Pocket Diapers

Similar to all-in-ones, pocket diapers are some of the most popular diapers on the market. They consist of a waterproof outer layer sewn to an inner layer of fabric--usually moisture wicking--and forming a pocket that you can stuff with different kinds of inserts. Most brands of pocket diapers come with microfiber inserts, but you can use just about anything absorbent: old towels, automotive rags, flat diapers, etc. Once the pocket has been stuffed, the diaper goes on and off just like a disposable. When you take it off, though, you either have to shake or pull the insert out of the pocket before you put it in the pail. If you leave it in the pocket to wash it, the insert won't come clean.

In my experience, pocket diapers have two major advantages: extreme customization and the stay-dry layer. My daughter was especially sensitive to feeling wet for the first few months. She generally screamed anytime her diaper felt wet. During the day, this wasn't a big deal for us, since we didn't want her sitting around in a wet diaper anyway. At night, though, she was waking us up every few hours to change her diaper. If you have a newborn who sleeps through the night, nothing is more infuriating than a diaper that wakes your baby up. Pocket diapers were a lifesaver for us. She could sleep for 8 hours, and when we pulled her diaper off in the morning, it felt dry to the touch, despite the insert being completely saturated. Now that she's older, we stuff the pocket with two inserts every night, and she still wakes up dry to the touch, even after sleeping 12 hours in one diaper (she can't even do this in a disposable). The diaper in the picture is a BumGenius 3.0.

There are two drawbacks to pocket diapers, in my opinion. Any stay-dry, moisture-wicking fabric is going to be a petroleum-based textile. It will be polyester. This causes major static in the dryer, it can hold onto an ammonia smell more easily than natural fibers, and it can cause skin irritation in particularly sensitive babies. Also, stuffing the pockets is a bit of a pain, and my husband flat-out refuses to do it. Admittedly, he can't fit his hand inside the pocket, but it's still annoying to have to run upstairs to have to stuff a diaper for him if he's changing her before bed. I stopped pre-stuffing the pockets when we started having variable absorbency needs. Sometimes we need one insert, sometimes two. I don't want to have to un-stuff and then re-stuff a diaper to adjust absorbency during a diaper change.

Despite the drawbacks, I love my pocket diapers, and if we didn't have any, we would be using disposables at night, and she wouldn't be sleeping for a full 12 hours. Since I am determined not to break down and use disposables, our pocket diapers are a very important part of our diaper stash.