GroVia O.N.E Review * Updated *

This post used to be called “Giving the Gift of Cloth Diapers – 6 Reasons to Give GroVia ONE” and it was published November 26, 2016. As of February 2020, this is now just a review post. I used to love giving the GroVia ONE but then I met better diapers and now, I don’t give it – and I rarely recommend it. Learn why in this post. This post does contain affiliate links.

Lucky for me, some of our friends also cloth diaper! It makes me giddy in joy. Most of them also rely on cheaper brand diapers, not sold at my local retailer. If I knew their brand preference, I would most likely purchase the newest/hottest print or solid in that brand. However, since I don’t, I have the joy of picking out a diaper. It’s one of my most favourite things – driving over to CozyBum’s, and picking out something for the next little.

5 Reasons I Love To Give the GroVia O.N.E Diaper

For those who know me, you might be surprised to hear that my go-to choice is a GroVia O.N.E. for my friends. You’re surprised because I’m a huge advocate of natural fibre diapers, and the O.N.E. is a microfibre diaper. You’re also surprised because the ONE is not my ultimate favourite diaper (personally, I rather a stash of GroVia AIO, or maybe some other natural fibre AIO). That aside, the GroVia O.N.E. has 6 convincing reasons on why I pick it up for every first birthday we attend.

1. I used to be able to just drop into my local cloth diaper shop and pick one up, but my local cloth diaper shop has closed. I do love that GroVia is a very accessible brand. They are stocked at many amazing cloth diaper retailers and baby boutiques around the world. You can also shop GroVia direct through the Natural Baby Company in the USA.
2. GroVia creates quality, durable products.  GroVia creates quality products with a solid customer service experience. In my experiences, I have found GroVia elastics can loose their bounce quickly, but their customer service on the issue is often quick. I say this because I have had good experiences but not everyone attests to this issue. There are a lot of people upset about GroVia as a brand.
3. GroVia O.N.E. is great for nights & days. You can use just about anything for daytime diapering, but for many parents, night time diapering is a real struggle. I choose a GroVia O.N.E. because not only is it great for daytime use, it can be used as a successful night time diaper. For the light to moderate night wetters, the GroVia can help families cloth diaper exclusively.
   

   I actually don’t like using the full set up for nights. I find the booster provided is too bulky. Instead I pair the GroVia with a GeffenBaby booster. This gives the absorbency I need with half the bulk.

4. O.N.E. for O.N.E. For the reasons of the acronym, I choose a O.N.E for birthdays. The outlast enclosure allows ultimate versatility with sizing, and longitivtiy. No Prep feature allows it to be a simple wash and wear for busy parents. And its snap-in inserts provide an Easy-to-Use feature common in AIO. There’s something beautiful about giving a diaper that doesn’t require too much work.
5. Because my favourite’s aren’t “easy”. My go-to cloth diapers is a mixture of prefolds/flats and covers. While super easy, I understand that many families find this daunting. If it wasn’t so daunting, I might instead gift some beautiful covers, or a fancy swanky prefold. 

my chunky toddler modelling his Purrrfect GroVia O.N.E.

5 Reasons I don’t Recommend the GroVia O.N.E. Anymore

1. Microfibre Sucks – In general, I don’t recommend or use personally synthetic fibres. Synthetic fibres are such a great idea but they require synthetic detergents to clean them. Synthetics like microfibre (which is in the core of this diapers inserts) can hold onto stink and be challenging to use. Yes, use GroVia Mighty wash or a splash of bleach like they recommend, but with so many incredible natural textile products on the market, I’d rather not.
2. The Fit is less than ideal. The fit of this diaper is incredibly bulky and overwhelming compared to many other products that I’ve tried since 2016. It’s not awesome and for that reason the GroVia ONE quickly became one of the last diapers that I ever reached for. It can be really hard to get the leg elastics to cooperate.
   

   This is my daughter at 35lbs. I’m not loving this fit. It was hard to get the elastic in the leg creases, as has been a challenge of mine for years.

3. This is a BULKY diaper – there’s no beating around the bush because to get killer absorbency with synthetic fibres you have bulk. This diaper is thick and for many parents of small babies you won’t be able to use both inserts until your child is much older. That’s one of the reasons I swapped out that little insert.
   
4. My elastics went so easily – I’ve owned several GroVia ONE’s during my life as a cloth diapering parent and many of them have loosened within a year on moderate lifespan. GroVia products do require a little bit of care and to help preserve elastics wash them gently and hang to dry. I have other products with more durable elastics in my stash.
5. Absorbency is just okay – many parents get excited about this diapers absorbency performance but I find that it’s just okay for the price. For me, this was nothing to write home about and still ended up with leaks for my son. I would usually use this diaper with wool overnight. Wool would capture the leaks, but it wasn’t the ultimate night time solution that I wanted.

You can purchase GroVia products from The Natural Baby Company in the United States, or Lagoon Baby in Canada – for a complete list of Cloth Diaper Shops visit my affiliate page at the Cloth Diaper Podcast (my other side project)