If the thought of using pins is the only thing keeping you from cloth diapering, you’ll definitely want to give the Snappi a try. Snappis are stretchy, T-shaped pieces of polyurethane with teeth that hook into the diaper. Since the Snappis hold the diaper more securely than a diaper that’s simply placed in a cover, they can help prevent leaks, especially for newborns with runny diapers.
Snappis work well best on diapers made with fabric that has a loose weave, such as cotton prefolds or gauze diapers. Diapers made from flannel typically don’t have enough texture for the Snappi teeth to grab onto. Hemp diapers and birdseye flats may or may not work with Snappis, depending on how tightly woven the fabric is.
Purchasing and Preparing the Snappi
You can buy Snappi diaper fasteners from most online cloth diaper stores, such as those listed on the Diaper Pin cloth diaper directory.
Snappis are available in two sizes. Size 1, or standard size, works well for most babies under a year and a half old, while Size 2 works well for toddlers or bigger babies. Snappis come in a variety of colors, such as white, light blue, yellow, pink, green, purple, and red. If you have several children in diapers who wear different size Snappis, you may want to order them in different colors so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Make sure to stretch the Snappi about ten times before using it for the first time.You can wash the Snappi by hand with dish soap and hot water as needed, but don’t put the Snappi in the wash machine, since it could snag on fabric or clothing, or get damaged. Make sure to keep store the Snappi out of the sun, to prevent deterioration from UV rays, and out of the reach of little hands. Replace the Snappi every six months, or whenever it shows signs of wear.
Fastening Cloth Diapers With the Snappi
- Put the diaper on the baby as you usually would.
- Hook one end of the Snappi teeth into the side of the diaper, then hold onto the tab on the other side of the Snappi and stretch it across to the other side of the diaper.
- Hook the other end of the Snappi into the other side of the diaper.
- Pull the lower end of the Snappi down, so that the Snappi becomes Y-shaped. Hook the lower end of the Snappi into the front of the diaper.
- Put a pull-on or wrap style diaper cover over the diaper and the Snappi. This will help keep the Snappi in place, and prevent the baby from unfastening or getting hurt on it.
When properly attached, the Snappi will hold the diaper securely in place. With practice, diapering a baby with a Snappi becomes a snap!
