Do cloth diapers come in sizes?: photos and comparisons

Most cloth diaper brands come in at least 2 different sizes, the one-size which is adjustable from around 10-28lbs and a newborn size which fits 10lbs and smaller.

There are some brands that have a “sized” system, so in addition to their newborn size cloth diapers they also have a “size 1” usually fitting 8-18lbs and a “size 2” fitting 18-30lbs.

The vast majority of cloth diapering parents prefer the adjustable one-size cloth diapers, however sized cloth diapers do have their pros and cons.

What is a sized cloth diaper?

A cloth diaper being “sized” means that the cloth diaper is not meant to fit a baby all the way from birth to potty-training.

Usually sized cloth diapers will have snaps to adjust the waist and legs but they won’t have the rise snaps on the front of the cloth diaper that adjust the height of the diaper.

When your baby becomes too tall for the cloth diaper instead of changing the rise setting to make it larger you switch to the next size up, similar to disposables.

A lot of brands that make sized cloth diapers make more than just the size 1 & 2, they also make (from what I’ve seen) at least a size 3 and sometimes a size 4.

Cloth diapers in sizes 3 & 4 are made for children who

• are big for their age
• aren’t ready to potty-train
• still need overnight cloth diapers
• need a lot of absorbency overnight that won’t fit in the smaller size cloth diapers
• have a disability

The size 3 usually starts fitting at around 30-40lbs and goes up to 60-65lbs.

The size 4 usually starts fitting at around 60lbs and goes up to 80-100lbs

How to tell what size cloth diaper you need

What size cloth diaper your child needs is determined by weight, typically each size in a sized cloth diaper system will fit about a 10lb range (e.g. 6-16lbs)

However depending on your baby’s body type and how much absorbency you will be putting in the cloth diaper you may need to size up or down.

There are some sized cloth diapers that do have rise snaps so they are still very adjustable.

The Thirsties duo wrap cover for example has 4 sizes in covers and each cover has 3 rise settings.

The Thirsties duo wraps also have a very roomy cut so they can accommodate quite a bit of absorbency and still fit correctly

Do sized cloth diapers fit better?

There are a lot of people who feel that sized cloth diapers do have a better fit.

In my personal experience if the sized cloth diaper has at least some ability to adjust the rise they do have a very nice fit.

However when they have no ability to adjust the rise I’ve sometimes found the difference between sizes to be to big.

The size 1 will be too small but the size 2 is too large and without rise snaps there is nothing you can do to help the fit.

However Thirsties and Cloth-eez both have a line of covers where each size fits a smaller range, so they do have a very smooth appearance and fit extremely well, but you are sizing up more often.

2-3 times in the first year and then 1-2 times the rest of the way till potty-training.

Neither the Thirsties covers or the Cloth-eez wraps have rise snaps but these cloth diaper covers won’t have as much of a problem with the fit being awkward since they are made to fit a smaller range.

Is using a sized cloth diapering system more expensive?

When you are using a sized cloth diapering system at some point your child will out grow the size 1.

When that happens you then have to buy a completely new stash of the size 2, and if you have a very large child you may eventually need to size up to a stash of size 3.

Whereas if you were to buy a stash of one-size cloth diapers they typically fit a range from 8-35lbs.

There is the possibility that you may still need the size 3 cloth diapers at some point but you would be cutting out one whole set of cloth diapers.

However if you are going to cloth diaper more than one child splitting up the stash could help your cloth diapers last longer.

Most size 1 cloth diapers are meant to last up until around the one year mark then you would size up to the size 2 stash.

Since the size 1 stash was only used for one year it won’t have as much wear on it as a cloth diaper stash that was used all the way from birth to potty-training.

So when the size 1 cloth diapers are passed down to the next child they would probably still be in pretty good condition assuming the cloth diapers were cared for properly.

If you were not planning on passing the size 1 cloth diaper stash down to another child, reselling your size 1 cloth diapers is always an option.

If the size 1 stash was only used for about a year the cloth diapers are still probably in good enough shape to bring an okay price if resold.

Same for the size 2 stash if it is well taken care of.

Resources

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) from qualifying purchases made through those links.

* Indicates an affiliate link

Link to Thirsties duo wraps on clothdiapers.com *

Link to Thirsties sized covers on clothdiapers.com *

Link to Applecheeks.com