I think the main downside is that it's less comfortable for the baby. We have the changing pad shown in the picture and have two terry cotton covers, which are softer/warmer than the plastic. You could also just use a towel.

You could use a cut up flannel backed vinyl tablecloth, with the flannel side up. Otherwise, bebe will stick to the vinyl. If you have a mishap, just give it a quick swish in the bathtub after removing any solids. Works like a charm.

my husband had grand plans of making a changing pad cover to match a bench seat he was making for the baby's room (due any day now!) but my grandmother, who was giving the sewing tutorial, talked him out of it. her idea was to stitch a rectangular piece of fabric that will lay over the pad for aesthetics but can be easily pulled back while actually changing the baby. this way you still get the look you want but avoid the laundry. i thought her idea was a brilliant compromise.

i have never used a cover. i am a pretty clean and organized kind of person. i like things to look nice but it has always seemed more practical to me not to use a cover. that way it can be wiped down every time, which i think keeps it nice and clean. when my babies were really little i would put down a white cloth diaper to soak up any messes right away so non would leak onto babies back if they occurred and so that it would be warm and comfy on their backs... it has always worked great for me!

I never knew they had covers for those pads when I first started using them. I thought it was great that I could just spray and wipe them down when needed.

oh i also have a really small thin pad so you dont have to see it really because it fits down inside the changing table which has rails to keep baby from falling out so the aesthetics never bothered me.

Here's another secret - you don't need a changing table AT ALL. Beds, couches and floors work just fine.

We never had a changing table for our two (thus no need for changing pad), so we always used the changing thing from the pac-n-play or one of those small crib mattress protectors w/a receiving blanket on top as a cover. Seeing how we were gifted w/bunches of receiving blankets, I figured we might as well put them to good use.

I don't think our fabric changing pad covers lasted much past the first week my daughter was born. After soiling two in one night, it became rather pointless to use them at all.

We've never had a single issue with not using one, and we're diapering baby number two. I love that after every change I can wipe it right down and have no worries that something germy is hiding there. For some reason, the cloth covers make me think of plush toilet seat covers which never seemed like a good idea to me.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, if it's a bit chilly I'll lay down a cloth diaper burp cloth under their back, but neither baby has seemed to care if there diaper changes were soft and plushy--usually they just want off so they can get on with life.

My husband and I are contemplating this as well as we get ready for our third child. With our first kiddos (twins) we started out with a cover. But it seemed as soon we changed the pad, it would get soiled! We couldn't wash the covers fast enough and eventually we just stopped using them. We would just throw a clean receiving blanket on top if it was particularly cold or warm (sticky). My husband liked the fact that you could easily wipe down and disinfect the vinyl pad if there were accidents. One downside was toward the end of using the pad, the vinyl started cracking at the corners. For baby number three we are looking for a better quality pad that can withstand lots of use WITHOUT a cover.

I like nenasadije idea of using a cover for aesthetics, because that ugly quilted vinyl is not fun to look at.

I completely agree with EllaAnne, I never felt that I needed an official changing table. But if I had one I would surely keep it bare; having a pretty cover to worry about would seem to defeat the purpose.

I like Lovelybud's advice to keep a cloth diaper handy for easy cleanup and baby's comfort - good idea!

i think changing pads are icky. that being said i did end up using some of our many receiving blankets. i folded it in half to make a long rectangle. the changing pad was getting cool durring the night.

I don't use one, but I bought a Lambinates pad from Overstock.com...it doesn't require a cover, and is pale pink with white dots. (There are other patterns to choose from.) Our daughter seems to like it fine without the cloth cover.

I used covers for both of my kids, mostly because the bare change pad felt cold to the touch and I could not put a sluggly, warm baby down on something cold...especially when if they were undressed.

For my oldest daughter, the pink gingham vinyl on the changing pad matched the decor so I just bought about 5 hand towels and laid them down the center of the pad, to be thrown in the wash when necessary. That worked great for me. For my second daughter, I wanted to reuse the pad but it didn't match the room so I used flannel receiving blankets and some of the scraps of fabric from the curtains to sew up covers. I made three but it seems like they are always in the wash, so I still ended up buying some little hand towels that could be changed and washed up easier.

Simple solution - use a cute cover, but then i would use a plain white cloth diaper to lay the baby on. if it got dirty, i just pulled another cloth diaper out to put on top!

Without a cover, my pretty standard changing pad is cold in the winter, sticky and unpleasant in the summer. I'm not going to put my baby's delicate skin down on that! So what if it's a couple more things to wash. I had to lug big bags of laundry out to the laundromat also, and I did it with a severe abdominal pain condition. And as far as changing the baby on the bed or couch or whatever--euw! The cover gets dirty from poo and wet from urine, I don't want that on my couch or bed.

We never did have an official changing table, however, we move the changing pad to where it's needed. If we had been on two floors when our daughter was an infant we would have gotten one for each floor, but moving in when she's a toddler means we haven't bothered and usually change her in the living room, as we did in our apartment.

yes

As a tall parent with an even taller partner, I find a changing table with pad and cover to be incredibly convenient and comfortable. Our curved changing pad helps keep our active little guy from wiggling right over the edge. The covers make it more comfortable for him in our cool, humid climate. A cloth diaper thrown on top wouldn't stay in place once he discovered free will and actually made it easier for him to slide around on the vinyl.

If you're concerned about volume in the wash, try a lighter fabric like flannel. With a few seams and a little elastic you could transform extra receiving blankets or sheets into lightweight covers.

bare changing pads are awful, aesthetically and comfort-wise. i bought cheap lap pads to lay over the changing pad because they are much easier to wash (i also used them in the bassinet to keep spit-up off the bassinet sheet). i like the cloth diaper idea, too.

No, they're not necessary. I love having a formal changing pad, though you can get by without one. It's just the same white, but so is his dresser, so it blends it. Even when it tore a bit, I used a bit of white duct tape and it's still going strong. I did buy covers, but a friend told me that it's so much easier just to wipe down without one and she was right!

I totally agree with you katid! I wouldn't want to lie down on vinyl, why would I make my babies? We also used covers with a lap pad on top. It was very rare for anything nasty to actually get on the cover (necessitating an immediate change), and changing and washing the lap pads is super simple.

Vinyl feels nasty. We keep a burp cloth on top of the changing pad cover.

Wrote a post about this a while back - we use the disposable Munchkin pads on top of the fabric (sorry! but we don't need to get rid of it until there's a big mess). I also learned that the baby's cradle sheets fit a changing pad cover perfectly - they're the same dimensions. Doesn't help the laundry situation but can come in handy when baby's moved from the cradle to the crib and you have them left over. http://www.roomforyoungones.com/2010/01/quick-tip-cradle-sheets-for-changing.html

Our changing pad, which is of mid-range quality, has a couple rips in it so it would be unsightly without a cover. I have two covers, which I rotate when one needs to get washed. And we use the cloth diapers as an extra layer of protection between our gal and the cover.

We swear by the Boppy Waterproof changing pad covers. They're oval shaped and go right on top of the changing pad (or changing pad cover, in our case). They come in packs of three. So if one gets soiled, we drop a clean one on and hand wash the dirty one. They have been lifesavers. Here's a link to them:
http://www.buybuybaby.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=15909129&

This has been fascinating everyone - thanks! I definitely do not like the look of my bare changing pad so I guess I have to decide whether that's more or less important to me than not having to wash a cover.

I agree that I'd be less inclined to put a young baby on vinyl, but I have no hesitation with my almost 2-year-old. When he was much younger it was fairly easy to avoid soiling the cover, but these days he is loathe to lie still for the length of a changing and it often resembles a wrestling match, hence it's harder not to make a mess sometimes.

Very interesting to hear that plenty of others don't use a cover. I think my ideal solution would be a less expensive version of the Cooshee pad.

Carrie

We live in tropical weather and, oddly, my baby was really comfortable on her bare changing pad. Sometimes she even falls asleep as I'm changing her on it! I guess it keeps nice and cool throughout. It was never sticky.

i'm with trishdom. we use a changing pad with a cover on top of my sons dresser. a fuzzy white cover no no less... and have never had problems. we also use the same method to change diapers... it's all about the under diaper! and we throw the cover in with he wash when we do it (once a week).

I have used our changing pad with and without a cover in both winter and summer and my son has never seemed to care either way. We don't keep the house so cold or warm for it to matter and he is only lying there for a moment or two.
When we do use a cover, it is a plain old pillowcase. The covers meant for the pads are way too expensive for something that is kind of "meant" to have poo on it, IMHO.
A standard pillowcase (which we always seem to have long after it's sheet family has died) works fine. You can use a kind case if you dislike the 1/2 inch gap it leaves on one side. WAY cheaper than the usual covers.

*oops, that last should be "king" case, not "kind".

only au naturel!
Think of our mothers and grandmothers.
Think of environment issues.

best idea?
Just take the baby to a bathtube, or even a wash-basin and rinse "it" with warm water. no chemicals needed :)
And the little one will love it!

though I just reminded myself that there are babies that are afraid of water... I never met one though

We got our changing table, pad and covers at a yard sale... and as tall parents, LOVE them. The thought of getting down on the floor 10 times a day... with no carpeting, no way. We also implemented the cloth diapers to cover the elastic cover. Just makes it easier to keep things clean and a few extra diapers in the wash really don't add to the laundry volume. Plus, the changing table keeps all of the diapering things in one place - in her room and not in the living room. It's the only ways I will change a diaper unless I'm not at home!

I've never used a changing table or pad. Sure, I'm tall, but I have never had any trouble getting down on the floor to change a diaper. Plus, I didn't have to worry about baby toppling off a high surface if I had to step away to grab something. Soiling whatever was underneath was never a problem. I used flannel blankets just in case, and was careful to hold the babes' butts in the air while I wiped. Of course, I had girls then. Now that we will have a new baby boy in the house I wonder if I'll change my mind?

we used the pad for most of the first year with a towel neatly laid on top of it. towel got soiled? we put a new one down. i have a sizable collection of fun, inexpensive vintage towels in bright colors, it looked cute and it was easy to change out when she had a poo/pee accident/spillage/whatever.

now we just use a towel on the bed or floor as a changing pad instead, have been doing so since close to the end of our daughter's first year (she's nearly 20 months now). seems easier in general actually. all changing supplies get popped into a dresser drawer in her bedroom. piece of cake and having to make room for a changing table isn't necessary (which is good, because her room is fairly small). win-win.