GroVia Organic Newborn Diaper Review

First up in the Newborn Cloth Diapering Series is the GroVia Organic Newborn All in One Diaper.  I am starting with this diaper because I found it to be the best (and first) diaper to fit my skinny little boy.  If you would like to read more about my initial findings with cloth diapering a skinny baby and our rocky start to cloth diapering Baby J, please see the Intro post here.

What is the difference between the Organic and the Stay Dry?  In the past few months, GroVia has come out with a Stay Dry version of their Newborn AIO diapers.  They are JUST rolling out into stores and I have  not tried this version.  The Organic diaper has an Organic cotton inner and the Stay Dry has layers of hemp and cotton topped with microfleece, but everything else is the same!

Price Per Diaper: (4/5 Stars)  Each GroVia Newborn diaper retails for $14.95.  Other newborn AIO and pocket diapers retail for $12-20 per diaper, so this is an average price for a newborn diaper.  Of course if you go to prefolds and covers, you can save some $$ to cloth diaper your newborn, but not everyone likes prefolds and covers! (me!)  AIO's are generally the more expensive type of diaper, so I think this is a great price for what you get!

Leaks:  (5/5 Stars)  As I said in my Intro post, this was the only diaper that fit Baby J leak free when he lost a little bit of weight.  We have had NO leaks with this diaper!!!  Occasionally when he pees a ton, his outfit might be a little moist around the waist.  But no huge leaking from the waist or around the legs!  The organic cotton inner is extremely absorbent and holds a TON of pee!!!  And the wonderful elastic leg casings are PERFECT at containing EBF poop!!!  No blowouts here!!  This diaper features a sewn in soaker that is only secure at the back of the diaper and loose in the front.  When babies are really tiny, you can fold it over to fit in the diaper and it is loose in the wash to get clean and dry faster!

Fit:  (4/5 Stars)  I really like the fit of this diaper, especially around the legs on my skinny boy.  This diaper fit the best around his skinny legs and for that I give it a huge A+!!! When Baby J dropped in weight to around 7 pounds, this was the ONLY diaper that fit his skinny legs and body!!  I also loved that the rise on this diaper is lower (being a newborn dipe) but it is low enough that it fit well under Baby J's cord stump before it fell off.  My only SMALL complaint is the waist snaps.  The snaps themselves are quite large and because they are so large (and fairly far apart), there aren't many of them which means not many size options.  This means that there are times when one snap is too small and one snap is too big.  I did find that because newborns are on their backs so much (or upright being worn) a small gap at the waist wasn't a huge problem.  It's when kids are bigger and on their bellies more that waist leaks are more likely.

Ease of Use:  (4/5 Stars)  This diaper is an AIO, so there are no removable parts which is wonderful!  Less to worry about when also worrying about a newborn is great!!!  This diaper has an organic cotton inner insert that is sewn in the back but just sits in the diaper.  This makes it an AIO but also makes it easier to wash and dry!!  I found that this insert tended to be problematic at times.  When Baby J was teeny tiny, the insert would poke out the top, so I had to fold it over to fit in the diaper and not leak.  Being that he was a boy, the added protection in that area was probably a bonus!  But I still found it annoying at times and my husband refused to use this diaper because it looked "too complicated."  Now as he has grown, this isn't a problem but now after a ton of washes, I am finding that this insert wants to curl and can be a bit of a pain to flatten and get the diaper on Baby J.  When I hang to dry, this isn't a problem, but if I put this diaper in the dryer it curls.  None of this is really that big of a deal, especially with the great fit and absorbency, but wanted to mention because this does add a little extra time to getting diaper on baby!

Washing:  (3/5 Stars)  Being an AIO diaper, it is a cinch to wash this!  Just toss it in the washer, in the dryer, and presto, it is ready to go again!  As I mentioned above, when dried in the dryer, the inner tends to curl.  But line drying seems to cure this!  However, the organic cotton inner (in true organic cotton nature) is extremely prone to staining...especially EBF poop stains!  Does this affect the function of the diaper?  No.  But it's hard to explain when out in public that you are not putting a dirty diaper on your baby, it is just stained. :(  The good news...organic cotton stains sun out beautifully!!!

Overall Performance:  (5/5 Stars)  Overall, I love this diaper!  It fits skinny babies wonderfully if you are like me and bake skinny ones!  Skinny babies are HARD to cloth diaper, so this is a HUGE testament to this diaper and an even bigger endorsement!  They are quite absorbent, fit great, and will definitely get you from that newborn phase until your little one fits the OS diapers (or whatever your bigger diaper choice is!).  There are a few cons, but they are more just warnings...such as the insert being a little bit of a pain.  But in the grand scheme of what you get with this diaper, that is a small battle to overcome!  There really are no draw backs to this diaper, just a learning curve!!

Total Stars:  25/30

Baby J is now about 10 1/2 pounds and the GroVia Newborn still fits well, but it won't for much longer!

PS.  For some reason, my html stars are not working... :(  Hence the score out of 5 instead.  I hope to have this fixed soon!!!  It looks so much nicer with the stars...