One of the most frustrating things for a new mom doing her cloth diaper research online has to be deciphering the alphabet soup of abbreviations floating around the discussion forums. If a line like ‘my DH uses CPFs but I prefer FBs and roos’ makes you go hmmm, this little piece of blogery is for you.

Here are some of the more common terms you’ll see floating around about cloth diapers online:

AIO – All In One diapers (diaper with waterproof outer and absorbent inner all in one piece.
Aplix – hook and loop fastener a-la Velcro
bG – bumGenius: one-size cloth diaper, all-in-one, bamboo fitted and bamboo wipes
CD – Cloth Diaper
CPF – Chinese Prefold
Flats – Birdseye Flats – single layer diaper you fold like oragami for max absorbancy
DD, ‘sposies – Disposable Diapers
ISO – In Search Of
FB – Fuzzi Bunz pocket diaper
FSOT – For sale or trade…
Nappy – Nappy is the European word for diaper.
OSD – One size diaper
Pocket Diaper – A pocket diaper is usually made of two layers of fabric sewn together to form a pocket for an absorbent insert – see bumGenius one-size cloth diaper.
UBCPF – Unbleached Chinese Prefold Diaper
WAHM – Work At Home Mom
DH (or DW, DS, DD) – Dear husband/wife/song/daughter
NB – Newborn
Stash – pile of cloth diapers someone owns
MFI – Microfiber inserts
OT – Off Topic
Fitted – Cloth diaper with sides cut in so they don’t have to be folded and elastic in the legs
Contour – Cloth diaper with sides cut in with out the elastic
Inserts – the absorbent pad that goes inside a pocket diaper

There are others, but this will help you get started. There is a more compehensive list of diapering definitions over at Cotton Babies if you’d like to read more about the different types of diapers.

Happy Decoding!

Jimmy

Copyright 2005 Cotton Babies, Inc. – Cloth Diaper Alphabet Soup