As I might have already mentioned, I cloth diaper my baby. I do it mostly because I'm cheap, and I just can't imagine spending money every week on diapers to throw away. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it saves a ton of waste from polluting our landfills, and that cloth diapers come in so many adorable prints and colours! Plus, with all the easy to use cloth diaper styles that exist nowadays, it's no problem at all to get other caregivers on board.
When my son was a baby, cloth diapering wasn't really a "thing", I didn't know anyone else that was doing it (at least not til after I started), and I didn't do it all the time. I bought disposables to use for naptimes, overnights, shopping trips, family visits, and so on. We used a mix of Kushies AIO cloth diapers (all-in-ones), Kushies fitted diapers plus waterproof covers, and other generic brand fitteds that required covers. I didn't dislike the process, but there were definitely things that bothered me, such as:
1) The Kushies AIO's I used took FOREVER to dry (even in the dryer, I had to run them through two cycles to get them dry)
2) After many cycles in the dryer, the Kushies AIO's started to leak, it seems the heat from the dryer cracked the waterproof exterior fabric
3) The hook & loop closures got gummed up with fuzzies and threads in the wash/dry cycle and were less & less sticky as time went by
4) Although you are supposed to be able to reuse the waterproof covers several times before having to wash them, I found they got smelly and had to wash them more often than not, so I needed more of them
5) Being oblivious to the concept of a diaper sprayer, I was at a loss as to what to do with the poo... I ended up using popsicle sticks to scrape it into the toilet, which was effective but then at the end of the day I'm stuck holding some sh*t on a stick (pardon my french)...
Despite all of this, I was really happy to have made the decision to cloth diaper my son. So, this time around when we found out we were expecting a new baby, I was excited to check out the new options in cloth diapering. The local industry had certainly come a long way since the last time I was buying diapers - there were multiple cloth diaper stores within driving distance from my house. I sold all of my old Kushies and paraphernalia, and decided to start fresh.
This time, I educated myself about my options. I got a larger diaper pail so I could do diaper laundry every 3 days. I got 2 Planet Wise pail liners so I wouldn't have to rinse the pail. I invested in 37 one size pocket diapers (OS pockets) of various brands, and a number of extra liners for overnights. I bought and hooked up a BumGenius diaper sprayer, and got a number of rolls of diaper liners to use on days where some bum balm/cream is required. I bought a number of wetbags to allow cloth diapering on the go, and I made my own diaper wipes out of some old receiving blankets I had retired.
I'm proud to say that my daughter has been in cloth diapers since her umbilical cord fell off, and I haven't once missed disposables or regretted my decision to go 100% cloth. I'm so pleased with how cloth diapering is going this time around that I am going to start a series of reviews on my blog in the month of September so I can share some of my favourite items & lessons learned with all of you. There will even be some great giveaways, so be sure to enter for your chance to win!
Married mom of two kids, likes to shop, but not to waste her family's money. Hence, a blog giving honest reviews of mom, baby, kid, family, and related tech products, to help you decide what to spend YOUR family's hard-earned cash on.
Showing posts with label wetbag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wetbag. Show all posts
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Review: Planet Wise Diaper Pail Liners
If you cloth diaper, you know that one of the most important things is having a good diaper pail to store the soiled diapers until wash day. I have two pails, a small one for my main floor laundry room (for diaper changes that take place in the living room), and a large one in the nursery, for all the rest. The main floor one is one of those round ones with a lid that you can buy at Sears. The one in my nursery was a shower gift from my girlfriends and is a really awesome large square one with a lid that you can secure, as well as a replaceable charcoal/carbon filter to keep diaper smells in the diaper pail. I can pretty easily rinse out the small pail and lid in the laundry tub when it gets dirty, however, the large pail is a bit unwieldy. Plus, who wants to carry a large pail to the washing machine every three days, wrestle it into position, and take the chance of poopy diapers falling beside the machine instead of into it? Not to mention what you mamas with front loaders must do! At least gravity helps with the top loader...
The solution is to have a pail liner. A pail liner is like a giant wet bag with an elastic or drawstring top, it fits into your pail and over the rim, so that you throw dirty diapers into it. Then on wash day, you just grab the liner and empty it into the washing machine, then put the liner in the washing machine too. I have two Planet Wise pail liners so that there's always a clean one available. They are the perfect size to fit most large diaper pails, and though I haven't' tried it, I think they would also be useful to line a smaller pail, there would just be more bunched up bag fabric at the bottom of the pail in that case. These liners are made out of the same waterproof PUL material as portable wet bags and the outside layer of many pocket diapers. It seems to be extra sturdy, not thin or weak at all. It doesn't wick moisture and seems to be "smell proof" as well. The elastic is very stretchy and adjusts to a snug fit around the rim of the large diaper pail. The bag is strong enough to hold 3 days worth of soiled diapers when you carry it to your washer. I find it does sometimes contain a bit of water after the last spin cycle, because it is waterproof, some of the water that gets in it during wash/rinse, doesn't always escape during the spin cycle. So I make sure it's the last thing I take out of the washing machine so that I don't spill any water on the diapers that have been spun dry.
The Planet Wise pail liner comes in a ton of different solid colours so you will have no problem finding one or two that match your tastes. They are not overly expensive at $16.50 retail on their website (and occasionally on sale for less at various online retailers - I think I paid $14.50 each at Bootyful Baby Boutique during one of their sales). You can read more about Planet Wise products on their website at http://www.planetwiseinc.com/ and browse the pail liner colour selection here: http://www.planetwiseinc.com/Planet_Wise_Diaper_Pail_Liner_38_cat.html.
The solution is to have a pail liner. A pail liner is like a giant wet bag with an elastic or drawstring top, it fits into your pail and over the rim, so that you throw dirty diapers into it. Then on wash day, you just grab the liner and empty it into the washing machine, then put the liner in the washing machine too. I have two Planet Wise pail liners so that there's always a clean one available. They are the perfect size to fit most large diaper pails, and though I haven't' tried it, I think they would also be useful to line a smaller pail, there would just be more bunched up bag fabric at the bottom of the pail in that case. These liners are made out of the same waterproof PUL material as portable wet bags and the outside layer of many pocket diapers. It seems to be extra sturdy, not thin or weak at all. It doesn't wick moisture and seems to be "smell proof" as well. The elastic is very stretchy and adjusts to a snug fit around the rim of the large diaper pail. The bag is strong enough to hold 3 days worth of soiled diapers when you carry it to your washer. I find it does sometimes contain a bit of water after the last spin cycle, because it is waterproof, some of the water that gets in it during wash/rinse, doesn't always escape during the spin cycle. So I make sure it's the last thing I take out of the washing machine so that I don't spill any water on the diapers that have been spun dry.
The Planet Wise pail liner comes in a ton of different solid colours so you will have no problem finding one or two that match your tastes. They are not overly expensive at $16.50 retail on their website (and occasionally on sale for less at various online retailers - I think I paid $14.50 each at Bootyful Baby Boutique during one of their sales). You can read more about Planet Wise products on their website at http://www.planetwiseinc.com/ and browse the pail liner colour selection here: http://www.planetwiseinc.com/Planet_Wise_Diaper_Pail_Liner_38_cat.html.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Review: Snuggy Baby Wetbag (Large)
When we cloth diapered my son, we only did it when it was convenient. Whenever we left the house, we put him in disposable diapers. Overnight? Disposables. Naptime? You guessed it - disposables. When we decided to cloth diaper our daughter, I wanted to be able to use them all the time. I plan to put up a separate set of posts around the cloth diapers we use, so I won't get into those details now. One of the things that makes cloth diapering outside of the home possible is a good wetbag. It will allow you to carry home soiled diapers without having them leak or smell or otherwise contaminate your diaper bag or the things in it. It's washable and reusable, so much better than a plastic bag.
I purchased two Snuggy Baby wetbags from one of the popular baby product deal sites (I can't remember which one, so I'm not going to name any of them here) quite some time ago. We first used them for my son's swim lessons - the large size bag (14" wide x 17" tall) is the perfect size to hold his swim trunks, a towel, and my flip flops (bare feet on pool deck = ew, gross!). Now that my daughter is here, I keep one in my diaper bag at all times to hold soiled diapers.
They come in three sizes - the Medium wetbag (12"x11"), the Large wetbag (14"x17"), and the XL hanging diaper pail (22"x28"). On Amazon the "Large" wetbag is named "XL Wet Bag" which is a touch confusing, but not Snuggy Baby's fault, I'm sure! Just be aware of that if you intend to buy one.
The Snuggy Baby wetbags are made of 2 layers of fabric, cotton print (gorgeous!) on the outside, and white PUL on the inside (waterproof!). They are sewn in such a way to make them completely waterproof. The tops are zippered to ensure no messes can escape. The Large size bags even have a nice 6" handle of sorts that can be snapped around something (doorknob, stroller handle, your wrist) which can be very handy (like when you're using it as a makeshift diaper pail while visiting Grandma).
The wetbags can be put in the wash with your diapers if needed, however I've found that since they are waterproof, a simple rinse of the inside layer, and then turning the bag inside out to dry, is sufficient to keep it clean & odor free. I did wash the wetbag once and made the mistake of leaving the zipper open and turning it inside out... the pulling and agitating in my washer caused the outside cotton layer to separate from the zipper about 2"... Thankfully this a) did not affect the bag's useability and b) was super easy to fix with my somewhat OK mending skills. I would recommend if you are going to wash the bags in your top loading washer, that you do them on a delicate cycle, and not with the soak-wash-rinse-rinse process that the rest of your diapers go through. I always line dry my wetbags, though the website says you can occasionally put them in the dryer without harming them.
I find the regular price on these wetbags to be quite high (considering you can get some cheap ones for under $10), however, they have a lot of beautiful prints to choose from, the snap-on handle is very convenient, and the size ranges they offer are good to cover just about every need you might have for a wetbag. Now if you are lucky and can find them on a deal site, good for you! Buy two!
I purchased two Snuggy Baby wetbags from one of the popular baby product deal sites (I can't remember which one, so I'm not going to name any of them here) quite some time ago. We first used them for my son's swim lessons - the large size bag (14" wide x 17" tall) is the perfect size to hold his swim trunks, a towel, and my flip flops (bare feet on pool deck = ew, gross!). Now that my daughter is here, I keep one in my diaper bag at all times to hold soiled diapers.
They come in three sizes - the Medium wetbag (12"x11"), the Large wetbag (14"x17"), and the XL hanging diaper pail (22"x28"). On Amazon the "Large" wetbag is named "XL Wet Bag" which is a touch confusing, but not Snuggy Baby's fault, I'm sure! Just be aware of that if you intend to buy one.
The Snuggy Baby wetbags are made of 2 layers of fabric, cotton print (gorgeous!) on the outside, and white PUL on the inside (waterproof!). They are sewn in such a way to make them completely waterproof. The tops are zippered to ensure no messes can escape. The Large size bags even have a nice 6" handle of sorts that can be snapped around something (doorknob, stroller handle, your wrist) which can be very handy (like when you're using it as a makeshift diaper pail while visiting Grandma).
The wetbags can be put in the wash with your diapers if needed, however I've found that since they are waterproof, a simple rinse of the inside layer, and then turning the bag inside out to dry, is sufficient to keep it clean & odor free. I did wash the wetbag once and made the mistake of leaving the zipper open and turning it inside out... the pulling and agitating in my washer caused the outside cotton layer to separate from the zipper about 2"... Thankfully this a) did not affect the bag's useability and b) was super easy to fix with my somewhat OK mending skills. I would recommend if you are going to wash the bags in your top loading washer, that you do them on a delicate cycle, and not with the soak-wash-rinse-rinse process that the rest of your diapers go through. I always line dry my wetbags, though the website says you can occasionally put them in the dryer without harming them.
I find the regular price on these wetbags to be quite high (considering you can get some cheap ones for under $10), however, they have a lot of beautiful prints to choose from, the snap-on handle is very convenient, and the size ranges they offer are good to cover just about every need you might have for a wetbag. Now if you are lucky and can find them on a deal site, good for you! Buy two!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)