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Sizing a Cloth Diaper


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Many people here have written many posts here regarding cloth diapers, including myself :blush: There are several reliable websites that offer cloth diapers and plastic pants, and they also have help sections to aid in deciding on what you need and what size. The following is from the FAQ section of the Adult cloth diaper site:

"Q: How do I determine the best diaper size?

A: Our size charts makes it easy by listing a range of waist sizes. If you want to know how to figure the proper length and width on your own use the following method.

To determine the width take your waist size, divide by two and add three to six inches to allow for pinning room on either side. Then add 10% to allow for shrinkage.

To determine the length measure from your back where the top of the diaper will rest, through your legs to the point where the front of the diaper will sit. For most people this measurement is taken from the small of the back to just under the navel."

This is pretty basic and easy when explained. So for your 40 inch waist, you would divide by 2, making it 20 inches and add say 3 inches for pinning making it 23 inches and then 10% or 2.3 inches (2.5 to round things out) making the total diaper width needed for you to be around 26 inches, for a total 'width' of 52 inches, which would fit you...believe it or not ;) So you would order a large diaper from ADC which measures 40"L x 32"W, since the medium(36"L x27"W) would actually be to small for your size, due to shrinkage of the fabric.

You ask how I got to 52", just do the math. A diaper is a flat piece of fabric that you pin on front to back, so the measurements will represent the front and the back, added together, thats why you take your measurements of 40 inches and divide by 2, add more for pinning and factor in shrinkage of the fabric.

Most places will offer cloth diapers in different sizes such as "Small" 'medium" 'large" 'extra large' "XX large" and with the over lap in sizing, you can pick where in the 'scale' you land and order appropriately.

For plastic pants, order at least the next size up. If you go with a large diaper (prefold) then you would go with the next size of plastic pants, or Extra large..or XX large if needed, depending on measurements of waits and legs.

Hope all this helps...happy shopping and welcome to the wonderful world of cloth! :D

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Cloth diapers are nowhere near as fussy about size a paper ones, if it is "too big" just do some size adjustments by folding. In fact, you may want them a bit oversize to have good overlap on the sides

There are two "kinds" of clothe diaper styles. Below the bellybutton and above the bellybutton. They affect the kind of rubber panties you will get in terms of normal or high-waistted

In the world of baby diapers the general rule was "one size fits nearly all" since you wanted room for the baby to grow and also baby panties were very blpusey ("full cut") to work with multiple diapers.

What I wear have no "soaker". This lets the wetness get away from between my legs as quickly as possible. That is a very sensitive area. It is better to have 3 full layers of material that 2x4x2. For night time wear, the fullness does not matter unless you are sleeping with somone who you do not want to know that you have them on

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This is easy....Fetwear hi back plastic pants with Mountainview diapers.Get the large size prefold if you have a 36" waist up to 40"...they are 29X35...flannel..$15.98 each or a 6 pack.This is the combo I wear and they work perfect.

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Hello Alice: It is amazing what we have to tell people what to do.

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Make a soaker panel to put in the front of the diaper. You can use a couple layers of an absorbent material called Zorb. Check it out at Wazoodle.com. Original Zorb must be encased between fabric and shouldn't go against your skin; Zorb 2 is designed so that it needs no casing. It absorbs fast and depending on how many layers you are comfortable using, it holds a lot.

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The extra padding or "soakder" was something new in the 1950's. Bedor prefolds, the material was evenly distributed so that instead of something like a 2x4x2 one would be triple diapered or two very large 21 x 40 diapers that were folded

"Soakers" are, in fact, a bad idea since they are thicker between the legs, the wet takes longer to soak through and that part of the body is somewhat delicate. A better thing is to have the wet exit that area quickly, come up against the rubber panties and spread along the outside of the diaper(s). This does two things, Get the irritating material away from the delicate area and lets the diaper(s) wet from the outside in across the entire diaper(s). The worst thing is to have something like a 2x6x2 since there is much more material between the legs than the rest of the diaper. so the body of the diaper is soaked before the "soaker" and the caustic wet has nowhere to go so it stays between the legs. Also the old style diapers wer better at having air between the diaper and the body. That is why, back in in the day, baby panties were very full and diapers seemed very "thick" at the sides

When I was 7--1/2 I knew hos to put diapers on a doll and none of them were prefolds. Mostly it was fold in quarters and pin and put the rubber panties on her

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Zorb is also a very super-absorbent fiber. It absorbs fast and holds a reasonable amount of moisture, but there are variables: How many layers in a soaker panel, how wide and long do you make the panels (9" X 17" for me). A single layer of Zorb will absorb as much as 4-6 layers of flannel or terrycloth. Also subjective is how much you pee and how long you wear a diaper. I go no longer than 3 hours because I get a little wicking at the leg openings on my waterproof pants. I also don't "flood" the diaper; I pee like a baby/toddler a little bit at a time. A soaker layer can also be made by folding a standard cloth diaper in thirds and placing it in the middle of the diaper...or fold the diaper in half again so that you have 6 layers of cloth "up front and underneath,"

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