Thirsties Fab Fitted

Fitted diapers with covers are my personal favorite for cloth diapering. Some parents consider using a diaper and a cover to be like diapering twice. I prefer to think of it as two lines of defense against leaks.

With a fitted diaper and cover, you get two sets of elastic to hold in messes. This is especially helpful with newborns and exclusively breastfed babies. They are very slightly more expensive than buying all in one diapers. A full stash of 18 Thirsties Fab Fitteds and 4 covers will cost you about $292. Compare that to 18 BumGenius all-in-ones which will cost you about $288. However, the fitted diapers will wash and dry much more quickly and provide double the protection against leaks. BumGenius all in ones take two dryer loads to dry for us. Thirsties Fab Fitted dry in one dryer load. They even dry quickly (and stay super soft) when line-dryed or air-dryed. Not running your dryer can save a lot of money on utilities.

Fitted diapers are a great choice for babysitters, daycare centers and those unfamiliar with cloth diapers. Many parents choose to use prefolds and covers at home, but use fitted diapers with the same covers when they are out and about. This is a very economical choice, since you’ll need the covers anyway. That brings your total cost for a full stash down considerably. You can get 24 infant prefolds and 4 Thirsties covers for $81 – and add 3 fitted diapers for only $43 more. That gives you a good number of diapers as well as some convenience options.

While Thirsties Fab Fitteds are not our fastest selling diaper, our customers love them. They are also perfect for that newborn stage when babies are needing to be changed so often. Fumbling with a complicated diaper when you are half asleep is no fun. These diapers are simple to use – even when you are sleep-deprived! That must be why so many parents add them to their baby registry.

Thirsties Fab Fitted diapers are available from Little for Now cloth diapers.

Bamboozles are made by TotBots in Scotland. The Bamboozle is one of the top-rated and top-selling diapers in the United Kingdom. They are also Oeko-Tek certified to be free from any harnful chemicals.

If you have a baby in that in-between learning to eat solids stage, you might want to use a flushable liner to make it easier to remove solids. For breastfed newborns this is not an issue, since you can just drop the whole thing in the wash. For older babies it is not much of an issue either, since solids come off pretty easily. Messy poops will make you grateful for either a diaper sprayer or a liner.

I love how cuddly this diaper is, and how it still looks great after several washes. The absorbency was good as well. For overnights, you’ll need a doubler. For day time, this is a soft and easy to use diaper.

To adjust the rise for little babies, simply remove the doubler and fold the rise down. You can snap the wings into the same snaps that once held the doubler in place. For older babies, just wrap and snap as you would any diaper. No complicated adjustments and no bulk. These fit nicely under Bummis cloth diaper covers, Thirsties Duo Wraps and also under Imse Vimse or Happy Heiny’s wool diaper covers. Pairing the Bamboozle with wool makes a nice, breathable combination for babies with sensitive skin.

You can buy Bamboozles in my store, Little for Now cloth diapers.

I ordered a Tykie Diapers fitted diaper after hearing rave reviews from another cloth diapering mom. I am so glad I did. I ordered the sea turtles print in a large. It fits Eva perfectly. I am not usually a fan of side snapping diapers, but this one works great for us. There are two rows of snaps, so I can adjust the waist and leg snaps separately, allowing for my skinny baby’s chunky thighs. The print I chose is done in one direction only, so when assembling the diaper it was carefully seamed so the turtles face up in both directions. So very cute!

Inside are layers upon layers of hemp fleece and bamboo velour. However, it dries quickly due to the snap in, two layer soaker. This is very similar to the design of my own bamboo velour fitteds, which could explain why I like it so much! I designed what seemed like the perfect fitted diaper to me and it turns out great minds do think alike.

Tykie Diapers also offers adorable embroidered diapers and diaper covers. All at very reasonable prices.

These are sized diapers, so you will need to buy new diapers as your baby grows. I prefer sized diapers in most cases since they offer a better fit.  For the fit, attention to detail and great absorbency, these are wonderful diapers. You can check them out at http://tykiediapers.com/

This is a one-size fitted diaper with snaps. It is designed to fold down at the front to fit babies with a smaller rise. I started using this diaper when Eva was about a month old and it was a little bulky at first. But, if you want to use an inexpensive one size diaper, this is not a bad choice. It is very absorbent, and I use it without the snap in soaker since Eva is still fitting in it on the folded down rise.

There are a couple of things I really don’t like about this diaper, but none of them are as bad as some people have suggested. Mother-ease is one of the few diaper companies that recommends a wet pail (soaking dirty diapers) and they also are one of the rare companies to encourage the use of bleach. My guess is that they recommend these things to deal with the fact that this diaper got gray fast. I don’t soak diapers due to the drowning hazard presented by a bucket of water near a baby. I also don’t soak them since most other manufacturers say that soaking diapers actually makes the smell stay in the diaper more. While some of my diapers have stains, none of them have turned gray like this one has.

The other thing I am not thrilled about is that this diaper keeps wetness against the baby’s skin more than even other natural fiber diapers. On the fitted diapers I make, I do offer the option of suedecloth or microfleece inner layer to keep moisture away from baby. I see from their site that they are now offering a similar option, but they don’t show what fabric they are using.

This is also not the best-fitting diaper I have seen. Again, this is a good diaper and has a lot going for it. If you want to get a budget-priced one-size fitted cloth diaper, this is a good choice.

These work great with the Air Flow covers. They did fit under the Bummis/Thirsties covers, but it was a little hard to tuck the legs in on the smaller sizes.