As you may know, newborns pee A LOT and when they have a #2 explosion it can be pretty fantastic too. During this time when babies are small (roughly 0-6months) when bowel movements are frequent and very soft, you may find that the cover of your AI2 gets soiled along with the insert and cannot be re-used as much as you would like. There goes your convenience factor if you were hoping to re-use the cover. You many find yourself washing both the cover and the insert at more changes than you would like, leading to the necessity of having more covers on hand than you planned on. The upside though? If you need a cover in a hurry or if it’s just slightly soiled, you can wipe it clean or wash by hand and they dry very quickly if you don’t have time to wait for it to go through the wash. Also, many babies this age (especially those who are exclusively breastfed) can go a number of days between bowel movements. If this is the case for you bundle of joy, then the AI2 may work well for you during the newborn phase.
Where you really start to see the benefits of an AI2 diaper system is on older babies about 6+ months. Once babies are comfortably on solids and bowel movements are more solid (like yours and mine) it becomes much for feasible to re-use the cover and just put in a clean insert during diaper changes. Fewer explosions mean more contained messes that lend well to this type of system.
So, in conclusion. Are AI2 systems great? Absolutely. Will you always be able to re-use the cover for about 3 diaper changes? Depends on the factors above. Keep that in mind and you’ll enjoy your AI2 diapers as much as we do.
P.S.
Which AI2 diaper is our favourite? We love using the GroVia Hybrid System with snap in inserts. Applecheeks used as an AI2 (by laying the insert on top, rather than stuffing the pocket) was also very successful and easy for us when diapering our 3 kids.
