Adventures into Cloth Diapers : The Lingo

One day I was on Face Book talking with my Momville aka the June Bugs and the topic of cloth diapering came up. I have to be honest I never even considered cloth diapering my three year old and therefor never consider doing it with my newest addition. I have never been more confused about a baby product in my life. I asked question after question and scoured the internet for information. I instantly felt like I was totally over my head and I nearly gave up on the idea.  Learning about cloth diapers was in a sense like being thrown into a new Country where I didn't know the language or culture but being the determined type of person I am I just took a deep breath and powered on.  I want to make these post easy to understand and I feel that doing that means breaking the post up a bit.  It seemed to me during my research that if the information would have been in smaller bite size chunks that I might not have gotten so overwhelmed and nearly gave up.

When you go to a new Country the first thing you may want to learn is the language and this is no different when it comes to CD's....See, right there is a perfect example! You are thinking what is CD?!? I have compiled a short list of some of the language when it comes to CDing aka Cloth Diapering.  Just put this list in your back pocket as we move forward into the world that is CDing. Try not to put too much though into what some of these words mean just yet. This is just your introduction into the culture...Think of it like you need to know how to pronounce the words before you really understand how to use them..These are most of the helpful abbreviations and words that I came accross when on my adventor. I am sure I have missed some but this will get us started...

AIO - All In One cloth diaper, has a soaker pad and waterproof material sewn all together like a disposable diaper

AI2 - All In Two cloth diaper, waterproof cover with snap in soakers that can be used more than one time

CD - cloth diaper

Chinese prefold- made of high quality cotton, requires a cover

Dry Pail- A diaper pail where you keep dirty diapers until they are able to be washed

DSQ - Diaper service quality

Fluff- cloth diaper

Fluffy Mail- cloth diaper package in your mailbox

Fluffy Butt- a cute little cloth diapered baby bum!

HE - High efficiency (when referring to washing machines)

Hyena - A term for hard to get, popular diapers that are stalked by diaper hungry moms

Indian Prefold= A type of prefold that is not as soft as cotton but durable

MF=Microfiber. A type of fabric that wicks moisture away from the skin leaving the skin to feel dry

OS= One size fits most diaper

Pail Liner- A liner for your diaper pail

Prefold- A tri sectioned prefolded cloth diaper you pin or snappi on, requires a cover. You will see numbers like 2x4x2 which refers to the number of layers of fabric in the prefold.

PUL - polyurethane laminate, a material used to make diaper covers/wraps

Snappi- An ingenious little three sided stretchy fastener used to hold prefolds or flat diapers closed. The Snappi eliminates the need for pins.

Soaker- the area where you want to accumulate moisture.  These can also be added material to enhance the absorbency of the diaper.

TLer - Top loader washing machine

WAHM - work-at-home mom (Usually refers to diapers made by mom’s who work from home)

Wet Pail- A diaper pail filled with water

Wicking- The movement of moisture