Are newborn cloth diapers worth it? Cost & cheaper options
A typical newborn will go through about 1,080 diapers in their first 3 months of life, that would cost you $237.60 before taxes, a stash of 24 newborn cloth diapers would cost you around $156.70.
That would be a stash of 24 Cloth-eez newborn size prefolds and 8 Thirsties size Xsmall covers.
That comes out to a savings of $80.90 if you are just using them on 1 baby.
If you are interested in the newborn all-in-ones I absolutely love check out my article ” Best newborn cloth diapers: Top 3, my experience and pictures”
How many cloth diapers do you need for a newborn?
Here’s the thing, newborns poop ALL the time, so you’re gonna want like 12-15 newborn cloth diapers per day.
I recommend you get about 3 days worth of cloth diapers so
12 newborn cloth diapers per day x 3 days = 36 newborn cloth diapers.
But this can vary depending on the type of newborn cloth diaper you buy.
If you want to buy all newborn all-in-ones then you will need 12-15 all-in-ones per day, and there really isn’t a way to get out of that since you have to change the whole thing each time.
Now if you go with the covers and inserts system, then you only need 12-15 inserts per day, the covers on the other hand you have some flexibility with.
The typical recommendation for the cover to inserts ratio is 3 inserts = 1 cover.
So if you want to have 36 diaper changes (that’s about 3 days worth) then you would get 36 inserts and 12 cloth diaper covers.
12 covers x 3 inserts per cover = 36 total changes.
There are also some newborn pocket cloth diapers out there and even though they are technically a 2 part system, the entire thing will still need washed in between each use.
This is because the fleece pocket lining that goes against baby’s skin will have gotten wet and/or poopy, so that whole thing just needs to go in the diaper pail/wetbag.
Will meconium poop ruin my cloth diapers?
I cloth diapered my 2 younger kids since they were born, so I’ve dealt with my fair share of meconium.
And while the meconium is sticky and weird and (lets just be honest here) evil looking, I’ve honestly never had a problem with it.
However, I have always sprayed even the newborn poop out of my cloth diapers, and I pretty much always used stay-dry liners.
Even though newborn poop can be completely broken down and removed in the washing machine with just water and regular detergent.
I was never really comfortable putting that much poop in the washing machine.
So it could be that since I did spray the meconium off and used stay-dry liners that could have reduced the staining.
However, very rarely did the stay-dry liners catch all the poop and since meconium does breakdown in the wash, I didn’t really do a great job spraying.
I have heard people say that meconium stained their newborn cloth diapers really, really bad.
So I also think that the amount of staining or lack of staining varies depending on the individual baby, what the baby is eating and the cloth diaper wash routine.
What are some less expensive newborn cloth diapers?
Since newborn cloth diapers are only used for a short period of time (typically 2-3 months) it makes sense that you would want to build your newborn stash on the cheaper end.
Especially if you are only going to use these newborn cloth diapers on 1 baby.
When I was building my newborn stash I was pregnant with my 2nd baby and I knew we wanted at least 3 kids, so I knew these cloth diapers were going to be use on at least 2 babies.
Because of this I allowed myself to buy more expensive things simply because they were really cute or I just really wanted to try that brand/ style.
Use flour sack towels for newborn cloth diapering
Flour sack towels are large squares of fabric typically found in the kitchen section of most department stores.
Pretty much any department store will have flour sack towels, usually they are about $1.00-$1.50 each and are extremely versatile.
While they may not be the best inserts out there, they would work just fine for a newborn.
Buy newborn cloth diapers used
Now most of my more expensive newborn all-in-ones I did buy used, so the normally $20.00 Smartbottoms Born smart all-in-one were only $15.00.
Also since newborn cloth diapers typically only fit for about 2-3 months and they’re used on a baby that doesn’t really do anything, most of the time they look brand new when you buy them used.
Bonus tip: you can also resell your newborn cloth diapers when you are done with them and make some of your money back, making the cost of newborn cloth diapering even less.
Use prefolds/flats and covers for your newborn
Prefolds and flats are probably the most cost-effective cloth diapering systems.
And they are also the most versatile and long-lasting newborn system since even when baby outgrows the newborn size prefolds/ flats you can then use them to add absorbency to the larger cloth diapers.
Prefolds and flats have a typical price range from $1.00-$3.00 a piece, also they are not water-proof on their own so you will need to use water-resistant covers of some kind.
Now cloth diaper covers are where things could get more expensive.
Cloth diaper covers can range in price from $3.00-$20.00 each so depending on the brand you decide to use it can get pretty pricy.
Will a one-size cloth diaper fit a newborn?
Most one-size cloth diapers start to fit babies when they are around 10-12 pounds.
One-size cloth diapers typically don’t fit under the umbilical cord and don’t fit really well around the legs.
So, while you could totally put a one-size cloth diaper on a newborn, I don’t think it would work super well, unless you were using a one-size cloth diaper that was on the smaller end of things.
Smartbottoms all-in-ones, Thirsties all-in-ones and Alva pocket diapers are all cut kinda small.
So, they will probably fit a lot sooner or fit right away on a bigger newborn.
Resources
Link to Cloth-eez newborn prefolds at greenmountaindiapers.com
Link to Thirsties size Xsmall cover at greenmountaindiapers.com
Link to smartbottoms born smart 2.0 on smartbottoms.com
Link to flour sack towels on target.com
