Author Archives: Maria

Maria is an aspiring "fit mom" of 3 children, writing about cloth diapers, going green, and her life as a single mom. Maria works with many companies within the cloth diaper industry and beyond, providing social media management, product development, and other services.
All In One Diapers Cloth Diapers Made in the USA Sized Diapers

His Tooshie is Cooshie

>Yesterday I got the Cooshie Tooshie diapers I purchased.

These are my first WAHM made diapers.  They are very clearly individually vs factory made.  The thing I like best about WAHM made diapers (aside from supporting another Mom) is the adorable prints.
I love that the inside is black.  No stains!
The red rodeo diaper is a pocket style.  It was sent with a microfiber towel to fold & stuff.  Some WAHMs do not include an insert.  You can make one, buy one, or use a towel.
The pocket opening is in the front, which doesn’t matter, but is different than I’m used to.
I washed them separately since they are brand new & so dark, then hung them to dry.

The Curious George diaper is an all in one, the first I’ve owned.  The soaker is firmly stitched in and didn’t bunch while washing.  It definitely took a while to dry!

These are also both size mediums.  They’re the first non one size diapers I’ve purchased.

They seemed similar to the medium BG setting in length but seemed narrow through the middle.

They were trim & adorable on!

He only wet these diapers.  They didn’t fit quite as snugly around the thighs and we had a little wicking around the legs.  The price was excellent, they’re adorable and I’m happy to support a WAHM. 

I definitely think if you were to do AIOs full time, you would need to double the stash since they take so long to dry.  I also think it would be much more difficult to keep them clean & stink free since you can’t treat the soaker separately, and you do not want to damage the PUL.

I’m very happy to have these cute diapers!

Edit August 2010: I ended up selling these because I didn’t love the fit on my son as much as others I have.

Share on Pinterest
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers

Free Sample of Grandma El’s Diaper Rash Remedy & Prevention

>Click here to request your sample of Grandma El’s Diaper Rash Remedy & Prevention.

This stuff is miraculous, zinc free and cloth diaper safe!

Share on Pinterest
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers Made in the USA One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers

Not that kind of Blueberry

>I was most excited to get this diaper.  The print looked adorable online, and the outside was a soft “minky” material.

blueberry diapers

In person, the print wasn’t nearly as cute as I expected, but it is cute and soft.

I really dislike the insert.  It is hemp and microfiber and I had to wash it numerous times before using, to remove the natural oils.  I found it confusing to snap and fold.  The instructions said to fold it in thirds and snap, but doing that put the microfiber sandwiched in the middle, and I thought microfiber was supposed to be on the baby side inside the pocket.

The other diapers I have used have had the PUL layer directly on the outside.  Since this is minky outside, I think the PUL is sandwiched inside (need to look at it more closely).  Once I had the diaper on him, it had this weird plastic crinkle to it that is hard to explain, but it was as if he had plastic pants on.  At first I thought there was something strange going on with the insert but I am almost sure it was the PUL layer.  Like it was moving around inside?

This seemed to be the only diaper with good laundry tabs.  They remained firmly attached and I actually had a hard time undoing them when it was time to put the diaper on.  The diaper was a member of the diaper chain in the wash though, the hook part of the velcro on other diapers gravitated towards this one.

I have never seen a diaper more expensive than this one.  Between the price, washing issues of the hemp, the weird insert, plastic crinkle and so forth, I would not buy another one.  Plenty of WAHMs make dipes with minky on the outside if that’s what you’re looking for.

Blueberry has other diapers, some have snaps.  They have several prints that I like and the non-minky diapers are about $5 cheaper, but they are still very, very expensive.  I believe Blueberry is in some way affiliated with Swaddlebees, and I wonder if their diapers are any different, they look very similar in photos online.  I would love to try a different type of Blueberry diaper, but there is no way I can bring myself to pay almost twice as much for one.  I would much rather have two fuzzibunz!

After having used this for four months, I love the insert (just had to figure it out) and HATE those “sticky” laundry tabs.  It’s near impossible to rip the velcro off of them, and one of the laundry tabs is shredded and torn almost completely off.  The company just emailed me a virtual *shrug* and said that you can’t win with velcro, either it’s too sticky or not sticky enough.  The inner is also quite pilly and gross looking.

On the other hand, my Blueberry Bamboo diaper still rocks.  It looks new, the snaps work wonderfully and so on.  I just prefer a stay dry inner, but I can always get a liner for it.

I should have listened to the reviews that said to stay away from Blueberry velcro!!

Share on Pinterest
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers

Haute Mess (not really!)

>The Haute diaper I really only chose because it was clearanced and the price was right.  I didn’t really have high hopes for it, and that feeling was spot on.

I got the mint color which is nice.

haute pockets

The liner had a shape unlike any other I’ve seen.  I am used to them being rectangles with rounded ends.  This was the same shape as the diaper, with big wings (very hard to explain).  This made is very difficult to get in the diaper and incredibly difficult to get it in the diaper on the snapped down medium setting.  It was square peg/round hole, trying to put something big into something small and ended up bunched up.

Even with the liner all bunched up, it was still trimmer than the bumgenius.

Like all the other velcro diapers, it was very simple to use.  It seems to be a common theme here but the medium setting seemed larger than the medium setting of the BG.

Really, there was nothing special about the diaper.  I didn’t have any major problems, but I did notice moisture on my son’s legs at the leg openings when I changed him, and the laundry tabs seemed the most useless of all the diapers I’ve tried.

Overall, I would continue to use this diaper, but it would be in the bottom of my stash, to use when all other diapers were dirty.  It makes sense to me why these aren’t being carried anymore.

Edit August 2010: I’ve heard quite a few people say that Haute Pockets are their favorite commercial pocket diaper, but they just don’t work for me.  The oddly shaped insert means it’s always bunched up and ends up leaking.  I keep meaning to try it with a different insert to see if that works better, but I haven’t yet.  For now, this is in my “laundry day” diaper pile, since I finally have enough diapers to be picky about my favorites!

Share on Pinterest
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers

FuzziBunz One Size Pocket Diaper

>Fuzzibunz were actually my first choice initially when I researched long before I even had a baby on the way.  I really don’t remember why I changed my mind and decided to go with bumgenius.  The velcro maybe?

I chose the aqua color, thinking it was gender neutral, without being the usual pastel green or yellow.  It is a bit lighter than it appeared on the screen & is very pretty.

fuzzibunz

The fuzzi bunz are very adjustable.  They don’t have snaps for a fold down waist, they have adjustable elastic on the waist and legs, reminiscent of adjustable waist pants.  I am not sure if it is a piece of elastic through the leg opening cinched on each end, or if there is also a piece running through the rear waist.  I suppose the rise itself is reduced by the elastic in the legs being drawn tighter.  When it is clean, I will have to look more closely. (ed: looks like I was correct)  They came with extra elastic, and according to their website, it is easy to replace.

I imagine you can really get a custom fit for your baby, so if you have a skinny baby with chubby legs, you can still get the right fit. 

I need to double check, but I think it came set on “2” for both the legs and the waist.  I assumed this was equal to medium, but when I looked it up, it appears there are 4 waist settings and 8 leg settings, and 2/2 is the largest setting? (ed: yep that’s right)

I will take a closer look when it’s clean, but it appears I put my 15.5 pounder in a setting for 30+ lb babies?  If so, then this is truly idiot proof because it worked wonderfully with no leaks.
I really wish the diaper came with detailed instruction on sizing, how to adjust and how to get the best fit.
This may be stupid, but it does concern me that they have buttons.  I realize that diapers go on the kid’s butt, but you will always have a stash of diapers around, often in the child’s bedroom.  We all know that no matter how closely you watch your child, it only takes a split second for something to happen.  I wonder if a child has ever gnawed the button off of a fuzzi bunz diaper, or if one has fallen off?  I seem to have bad luck with buttons falling off clothing items.  These buttons are small and I imagine one could come off without the parent immediately realizing it, and that it would be hard to locate if it did.  Meaning, a baby could find and ingest it.

This was the first and only diaper I’ve had with snaps.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a good fit and that I’d have a hard time snapping them.  I had no trouble at all and in fact, it was nice not to have to struggle with laundry tabs or diaper chains.  Looking at all those rows of snaps was intimidating but it was easy as pie.  I question how this diaper would work on a younger baby.  The second set of adjustments must cinch the rear waist tighter.

I’ve read that snaps are great for bigger babies, especially older ones who try to take their diapers off.  The longevity of a snap is supposed to be better than velcro also, though you will likely have to replace a snap here or there someday.

The liner seemed smaller than the bumgenius, but we had no absorbency issues.  It had a doubler included as well.  Here’s a photo comparing the BG to the FB liner.  Doublers not pictured, I usually only use them at night.

This diaper is so trim I can hardly believe it is cloth.  This is the diaper I thought I’d like the least, but it’s my new favorite.  I do wonder if it would be a lot more bulky on smaller settings, but as I used it, it was still trimmer than the BG on the largest setting, with a single, unfolded liner.

Photo shows the diaper after I corrected it to the 3/3 setting.  Not as trim as the large setting, but still trim.

As of today, this would be my #1 choice for diapers I’d like to fill my stash with.  It doesn’t have the extra PUL stopper to prevent wicking, but we didn’t have any wicking problems. 

My inclination would be to use these during the day and use the BG on the largest setting at night, with multiple doublers inserted.

Here’s a question though, is my kid going to immediately poop in every new diaper I get?

Edit August 2010: I don’t care for the triangular snap formation and I didn’t care much for the fit one I sized it down.  This is another one that I will plan to try again when my son has grown a bit.  I am very interested in trying Fuzzibunz “perfect size” diapers.

Share on Pinterest
Read More
 
1 561 562 563 564 565 568