When I say need, I am talking the absolute bare minimum. Then we will talk about numbers of diapers that are more convenient to have. And then we will talk about how many cloth diapers we actually want…LOL…just kidding. I know we all want to…buy…all…the…diapers! The actual number depends a lot on how often you want to be washing them. Before you buy any read through our to see what else you may need. Also, check for our tried and true cloth diaper favorites. The number of diapers needed varies based on the age of your child. A newborn will need more than a toddler. Newborns poop A LOT. I remember that it seemed like every time I changed a diaper it had a number 2 in it! Newborns eat an average of every two hours. This also happens to be around the time they need to go. So it comes out to about 12 diaper changes a day. If you want to wash every other day, 24 diapers seems to be a good place to be for the newborn stage. I only had 18 myself. I got 4 different brands of diapers to try out and I hated one brand because they leaked every single time. I was able to wash every other day with the 18 I had. The 18 I had was enough to go through the entire first day and until the night of the second and that is when I washed. There are many moms that have less when they start. You could have 12-15 diapers and just wash every day. Cloth diapers are the best thing for your baby. Starting small is ok. Every cloth diaper change you do keeps one disposable diaper out of a landfill. Toddlers 16 months-potty training actually need less diapers than newborns. While it is true that around that age they start to poop more often again, they sometimes go a few hours in a dry diaper. So sometimes I only change every 3 or so hours as needed. Also at this point, they are sleeping through the night hopefully and only need one overnight diaper for those 12 hours. At this stage you could get by easily with around 18-20 diapers. Again doable with less and washing more often. There are reasons to have more than that. I prefer to go 3 days between washes around here, which requires a few more diapers. This helps to extend the life of the diaper as it gets a little break from washing once in a while. To accomplish this you might find that 25-30 diapers is the ideal number. When asking how many cloth diapers you need, you have to understand that this is not an exact science and there is no exactly right answer. The number varies slightly person to person based on age of child, how often you want to wash and if you want to have a larger rotation to help keep every diaper from being washed every single load. What do you find is the ideal number of cloth diapers in your stash? I got this set of 16 for about what I spent on the bumgenious from my friend. MY question is, is 16 enough you think? Will i have to do laundry every day? At the newborn stage. To go two full days I needed 20. If you want to go 3 days. How long they fit depends on the brand as some are sized larger. And also how big the baby is. My kids were both around 7. They fit newborns for 3 months and then we went to the one size. Hi — thanks for your recommendations. That way from what I understand the covers can be reused. So…24 covers still with 24 insert sets? Just need to budget it out for my husband to understand. I should have insisted for our first, but circumstances were stressful. Hi, You can use any pocket like that. You lose the stay-dry layer. But any other inserts work great. You could reuse covers that are no soiled. Just lay them out after a change to let them dry. And the thing is new babies poo a lot! I would say 24 is a good number at the newborn stage for 2 days. You could get away with less as baby gets older. Hi Sandra, I have been using Cloth diapers full time for 5 months since my Bub was 5 days old. Wet bags are amazing. I am a single mom and started with 12 diapers pockets I kept buying every time I could and building slowly. I then moved onto All in twos we chose best bottoms they are diaper covers with snap in inserts that you can re-use until LO soils it or its wash day. So basically you can get away with using 3 a day as long as you have enough snap in inserts to change out. Which in my opinion is the best. I have about 50+ diapers and I go about 4 days before washing. I never have mold or stink issues. As long g as your wash routine is solid and you keep them in a spot where they get enough air flow you should never get mold. So I would say buy a few of each kind of diaper i. Pockets are nice for heavy wetting LO as you can add or bulk up a diaper to fit your lo. I also have wanted to try some hybrid fitted for nighttime. But I am waiting to sell off some of my other diapers first. We have 9 covers 30 or so flats 6 fitteds 14 prefolds 4 elementals 1 freetime, maybe 12 pockets and entirely too many doublers and mf inserts to count. I also have 5 fleece lined WAHM covers I dontreally care for but work nicely for an extended nap. I wash when the pail is full; about every 4-5 days as we dont have a washer and dryer. I hand wash and hang nightly anything with pul tho so they dont really sit. Everything we have is pre loved and bought off a locsl swap site. We started with a diaper loan, two small covers and 1 os cover. Most of our flats are fst and recieving blankets. LO is 4 months and I sent back more than we borrowed… everything that was too little : Its safe to say, ill never go back to disposables… oh and i made half my fitteds out of prefolds. As long as you have a good wash routine you should never have to strip cloth diapers Kristy. Try to keep everything as simple as possible. You can also go a good 3 or so days with out any problems at all. How often you wash in the beginning is more determined my how many diapers you have and how long they last before you run out and HAVE to wash! Congrats and good luck! I wash about 25 diapers at a time every 2 days when he was little, every 3 days now. It is really important to us to avoid using the dryer if at all possible so in the winter that means 2 days on the line in our basement. So for us a minimum of 40 to not feel rushed to do diaper laundry or use the dryer! My DD is now one, I have 18 prefolds and 7 flip and flip style covers they work wonderfully. I did newborn with either 24 or 36 prefolds. My memory is kind of hazy. I wash mine daily to every 1. I have a different stash than those now, and probably have the same number for one boy. I would rather have fewer, high quality diapers than tons of ones that may or may not work as well. I could go 3 days before I had to wash. Our second child is 6 weeks old now and we are using 30 diapers in rotation. I wash them on the third day. We have 12 pockets, 12 pre folds with 4 covers, and 6 aio. This is a great number for us and lets me keep a couple in the diaper bag at all times and also not wash as often. I am diapering a newborn three weeks old and a 2. For the newborn, we have 20 diapers. For the toddler, we have 12. For both, the majority of their diapers are prefolds. I have two pockets for the toddler for night time, and 2 AIOs and one fitted that were gifts for the newbie. With my oldest, after trying absolutely everything and having mini stashes of every diaper on the market we finally settled on 12 pockets for daycare and 12 prefolds and 4 covers for home. That was when he was about 18 months old. And again, it was more than enough. Because I have a tendency to slip into obsession with diapers, I NEED to keeps stash small and basic and functional. I usually recommend 18 at a minimum since it is just a little more than a one day supply and will allow you not to have to race to wash.
