Special Situations :: Preemies - Tiny Cloth Diapers for Tiny Bums
Posted on June 23, 2010
It’s easy to ooh and ahh over a newborn’s cute itty-bitty bum, but those ooh’s and aah’s can quickly subside if your diaper is leaking because it’s too big. What to do for your extra-small little one?
There are some excellent extra-small diapers on the market these days and all are both practical and fashionable.
For an easy, budget-conscience option, use preemie size organic cotton prefolds and lay them inside Newborn-size Bummis Super Brite Diaper Covers. These covers fit babies as small as four pounds, include a notch in the front to fit around the umbilical stump, and have a great reputation for containing every mess. This is an especially nice feature early in life when that gastro-colic reflex that makes your baby poo after every feed is in full swing.
You can also use Organic Bamboo Flat Inserts in your covers in place of prefolds. Bamboo offers greater absorbency than cotton and is extra-soft against your baby’s bum.
As a second variation of the prefold/cover combo, use small hemp-organic cotton Joey Bunz inserts inside a newborn size cover. They will provide ample absorbency for a small bladder, will catch all the messes, and best of all, require no folding. Joey Bunz are very versatile in their uses, so it’s great to have a few on hand for other diapering needs too!
There’s also the new TiniFit All-in-One diaper, and it’s a soft, well-crafted diaper out of Scotland. This diaper is convenient and easy to put on, as well as absorbent and very trim fitting. It features bamboo rayon, which is Oeko-tex certified, and the diaper itself is both ethically and sustainably produced. It fits newborns as small as five pounds. Definitely one of our favourites!
Pockets are a great way to go to get a trim fit as well. Extra-small FuzziBunz fit babies down to four pounds and offer the trimness and flexibility for which pockets are known. These are great diapers to use if you want the convenience of a diaper that goes on in one step, but want a diaper with variable levels of absorbency. This can be especially welcome if you have twins who pee differently – one who tinkles through the day and one who floods every few hours, for example.
Here’s to all the parents whose extra-small babies take up an extra-big place in their hearts! What has your best solution been? How did you figure out what would work well?
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Christie wrote:
When we brought home our 4 lb 10 oz wonder, I used Thirsties AIO’s XS, preemie prefolds with XS Thirsties covers, XS FB’s, and XS BG’s AIO’s. I’d wanted to use some wool, but by the time it came in (special order) he was already too big. He was only in preemie sizes for a month or so and then went right into his newborn/small sizes.
Karen wrote:
Hi Christie – Way to go for starting diapering at such a tender weight! It must have been such a joy to bring your son home.
If folks are looking for sizing comparisons, the XS Thirsties is small but the Bummis SuperBrite in newborn is even smaller for a snug fit. The XS FuzziBunz has about the same foot print (or shall I say bum print) as the TiniFit but is a bit slimmer. The TiniFit offers more absorbency (especially with the extra insert included!) and a “landing pad” of bamboo which is great for catching, absorbing and containing the runny poop that comes out of newborns. We find that babies fit into the new diapers from brand new to 8-12 weeks, just depending on where they are at on the growth curve and where they started out.
Christie, what are you using now that works well?
Kelly wrote:
For our 5.5lb premie, we liked the newborn size super bright covers with the small prefolds. The covers were perfect for her long skinny legs even though they came up to her chest. We needed 4 covers in rotation for the first couple of months. It was very cute. Let me know if you want a pic.
Zoe wrote:
After 4 months in the NICU my sweetheart was just over 7lbs when we brought her home and very lean. We used the sm Bamboo fitted (Bamboozle) with the Superbrite and also the sm Fuzzi Bunz. The small prefolds were too big and bulky for her tiny frame at first. I suppose I didn’t use cloth until 6-8 weeks after she was home, so I guess she would have been a bit bigger than 7lbs. We were able to use those sizes for quite some time.
And despite the endless pumping, hour long bottle feeds and medication battles, we were easily able to keep up with cloth diapers, it was the least we could do for the environment since our 3lbs baby had already left a huge footprint on the planet!
Karen wrote:
Thanks for sharing Zoe. Your story is very inspirational for all us moms out there and really speaks to holding true to goals that are important to you. What do you think was the biggest support for you in keeping up with cloth diapering?
Karen wrote:
Would LOVE a picture! Did you use small prefolds or premie prefolds?
Great to hear they fit her legs well – this is the biggest challenge for parents of smaller babies.