Newborn Diapers! Grovia & Sweetpea vs SoftBums

COMPARE FOR YOURSELF!

Are you considering cloth diapering your newborn?  SoftBums Echo shells are a one size system, however I do not feel they should be overlooked as a newborn diaper. In this post I'm going to compare GroVia's and Sweetpea's Newborn diapers to SoftBums Echo.

Weight Range

GroVia Newborn AIO fits 5-12+ pounds, however at about 11 pounds these just did not fit my baby well, she was a little chunky.

Sweetpea Newborn AIO fits 6-12+ pounds. I found these fit better around 8 pounds, I would get gaps in the legs before then, which caused leaks. And they did fit to around 12.5 pounds.

SoftBums Echo fits 5-35+ pounds. When you receive a new SoftBums Shell in the mail they arrive in the smallest elastic setting, I love seeing just how TINY they get. Actually the SoftBums Echo Shell in the smallest setting was to small for my newborn. My toddler is about 29 pounds, mostly potty trained, and the SoftBums Echo Shell still fits her with room to spare!

Absorbency

Grovia
Newborn AIOs are made from a cotton and hemp blend. I found them to be absorbent for the first couple weeks, however my baby outgrew the absorbency long before outgrowing the actual diaper.  I did try adding a small insert to them but that caused fit issues and leaking. Wished they would have had more absorbency options.

Sweetpea
Newborn AIOS are Microfiber, the absorbency is sewn into the cover.  The Sweetpea Newborn has a pocket which does allow for extra absorbency to be added, which I appreciated because my daughter quickly outgrew the standard absorbency and it allowed us to use them a little longer. However, I found stuffing the pocket to be a pain as it is very small.

SoftBums
 All-in-2, which means it is a 2 part system.  The outer waterproof Shell, Plus the Absorbent Snap-in POD.  SoftBums Echo Shells have a super soft fleece lining,  PODS come separately. The thing I loved and continue to love about SoftBums is how easy the absorbency is to customize, even for a newborn. I used a SoftBums Small DryTouch PODs in the beginning and simply added a second when one was no longer enough.
Now (at 9 months) I use those small pods as boosters for nights or car rides. I love having the option of Dry-Touch, Bamboo OR BOTH! I love being able to customize the absorbency levels to my baby, and my preferences that day, or week depending on what I was into. It is so handy to be able to swap out PODS and reuse the Shell as well.

Quality

SoftBums quality is through the roof!  Being made one at a time right here in USA with super high quality materials really makes me proud to use this diaper on my daughter, and I can trust that is won't leak on her either, which is so reassuring!  The Hook & Loop (velcro) is beyond my expectations and really lasts and does not curl like other brands we have tried.  It's so nice to find a brand that cares about quality, and does such a good job make a decent Hook & Loop diaper!

Conclusion

SoftBums Echo is a OS AI2 Shell(or cover), you can reuse the Shell which makes them a good value in comparison to an AIO. Newborns pee ALOT!  Being able to customize the absorbency my baby needs means that this system will continue to work in any situation. It was so nice being able to swap out the insert and reuse the Shells instead of having to get a whole new diaper. 

Comparing the value of any newborn diaper against a SoftBums Shell is a no-brainer because you can keep using the Shells until potty training.  The Slide2Size special internal sizing allows you to adjust the leg elastics so they fit a tiny newborn as well as a potty training toddler.  With other brands like GroVia and Sweetpea you would need a newborn diaper and OS to achieve the same weight range that SoftBums covers. 

We started cloth diapering our first daughter late in the game, but started with our youngest the day we got home from the hospital. I found having cloth wipes prepped and PODs snapped into shells, ready to go, extremely helpful. 

In the comments, tell me when you started cloth diapering. If you cloth diapered through the newborn phase, what did you find helpful? 

-Jessica