cloth diapers, Review

Review: Fitted Diaper from Diapers by Chris

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When I came across Diapers by Chris, I was excited to see how comfy Chris’s diapers look and the cute prints she has available. She has quite a few diaper prints and designs that I haven’t seen before. After checking out her Facebook page and Web site, an “Avengers” fitted diaper caught my eye. One of my son’s middle names is Thor, so I asked Chris if she could make him a “Thor” diaper. She said she would look for fabric, and she found some!

Click on the photos to enlarge

 

Chris began sewing cloth diapers after her daughter was born. Like many of us, she was concerned about the negative impact disposables have on our environment.

All of her diapers are sewed with fabrics like natural bamboo, hemp, cotton, and fleece. Although she can make perfect-size or newborn-size diapers, many of her premade diapers are one-size, fitting approximately 12-35 lbs. Chris also offers several styles: fitteds, hybrid fitted, all-in-one, and all-in-two.

The Thor diaper is a fleece one-size fitted diaper with layers of fleece on the outside and inside. Also included were two soakers: large and small. Chris sent a handwritten note with the diaper. In it, she explained some laundering instructions as well as information about the diaper specifically. She also thanked me for my purchase. I thought this was a very nice, personal touch.

The diaper is about 6″ wide at the narrowest part. The size is very customizable, since there are three rows of snap adjustment for the rise and ten snaps at the waist/hip.

 To give you an idea on size, the back of this fitted diaper measures 15″ from wing to wing, fully stretched. The front measures about 10 1/2″ from wing to wing.

A BumGenius pocket diaper measures 15 1/2″ from wing to wing (fully stretched) at the back. The front measures just over 11″ from wing to wing.

A TotsBots Bamboozle fitted diaper measures 16″ at the back with the wings full stretched and 9 3/4″ at the front.

(Note: Measurements are approximate. I’m not an expert measurement taker person.)

The small soaker is 12″ long and 3 3/4″ wide. It’s made with bamboo fleece and topped with bamboo velour. The large soaker is about 14 1/4″ long and 4 3/4″ wide. The large soaker is also made with bamboo fleece but topped with crushed panne. Both soakers are very soft, but the bamboo velour feels silkier than the panne.

My experiences with the diaper:

My son wears this diaper on the lowest rise setting. He’s 4 months and 17 lbs. in the photo below. He still has a lot of room to grow in this diaper. I’ve been able to get a good, snug fit around the legs with this diaper.

I was skeptical at first of how well fleece would work, since it’s the first fleece diaper in our stash. I thought the fleece would get soaked quickly, and I’d have to change him for sure after a couple hours in the diaper.

Yeah, I was really wrong about that! I now absolutely love fleece as a diaper fabric! After about 3 hours in the diaper without a cover, the outer fleece wasn’t even feeling damp. I took my son to the change table anyway. When I opened up his diaper, the soakers were wet, but the fleece diaper was still completely dry. The larger soaker wasn’t completely soaked yet, either, and could’ve held more pee. I tossed the soakers in our diaper pail, and stuck a doubler inside…snapped the diaper back up, and good to go for another 3 hours! After that (we were approaching 6 hours total with the diaper at this point), the fleece was starting to feel just a little tiny bit damp.

The next time I tried this diaper on my son, the plan was to use it without the soakers, so I could have a genuine idea of how long it would be before this diaper would start to feel really wet. Unfortunately, my son thwarted my plans by pooping in it several minutes after putting the diaper on him. No matter. Now I can attest that the diaper holds poo in!

I tried this diaper again on my son without the soakers, but I did put a diaper cover over top. The front of this diaper started to feel wet after an hour, but the back still felt dry. It feels like the diaper has more layers of fleece in the back, due to the “Thor” print, so that is probably why.

Fast forward a few times. I’ve used this diaper with the soakers and without a cover on my son every couple of days for the last two weeks. The soakers take longer to dry than the diaper, but that’s to be expected, since they’re made with bamboo.

This diaper and the soakers are holding up, they appear to be well-constructed. They are soft and definitely do the job.

Want a Diaper by Chris of your own? You could win one! Chris will be sponsoring a prize for the Hoppin’ Halloween Giveaway Hop Oct. 25-31 right here on My Life: A Work in Progress. Stay tuned for the giveaway in just a few short weeks! Can’t wait? Buy your own! =) Check out Diapers by Chris on Facebook and her store!

Note: I purchased the item reviewed above. I was not compensated for this review. The opinions are my own.

 

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life

Combatting Mildew in Cloth Diapers

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A few weeks ago, I noticed a few small spots on the inside fabric of one of our Bumkins AI1 diapers. I thought the stains looked weird, but set the diaper outside in the sun…like I do with any stained diapers. Well, for the first time, the sun did nothing.

Fast forward to last week.

I noticed the spots seemed to be spreading, and they appeared on the hemp side of a GroVia AI2 insert.

Click on Photos to Enlarge

Yup! That’s a freshly peed in mildewed diaper insert.

That’s when I realized I had a mildew problem (At least, I think that’s what it is). I searched the Internet for causes of mildew on cloth diapers, and from what I can tell, the most likely reason for us is that I’m not getting these particular diapers and inserts dry enough. The Bumkins AI1 is made with a bamboo blend, which can take a while to dry. The hemp inserts also take extra time to dry. At this point, I’m assuming that although I’ve thought this particular diaper and insert was dry…it still has wet spots somewhere inside the absorbent layers.

This began my quest to eliminate the mildew and the spots.

Before doing much research, I reached for the bleach. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have reached for that first. When it comes to cloth diapers, there are often other methods that are equally or more effective, and certainly safer than chlorine bleach is on your lungs and diaper fabric.

I soaked the diaper and two inserts (it happened on a second GroVia hemp insert) in a full washer tank of water and a capful of bleach for an hour. Stains were still there.

Bleached and Dried- No Improvement

I went back to the Web. Thirsties has a page dedicated to techniques and procedures to remove mildew from cloth diapers. Based on what I read there and elsewhere on the net, I decided to try tea tree oil, baking soda, lemon juice, salt, and the sun.

With the diaper and inserts soaking in cold water from the beginning of a washing machine rinse cycle, I added teaspoons of tea tree oil and a 1/4 cup of baking soda. I dropped the washer lid for a few seconds to let the water agitate and stir the oil and baking soda around. Then I stopped the cycle, and let the diaper and inserts soak for an hour, before letting the rinse cycle finish.

After the cycle finished, I made a paste with 2 parts salt, 1 part lemon juice, and rubbed it into the spots. After letting them sit for half an hour, I washed them with a regular diaper load.

Lemon Juice and Salt Paste

 

Paste Rubbed into Spots

When I finished my regular diaper wash, I pulled the stained inserts and diaper out, sprayed the spots with a mixture of water and lemon juice, and left them laying in direct sunshine for several hours.

Sprayed and Sunning

Did it work? Nope. At least, the stains are still there. I’m certain the mildew is dead after the bleach, tea tree oil, etc.

The next day, I sprayed the spots with lemon juice and water again, and placed in the sun. Still no improvement. The spots look faded when the diaper and inserts are dry, but as soon as they are wet, the spots show up brightly again.

Results: No Improvement on Spots

So that’s my experience with mildew. You can kill it, but the spots are permanent.

Have you had a different experience? Did you get the mildew stains out? Any suggestions for me? Should I try something else or give up on the stains?
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cloth diapers, life

WAHMs, reviews, giveaways, my coffee addiction, nursing woes, and I love this weather

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This week you’ll see the first review in a series of diaper-making WAHMs (working-at-home-moms). The reviews will build up to the Hoppin’ Halloween Giveaway Blog Hop. During the blog hop, you’ll have an opportunity to win cloth diapers from the featured WAHMs! Every week I plan to feature a different WAHM and her cloth diapers, so stay tuned! I’m excited! Are you?!

I’m sitting here on the couch, next to the open balcony. Baby’s napping in his swing. It’s a lovely day outside.When the weather is cool, not cold, cool…I think my mood improves. During the hot of the summer, I rarely like to leave air conditioning. But this time of year…. the leaves are starting to turn yellow and orange, and I just feel happier. I love it.

My son eats every 2 hours around the clock. When he was a newborn, it was really miserable. He’d fall asleep, of course, on and off, and he also used me as a pacifier. This meant I was always, always nursing him. As he got older, he’d eat in 10 minutes or less, so it wasn’t as big of a deal. But lately, he thinks that around 90 minutes, he should be fed. Yeah, I’m not cool with that. He’s reached the 80th percentile, and breastfeeding is definitely well-established, so I think it’s safe to move him to a schedule that I want. Starting this morning, I’m nursing him every 2 hours and 15 minutes. After he seems used to that, I’ll move him to every 2 hours and 30 minutes. I’d like to get him to nurse every 3 hours. Of course, he’ll be starting solids in about 6 or 7 weeks, so that should cut down on the nursing to. I’ve heard moms talk about what a special bonding time nursing is for them. Honestly, for me it’s a chore, and I think if I didn’t have to stop what I was doing so often to nurse him…I think I’d find it a little more special than I currently do.

My parents are coming to visit us for a few days next week, and I’m excited. It doesn’t matter how old you are…mommy and daddy are still mommy and daddy, right? 🙂 The forecast for next week is still in the low 70s, so the weather should be perfect for us to get out and about. Unfortunately, hubby still has to work.

So we bought a Keurig yesterday! As a caffeine addict, I’ve been wanting one for a while. They had a sale at the NEX that was better than any we’ve seen in store or online, so we bought one of the mini Keurigs. I had my daily iced coffee, using my Keurig. 🙂 As a matter of fact, I think I’ll go have another one…

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