Softbums Omni Cloth Diaper Review

Mar 22,2012 / By Maria / 8 Comments

I posted my Softbums Echo review way back in July 2010! I just washed the wipe they sent along with that diaper; we’re still using it. Although an all-in-two isn’t my favorite (I prefer pockets) the Softbums Echo was one of very few diapers that worked for us when my 3 month old was a newborn. It gets sooo tiny that it fit him well (not true about most o/s diapers) and the insert was actually absorbent enough for him (not true for most newborn diapers!) It was a dream come true for our tiny super soaker!

Now, Softbums makes the Omni as well. It’s everything you love about the Echo, but it also has a pocket opening, so you have the option of using it as an AI2 or a pocket diaper. I received a solo pack with a super dry touch pod (retails for $24.95) plus a dry touch mini pod. The mini pods retail for $2.95 and can be used in the smaller size settings, or as a doubler.

The super dry touch pod (“dry touch” because it is topped with soft, stay dry fabric) is 3 layers of microfiber (6 when you fold it over), so you’re unlikely to need the mini pod too! A smaller, 4 layer dry touch pod retails for $4.95, and additional super dry touch pods sell for $5.95. You can also purchase organic bamboo pods for $9.25 and organic bamboo mini pods for $3.95. Whichever “pods” (soakers) you use, this can be an affordable all-in-two system.

You can choose hook & loop closures or snaps. The snaps are easy to use, so they are Daddy friendly, even when said Daddy prefers Velcro.

The size adjusts via a toggle on each leg’s elastic. On the one hand, this is a little intimidating, but it also allows you to get exactly the fit you need. I held the diaper up to a diaper that fit each boy and adjusted. The opening is in the front, and was large enough for me to do additional tweaking as I put it on each child. This type of adjustment means it won’t be as easy for babies of different sizes to share diapers, but that’s not an issue for me. Each of my boys has their own diapers, so I don’t have to fool with size adjustments at every diaper change. (I have all of my “diaper bag” diapers snapped down to small, so if my older son needs one, we just unsnap it!)

The diaper fits thighs from 4-14″ and there is a formula to figure out where to set the elastic, though I haven’t tried it!

The size adjustment means that I really can’t measure every size for you like I usually do. Instead, I adjusted the diaper as large as I could, while still leaving the elastic with some stretch…

Then measured the diaper folded & stretched. (This is about as inexact as you can get!)

Here it is next to a Bumgenius 4.0 on the large setting:

Here’s that setting on my 2 year, 10 month old, 29ish pound son (the legs could be a bit tighter on him):

Next, I set the diaper really small. Sorry, there’s no “really small” setting, LOL. I just tried to make it tiny, but not crazy tiny!

Then I measured it folded and stretched:

I adjusted it similar to a small one-size diaper, then put it on my 3 month old son, who is around 11 or so pounds (that’s a guess; he was 10 lbs at 2 months.) Once I put it on him, I just fished the toggles out & adjusted it further.

That’s with the super dry touch pod in the pocket, so it’s a little bit bulky, but what do you expect with 6 layers of absorbency in such a small diaper? I know the mini pod isn’t absorbent enough for my son, but it would be nice & trim on a small baby that isn’t such a heavy wetter. The regular (non-super) dry touch pods are 4 layers of microfiber topped with microfleece, so they would be another good choice!

The Softbums Omni is versatile and quite cost effective when used as an AI2. They are also made in the U.S.A.!

Shop Softbums or find a retailer, “like” Softbums on Facebook, follow Softbums on Twitter and follow the Softbums blog.

Giveaway: One winner will receive a Softbums Omni solo pack with super dry touch pod in his/her choice of color & closure, subject to availability (ARV $24.95.)

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FTC compliance: I received product samples for review purposes. I was not otherwise compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

Affiliates Cloth Diapers Giveaway One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers Snap Closure Velcro/Aplix Closure

Bumgenius 4.0 Cloth Diaper Giveaway – Self-Sponsored (CLOSED 4/3) U.S. & Canada

Mar 19,2012 / By Maria / 15 Comments

My love of fluff began in 2009 with 3 Bumgenius 3.0 cloth diapers, so it’s only fitting that I would give away a Bumgenius 4.0 to welcome all the new faces (and to say thanks to the folks that have been around a while!)

Consider “liking” me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, adding my Google+ page to your circles, subscribing to my YouTube channel, RSS feed, email updates or following me on Pinterest. However, this is a one click giveaway entry, so you don’t need to do any of that to get entries.

~~Giveaway details: One winner will receive a Bumgenius 4.0 one-size cloth diaper in his/her choice of color and closure (ARV $17.95.)~~

Winner may choose Albert or Lovelace print however, they may be backordered. I will purchase the diaper from a reputable cloth diaper retailer of my choice, including (but not limited to) my affiliates Cloth Diaper Outlet, Kelly’s Closet, Diaper Junction and Mom’s Milk Boutique. Winner name, address & email may be shared with the retailer for order fulfillment only. This giveaway is open to the U.S. and Canada, excluding Quebec, and will end Tuesday April 3rd, 2012 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using Rafflecopter, and notify him/her by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my giveaway rules for complete details.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please note: This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or approved by, nor affiliated with any cloth diaper manufacturer or retailer. I was not compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking the link, I receive a small portion of the sale. Thank you!

Affiliates Cloth Diapers Flats Mailbox Mondays

Cloth Diaper Advice – Mailbox Mondays 3/19/12 – Flat Cloth Diapers

Mar 19,2012 / By Maria / 4 Comments

Do you have a cloth diaper question? Each Monday, I answer a reader question, and ask for my other readers’ input as well.

Questions don’t have to be cloth diaper related, just email maria at change-diapers.com with “Mailbox Mondays” in the subject, or fill out my contact form for readers, which you will always be able to find on my Contact Page.

Leigh says::

Tell me all things flats! I don’t really understand how they are so simple when the folds seem so confusing…

Carolyn says::

And are there different kinds of flat? (What the HECK are flour sack towels, anyhow??) But do they come in different sizes and materials? (Like prefolds?) Or is a flat always a certain size and a specific kind of material?

Ok, you all know I’m a pocket diaper loving Mama, and I am very glad I don’t have to use flat cloth diapers & pins like our Grandmothers did. Even so, lots of people love flats. They can be very affordable, are easy to wash & dry (they are a single layer of material) and can be customized based on how you fold them. Hannah wrote a guest post about using flats while traveling to Italy.

You can get flats for as little as $1.46 each for birdseye cotton and as much as $7.50 each for hemp flats. You may hear people refer to flour sack towels used as flat diapers as well. They are simply lint-free, absorbent kitchen towels very similar is size and makeup to flat diapers. They are available in different sizes.

Flats are generally about 27″ x 27″ before washing (some you can get larger, like Diaper Rite’s) and can be folded into quarters and used pretty much like a prefold; trifolded, or folded & snappied, pinned or simply placed under a cover. Green Mountain Diapers has a page about flats that includes folding a flat to prefold size with another inside as a doubler, flats on a newborn and many other babies, and a photo tutorial of the origami fold. Diaper Pin’s Diaper Pin Corner has lots of flat diaper posts including a photo demo of the mini neat fold and how to pad fold a flat.

I didn’t participate in Dirty Diaper Laundry’s flats & hand washing challenge last year because I wasn’t able to commit to it the week it was being done. However, I believe 50 (or more?) moms participated & blogged about it.

If I had to choose between diapers or food, I would definitely use flats, t-shirts, towels or whatever I needed to. Especially if I didn’t have access to a washer & dryer. Fortunately I have a stash of modern cloth that I love and my own washer & dryer! I know I need to master all the flat folds so I can really be a cloth guru, but it may have to wait until my little one is a bit bigger and I have a little more time on my hands!

Have you used flats? What do you think of them? How did you fold them?

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking the link, I receive a small portion. Thank you!

All In One Diapers Cloth Diapers One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers Snap Closure Velcro/Aplix Closure

NEW Style – Tots Bots Easy Fit Cloth Diaper (From Bummis) Review

Mar 13,2012 / By Maria / 7 Comments

I had never used a Tots Bots Easy Fit diaper, but I did use the newborn version, a Tini Fit. Like the Tini Fit, the Easy Fit is made by Tots Bots in Glasgow, Scotland, and distributed in the U.S. by Bummis.

Bummis sent me one of the new version Easy Fits to review, although they won’t be available to purchase until April. I don’t have an old version, and I’ve already sent along my Tini Fit to a new home (it would still fit my son, but I wanted to send all the newborn diapers to my friend at once!) So, I don’t have a side-by-side comparison for you, but I will point out the features that have been changed (including the wider back elastic, which you can see above!) I’m not sure if this is new, but I noticed that the PUL is really soft. It definitely has a different feel than all my other diapers.

Whether you choose hook & loop or snaps (poppers) for your diaper (nappy), they are now color matched. Tots Bots are made in the U.K. so the Tots Bots Facebook page is full of “popper” and “nappy” talk. Tee-hee! The closure tabs are rather stiff on the Tini & Easy Fits, so I really wondered if they’d stay folded back and attached to the laundry tabs. Both the newborn and the big version didn’t give me any trouble. They have a snap down rise to fit babies 8-35 pounds, and the rise snaps are color matched as well.

Above left, I’ve pictured the fleece liner that was included with my diaper. The Easy Fit still has a half sewn-in soaker and brushed polyester side guards to prevent compression leaks. However, instead of a 2 layer soaker made of microfiber & rayon from bamboo, the soaker is 3 layers of color matched minky. This gives you more absorbency with less bulk.

The soaker is super easy to tuck in. It comes out on its own in the wash, but it doesn’t bunch or turn the whole diaper inside out. It gets cleaner & dries faster than an AIO with a completely sewn in soaker, and it’s quicker to stuff the soaker back in than it is to match and stuff pocket diapers. The pocket also allows you to add additional absorbency if you need it. The flap covering the pocket opening on my Tini Fit was the same brushed polyester as the side guards, but this Easy Fit is a different, even softer polyester.

Here is the small setting measured folded & stretched:

Below, I closed the left side of the diaper first. You can overlap the tabs (both of them,) and if you notice, the right tab extends further, allowing you to close the diaper even more tightly if you close the left tab on top of it.

Medium:

You can better see what I mean about the overlap in this picture!

Large:

My older son is 2 years, 9 months old and in the neighborhood of 29ish pounds. I put him in the large setting, and he looks like he has room in this one.

My little guy had just turned 3 months old last week when I took these pictures. He’s around 11 pounds (guessing…he was 10 lbs a month ago) and he’s somewhat slender since he’s a bit taller.

The small setting fits him with no leg gap, without struggling or double checking that it’s snug enough. This is what it looks like all the way closed, with that entire overlap being used.

The Tini Fit was one of my favorite newborn diapers because it gave me the absorbency I needed (with the booster, it was as absorbent as (if not more than) a one-size diaper, but fit far better. The Easy Fit fits my little guy with no gapping or readjusting, and fits my big guy too. Plus, it’s absorbent enough for both of them! My younger son can soak a one-size microfiber insert in 2 hours, and so far the Easy Fit has lasted longer than that without a hint of leaking. That said, I have a hard time comparing the absorbency of inserts since both boys can really have a wide variation in their wetting habits. Since I can’t remove this insert it’s not as easy to tell how wet it is as it is when you yank a sopping wet microfiber insert out of a pocket. I’m still trying to find a good way to test insert absorbency “scientifically,” but Bummis says the old style Easy Fit can hold 17.6 oz (wow!) and I believe this is more absorbent.

You will be able to find the new style Easy Fit (and new prints) at Bummis Retailers in April. The new Tots Bots Easy Fit diapers will still retail for $23.95. You can see new prints & colors in Tots Bots’ Facebook album and they have photos of the inners as well. I pretty much want one in every color. 😉

FTC compliance: I received the pictured diaper at no cost for review purposes. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

Diaper Cream Giveaway Review

CJ’s BUTTer Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 3/15)

Mar 8,2012 / By Maria / 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been cloth diapering as long as I have, and I’m just now trying CJ’s BUTTer. I’ve heard so much about it, that I contacted them to see if I could buy a bunch of samples to use as prizes (they are sponsoring the next few months of “top fans” runner-up prizes) and they sent a few extra for me to try too.

BUTTer is a cloth safe diaper cream (as long as you use a thin layer!) that seems to work for just about everything! It’s available in tubs, sticks and tubes from $6.97 for a .75 oz stick, up to $19 for a 12 ounce tub. BUTTer comes in tons of yummy scents, as well as a plus formula (formerly the yeast formula) and a vegan version (shea butter, cocoa butter & sesame oil.) They also have a spray version, foaming cleanser, body lotions and more!

CJ’s BUTTer ingredients: shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, lanolin, beeswax, cocoa butter, vitamin e, colloidal oatmeal, fragrance

CJ’s BUTTer PLUS ingredients: shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, beeswax, cocoa butter, sesame oil, vitamin e, neem oil

Most of the samples had a safety seal, which foiled my plan to sit & sniff all your prizes. Hmph. If you want to try lots of scents, you can create your own sampler of .5 oz tubs.

When using this as a diaper cream, I got just a tiny bit on my fingers, rubbed them between my fingers & applied. I used a lot more in these photos to show the texture. It looks greasy above, but within a few minutes, it absorbed and left my skin super soft, but not greasy. I have terrible eczema and my hands crack & bleed in the winter (you can see band aids on my hands in some videos, LOL.) Luckily, my hands aren’t bad when I am pregnant or newly breastfeeding, but I’ve had bad patches on my upper arms lately. I applied CJ’s overnight, then lightly exfoliated in the shower and they are all but gone. I also used it on my feet and wore socks to bed (yuck on the socks in bed, but it worked.) I even put a bit on my fingertips, rubbed them together, then smoothed the ends of my hair. It tamed my frizzies without making my hair gross!

Oh yeah, it’s a diaper cream too. 😉 The fragrance was pleasant but not overwhelming, and didn’t seem to irritate my sons’ skin.

I also tried the CJ’s lip balm, which sells for $3.30 for a standard .15 oz tube. You can also get a 4-pack for $10.50 if you can’t pick just one flavor!

CJ’s BUTTer lip balm ingredients: soybean oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, apricot kernel oil, almond oil, coconut oil, vegetable glycerin, beeswax, flavor

I tried the strawberries & cream flavor (yum!) but I think they all sound fantastic, especially liptricity (peppermint), mint chocolate chip, mochaccino, lemon cheesecake & vanilla chai latte!

I’m particular about my lip products. I don’t like anything sticky or waxy. The CJ’s slicked on smoothly (didn’t need much at all) and felt satiny. Even after it started to wear off after drinking, my lips felt soft for hours. The overall texture of the stick seemed softer than most store bought lip balms at first, but after I used the top bit of lip balm, the rest of the stick was firmer.

Browse all of CJ’s products and find CJ’s on Facebook.

Giveaway: One reader will receive a 4 oz. Tube of CJ’s Original BUTTer® in his/her choice of scent. The retail value of this prize is $9.00. In order to be a “giveaway” the prize has to be free (of course) so this giveaway is open to the lower 48 states of the U.S. only. However, if you are outside of this area and would like to enter, CJ’s would ask that you pay half of the shipping. Void where prohibited of course! Entries go in the Rafflecopter form.

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FTC compliance: I received samples at no cost in order to review. I was not otherwise compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

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Category : Cloth Diapers

Softbums Omni Cloth Diaper Review

Bumgenius 4.0 Cloth Diaper Giveaway – Self-Sponsored (CLOSED 4/3) U.S. & Canada

Cloth Diaper Advice – Mailbox Mondays 3/19/12 – Flat Cloth Diapers

NEW Style – Tots Bots Easy Fit Cloth Diaper (From Bummis) Review

CJ’s BUTTer Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 3/15)

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