How Many Diapers will I need – Ages and Stages

The number of cloth diapers and covers you will need depends on the kind of cloth diapering system you choose to use. It is important to ask yourself what you are looking for in your cloth diapering system. Are you looking for something that will be easy on your pocket book as well as the environment – but maybe you aren’t looking for the closest thing to disposables are you can get. Important things to consider are: How often can you do laundry? Who will be doing the majority of diaper changes? Do you need to make cloth diapering easy for your partner, family or the child’s care giver? There is a detailed breakdown of all this information in the section on different types of diapers, but here is brief breakdown of how many diapers and covers you will need.

Newborns will go through anywhere from 10-12 diapers per day for about the first six months. Then anywhere from 8-10 from 6-12 months and about 6-8 from 12-24 months. Once you get into potty training that can go down to about 2-4 diapers per day. The chart below will give you an idea of how many diapers you need at different ages, with a breakdown of how many to have on hand depending on how many days you plan to go between washings

	Wash Daily	Every 2 Days	Every 3 Days
Up to 6 months	10 – 12	20 – 24	30 – 36
6 – 12 Months	8 – 10	16 – 20	24 – 30
12 – 24 Months	6 – 8	12 – 16	18 – 24
Potty Training	2 – 4	4 – 8	6 – 12

If you are using a cloth diapering system that consists of pocket style diapers or All in One style diapers, these are not reusable, meaning that they need to be washed after every change but does not require a separate cover, you will need to have this number of these kind of diapers. If you are using a system that is either prefold diapers or fitted diapers that do require a separate cover you will need a ratio of about 1 cover to every 4 diaper changes. That way they can be aired out and dried between each use and rotated, unless poo gets on the cover.

I also recommend that you wait no longer than 3 days to wash your diapers and covers, this will help your diapers last and keep bacteria growth and smell to a minimum.