Looking for help with getting your cloth diapers to fit? You’ve come to the right place!
Snap To it – or – Doing It Up Right!!
How does one do up all those snaps on our Lil Helper cloth diaper covers?
Cloth Diapers on The Spectrum of Scary
For those new to cloth diapering, the snaps could scare anyone. How DOES a one size cloth diaper fit?! On the Spectrum of Scary, it’s exactly between putting together furniture from IKEA and meeting one’s in-laws for the first time.
We’ll let you decide which is the more scary end of the spectrum. We don’t judge.
Our mandate at Lil Helper is to make your life simpler, not more difficult. The snaps can—and have—confounded the brightest and best minds of our generation. Some take to them like the proverbial duck to water, while some are less inspired. Rest assured, the snaps are designed to make your life easier - they are how we make our diapers to fit kids from 7 - 35 lbs. This eliminates the need for you to buy different sets and sizes of cloth diapers. You can use the same set of Lil Helper cloth diapers from birth to potty training. It just takes a bit of practice.
Don’t let this happen to you!
And for the record, these are TRUE photos one of our customers posted on our Facebook Group (please join us) and she’s very kindly given us permission to use these photos. Thank you Customer X! And yes, these are from our old-style charcoal covers (before we upgraded to tank inserts and guide snaps - more on that later) which we currently don’t make. The great thing is, you can see the snaps so clearly!
We’re not sure what happened here. But it’s not unheard of. Especially for part time caregivers like grandparents or babysitters. You do a quick demo, write down some instructions for your cloth diapers. But something goes terribly terribly wrong. The snaps are uneven, and somehow the diaper is too loose and too bulky all at the same time. We’re not sure how the caregiver thought this was a good thing.
We know what you’re wondering: Was the diaper used, snapped like this?
All we can say is: Yes, to disastrous effect.
Before we get too smug, let’s face it: those snaps CAN confuse. While this is one extreme example of a bad-snap-job, we’ve seen some doozies. Let’s step back a bit and remind ourselves that most people are used to disposables. It’s straight-forward stuff: Left Tab, Right Tab.
Cloth Diapers: Self-Contained and Fairly Explanatory
Like the Coen Brothers, we at Lil Helper ALSO love to make films. And below is one of the very first we ever made. Again, the star of the show is an old-style charcoal but perhaps it’s a bit better for viewing the snaps.
The Snap Map
We’ve created this printable snap guide to help make it easier for you to show part-time caregivers how to properly fit our cloth diapers on your child. Use it to mark what snaps your child is currently sized to, once you’ve got the hang of it yourself!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oDIJevJXWQTdKkFXJD4WdzD9ZZqJX3ZC/view?usp=drive_link
Tummy Snaps
Soooo the top row is for tummies; and as you saw from the video, the tummy can go fairly wide AND fairly narrow. Our newest diapers feature handy guide snaps - so you always know where the middle of the tummy snaps are, for an even fit.
Leg Snaps
The second row is for the leg openings.
Rise Snaps
Depending on the size of your baby, and the number of inserts you use (smaller babies often require only the small insert), you may not even need the rise snaps. These are for lengthening or shortening the “rise” or gusset of your cloth diapers. Use the bottom row or second-from-bottom row to snap into the third row shown here.
The Trick to Cloth Diapers?
Sigh, there’s always a catch, isn’t there?
Once the rise is snapped up, make sure you tuck the fold up.
This decreases the amount of “pull” on the front of the diaper.
I know what you’re waiting for. You’re waiting for me to say “see, it’s a snap!” but I won’t do that to you. That’s not who I am.
Need newborn snapping info? Find our blog Cloth Diapering a Newborn with Umbilical Cord here.
Get more help on fit here: https://lilhelper.ca/pages/fit-guide
Have any questions about your diapers, or cloth diapering in general? Give us a call (1-877-2-877-930) or email us: delight@lilhelper.ca and we’ll help you out. And if no one answers, please leave us a message. We’re around somewhere (possibly watching Raising Arizona or eating those little chocolate-covered berries we put in your orders).
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