How Many Cloth Diapers?

How Many Cloth Diapers?

Flat cloth diaper packages

Especially if you are new to cloth diapers, you are probably wondering how many diapers you will need in order to keep a good stock of clean diapers ready to go while you are moving the rest through the wash cycle.

General Recommendation

We recommend 3-4 dozen diapers per size. With this number of diapers, you will need to do diaper laundry about twice a week.

Considerations

Your needs may vary from the average if:

  • Your toddler only wets 4-5 times a day. SUBSTRACT 2 dozen diapers. And, congratulations. Potty training is around the corner as your toddler gains more control.
  • Your baby is a heavy wetter and regularly needs more than one diaper per change. ADD 1 dozen diapers.
  • Your baby has messes seldom. Some breastfed babies are so efficient at processing their food that they will have a dirty diaper only once a week. SUBSTRACT 1 dozen diapers.
  • You don't like to wash and do like to procrastinate. ADD 1 dozen diapers.
  • You plan to wash everyday but might sometimes wash every other day. SUBSTRACT 1 dozen diapers.
  • You want to use a mix of prefolds, fitted diapers, and all in one diapers. DIVIDE the total by three and add a couple of diapers of each kind.
  • You are on a fixed budget and are limited on the amount you can spend on diapers. You can get by with 3 dozen infant diapers and 2 dozen regular/premium sized diapers but you will have to launder more frequently.

How Many Diapers for Twins?

You do not necessarily need to double the number of diapers needed when you have twins. The numbers are padded by a few so you can see the need for washing coming. With twins, you do not need to double the padding.

You should have 5-6 dozen cloth diapers for twins. This should still mean washing diapers about twice a week.