How to use a Cloth Diaper with a Fold Down Rise

I’m not joking. The day I got my first cloth diaper with a fold down rise I thought it was broken. It had SO MANY SNAPS. That couldn’t be right. I thought it must have been a mistake. A quick email to the WAHM (work  at home mom) I purchased from totally cleared it up. I actually felt silly because they turned out to be super easy to use. Oh well, new mom brain right? Ok, so I’m going to share an easy how- to use tutorial below and I hope it helps you as much as that Mom helped me.

As you can see a cloth diaper with a fold down rise looks a lot like any other cloth diaper on the outside. This type of rise as opposed to a snap down rise is actually much more customizable. Most snap down rise cloth diapers only have 3-4 settings. With this, you just fold to the height you need so there is never that weird in between, not quite fitting size.

That is a HumBird fitted above and I’m using a Twinkie Tush Fusion for demonstration below. Both are absorbent, well-made fitted options if you need one or a few!

If you want to use the cloth diaper on the largest rise setting then you just leave it unfolded. There are snaps on the outside to close it with.

To change the rise setting to fit smaller babies, all you do is fold it down to where you need it and snap closed.

Allow me to demonstrate on my willing friend…Minnie. I don’t currently have a child that is willing to stay still so Minnie helps me out instead!

1. Place the back of the diaper under the child. I use the butt crack as a landmark. The back of the diaper should sit just above it.

2. Now bring the front of the diaper up and fold down to where you need it. Minnie is a petite little girl. So you can see that I needed to fold it down quite a bit. Obviously, it is a little high on poor Minnie. I hope she grows into this one size fitted soon ;) Now you smooth and tuck the front of the diaper down along the hips. Bring up one side and snap at a comfortable place for little one. Then repeat on the other side.

3. That’s it! You are done!

A few more thoughts…

There is a little bit of learning curve with this type of rise. But it’s worth it because you get that super nice fit. You won’t find this option all over the place. It’s mostly WAHMs although not exclusively.

While fold down rises do provide a super customizable fit, they can tend to be a little bulkier due to the folding down of the fabric. But nothing out of control. Below is a picture of just the outside of a fitted not including any inserts.

Who has tried a cloth diaper with a fold down rise? Do you think it was hard to use?

Jennifer Reinhardt

Jenn is a long-time cloth diaper educator and a passionate small business advocate. She has worked in the reusable diaper industry for over a decade, helping millions of families via her websites All About Cloth Diapers, Thinking About Cloth Diapers and Cloth Diaper Geek as well as hundreds of small businesses during that time. Her goal always to provide simple, reliable information.