In a recent post many readers commented that their biggest shock with cloth diapers was the bulkiness. Since almost all baby clothes are designed for disposable clad bottoms, it can be sad to see some new baby garments go unused because of baby’s huge diaper bum.

Still, if you keep these tips in mind while buying those adorable little ensembles, your baby can pull off the bulky diaper bottom without a hitch!

1. For girls: Skirts and dresses are tremendously forgiving when it comes to sizable diapers. In the winter, you can use Babylegs instead of tights and keep those dresses on, but if she needs more warmth, or freedom to crawl, buy pants in sizes six months bigger than her age. Then roll up the pant legs and enjoy!  Note from Rebecca: For her skinny daughter, Audrey, pants were always too short, even with the huge diaper! In fact, Audrey has not been able to wear pants for 2 years, since she potty trained. She fits in size 24 month pants, but then they’d go up to her knees….  Still, for “thicker” babies, like my daughter, Jovi, buying bigger and rolling up the bottoms works just great.

2. For boys: Overalls handily accommodate cloth diaper bulk. Buy them in bigger sizes and they’ll also be able to be rolled up. With my son, we bought larger sizes from the time that he reached about one year of age. Then a year later, when he was potty trained and wearing just underwear, he still fit in the same clothes! It actually saved us money to have used cloth because we were able to stretch his wardrobe out for a full year.

3. For everyone: Buy larger onesies or footie pajamas.  Or skip the onesies and just buy shirts without the snaps at the crotch so that you don’t have to worry about whether they’ll fit baby’s bottom half.  You can also buy extenders to make the onesies fit over bulky diapers.

Other ideas? Have you had trouble with your child’s diaper clad bum in regular sized clothing? What were your solutions?