Posts Tagged ‘cloth diapers’

I own quite a few wet bags, some I have made, and some I have tried out through the store.  I did find I preferred  wet bags that closed with a zipper.  Velcro closure was a nightmare of grabbing the diapers as I tried to put them in, and draw strings for me, didn’t do a great job of containing odour.  So for me, when I get yet another wet bag to use for Braden’s diapers, a zipper is a must.

My most recent purchase a couple of months ago was the Hobo Wet Bag by WeeHugger.  It was not like any other wet bag I have tried out.  We use it at Braden’s Mothers day out every other week (the other week we use a double wet bag by Baby Bug creations).  Why every other week?  Well I find unless it gets soiled, I only bother to wash the bags on the weekend, and I am so slow getting wash folded, I needed a second to use while the other was going through the very slow wash system in my household :)  In general I wash mine with Braden’s clothes, but if it gets soiled with poop it goes in with the diapers.

This bag has been a huge hit with myself, Braden’s day care and Braden himself.  For me I love the cute pattern and the fact it does not look like a diaper bag when I carry it around.  I don’t put it inside another diaper bag like I do more traditional wet bags.  But rather I carry this over my shoulder as it is down right pretty!  It comes in a great selection of patterns, and we have the blue beads one.

Daycare loves it because the system we set up for cleans and dirties is nice and easy for them.  We use the side pocket to put a clean change of clothes in and three AIO diapers.  When they have a dirty diaper, they just put it in the middle pocket.  When I get home, I take the dirty ones out, and replace them with fresh ones in the side pocket for the  next day.  If he had a change of clothes they go in the middle with the diapers and I just replace that.  The side pocket is big enough for all of this.  Braden is only at daycare for a few hours a day, so he does not need a super big bag, and this fits our needs beautifully.

So why does Braden like it too?  Well he loves to carry it in from the car into daycare.  The length of the strap is short enough that he can hang it over his shoulder too.

If I was to ask for one improvement to this bag, it would be for an adjustable strap.  I know some mums in my store have said they wished it was longer to wear across the body. I  like the length personally, but I am a short 5’2″ so it works for me.

So a quick run down of this bags features:

A side pocket for the clean diapers/clothes.  This side pocket is not waterproof so it is not usable for dirties.

A larger middle pocket for soiled diapers with a tab for scents.

A zipper closure on both pockets.

Cute fabrics and style.

Congratulations to Tina Olsgaard who won this giveaway!!!

Monkey Doodlez are giving away a Tuck and Go cover, in the size and colour of your choice, along with one of their super soft bamboo pads.  I will draw the winner on August 20th.  The prize will ship directly from Monkey Doodlez.

It is very simple to enter.  Just read my blog review on the TAG cover and head on over to the entry form and answer the questions there.

One entry per household please.

You can however earn an extra entry by blogging about the giveaway.

Entrants will be put on a list here.  I will reply to your entry to confirm that I got it.  It may take me a day or two to process.

I have a nappy bag that sits in the car all the time.  I prefer not to cart around a diaper bag all the time now that Braden is older, so for the past year I have kept a bag in the car fully stocked ready to go, and we pull it out when we need it.  That way I am not carting it to and from the house.  The bag is actually one that my quilting friends made me.  We are dragon crazy in this house, so it is a red bag with blue dragons on it.  It is a nice large bag.  My husband actually willingly puts it over his shoulder because it’s not girly :)

So what is in this bag?

• It used to contain an empty sippy cup, but now that Braden is comfortable drinking from a straw, we stopped carrying this one around.  I kept it empty because I didn’t want it forgotten and going mouldy.  That way we could fill it as need be at restaurants etc.
• A spare dummy/pacifier.  Yes I know, he should not be using one of those, but well it helps him sleep.
• A spoon.  Never know when you will need to feed him :)  When he was smaller I had a bib in there too.
• 

  I keep GroVia shells with biopads in my bag.

  GroBaby shells. These days they are called GroVia (same thing with a few little improvements).  I have about 3 shells in this bag.  They take up next to no room as they are just covers.

• About 6 GroVia Biodegradable Pads and 4 gDiaper Flushables.  Why both?  Well the Flushables are actually size small, and I fold them in half if I know I cant change him for a while.  I then put the folded one in the front of his diaper over the top of the GroVia Pad, and that gives me the extra time before I have to change him.  Sometimes when you are in the car a long time, it is nice to diaper him like I would diaper him at night.  And yes this combination did work at night for him.  I put this combination on him after the July 4th fireworks and he was asleep when we got home, and we put him straight to bed without changing, and his clothes were dry the next morning.
• A couple of cloth wipes - dry.  I have contemplated adding a bottle of wash to the bag, but I think because he rarely poops when out, it is not needed.  But I would so do this if he was smaller and still fully breastfed, because you need that kind of thing when changing a lot of poopy diapers.  I would then be able to spray the dry wipes and wipe dirty butt.
• 

  These wipes are great for sticky fingers too.

  A packet of GroVia wipes.  I added these to test the product out, and well I really like the product.  You can read Sara Snow’s review of them here.  They are a good size, they are a good thickness, and they are environmentally friendly.  I use them more for sticky hands than anything else at Braden’s age.  (And on his 7 year old brother, Connor, who is always seeming just as sticky as the baby!)

.

• 

  More than one wet bag is essential in my opinon.

  A wet bag.  I own about 5 wet bags now.  I suggest having at least two, so you can have one in use while one is in the wash.  One I had to make because it matched the pattern of my other diaper bag (a woman can never have too many bags you know!).  But I keep one in this bag, so I have something to put the dirties in when they happen.

• A receiving blanket.  This is very thin and folds up small, so it makes a good change mat if need be.  Can also be used to wipe up messes and so on.

So what is in your diaper bag?  Feel free to comment below :)

Chances are you have heard of an all in two, which is generally a cover with a pad/insert that is often snapped into place or laid into place.  The Sweet Pea AI3 is denoted such because it’s pad is actually a two part system in itself.  But in reality, I use it like an AI2 when I use it on Braden.

A customer recommended the Sweet Pea AI3 to me, so I decided to try out their diapers, and I like them.  They are a Canadian made diaper, one that to me is better that some of the better marketed brands out there.

It is one size.  We did find it a little big on newborn Rylan (we tried it at around 6-7 pounds), so I don’t suggest it for a tinier newborn.   But then most one size diapers are not the best choice for tinier newborns.  It does have a great rise on it so that it is good for larger babies, and should do well up to the suggested 35 pounds.  Braden is wearing it on the medium setting in the photo below.  Braden is nearly 30 pounds at time of writing.  If I use it at night with an extra insert in there, then I put it up to the larger setting.  Braden is kind of in between the two settings right now.  It is really nice that there is room to grow in this diaper.

It is snap closing, which means no hook and loop diaper trains in the wash, and snaps are more durable.  But it is one that my husband the snap phobe will not use.  However, if you are comfortable with using snaps, this diaper is no different or harder to use than any other snap closing diaper.

The cover is made of PUL and as such can be easily wiped out if lightly soiled.  The cover is designed to be re-used with just the pad being washed most of the time.  The pad doesn’t snap directly on to the cover like most AI2 diapers, but rather on to a flap that is sewn into the seam of the diaper.  It does snap directly at the front where there is extra PUL for the sizing snaps anyway.  This minimizes the risk of snaps pulling through the PUL.

I love that there is a hook on the back of the diaper for easy line drying, and even storage.

The pad is a good one too.  I know my inserts, and I know what fabric combination’s work well together as the maker of the G-Flapper.  I did a lot of testing with Braden when I was trying to make good inserts to work for him as he is a heavy wetter.  I like this insert because it uses the magic hemp and microfiber and microfleece combination.  There is three layers of hemp on the bottom layer of the pad.  The pad is sewn so it is curved.  There is a microfiber pad topped with microfleece pad that snaps on to the hemp pad, so if you didn’t want to use either of the pads, you do not have to.

I have tested this pad system at nap time with Braden and it passes. It passed the night time test too, but Braden is not as heavy at night as he once was, so it might not work for a super heavy wetter.  But that being said, you could always add in a G-Flapper insert to the combination at night.  The pad did shrink a little over time, and I found that it makes the diaper pucker a little when both ends are snapped up.  I solved this by just snapping it in at the front.  It doesn’t shift of anything inside the cover once it is done up.  The pad just gets more absorbent with washing too.

This diaper is pretty trim, of course that comes down to what you put in it.  Add more padding, and you will get more bulk. But when using the pad it comes with, it is nice and trim.

The diaper retails for $18.95 and it comes with the cover and one pad.  You can buy more pads separately.  The cover will also work with gDiaper flushables, Gro-Via biopads, G-Flappers and flip inserts.  I have even put a Thirsties Hemp Pre-fold in it.  Oh and it will work over a fitted too :)

Recently I added the Knickernappies One Size Diaper to my line up on the store.  It is a snap closing diaper that fits from newborn (5 pounds) to 35 pounds.  It comes in a great choice of colours too.

What I really liked about this diaper is the snapping is side snapping rather than front snapping.  So far Braden has not managed to undo this diaper (and he has been stripping off his diapers lately).  He can undo front snapping diapers because he can just rip them undone like an aplix closing diaper.  But because the side snaps require being pulled in the opposite direction, he has not figured out how to undo it!

Because the diaper is side snapping it doesn’t suffer from “wing droop”.  The wings are tucked inside the diaper so they don’t slip down like some diapers I have tried that are front snapping.

The other thing I really love about this diaper is the pocket is a good sized, so it can be stuffed with a couple of inserts for night time.  This diaper has passed the night time test, and is now one of our go to diapers for night time.

I only stock them with the loopy do inserts.  This is a great insert.  It is a mix of hemp and microfiber, which to me is one of the best combination’s for heavy wetters. It comes with two inserts, a small and a large.  I use the two of them in combination at night.  During the day, I can get away with just the big one as Braden is wearing the diaper on the biggest size.  These inserts do need to be washed a few times before they are at peak absorbency, but I still use them in the mean time, I am just prepared to change him sooner than normal.

I also love that everything Knickernappies makes is made in the USA! The owners still work from home for the most part (they do have a warehouse).  So when you buy a Knickernappies diaper you are supporting the economy in the best way and getting a great diaper as well!

I have been stocking the Mama Pouch by Baby Bug Creations for some time now, and when I was sitting with a couple of cloth diapering friends, we were talking about wet bags … and it came up, that wouldn’t it be great if we could have the double bag system of the mama pouch combined with the size of the Nappy Shoppe Large wet bag. One of the mums had her little one in part time day care, and she said she would love such a bag for that.  Another took her two babies to work with her for her part time job, and she wanted a bag that would last the day, and divide up the two babies diapers.  So I said, well let me see what Ashley of Baby Bug Creations says .. and as I am writing up the email asking if she would make this bag for Nappy Shoppe, they are saying things like.  Make sure it has a nice big handle, oh and make the zippers different colours, so you know which side is dirty and which side is clean, and choose cute fabrics!

So the large double wet bag for Nappy Shoppe by Baby Bug Creations came about.  And this has been a huge hit and has recieved great feed back.  So much so, I had to buy one myself when Braden started going to Mothers Day Out, 2 mornings a week a couple of weeks ago.

So yes, the mum of the baby in part time daycare did buy one.  And after she had been using it a week or so, she posted the following to facebook.

“I am in love with this wetbag. I got it just about a week ago and love it. It fits all my diapers and even wipes. It was great at the park yesterday, I just snapped it onto my stroller and I had wipes, diapers, my keys on one side and dirty diapers on the other. My DD school loves it too, they clip it by the changing table and don’t have to worry about her diapers getting seperated anymore. Thanks Sharni for stocking this, I will be getting more!”

It was these comments about daycare that had me getting one of these for Braden despite the fact I own several wet bags already (I do make them after all for Nappy Shoppe :) ).  So we rock up to Braden’s first day of Mothers Day Out.  I am carrying the wet bag.  It is so pretty, that no one even knows what it is.  They think it is a really nice diaper bag.  And then I explain it to the teacher.  I point out that Braden’s clean diaper, clean wipes, and a change of clothes were in the side with the blue zip.  The brown zip side is empty right now, but it is for the dirties.  Just throw them in there.  No other child is cloth diapered at the Mothers Day Out program (for now …).  I have kept it simple, just a couple of AIO diapers (Thirsties, Monkey Doodlez and Drybees have all been used with ease by the teacher).  Braden’s sippy and lunch box are in a small starwars back pack that he wears in himself.  It all works very nicely.  I pick him up.  Ask the girl, “Did you have any issues?”  She said, no the diapers were really easy to use, the bag was great.  So the bag was a huge success, and made the cloth diapering process of not throwing things away so much easier for the staff at the center.

So if you are looking for a great wet bag for day care, a long day out, or even a day at the beach for swim suits etc.  Then I am sure this one will work for you.  And you don’t need to hide it.  It is great for showing off!

Congratulations to Lisa Savitz who won the Monkey Doodlez AIO give away!

Would you like to win a Monkey Doodlez AIO diaper? It is very simple to enter. Just read my blog review on the diaper and then go here to answer a couple of question and submit your entry. Correct answers will go into a drawing to win the diaper on May 3rd, 2010.  One entry per person.

Many thanks to Monkey Doodlez for providing the diaper prize.  The winner will be able to choose colour and size and the diaper will ship from Monkey Doodlez direct.

So I decided to stock the Monkey Doodlez AIO after my friend Heather visited with her daughter.  She had managed to pick up a couple of pairs second hand to try out and she was “in diaper love”.  Heather is big on trim fitting diapers for her daughter, but they also have to work well, and this diaper fit the bill.  And it was cute as well!

The AIO comes with two choices of inner fabric.  Either a bamboo velour or a microfleece.  So if you want a natural fabric against baby’s bum, you have that option, if you want the true stay dry of the microfleece, then you have that choice too.

This is an AIO that will last through nap time, car trips and possibly even night time for the not so heavy wetters.  It has absorbency without a lot of bulk.  It comes in 4 sizes, small, medium, medium long and large.  Note the size “medium long”.  This is a size I had not heard of before, but it is the size that fits Braden, and as you can see from the photos, it fits him well.  It has a longer rise than a regular medium.  So if you have a long lean kid, this is going to be the fit for them.  Often I hear from mums saying that the rise on such and such diaper is just too short for their little one, if that is your little one, then you should try out the medium long in this diaper.  It is likely that this one will fit (providing of course your little one is in the weight range).

This diaper has nice large aplix tabs that grip well, including a place for overlap for skinny bubs.  The smallest size has been tested on two local newborn babies and it fit them from around 7-8 pounds.  The large size, well we have not tried this one out because the medium long still fits.  But it is nice to know that there is a size that will fit the larger tots.  Too many of Braden’s one size diapers are now nearing the end of their fit range on him, and he hasn’t even hit 30 pounds yet!  The Thirsties AIO was one that did, but sadly that one is no longer being made.  For those of you who loved the Thirsties AIO and mourn its demise, than the Monkey Doodlez AIO is a good replacement in my opinion.

So I asked Heather for opinion of this diaper on her daughter Natalie and she writes “This is the trimest most absorbant best fitting diaper we have.  This diaper eliminates all the bulk inbetween there legs letting my toddler run and play without the extra bulk.  This is the diaper I reach for when we go out as well, I know that it holds tons and I don’t have to worry about any leaks.  It can last my daughters 3 hours naps and the long nonstop trip to there Grammy’s house 4 hours because my husband doesn’t stop.  Lots of AIO’s you get trim but not absorbant or absorbant and thick but this has absorbant and trim, it is all cotton inners so no stinky microfiber.  Best of all there is the Medium long size which is great because Natalie is kind of in between.  Mediums (in other diapers) fit too good and larges are really still to big but give the rise we want.”

So the big concern that most have about AIOs is how well do they wash and dry?  Well I expected this one to be a real pain to dry, but it dries in one spin in my drier, and it on the line outside, it only takes a bit longer than a pocket does.

Ashley, mother of a newborn, started using this diaper on her son at 8 pounds (1 month), which is the recommended weight for a size small. And she writes “We love this diaper for a newborn!!! It lasted a 4.5hr nap. My little one is a HEAVY wetter at a month old and about 8lbs is fitting in the small. The diaper is trim even though it just barely fits him. I’ve not had a leak ever with this diaper. I like that the inside of the diaper is colored also. It’s different and different in this case is good & cute! I have no complaints about this diaper at all. It dries in one round in my dryer as well. I see it fitting for quite a while which makes me happy! Oh and my son is exclusively breastfed. This diaper has caught a major poop explosion with no issues :) yippee!!!”

And Beth, mother of Kherington (who has been wearing her Monkey Doodlez since she was a newborn at 7 pounds) writes “My little girl just loves the Monkey Doodlez! They have a great fit, and they absorb very well. I would recommend them to anyone interested in cloth diapers!”

I love to sew.  I learned how to sew in high school in home ec, where the teacher was one of the students mothers who had a passion for sewing, and shared that enthusiasm with the kids.  I sewed alot of my daughters clothing (she is now 22), and then later turned to quilting.  Now, I am sewing inserts, diaper bags, and diaper accessories.  I have not actually made alot of diapers though.  I have bought alot of diaper patterns though, and I plan to try and sew each and everyone one of them :)

My first one I loved so much, I had to stock it for the DIY section of the store.  It is the pattern by Jalie and it is great value.  It includes patterns for a pocket, AIO, fitted and cover.  I have tried out the pocket in this pattern so far.  I took the plunge after I saw how easy it was with the videos that Jalie had posted on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jaliepatterns

You can find most if not all of what you need to make the diapers from this pattern from the DIY section of Nappy Shoppe.

I made the pocket diaper using 2mm PUL and Microchamois.  I use the elastic that I stock in the store and I used the pre-made tabs on most of the diapers I made.  One or two of them, I cut the tabs to shape because I wanted to try out some of the coloured aplix I had on hand.  Following along with the video really helped.  I put it on my phone beside the sewing machine and paused while I did each step. 

The end result was a pocket diaper that has been in Braden’s stash for coming up a year.  I like to use it at night as it is a good sized pocket and I can fit around 3 hemp and microfiber G-Flappers in it. 

This pattern makes cloth diapering very affordable if you have the time and the skills to put into it.  In my opinion an absolute beginner sewer may find this challenging, but if you have some good basic sewing skills, you should be able to follow this pattern and video just fine.  It helps to be familiar with your machine.  The first diaper I sewed, the thread kept breaking as I was putting in the leg elastic.  It turns out the timing was off, and the making of this diaper made this issue come to the fore, so I took the machine in to be serviced, and subsequent diapers went together without a hitch.

My friend Ashley has made a few diapers from this pattern too.  She started out in my sewing room trying out the pattern, but loved the pattern so had to get her own :)  She even made some of the newborn size ones, and they work great on her newborn.

She also made the largest size for her older son who is 30 pounds and it was big on him, so if you have a larger baby, this pattern will cover that size too.

So I had my friend Heather and her husband for dinner late last year.  They came with their two beautiful daughters, one of whom is cloth diapered and a similar age to my youngest son.  She had called me earlier to ask if there was anything she could bring, wine, dessert etc.  I told her, just themselves.  Well she brought me a hostess gift anyway, a two pack of RLR that she had managed to find at her local supermarket.  I was thrilled, I wanted to try this stuff out, as I had heard great things about it.  I couldn’t find it locally at all!  Who needs a bottle of wine?? Not me :)

I stripped my diapers with it the very next day.  And wow it worked great.  Better than Dawn with far less rinsing afterwards.  So then I was on a mission to find where I could get it wholesale so I could stock it in the store.  I had already been asked to do so by a few loyal customers.  

Finally I got some in stock and I decided as it had been a couple of months since I had done that stripping with the RLR I would do ALL of my diapers.  They were getting that ammonia smell when I opened his pail, so it was time. Well it is at this point we find out just how many diapers Braden has, THREE loads worth!  So there I was with my friend Ashley (who also cloth diapers), hanging over the washing machine, taking photos for you all.  My husband was looking at us like we were mad women the way we were clucking over the washing machine.  Braden has been wearing said diapers for the last week, since I did the RLR strip and they all smell great again.  No more ammonia smell when I open the pail. 

So here is what I did.  Note that I have a top loading machine, but my friend Heather has a front loading machine and RLR works for her too.

I rinsed the diapers on cold first, to remove any poop debris, wash away the  pee etc.

I filled the machine with warm water.  While it was filling I added a whole packet of RLR.  At this point I observed a bit of bubbling up as the machine was filling.

I left the lid up on my machine.  My machine does not drain the water unless the lid is down.  I watched it agitate a heap of scum and suds to the top.  I was thinking OMG, this is going to take a huge amount of rinses to get rid of all of these suds!

I let it soak for around an hour or so before lowering the lid and letting the machine finish its cycle, which was a cold rinse.  I did note that the suds did settle while I let it soak, but the water was a gray murky colour.

I ran the machine again on a hot cycle.  I left the lid up because I wanted to check the status of the suds.  And I was amazed, because the huge suds had rinsed away in the previous cycle, and there was only a little bit of suds left.  My machine does a cold rinse with its hot cycle.  It was done.  It was winter, so I had to run the diapers through the dryer.  But if it was summer, I would have hung them out in the sun.

In conclusion, this is not the cheapest way to strip the diapers, Dawn is much cheaper.  However, it seems to me to be the most effective.  So if you have bad stinkies, then this is worth trying.

Do you use a front loader?  Then check out this blog article by a fellow cloth diapering mum with a front loader on using RLR for her first time!