How to Cloth Diaper A Newborn

When my first boy was 4 weeks old I met a woman who would change my life.  Not only did she become my best friend, but she also introduced me to the world of cloth diapering.  Granted, at the time she was the co-owner of a cloth diaper service so getting me into cloth diapers likely meant she was gaining a customer, but I was like many moms out there.  I wanted to cloth diaper, but I was so overwhelmed by the idea of it that I didn’t do much research until I met her.

After looking into all of our options and exploring the differences in diapering, we did decide to use the service.  At the time using a cloth diaper service was the right choice for our family.  If I could have continued doing it, I would have.  However, they made the tough decision to close their doors just 3 weeks after I found out I was pregnant with our second baby.

Having used cloth diapers with our first son, neither my husband or I wanted to go back to using disposables.  We loved the ease of our service, but we really loved the other benefits of using cloth diapers.  Mainly, the environmental factors, keeping chemicals away from our child, all the money we saved doing it, and the early potty training benefits.

But I had never washed my own cloth diapers, and since my son was 6 weeks old and over 12lbs when he started wearing cloth diapers, I had no idea how to diaper a tiny newborn.  I was a bit concerned, but I was ready for the task.  I am happy to report it has been a whole lot easier than I thought.  After purchasing a bunch of prefolds from the cloth diaper service that went out of business, and adding a select few pockets and AIO newborns to our stash we were good to go.  Now that Baby D is almost 3 months old, I wanted to share what worked for us when deciding to cloth diaper a newborn.

Prefolds and Covers

My favorite option for cloth diapering a newborn of any size is prefolds and covers.  Granted, it is what I had the most experience with since it was all I was able to use with my cloth diaper service, but if you are looking for the perfect fit for your baby prefolds are your best option because they are fitted by you.  Even at 9lbs 4ozs my “little” man had some skinny legs.  Diapers that were rated for 8lbs + didn’t give Baby D a tight fit around his thighs.  Using a snappi fastener and diaper cover I was always able to get a tight fit on baby’s legs no matter how skinny or chunky they are.  Prefolds come in a few different sizes, and are one of the most economic way to cloth diaper your baby.

My son was born 9lbs 4 ozs so we use the Infant prefolds with the preemies folded as a doubler for added leak protection.  Boys tend to be super soakers, and Baby D is not the expectation to that rule. We always make sure he has a preemie folded in thirds layered in the middle of the Infant diaper before we put it on.   When you are using the prefolds, if you child is at the bottom of the weight limit for the diaper you can simply fold the top or bottom of the diaper down and inch or two depending on what is necessary. I use the newspaper fold when diapering my son.  However, if your baby has really runny poop you can try the jelly roll which helps contain even more.

I have tried many different covers, and my three favorites are Thirsties Diaper Covers, Thirsties Duo Wrap (I have the most of these), and Bumkins Diaper Cover.

Baby D is 2 weeks old in both of these pictures.  At 2 weeks he weighed 9lbs 8ozs.

I loved the Bumkins newborn covers shown on the Right (owls) it can fit babies 5-14 lbs and has a special snap down for the baby’s umbilical stump.  The Bumkins covers for newborns cost $9.95.

The cover on the left side of the photo is a Thirsties Duo Wrap. They retail starting at $12.75 and fit babies 6-18lbs.

The cover shown below on the right in celery and in the first picture of this post is the basic diaper cover for Thristies.  They come in 4 sizes.

• x-small fits 6-12 lbs (0-3 months)
• small fits 12–18 lbs (3–9 months)
• medium fits 18–28 lbs (9–30 months)
• large fits 28–40 lbs (30–42 months)

I have bigger babies and like the fit of these the best when it comes to my diaper covers.  They retail starting at $11.50.

All three covers are available in snaps and Aplix closures.  My husband prefers the aplix because snaps confound him.  I like the aplix for the ease of use.

My favorite feature for all three of these covers is that they both have the best fit that I have found and double gussets to help contain the poo. This is great especially for breastfed newborn runny poop.  With my first son we didn’t start cloth until he was 6 weeks old.  In that time we probably had a blowout at least 5 times a week with his poops.  Once we switched to cloth we would have a blowout MAYBE once a month.  Baby D has been in cloth diapers since birth and in 11 weeks I can count the number of times the poop leaked on to his clothing with two fingers.

All In Ones/Pocket Diapers

There are other options for cloth diapering your newborn besides prefolds.  Many families never use a prefold or are intimidated by the folding.  If you don’t want to use prefolds, or like me would like a bit of variety in your newborn stash, check out these options.

Lovely Pocket Diapers

Baby D is about 11 lbs in this photo

Priced at $11 this AIO diaper will fit a baby 5-15lbs. You can check out my full review of this diaper.  I really liked it for the first 6 weeks of cloth diapering my son.  It was easy to use, and I was able to purchase a few of them to round out my stash.

Thirsties Duo Diaper

Baby D is 14+ lbs in this picture.

This diaper is actually not specifically a newborn diaper, but it was one of the few that fit my son’s skinny legs from day 1.  I wish I had purchased more of these to round out my stash, and plan to in the future.  I think what I love most about this diaper is that it is so similar to the fit and coverage of the diaper cover wraps that I love.  They come in two sizes. Size one fits a baby 6-18 lbs which should work for most babies 0-9 months.  Unless you are my baby (who both weighed in at 14 lbs at 2 months and my first son passed 18 lbs by 4 months.) then you will have to go to the size two.  The size two fits a baby 18-40 lbs or 9-36 months.  My older son only recently passed 40 lbs so if he hadn’t potty trained at 26 months he could have still fit this diaper.  The insert is a is pretty cool, it is a two layers of serged microfiber terry insert snapped together with a five serged layers of hemp jersey.  That means you have SEVEN layers of absorbency. This diaper costs $18.50 for solids and $19.50 for prints. They are more expensive, but I am loving the two I own and can’t wait to add more!
Lil Joey All-In-One Cloth Diaper

My final diaper choice for cloth diapering a newborn is actually one I haven’t used myself.  However, I have heard nothing but amazing things about from everyone who does use them.  I did not hear about them though until about a month after my son was born, and by then I couldn’t justify the price as he was already close to 11+ lbs.  Lil Joeys are made by Kanga Care Cloth Diapers and have a great inner double gusset.  If they look familiar to to you, that is because Kanga Care also makes the super popular Rumparooz.  Lil Joeys are for newborns and preemies 4-12 lbs.  With the lower weight limit of 4 lbs this is the smallest fitting diaper I have heard of.  They come 2 for $29.95.  If we are blessed with another baby I plan on purchasing some to add to our newborn cloth diaper stash.

In summary

There are so many great options for cloth diapering a newborn.  I recommend getting a mixture of prefolds and pockets/AIOs to round out your stash.  Having a variety means that your baby has the best coverage and you can really find what works for you.  This is what works for my baby and my family.  My husband will only use prefolds because it is what he is most comfortable with.  If I am going to be out and about for a while, I like to grab the Thristies because they are a quicker change, but my prefolds and covers tend to give me the best coverage and leak protection.

What did you use to cloth diaper your newborn?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. (Gotta fund my cloth addictions!) No compensation or products were provided for review.  All featured products were purchased on my own. I did receive a Lovely pocket diaper for review, but I since have purchased 3 more with my own money.  This is what works for my family. 

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Emily

Emily is a wife & mom living in Las Vegas. The owner and writer at Our Knight Life, Emily loves sharing her two adorable boys and journey through motherhood. Emily has run four half marathons to date and is always training for her next big race. She also enjoys creating healthy recipes for her family and sharing family friendly product reviews.

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