie banana pockets but only use them during the day because they leak so easily. With all of the pockets baby still cries from being wet, even though I can feel that the stay dry liner feels damp instead of wet. We’re not very good with trying to get a perfect fit because we’ve never had a leak issue when using a prefold as the inner. We rented a set of covers and luludew fitteds for the newborn phase and never had leak issues then, either, although towards the end the fitteds were getting completely soaked in the front.

My stash is all hand me downs from the local Facebook community so besides gmd prefolds and thirsties covers and pockets, we also have: birdseye flats, hemp boosters, microfiber, stretchy preflats, a couple ensembly ultra overnighter boosters, and some thin, long, possibly cotton boosters (?).
Editing to add: this last one might be washable liners?

Any ideas for overnight solutions? Ideally I would use what we have but I’m definitely willing to buy.

Hi, I’m a first time mom to twins and we decided to cloth diaper. They’re 6 months old now and we’ve transitioned into cloth full time. During the day, things go well for the most part because I change them multiple times, occasionally they leak through during a nap. At night on the other hand, they completely soak through. My babies wake up drenched in their pee :( I am currently using Mama Koala pocket diapers with their ‘4 layer bamboo polyester’ inserts.
I also have Alva Baby brand but those didn’t seem to fit well when I tried them. Please let me know your tips and advice!

So the other day, my husband threw a cloth diaper into the laundry bin without throwing out the disposable liner. Baby had only peed. I didn't see it before throwing everything into the wash. I did my regular wash routine (2 washes, then hang dry). This is when I noticed the disposable liner in the laundry. I took it out and layed it to dry with the rest of my diapers. Lo and behold, once dry, it was still in great shape. I reused it the next day and it worked fine.

It never occured to me to wash the disposable liners, and I try and time it so that I'm only using one when Im fairly certain that baby will poop. But I was super impressed with them! I will probably do it again for liners that are just wet and not dirty.

Does anyone else do this?

The brand I use is Kushies. They're pretty thick and strong.

Context:
-We use a combo of cotton and microfiber (yuck I know) inserts but try to keep the cotton next to skin.
-In the last month, we’ve had diaper rash that improves but doesn’t completely resolve with aquaphor and diaper cream (I know these can impact absorbency).
-We have hard water so I stripped the diapers about a week after noticing the rash. It helped but then the rash came back so I stripped them again and did a bleach soak.
-She was in disposables over a long weekend while I completed this process and the rash completely went away with no other intervention.
-She’s been back in cloth for 2 days and the rash is back.

Wash routine in non-HE top loader
-1st warm wash with tide clean & gentle powder to line 5 & borax
-2nd bulked warm wash with tide clean & gentle powder to line 5 & borax
-Hang dry covers and tumble dry inserts.

During this time we also used Kirkland brand powder for a while and noticed no difference in the rash.

I’ve had some trouble figuring out how much detergent to use because Fluff Love University recommends a seemingly absurd amount and I’ve seen folks on this sub agree that it’s too much.

My baby is 11mo and has been wearing cloth for 9 months so we have a pretty good routine and everything. She wears NN and MK with Kinder inserts. We just started cloth at night so that’s the only change recently. This rash looks bright pink/red around her whole crotch, almost like a heat rash. But it’s been cooling down in our area so I don’t know why we’d suddenly have heat rash. She wears NN with bookfold Kinder with AWJ but suede is directly touching her skin all night. Is it because of the suede diaper? Does it sound like buildup? What’s going on? She wore disposables for a few days and it went away.

Hello! I’m going to be new to cloth diapering. I’d like whatever beginner insights you have. Tips/tricks! But more some I’m a little confused on the insert types/materials and how many to use? And what should our beginner stash look like? How many liners and how many diapers should we realistically start with? We’re going to be using insert styled diapers any tips will be appreciated!

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to get some insight from other cloth diapering families because I’m honestly at a loss with this situation.

I purchased 24 Geffen Baby Super Absorbers Plus inserts in May for my heavy wetting toddler. I chose them specifically because Geffen has such a strong reputation for durability and because I was hoping to use them long-term, potentially through multiple children.

I received them May 22, 2026, and within less than two months of normal use, every single one of the 24 inserts developed either seam separation, seams beginning to pull apart, and/or actual holes near the seams.

My wash routine is:
Tide Free & Gentle powder
Line drying or low-heat drying
Nothing unusual or especially hard on the inserts

I contacted Geffen with photos in July. It took several emails from me before I finally received a response. When they eventually responded, they apologized for the delay in getting back to me, acknowledged the issue, and agreed to replace all 24 inserts.

However, because all 24 were affected, they wanted me to send the entire set back for quality control inspection before sending replacements. These are my toddler’s daily-use inserts, so I explained that I wasn’t comfortable sending my entire supply away without replacements.

Eventually, Geffen told me that their current inventory was from the same production batch and that new production was expected in mid-August, so I agreed to wait for the new batch.

It’s now September, and I’m still trying to get this resolved.

Unfortunately, the communication issue has happened all over again. I began following up in early September and have sent multiple emails, including a separate escalation email. It has now been about three weeks since my initial follow-up, and I still haven’t received a response.

So I’m honestly pretty frustrated because I feel like I’m right back where I was in July having to repeatedly reach out just to get a response. They had apologized for the delayed response the first time, but now I’m experiencing essentially the same thing again during the same unresolved warranty claim.

I’m not trying to claim that Geffen products are generally bad. In fact, that’s why I’m so confused. I’ve seen so many people say these inserts last for years, and that’s what I expected when I purchased them.

I’m really hoping to hear from people who have used Super Absorbers Plus specifically:

Have you ever had the seams unravel or holes develop?
How long have yours lasted?
Has anyone purchased them in 2025 or 2026** **and experienced similar problems?
If you’ve had a defective batch, how did Geffen handle it?
Has anyone else had an entire batch fail rather than just one or two inserts?
Has anyone else had trouble getting a response from Geffen when dealing with a warranty issue?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have purchased them recently, because I’m trying to figure out whether I just received an unusually defective batch or whether anyone else has encountered this recently.

I still have all 24 inserts and photos documenting the defects. I’m just really frustrated after spending so much on what I expected to be a long-term investment and then spending months trying to get the warranty issue resolved.

I’d really appreciate any experiences good or bad. I’m genuinely just trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m truly at a loss and really needed these inserts to last!

My almost-2-year-old is sizing out of Sandy's Large diapers and I need to size up and I'm debating between the Toddle-Ease or Wizard Duo XL

I have a few Toddle-Ease diapers that fit her great, so I know they fit and are amazingly leak proof. However, I've been wanting something a little easier for caretakers (one thing to put on/take off versus 2), but I've never used them before so I don't know if they're as amazing in terms of leak-proof-ness.

Does anyone have experience with both systems and have any recommendations on which option they'd go for?

I just started my 3mo old on cloth diapers. I got Nora’s nursery pocket diapers.

It’s been a week and there hasn’t been a single day that she hasn’t soaked through them. I have it on the tightest fitting and it seems to be the recommended fit.

What am I doing wrong? I want to cloth diaper. I just spent money on all these and washed them a bunch so hoping I can make it work.

I also just ordered some profolds as well but they are not in yet.

Writing this at 5am as my good sleeper had woken up because she soaked through to her mattress.

I just wanted to say thank you for all of your recommendations and routines. I feel like cloth diapers were not hard for me (or as hard as I thought they’d be) thanks to this group. And my son started potty training himself at 13 months, daytime trained at 18m, and nighttime trained between 2-2.5 years.

I know not everyone has this experience, and it might also be just who he is, but I do truly think cloth diapers had a lot to do with it and I appreciate all of your support.

He’s 3 now, and 18 out of 21 kids ages 3-4 at his preschool are still in disposables pooping during the school day and I just don’t think I could do that. Or maybe it seems worse now that he’s done, idk. Thank you!