Buttons Prefolds Review

I am an adamant lover of all things prefold cloth diaper, but I only really use the same old brand, and I thought I really needed to diversify for the sake of the blog. Last time I was in at the Lagoon Baby, I figured this would be a great time to pick up something new: Buttons Prefold Cloth Diapers.

This blog post might be boring, but that’s because it’s about absorbency, and absorbency topics are rarely sexy. It’s hard to make a prefold look as cute as the Funky Fluff Flex, or even as exciting as the HumBird Stretchy Flat, but I’ll try.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I purchased this product and provide my whole and honest opinion.  I purchased this product out of my own money. 

Buttons Prefold Diapers

Sometime in the past year, Buttons released a new product: prefold diapers. Prefold diapers go great with Buttons line up of cloth diaper shells as an alternative to the snap-in inserts.

Prefolds are a rectangular absorbent material you add to your favourite pocket or cover cloth diaper. They have been pre-folded to a shape and then sewn in place, unlike a flat cloth diaper which requires folding down to size.

Buttons Prefold Diapers are 4x8x4 meaning three sections with 4 layers, 8 layers, and 4 layers of material.

Available in 3 sizes, I purchased the Size 3 (25-40lbs – 15.5″ x 18″) since my babies are on their final days of diapering. A comparison of the Button Prefold size chart and the GroVia Prefold size chart shows the product is very similar in size. 

The Low Down on Buttons Prefold

The Large is mighty absorbent. In my kitchen absorbency testing it sucked up a mighty 15 ounces of liquid and in real life, I find it equal to the GroVia Size 3 Prefold. This isn’t science, this is just for scale of reference. It’s pretty much the same as a GroVia Size 3, but if you really needed more you might consider the Smart Bottoms Smart-Fold. 

It’s too big for my 22 pound chunkster. I don’t like to use a snappi anymore, and I prefer to just padfold a prefold into a cover and go. These prefolds are bigger than my standard Bummis Infant Sized prefolds and therefore I needed to open up my rise setting on the cloth diaper to make it fit without gaps and leaks. This mean she had a fluffier bum than I am comfortable with. She’s also not a heavy wetter (fairy princess level), so we don’t need that extra absorbency in her diaper.

I tried to ask about the sizing difference between the small and medium in the Buttons fan group but nobody was able to give me a real-life example. Short of buying them, I’m just going to assume that I would prefer the medium sized Buttons Prefold diapers over the Large because it would give a trimmer fit and fit inside a diaper easier.

The Large is likely suitable for 30 pounds plus when trifolding (padfolding) into a cloth diaper as that’s when I started using the GroVia Size 3 Prefold cloth diaper.

Bamboo Versus Bamboo/Cotton

Hm…

The blue trim bamboo ones are incredibly silky soft. It’s unbelievable and even after a month of use they have held up great. The cotton ones are more like a standard cotton prefold in texture.

Naturally, I prefer the feeling of the bamboo ones/

but, I know over time I will prefer cotton. In my experience, bamboo shrinks over time. Users of GroVia prefolds know that over the 2-3 years, the prefold is a solid 20-30% smaller than the first month of use. Therefore, I would buy and recommend cotton because it’s more likely to hold it’s shape.

For real-world purposes, you’re going to need to wait a year or two and get back to me 😉

Recommendation

Sure, why not.

The Buttons prefold cloth diapers both the organic and cotton do the job. On paper, they look very similar to the GroVia product and likely hold up the same as well (perhaps a little lower end on the quality scale). I would use these over the Buttons snap in insert. Why? Because I think prefolds are easier to use, maintain, and fit better. I also think prefolds live long past cloth diapering and will continue to be cherished for years to come. 

Price wise? Size LargeButtons Bamboo/Cotton 6 pack for $31.95 CDN ($5.32 per prefold) and the Cotton is $21.95 CDN ($3.65 per prefold) at LagoonBaby. Meanwhile, GroVia Size 3 will cost over $6 per prefold.

I’d probably buy them because of price! #handsdown.