Are you new to cloth diapers? Have a cloth diaper question? Mondays around here are Mailbox Mondays, where I answer a user question, and ask other cloth diapering families to help too.
Questions don’t have to be cloth diaper related, just email maria at change-diapers.com with “Mailbox Mondays” in the subject, or fill out my contact form for readers, which you will always be able to find on my Contact Page.
Not really a MM question, but a question from my BFF!
Do you use onsies or just shirts? Do you use shorts or pants over the big diaper?
This was a question posed by my friend, who has disposable diapered two children, and is getting used to the fluffy butts cloth gives her twin babies!
It did seem weird at first to me too, but before I knew it, I was used to cloth. In fact, about 4-6 weeks in, we put a disposable diaper on my son when we had to take him to the emergency room, and I thought it was the weirdest thing ever to feel his tush through that paper diaper!
My kids are eeny teeny, but my BFF has kids at the other end of the growth charts. Super healthy, but nearer to the top of the height/weight %. That extra bit of fluff really just helps my kids fit in their clothing better, and I’ve never had to “size up.”
That said, my kids do tend to outgrow more snug clothing like onesies and jeans quicker with cloth, but I’ve always just rolled pants up if I need a bigger size to fit their booty. You can get extenders for onesies too if you need them. When you’re at home, a t-shirt, diaper and some babylegs are just fine!
It was kind of nice then when my older son potty trained; he hadn’t outgrown the length of his pants/shorts, so we were able to get several months out of them once he was in undies instead of diapers!
How about you? How do you deal with the extra bulk of cloth?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
My kids are so skinny, they still wear a size down even with a triple stuffed cloth diaper on their butts.
My 2.5yr is super-skinny, so a fluffy butt is the only thing that keeps his pants up! On the rare occasion he’s in a disposable, we have to roll the waistband to try and keep them up over his hips. For pajamas, I make sure to get the kind that are a looser cut (instead of the close-fitting ones) and he always seems to outgrow them by length before they get tight around the diaper.
I have to admit though, since switching to cloth, I absolutely hate onesies. They stretch funny over the diaper, and sometimes wick around the legholes. I also have a squirmer, so can’t take the extra time to make sure a onesie is snapped properly.
I saw a great pair of pants on a giveaway I want to try. They are called Pomona jeans and are not only cute, but designed for fluffybutts! Has anyone tried them?
We just size up. My son is 6 months and wearing 9-12 month clothing. I use onesies because I like his belly to be protected as he army crawls across the carpet but I haven’t tried the onesie extenders.
When my daughter potty trained, I had to drop her back down a size so that her shorts would be falling off. I miss those fluffy diapers providing a little junk for her super skinny trunk.
We always just sized up, so my almost 12 month old is wearing 18 or 24 month onesies and shorts. The diapers were enough to bunch the pants out so they fit in length well enough (or you could roll up). The REAL bonus is around 2-3 when your kid stops wearing diapers and all the clothes from the previous 2 seasons fit AGAIN. I think my oldest was in 24 month clothes for 2 full years. At that point which we were considering potty training, we also stopped onesies. I had purchased a bunch cheap (duh, no one else was putting their 2 year olds in onesies) a season ahead of time, so I had my mom cut the onesie part off and sew a straight seam along the bottom. Easy peasy. This would work well if you saw a shirt you just adored but was a onesie so it wouldn’t fit in the butt or rise, so a 12 mo size for a year old, an 18-24 month size for a bit bigger, etc. I buy most everything on a complete bargain basement sale (or with ‘points/cash/bucks’ for using my credit card or bonus from stores).. so I don’t worry too much if a $1 pair of leggings looks perfect, we wear them until they’re trashed. End of story. In summer we end up in tshirt and diaper most of the time. It will be that way until fall. Dresses are good for girls, too, because you can wear them a little big for maxi dresses, at the right size for normal dresses, and then the next year as tunic tops!