In preparation for Baby Hoden I bought a set of Alva baby newborn pocket diapers (cloth diapers with inserts you stuff). I also bought some extra prefolds (old school diaper inserts people use to pin) and a cover for them thinking they would be my back up. Hoden was to be exclusively breastfed or EBF so we knew all we would need to do was toss diapers for him straight in the pail, wash and repeat.
Well 3 things happened that we didn't expect:
1) That the pocket newborn diapers suck. Even me little miss barely over 100 pounds could barely stuff the tiny insert inside. Worse yet they leak like crazy.
2) Hoden was in the NICU for a sigmoid atresia that required a colostomy so he poops out what is called a stoma (on his belly) that has a waste or colostomy bag attached to it. Most cloth diapers are high waist-ed so we had to find something that fit underneath. As he gets older and taller this will be less of a problem.
3) What to do with emptying Hoden's bag? It seemed silly to empty into the diaper and stain it (ebf poo stains most people sun bleach out the stains but we thought we would save the diapers looking new). So we empty the poop onto flush able wipes that we then drop in the toilet. Or we have thick flannel wipes we put it on, then wash those. EBF poo is completely water soluble.
So we started from some things we had and went from there. Here is what we do:
Diaper Stash:
20 prefolds (or however many you need to change baby every two hours during the day (times the days you want to go between washing), we use disposables at night, as most cloth overnight options we cannot get to work yet)
2-4 covers (you normally need more because poop gets on them but we don't obviously have that problem, for normal newborn you need 6-8). For more info on the covers we use check out my review.
You will have to find covers with a really low rise to go below the stoma, we are using the Best Bottoms we already own but without the snap in inserts because they pressed the cover up into the colostomy bag (not good). Whatever you find that works for is great, each baby is different. Another brand we have used are Imagine brand (also sold on the nickiesdiapers.com website), click here for a link to a review of those covers.
We use a newspaper fold, as in we fold down a little in front, then trifold the prefold then set it in the cover. This puts the absorbency up from, which is good for a boy :) I show you how to this in the above mentioned review.
Don't let your baby having a colostomy (or other special condition) wreck your dreams of cloth diapering.
Below are pictures of my son, if you are freaked out by baby poop you may want to skip it, but he is my kiddo and I love him poop bag and all!
