I was wildly excited about cloth diapering my SECOND baby, and in a fury of excitement, I got slightly carried away in my purchasing power of newborn cloth diapers. I acquired a total of 14 different all in one style newborn cloth diapers to test and trial during what would undoubtingly be a short lived newborn phase.
I’d like to think I #tryallthediapers, but I didn’t. There are several all-in-one style cloth diapers I didn’t get to try – mostly styles that aren’t readily available in Canada, or expensive to ship (Canadian problems).But, of the Newborn AIO cloth diapers I did get to try, here’s my synopsis of the experience.
If you are considering newborn diapers its important to know that the newborn cloth diapering experience is completly SUBJECTIVE. For some families its amazing and for other families it’s less than.
Disclosure: There are affiliate links located in this article directing you to check out this product at my favourite retailers. Purchases thru these links will share a small sale with me to continue blogging.
Newborn AIO Cloth Diapers 101
Newborn AIO Cloth diapers are all-in-one style cloth diapers in miniature. That means everything you need is rolled into one tiny package – absorbency is sewn in for a wear once and wash type of diaper.
- Simplest to use – fasten and go. Unfasten, wash, dry, and repeat. No fussing around.
- Most Major Brands have an AIO style newborn on the market.
- Most vary in Absorbency from 4 ounces to upwards of 8+ ounces (give or take, see my absorbency testing for more details).
- Average sizing from 5-12 pounds.
- Common Variations: hook & loop versus snap, natural fibres versus microfibre, rise snaps or or not, umbilical snap down or not, stay dry or not, additional boosters available.
- Ranging in cost from $15-25 CDN.
Newborn AIO Cloth Diapers Worth It?
Newborn cloth diapers lasted Little Miss a mere 6 weeks. I birth average sized babies who grow like weeds. As big people, my babies weigh in at 11-14lbs by 6 weeks. At this stage in their growth they have outgrown the sizing and absorbency on most newborn AIO cloth diapers.
Check out the Reviews – Funky Fluff Newborn – Thirsties NAIO Newborn – Easy Peasies Little Squish – Sweet Pea Newborn – Imagine Stay Dry Newborn
Financially.
No. Because newborn AIO cloth diapers were short lived on our diaper station, they didn’t provide us with any financial gains or incentives.
Let’s say 30 newborn AIO cloth diapers at an average of $20 CDN = $600 CDN
Potential Resale Value at 75% of initial cost of $450 (ideal optimistic market)
Not calculating any additional supplies, detergent or laundry.Total Loss: $150 CDN
Disposables – 2 cases of 264 Huggies for $35 CDN on Amazon = $70
11 Changes/day for 6 weeks = AT LEAST 462 diaper changes.
Not calculating any additional supplies such as additional garbage removal, and bags.Total Loss: $70 CDN
Alternatively: If I had still wanted all the perks of newborn cloth diapers without the financial cost there are other routes I could have ventured down. For example a stash of flats and newborn covers would have easily come under budget.
Personally
Yes. It’s important to me to cloth diaper my babies for a variety of reasons and in that I place value in cloth diapering a newborn over using disposable diapers.
- Health – choosing to a cloth diaper a newborn from birth allows me to keep her wrapped in natural fibres (where possible). For many sensitive bums, cloth diapers are the only answer to keeping rashes and reactions at bay.
- Environmental – choosing to cloth diaper a newborn means I kept my weekly garbage consumption down, and reduced overall impact of the manufacture of disposables.
- Ease of Use – choosing to boost my stash with all-in-one style cloth diapers for my newborn let me have an easy-use cloth diaper stash. Unlike the cumbersome fitted and covers, or prefold/flat diapers and a cover, the easy on and off function of an AIO was invaluable and worth it.
- Cloth Diaper Addict – as a cloth diaper junkie, having a stash of newborn AIO cloth diaper was a gratifying experience. I’m pleased to have had the opportunity and look forward to continuing to share my experience and help you choose the experience you want.
Which Newborn Cloth Diaper do you recommend?
Honest, each newborn cloth diaper has a different purpose, function and role in the cloth diaper market. I refuse to make a blanket recommendation without knowing your individual needs.
What is your budget? What size babies? When do you want to start cloth diapering? Do you care about natural fibres vs synthetics? Do you care where your diapers are manufactured? What expectations do you have?
If you haven’t already – GO CHECK OUT MY REVIEWS, and see what works for you. Here’s the list of Newborn AIO styled cloth diapers we tested out.
- Blueberry Newborn Simplex
- BumGenius Little
- Easy Peasies Little Squish
- Funky Fluff Newborn
- GroVia Newborn AIO
- GroVia Newborn AIO (old style)
- Imagine Stay Dry Newborn
- Nuggles! Bittee
- Smart Bottoms Born Smart
- Rumparooz/Kanga Care Lil’ Joey
- Sweet Pea Newborn AIO – Microfibre
- Thirsties Newborn AIO (Both Microfibre & NAIO)
Perhaps one of the best ways to find out if newborn AIO cloth diapers are for you is to try a whole bunch of them out. While your newborn might chunk out of them quickly, trying the miniature newborn variations can help you build your stash. If your Canadian, CozyBums offers a sweet starter package, offering a variety of different newborn cloth diaper styles. This is a great way to #trythemall and have a taste of the cloth diaper world.
Which is your favourite?
My absolute favourite? You know how I hate to pick a favourite cloth diaper… Part of my sway in this question is my favourite print is Smart Bottoms Charlotte. Therefore, I impartially, choose the Born Smart.
Simply Dad really liked the Easy Peasies Little Squish; however, he quickly got frustrated with the fit of newborn diapers around 10lbs.
I also… see I don’t have a really good answer for this.
My Dream Newborn AIO Cloth Diaper Stash.
Ideally, I would want a stash of 32 newborn diapers.
Because, I struggle with 100% brand loyalty and appreciate diversity in my cloth diaper stash (and I could never imagine having duplicate prints or solids for the same baby), my dream newborn cloth diaper stash would consist of the following:
- 8 Funky Fluff Newborns
- 8 Easy Peasies Little Squish
- 8 Nuggles! Bittee
- 8 Blueberry Newborn Simplex
My Dream Newborn AIO Cloth Diaper.
If I could dream up the perfect newborn cloth diaper (in an all-in-one style), it would have the following features.
- Stay Dry Inner: newborns cry and fuss enough without making them uncomfortable in a wet diaper.
- Absorbency: lets achieve somewhat perfect absorbency by blending the powers of a quality natural fibre with the quick absorption of synthetics. I’d like to see an average of 8oz of liquid, and that will require more than three layers of any given material.
- (the challenge here is, 8 oz is the standard absorbency on a one size… could you make it happen on a small diaper without bulk? Probably only with the magical powers of unicorns.
- Umbilical Stump Care: make its priority and make it obvious. Not all littles are as lucky as Little Miss.
- Waist Snap Rise: with 6 waist snaps across
- Generous Sizing: suitable for average sized newborns and growing with them until they hit 15lbs. I struggled that most diapers began to feel small and not have the same give and fit around 10lbs.
Would you cloth diaper a newborn with AIO diapers?
Tell me about your cloth diapering experience with newborns. What was your favourite newborn diaper and how did the experience work out for you? Would you do it again? Would you recommend newborn AIO cloth diapers to a friend?
If your about to cloth diaper a newborn, what are you most eager to try?
Check out Newborn Cloth Diapers at these major retailers
CozyBums Diapers (Canada)
LagoonBaby (Canada)
Cloth Diaper Kids (Canada)
Kelly’s Closet (USA)
Diaper Junction (USA)
I appreciate how much you put into these comparisons! Seeing the math worked out like that really helps!
Hated bungenius littles and that’s all we use for one size. They don’t hold enough, the rub the stump, just all around bad! We needed up using tiny and small grants with disposable inserts. My. Critique of those is that I could ever reuse it we always got poop on the giants or they got wet. Disclaimer is all
Mine were second hand so it’s possible elastic weren’t as tight as new. We used newborn until 7 weeks when he went into one size:
I have been slowly adding some natural fiber AIOs to my newborn stash as I did covers, prefolds and a few fitteds with my first. Found some good deals on a born smart and newborn simplex used. I think you sold me on the Grovia since it is on sale currently. Helpful post!
Thanks for the reviews. I would have loved this two years ago! As I get ready to cloth a newborn again I had been looking at brands. I am partial to lil Joeys though. My first baby had tiny legs and was slow to grow so they fit a while. They had the umbilical snaps and the Velcro irritated my little one. So we relied on mostly snaps.
Wow! What a detailed (and awesome) post, Bailey. I absolutely think that newborn cloth is worth it (particularly if the environment is a concern for you). Depending on how you go about it, it definitely can lead to cost savings, but it also was helpful for us in reducing blowouts (do you know how annoying it is to wash a car seat?) and minimize rash. My daughter has sensitive skin, and had crazy rashes and about 5 blowouts in the 3 days that we used disposables on her. Compare this to minimal rashes and only 3 blowouts over 3 years of cloth diapering!
We also had a big baby, so I’m glad I didn’t invest in an expensive newborn stash, as my daughter fit in one sized diapers by 3 weeks old. However, we used infant size prefolds and small (rather than newborn) covers. This worked great for us, since it allowed us to move to cloth early on, but didn’t have the large investment cost that AIOs would have.
I think if you are planning a large family (which we aren’t) a more expensive, but easy, newborn stash could be even more valuable.
Wow! I didn’t realize how many options there were with cloth diapers. Thank you for your great reviews and information.
I always loved my time with these cute cloth diapers.Now I miss those as my kid is potty trained. 🙂
Great info , I bought so many newborn diapers and we had so much trouble with leaks and loss alot on resale wish I would have done more research before before buying newborn size
We outgrew the newborn diapers quickly too, but I loved the Workhorse fitteds with a cover, and small help prefolds with covers and homemade microfiber inserts.
I have a couple workhorses that I bought because mama’s rave about them, but we just couldn’t get into the groove!
Love this 🙂 as a momma who successfully cloth diapered my oldest from 4 days old, and very unsuccessfully cloth diapered my youngest, I can not say enough times- each baby is different! Here are my two experiences…
Joshua… brought cloth to the hospital and used it on day 2 after they were done doing this test and that test. There was a slight learning curve even with AIOs, but by day four we were almost exclusively in cloth aside from when I ran out from taking a few hours too long to wash. Joshua was TINY and skinny (5lbs 13 oz 18 1/4 inches). Everything we used worked for him. They fit well on his tiny legs and there was enough absorbency until he outgrew them around 8 weeks (except NB BG AIO and cotton xsmall prefolds… those barely lasted a month as far as absorbency goes). I had Imagine AIOs both stay dry and bamboo. For covers I had RAR and Sweet Pea (a majorly favor the sweet peas!). For absorbency for the covers I folded on xsmall Nicki’s or imagine bamboo or cotton prefolds…. but like I said, he was tiny… I think most babies would be better with small prefolds or even flats/FSTs. I loved the jelly roll fold in the NB stage (still do at 20 months ??). Joshua was generally a calm and happy baby from the very beginning. He was an easy baby to diaper. I mention his temperament because that ABSOLUTELY plays a roll in cloth diapering a NB (thanks to my beautiful little girl for that lesson). We switched to OS around 2 months and 12lbs.
Now when Lacey was born, I felt something like a cloth diapering veteran. I’d been doing it for 16 months successfully… I had a NB stash already (I added a few girly prints, including Nicki’s bamboo AIO and a thirsties NAIO to try). I wasn’t worried at all. Well turns out Lacey was very different. First off, she hated being changed. Sposies or cloth… she screamed and flailed like I was ripping her legs off every time for the first two weeks or so. The flailing made diapering her very difficult. I couldn’t fold onto her. So I padfolded.. which was way easier. This meant I had to switch covers almost every time, but I had enough for that. She threw me another curve ball by peeing like a toddler. AIOs (even the NAIO) couldn’t hold her pee for more than an hour and a half. We switched to sposies at night after about 4 days because even with frequent changing, she was waking up with wet clothes. Another factor that made her different was that Joshua was all torso…so I didn’t need the umbilical cord snap down… Lacey is more evenly proportioned so her stump caused some issues with the diapers that didn’t have the snap down. With the sweet pea covers I just folded the top over the top of the Velcro strip and it was fine. It wasn’t as easy to do with the AIOs. She also had her stump for FIFTEEN DAYS. Then, at a bit over two weeks she got a yeast rash. So that was the end of my attempt to cloth diaper a NB. We moved into her OS stash once the yeast was gone and despite her being a heavy wetter, we are once again having success in cloth!! Two totally different experiences though.
So my advice to anyone looking to CD a newborn… go cheap as possible while still staying ethical, don’t let the NB stage dictate the OS stage of cloth diapering, and don’t feel badly if you have to reach for the occasional sposie. I personally will have sposies on hand on the beginning for all of my future kids in the NB stage because sometimes it’s necessary.
Sorry for writing a book haha, I’m trapped under a hungry little lady at the moment