A cloth booty for Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo!

Feb 7,2010 / By Maria / 1 Comment

>As I said in my previous post, my daughter wanted a Baby Alive doll for her 5th Birthday. Since her Birthday was today (Happy Birthday!), I can finally post some good photos of the diapers I bought for her doll! She was so thrilled with her gift, I couldn’t really pry it out of her hot little hands in order to take “good” photos.

I bought 4 diapers from Heartland Dreams. Her daughter actually made them; they are flipping amazing! I paid $4 for each and they are well worth it. The normal price is $3 each, but I asked for an extra layer in the middle since these need to absorb a bit too! I think the Baby Alive brand sposies go for around a buck a piece, and even preemie size disposables are horrendously expensive, as well as wasteful.

You can see the Baby Alive diaper on the right side of the photo. The HD diapers are quite a bit larger, but work just fine. I almost forgot that she included a cloth wipe for free! You can see it on top of the diaper in the front. It is soft, double sided and very well made. I’d love some for my son!

The diapers (and wipe) are amazingly well made. I would be thrilled to receive a “real” diaper made as well as these. They are very easy for a child to use, the stitching is perfect, the prints are adorable…I could go on and on.

My daughter was so happy to get these, and was very excited that she could “feed” her baby water, then just let them dry and reuse them! She loved the prints (I didn’t ask for specific ones).

Baby Alive (named “Sophie,” for today anyway) says “Hooray for cloth booties!”

Slightly related Sidenote:

I am still peeved at myself for not buying this diaper while it was still available, and then missing out on this one too.

Even this one and this one were snapped up before I had a chance!

I’m such a waffler. Ugh, I swear. If I see an AI2 listed that I like, I am stalking that puppy and buying it! After seeing the doll diapers, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy anything she sells. In fact, if the doll diapers were bigger and had elastic at the legs (and a few more soaker layers), I’d put them on my son, ha ha!

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On a somewhat related topic, my daughter’s preschool allows the parent to bring a snack on their child’s Birthday. I’m not into excessive sugary “stuff,” and they actually don’t allow it. My daughter loves fruit, so I bought cherries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, oranges and bananas.

I sliced and pitted the cherries, removed the strawberry stems, sliced the bananas (also also crinkle cut them and soaked them in orange juice), and cut and sectioned the oranges.

Yum!!

I bought some wooden skewers, I think they were 10″. The store had two lengths and these were the shorter of the two.

I alternated fruits and then topped then off with blueberries to the end of the pointy tip.

They were a huge hit and were gobbled more quickly and enthusiastically then cupcakes!

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Stink Stripping Washing

The Last Resort

Feb 3,2010 / By Maria / 1 Comment

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My last resort to fix these stinky diapers was going to be bleach. I don’t have the dislike of bleach that some others do, but it was my last resort nonetheless.

Worked like a charm. I bleached only the inserts, since bleach can damage PUL, and I only used a few tablespoons in the washer’s bleach dispenser.

The diapers are good as new. PHEW! I only wish I had tried it sooner. From now on, I’ll bleach at the first sign of stink!

I washed my new ones separately so the stink wouldn’t spread. My new ones aren’t really bleachable, so hopefully they won’t get stinky. They don’t have microfiber, so I don’t expect them to!

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Fitted Buddy Bear Bottoms (say that 10x fast!)

Jan 25,2010 / By Maria / No Comment

>Buddy Bear Bottoms are made by a work at home mom, and sold on Hyenacart. P.S. Read here if you’re curious about the website name.

Sellers do not stock items continuously, and beause of the nature of the items/craft, diapers are often one of a kind or limited. I hesitated too long on the diaper I really wanted from Heartland Dreams and it sold. I was really disappointed and kept looking at this one. I finally told myself that if it was still there when I got home (I was at the grocery store at the time), I was buying it! It was, and I did!

I love little touches like that adorable piece of yarn tied in a bow, but it scared me for a second. I thought, oh no!! I didn’t mean to buy a girly diaper with a bow on it! Oh well, maybe hubby won’t notice! Don’t worry, I’m not that stupid, it only took me a second to figure it out. Hee hee.

This is a fitted diaper, which means it does not have a waterproof layer, and should be used with a cover. They’re wonderful because they are so breatheable. You can put your baby in a shirt, diaper and babylegs and just change often, rather than using a cover. Then you don’t cover the adorable diaper. Some of the cutest diapers and prints are fitteds.

I don’t know what it is about this kind of diaper, but they speak to me. I see them in their photos all squishy and trim and they call out “Buy me! Buy me!”

They look so scrumptious stacked up.

I just fell in love with this print. I know hearts are a little girly, but I think the colors make it boyish also. Right? Right?

The diaper has a thick, squishy snap in soaker.

The soaker is made out of ZORB, the outer of the diaper is cotton knit, and the inner is anti-pill fleece.

It took no time to dry.

This is a one size fitted with a fold down rise. It has adorable color coordinated snaps.

As well as an extra row of snaps on the inside, for folding down the rise.

If you notice the snap on the right between the orange and green, you’ll see you can overlap the wings to get a snug fit.

The weight guidelines are 10-35 lbs, which can vary baby to baby, as I’ve noted before. The max rise is 17″ and the max waist is 22″.

It seemed to fit my 15.5-16 pound kiddo fine on the standard (unfolded) rise setting.

However, it didn’t add much bulk to use the smaller setting with the soaker folded down.

He had it on (no cover) for at least an hour and a half, if not more than two hours (I wish I had looked at the clock!) with no leaking and no wicking. The soaker was fairly soaked (hardy har har) so as I folded it and held it in my hand, I could feel some moisture seeping into the outer layer.

I would probably use a cover in any situation where he’d be susceptible to compression (like in the car), but it’s a darn shame to cover up such a cute diaper at home! Although, the econobum cover is so thin, you could see the diaper right through it!

I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another Buddy Bear Bottoms diaper!

Edit August 2010: I ended up selling this. Fitteds are not my preference for daytime use, and it wasn’t absorbent enough to hold up to my heavy wetter at night.

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Kushies Ultra Lite

Jan 25,2010 / By Maria / 5 Comments

I did not have high hopes for this Kushies Baby Ultra Lite Washable Diaper.

I want to preface this by saying most experienced cloth diaperers have said they hate these and are glad they didn’t give up on Cd’ing because of them. I would really only suggest these to someone who wants to try cloth diapers that are easy & inexpensive. I’d rather have One Blueberry than 3 of these, but I’d rather have these than disposables.

This was a new product at Kelly’s Closet. I still have a balance on the gift certificate my Mom got me for Christmas. I’m always looking to increase my fluff stash and try something new, plus I wanted to bump my order over $49 for free shipping.

I was really intrigued by the price. This is the cheapest (mass produced) diaper I’ve purchased (aside from the econobum, which was free with a coupon code & I didn’t care for at all.) They were even cheaper than the smartipants diaper.

In addition, it is an all in one diaper, which means the soaker material is sewn into the diaper. I’m a little leery of them because of the drying time and inability to remove the soaker for extra cleaning.

You get to choose boy, girl or neutral print, you don’t choose the actual print. I find that pretty disappointing since part of the fun of cloth diapering is choosing the cute fabrics! The one I received is OK. Not horrible but not what I would have chosen if I’d been able to.

I’m not sure where I come up with this stuff, but for some reason, if it had been on clearance for, say, $8 or less, I would have been less concerned with the print.

So, my initial opinion of the diaper wasn’t really great. The tabs were small and the outer fabric reminded me of a windbreaker.

However, the diaper was really cushy and had a nice, thick absorbent core, which somehow also felt very, very trim. I also realized that the small tabs mean that you don’t have to have “overlapping” tabs, you can just put one below the other, since the loop part of the hook & loop was as wide as both tabs.

According to their website, it has 6 layers of 100% cotton flannel plus a “special middle soaker for increased absorbency.” That soaker is just the fold down flap you can see in the photo. You can fold it over to get extra absorbency where you need it. This is the first diaper I have that doesn’t have a fabric against baby’s skin to wick moisture away. You can buy stay dry liners or buy and cut microfleece to line diapers with.

These are also sized diapers. I chose infant (10-22 lbs) but they also offer toddler (22-45 lbs). I would probably continue to use the diaper as long as it continued to cover the important bits and not leak. The weight limits can really vary based on your child’s waist size, rise, skinny, chunky etc.

The diaper was just fine on.

The diaper doesn’t have any fancy gussets, but he pooped in it as well as soaking it, and we had no leaks or blowouts. I do wish it had a stay dry inner though, the whole inside was of course wet to the touch.

The tabs held wonderfully and weren’t too grippy, yet they didn’t budge during laundering.

I didn’t think I’d like this diaper, but it functioned very well, and when purchased in 5 packs, they are less than $10 per diaper. That is less than an econobum!

These are very Daddy friendly. The fact that they are all in ones and have a velcro closure makes them as close to disposables as you can get. They are so affordable, you could try a few, use them long enough for them to pay for themselves, then move on to another type of diaper, or sell them or give them away!

They are also readily available. I’ve heard people say they have seen them at Wal-Mart (Ptooie!!) and a quick search of their site confirms it. Free site to store shipping too.

Bottom (no pun intended) line, these are cheap diapers that are fine for the price. Don’t buy them if you’re expecting Blueberry quality, but they’d be a great alternative to prefolds and covers or disposables.

Now I’m really curious about the “Ultra” type. It says it has 5 layers of 100% cotton flannel (vs the Ultra-Lite’s 6, though perhaps that was a typo) plus the extra soaker. I love the adorable duck print pictured! These are also available in Preemie (2-4 lbs) and Newborn (4-10 lbs). That is definitely enticing since even one size diapers usually don’t fit well until about 10 pounds and it’s tough to think about investing hundreds of dollars in teeny diapers the baby won’t wear long!

They do have a strike against them in my book, because in their drop down menu, they have spelled “Classic Diaper” as “Classic Diper.” Spell check. Use it. (No, I’m not perfect, but I also don’t have a professional website and business!)

Edit August 2010: This is an OK diaper but very “cheap” and won’t really hold up to “messes.” If you’re on a budget, I’d suggest a Hybrid or prefold/cover system before I recommended these.

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Testing, testing 1 2 3…

Jan 23,2010 / By Maria / No Comment

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A lot of diaper makers get started because there is some need that is not being met by other diapers. If she decides to sell to others, she needs to see how her diapers fit on babies of other sizes and shapes, how they hold up to wigglers and heavy wetters, and what other moms think of her design.

Other times, an experienced diaper seller is trying a new design, or even branching out to new products, and she needs feedback.

Enter…the tester.

What a seller usually does is offer her product for the cost of shipping and materials, in exchange for brutally honest feedback, and typically also photos of the product in use.

This can be a great chance to try a new design for a great price, though most sellers would prefer a mom who has been cloth diapering for a little while vs someone brand new to cloth. Of course, that means that you may get a product with a few flaws or bugs that need to be worked out, or something that just doesn’t work for your child.

I had the opportunity to test an E.F.F.-n-Stuffs (Enjoy Fabulous Fluff -n- stuffs) diaper. The diapers will be sold in the Home 2 Home congo on Hyenacart.

She is also working on a nighttime diaper and also plans to offer custom diaper bags and combo sets!

Her regular prices will vary between $10 and $25 depending on style. She charged her testers for materials and shipping (I paid the same as all other testers and my review was not influenced in any way!)

I got a size Medium (10-22 lbs) all in two for my 15.5 lb boy. She also offers Small (NB/6 lb-12 lb) and Large (20-34 lb).

She uses cottons, cotton knit, jersey knit, interlocks, wool interlocks and more.

She ran out of the fabric I requested (you don’t get to be too picky when you’re a tester and that’s OK!) so she used some purple polyester on mine.

The inside is lined with fleece or cotton velour.

The soaker is thick, soft and squishy. Her standard soaker has microfiber sandwiched between fleece x2 and suedecloth next to babies skin. Her special soaker is the same, but has a hidden layer of PUL in the soaker.

Prior to this round of testing she made the AI2s without PUL and used fleece only but wanted to test and see if PUL makes any difference. She, herself, never used covers with her diapers, even to go out. The fleece of the cover is considered pretty water proof.

She will also offer a custom soaker with 5 layers of OBF sandwiched between fleece x2 and suedecloth next to babies skin, or hidden PUL.

I’ve actually only ever seen diapers with PUL through the whole diaper. Her method makes a lot of sense since the PUL would only be where needed, and the rest of the diaper area could breathe more.

I was a little concerned because it seemed a bit narrow as well as bulky, but it was just fine on.

I did not seem to add too much bulk between his legs and it was just the right width.

The wings are quite wide (“extended tabs”), but she plans to also offer “minimal tabs” as an option. Her diapers are purposely cut with more of a “boy short” shape for more booty coverage, making pants optional!

I did have a little trouble selecting the right snap settings to get a good fit around his waist and rolly thighs, but I usually have a learning curve getting used to any new diaper! There is tons of adjustability, and the tabs even have the ability to overlap.

So far, so good! He wore the diaper for about 2 hours and we had no leaks. The soaker didn’t even feel wet (though I know it was!) The only thing was that his hiney & the area around his leg were very red, which is rare for him since switching to cloth. I’m not sure what to make of that.

I wondered how he’d do with the polyester, but it wasn’t touching his skin, and he doesn’t have trouble with diapers lined with PUL. I’ll have to see if it does the same thing next time we use it. It was probably just a coincidence!

Edit August 2010: I did not care for the cut of this diaper/how it fit on my son, so I ended up passing it along.

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