Newborn Cloth Diaper Favorites and Recommendations

We have made it through 6 weeks of cloth diapering! It's a time where many parents don't cloth diaper as it can be tricky. Many fear meconium staining but let me tell you friends it left no stain to be found. Many worry about size as you could have a 5 lb baby or a 10 lb baby and the need would differ but some of the options can work no matter how big your baby is they can accommodate it.  Some worry about the laundry coming home but for us really it wasn't hard at all, just throw it in the wash and press a few buttons. We were doing laundry anyway so it wasn't an addition. Honestly, when I was searching there wasn't a lot out there on the process of doing this. The majority of diapers made are called "one size" Diapers. These claim to fit from birth to potty training with some adjustments of snaps. However, while they claim this most mamas will tell you that these don't fit right away on most babies. The skinny little legs have to chunk up first in most cases. For our little man he came home around 6 lbs 11 oz. Most One Size diapers start between 10 and 12 lbs so none of them fit him right away. I will say looking back the Lalabyebaby One Size possibly would have fit since the leg holes get so small but would have been a huge fluffy butt on my child. So we used newborn diaper options. I've tried to review them as we go which you can see here:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5

So to round out week 6 I am going to do an overview of what we liked, didn't like and what I would do differently.

Flats- We didn't use flats but I think if I had another newborn I would want to try this as you can customize the fit a lot more than with a newborn pre-fold, though it does take some extra steps. It was the extra steps that kept me away but now I think it really would have been a great way to go. Flats are generally a large square or rectangle of fabric that can be folded one of 100 or so ways.  This is how your grandparents cloth diapered only we don't use safety pins anymore we use closure devices called Snappi or Boingo.

pre-folds- these are layers of fabric sewn in a manor that they are pre-folded flats. It takes some of the work out of flats but still requires some steps. We used the newborn Green Mountain Diaper pre-folds and Thirsties DuoHemp pre-folds. For a newborn the Thirsties are a little bulkier but they do absorb more. The GMD orange edge worked great until he hit about 9 lbs and then it got tough to get around him. I will also say my son is a heavy wetter so he outgrew the absorbency of these pretty quick on their own with a cover. We mainly used an angel wing fold with a snappi. We did try to pad fold it into a cover (which cuts out a step) but oh goodness is that messy for a breast fed baby. We did this once and never again. We did have some osocozy pre-folds which I would not recommend as a favorite but work. Overall I'm glad we had the Thirsties and GMD and if I did it again I would use both still. We now use both of these to stuff pocket diapers. Pre-folds seem to keep on giving in this way and they clean up really easily.  To close a pre-fold I prefer the Snappi. I think every cloth diapering mama needs at least a dozen of these.

Fitteds- Fitteds are simply an absorbent diaper that does not have a water proof layer on their own. It is similar to the effect of the pre-fold around the baby in that the whole thing is absorbent but you don't have to worry about a fold. These are amazing for a longer duration, like nap time. The whole diaper is absorbent and then a cover is added for the waterproof layer. We used the Ecoposh fitteds, Green Mountain Diaper Workhorses and Kissaluvs fitteds. If I was to skip anything it would be the Kissaluvs. They work but they seem to hold so much moisture to my baby's skin that I did not like how wet he was. We had zero leaks with any of these so from that stand point they are great, however I do think we can only give half of that credit to the fitted and half to the cover. A bad cover over a fitted would change everything.  I would have loved to try the Thirsties Natural Fitted but maybe another time. To close the workhorse I prefer the Boingo. I was able to get a better fit this way but honestly you could use the Snappi. As he moves more i appreciate snaps over using a Snappi as I think I get a better fit this way but the cover really helps with most fit issues.

Covers- These are a waterproof layer to put around a flat, pre-fold or fitted. We have several one size covers which I haven't tried yet so I can't speak on them. From birth the only cover that fit was the Rumparooz Newborn Cover and now at 12 lbs is still fitting with room to grow. The Thirsties Size One is a very popular cover and we love it but did not fit from birth on my little man and did not work for his umbilical cord. It probably could have but was too close for comfort to me. I'm glad we have some of each. The main feature that makes these great is double leg gussets, thats too stops around the legs to prevent leaks. We haven't had a leak with either one and I love them. We did have some Bummis covers but honestly they are tougher and did not like them at all so we don't use them. We had 2 size small and did not try the actual newborn size covers. We also didn't try blueberry covers but I would like to in the future as we are now really enjoying their blueberry simplex diaper.

Pocket- Pocket diapers have the waterproof layer on the outside and on the inside have  place where you can customize the absorbance of the diaper. This is helpful as baby grows and has different needs you can change the insert without having to change out the whole diaper. We are now able to fit into several pocket diapers as he is 12 lbs! I will say I do not enjoy removing inserts from pocket diapers as it is messy so I prefer diapers that do this on their own. AppleCheeks has been the front runner of the pockets as the insert self agitates out and the fit has been amazing. I believe it could have fit from birth but due to his umbilical cord stump we didn't try this until 1 week. However these now are what we use most. We have switched to using the Bamboo inserts from AppleCheeks but initially were using the pre-folds discussed above. This was bulkier but did the job. We switched when he needed more absorbency than the GMD pre-folds as this made up the majority of our options. We only have about 5 of the Thirsties pre-folds.  We have tried BumGenius, Charlie Banana One Size, and Rumparooz G2 pocket diaper as well. The Rumaprooz was the first to fit and I appreciate the double gusset feature but it is really bulky even with just the newborn insert. The Charlie Banana fit's great now and is more trim but I really love the BumGenius 5.0 and AppleCheeks the most so I do not reach for it as often. If I had it to do again I would either just use AppleCheeks or AppleCheeks and BumGenius.

All in One- These are just as the  name implies - all the parts needed, absorbance and waterproof layer are all sewn together. This is helpful for a quick change, making it most similar to a disposable but can not be customized as easily. You can add doublers or boosters (extra layers) if the diaper allowed but it does cause an increase in bulk and may change the fit. Newborn all in ones we tried included: Thirsties all in one, Thirsties natural all in one, Grovia Newborn, Blueberry newborn, Smartbottoms Born Smart, Imagine newborn, bottom bumpers size small and Little Joeys.  From a lot of reading I did I found it was best to try several things to see what we liked rather than buying all of one style which may not work for your baby. I am glad we did this as I learned a lot. I found I enjoy natural fiber diapers much more than synthetic as they are more absorbent but take several washes to get to their peak absorbency. A little more work on the front end but I just threw them in with our normal loads of laundry until they were ready. Favorites of these included SmartBottoms Born Smart, Grovia, Bottom Bumpers and Thirsties Natural All in One. I enjoyed the others but if I had it to do again this is what I would use. The SmartBottoms and the Thirsties Natural were more trim than the Grovia and Bottom Bumpers. They all help up about the same. The bottom bumpers still fits at where these others do not, but they were the last to work with the leg holes. The Natural and bottom bumpers were the only ones of these that did not fit from birth. I will say we had a few Little Joeys (4 total) and I was glad we had these for that first week as they fit his tiny legs and worked with the umbilical cord so I definitely will be keeping those also to hopefully use in the future.  We didn't try the BumGenius Littles as while they are super simple and trim, I read a lot about people's concerns with absorbency and opted to skip them but the BumGenius free times fit him pretty well at about 9 lbs. Now that my little boy is here I am really glad we did since he is such a heavy wetter.   I will say he is now fitting in Blueberry Simplex and SmartBottoms 3.1 and these are surpassing BumGenius Freetimes quite quickly, but if we are sticking to what worked in the first 6 weeks we can't talk about these.

Friends I didn't receive anything from the companies listed, they don't know I'm writing this and they aren't paying me. Some of these were gifts as I registered for cloth diapers and some sweet friends helped provide for our baby.

6 weeks complete but we have no plans to stop. We have loved cloth diapering and using cloth wipes. I would recommend it to anyone as it is much easier than I ever thought, much more cost effective and healthier.

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