Thirsties Newborn All in One Review

Founded in 2014 by Erin Kimmett, Thirsties is a Colorado company born from the desire to create the perfect cloth diaper cover. In the early months of the company, covers were patterned, cut, and sewn by Erin on her dining room table. With a few tweaks along the way, the company grew into one of the most popular cloth diapers on the market. Still made in Colorado, the Thirsties company strives to make it easy to choose cloth for diapering, creating an affordable combination of social and environmental consciousness.

Performance Comparison

Likes

There's much to like about the Thirsties Newborn diaper compared to the cloth diaper competition. It has double hemp/organic cotton inserts attached to the diaper at one end, and an additional layer is sewn into the lining for added absorbency. We like that this allows you to layer the inserts differently depending on your baby's absorbency needs. We love the all-in-one style that makes things easy right from the get-go; there is nothing to snap or fold before you can put the diaper on the baby. Laundering aside, it is just as easy to use as any disposable diaper. To clean the diaper, toss it into the machine to wash with a top-ranked baby detergent and dry it. However, we recommend line-drying all your cloth diaper covers.

The best part about this diaper is that it eliminates bulk for little newborns. The smaller cover and thinner inserts give you precisely what you need to handle newborn waste, no more, no less. The soft cotton lining reaches the outer edge of the single gusset and is cozy against sensitive skin. The outer fabric of the cover is waterproof polyester and very soft so as not to cause irritation. It has two snap positions for the rise, and four for the waist, allowing you to adjust the fit for any baby within the weight range. There is only one row of snaps around the waist. While we usually prefer two, this diaper is so small that we can't imagine trying to fit a double row of snaps in this space. We feel that one row is sufficient for this purpose.

Dislikes

There are a few downsides to buying such a situation-specific diaper. You are likely buying this because you want it to fit a small infant. While it does this job very well, it will only work for an infant. The max weight for this diaper is 14 lbs, which most babies will reach within the first 3-4 months. The small size of these diapers does not mean they cost less. The short usage span means you will have to completely rebuild your stash soon after birth, nearly doubling the cost of putting diapers on your baby.

Also, it's good to remember that the inserts and lining of the Newborn All In One are natural fibers. Material like this can be gentle on baby skin and eco-health, but natural fibers can have poor wicking capabilities. To remedy this issue, we recommend purchasing a reusable microfiber liner. We tested this diaper with and without, and in the photos above, you can see how much of a difference microfiber can make. We must admit that the first result can be somewhat deceiving. We tested all diapers with 100 ml of mock urine no matter what, so we could get an apple-to-apple comparison between products. The Thirsties Newborn diaper is intended for smaller babies than we were basing our tests on and is not meant to hold that much liquid. The diaper contained all the mock urine during our in-lab testing. With the added microfiber liner, the diaper performed relatively well.

Absorbency

This tiny diaper is meant to be worn by tiny babies and only will capture a tiny amount of urine. To add to this, the inside of the diaper is all-natural fabrics and has no wicking lining. Thus, this AIO scored near the bottom in our absorbency tests.

However, we did a second round of testing with a reusable microfleece liner, and the diaper performed relatively well, especially considering its small comparative size.

Should You Buy the Thirsties Newborn All In One?

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the Thirsties Newborn All In One is a diaper born with a specific need in mind. Designed to fit babies during the first few months of life when they are so small that regular-sized cloth diapers would look clownish on them. If you strongly dislike using disposable diapers to fill this gap, we suggest trying this niche product. It is easy to use and functions well, making it a cloth diaper we would use on our babies or recommend to a friend.

What Other Cloth Diaper Should You Consider?

Since your newborn will grow like a weed, it can be more appealing to purchase an option with a broader age range, like the Rumparooz Pocket, which is a one-size cloth diaper that's highly adjustable, fitting babies from 6 - 40 lbs. It's an exceptional cloth diaper that surpassed most of the competition, especially in the fit/leakage metric, as it's remarkably absorbent and has double gussets, which we consider a must for leak protection. However, the Rumparooz Pocket is a little more involved to use. Otherwise, the bumGenius Freetime is much easier to use, keeping things simple. It's more absorbent than Thirsties and it may work well during your baby's first couple of months when less absorbency is needed.