What is the most absorbent fabric for cloth diapers?

There are two parts to this question, you see a fabric (to me anyway) is made up of 2 things, the weave (Birdseye, Muslin, Twill) and the fiber (Cotton, Bamboo, Hemp, Microfiber).

You also have to take into consideration anything special that might be done to a fabric once it is woven like with fleece, which started at a normal woven fabric and was them “brushed” to become fleece.

In my personal experience, hemp fleece fabric has worked the best for me and my babies, fleece is a very absorbent type of fabric, and hemp is the most absorbent material in the cloth diapering industry.

If you want to learn more about the absorbency in cloth diapers check out my article ” Cloth diaper inserts: What are they & which are best?”

Read ” Cloth diaper inserts” now

What is the best absorbent material for cloth diapers?

I personally love fleece, fleece is dense and fluffy which means it has lots of places to store pee.

Now remember I’m not talking about microfleece or Polar fleece, those have no absorbency at all and are usually used to make either fleece covers or stay-dry liners.

What you’re looking for is a natural fiber fleece like, hemp fleece, bamboo fleece or cotton fleece.

Another good option would be terry, I personally really like French terry.

French terry is flat on one side and is more towel looking on the other side, the towel looking part is what makes it a terry.

A lot of cloth diapers in the UK are made of double-looped terry, which is called toweling cause it’s literally the same thing bath towels are made of.

What is the most absorbent fiber for cloth diapers?

The most absorbent fiber for cloth diapers is hemp.

While hemp is probably the most expensive cloth diapering fiber, it is the most absorbent.

Some people tend to avoid hemp because it is one of the slowest absorbing fibers.

But I have never noticed much of a difference between hemp or cotton (cotton being the fastest absorbing natural fiber) once they are both fully prepped.

Speaking of prepping, hemp also takes the longest to prep.

Prepping is when you get a brand new natural fiber cloth diaper or insert and you have to wash it a few times to wash all the natural oils out so they don’t prevent the diaper from absorbing.

While cotton and bamboo can be washed 2-3 times before they are fully prepped, hemp takes 4-6 washes to be fully prepped.

However, many companies do at least partially prep their cloth diapers and inserts before they sell them, so be sure to read the descriptions and tags on your cloth diapers.

If you want to learn about the best solutions for overnight cloth diapering check out my article ” Good overnight cloth diapers: Stop leaks for dry jammies”

Read ” Good overnight cloth diapers” now

What is the cheapest absorbency for cloth diapers?

Typically, the cheapest absorbency per piece, for cloth diapers is microfiber.

I say per piece because after a little while the amount of microfiber inserts you would need starts to cost more than just buying some higher quality, natural fiber inserts.

Most microfiber inserts are about $1.60usd each, while a good quality muslin flat would be about $3.60.

In my experience 1 good quality flat will do the job of 2 1/2 – 3 microfiber inserts.

So, if you take $1.60 for 1 microfiber insert and times that by 2.5 you get $4.00.

Therefore, in reality you’re probably better off just getting the higher quality, more absorbent flats.

Extreme budget absorbency for cloth diapers

An awesome way to get very cheap or even free flats is to use receiving blankets as flats since they are basically the same thing.

Cotton receiving blanket that I have been using in my stash since 2018

The vast majority of receiving blankets or baby swaddle blankets are made of cotton, which is one of the most popular materials used in cloth diapering.

Most of the receiving blankets I got at my eldest’s baby shower in 2018 are now used in my cloth diaper stash and have been for years.

I have pad-folded them into an insert to use in pocket diapers and I have also folded them in different ways to be wrapped around my babies.