Category — Reviews

I bought the Canadian-made Grasshopper Bamboo AIO diaper after reading some great online reviews.  Since my daughter outgrew most of her diapers, I was in real need of some trim AIOs for going out.  I didn’t have much time to design and make top-stitched AIO diapers at that time, so I decided to buy a couple online – one Rainshine Designs and one Grasshopper AIO.

When I first saw this diaper, I thought it was very small and wasn’t sure it would fit my 32-lb daughter for very long.  Once I tried it on her, I was pleasantly surprised.  The diaper fit and there’s still some room to grow.  The elastic is not encased like with most other top-stitched diapers, but it doesn’t bother me.  Actually, my daughter has no red marks on her thighs because the elastic is not encased.

Pros:

• Very trim
• High quality
• No red marks on my daughter’s thighs
• Natural fibers on the inside, so no polyester touching baby’s skin
• Sized diaper

Cons:

• Not sure this diaper can fit up to 40 lbs as mentioned on the site.  I suspect the rise will be a bit short for most 40-lb toddlers.
• Not a very absorbent diaper if you have a heavy wetter.  I think heavy wetters might need a doubler in this diaper.
• The price is quite high.  I think I paid $24.95 CAD + tax and shipping for this diaper which makes it one of the most expensive diapers I’ve ever bought.

My overall rating: 8.5/10

Update (2012-02-12): One of the leg elastics seems to be a bit stretched out now. This did surprise me a little because I hadn’t used this diaper frequently. For a few months, it had been sitting in storage waiting for my second child to get big enough to wear it. Then when it did fit, it spent most of its days in a diaper bag since I prefer to use fitteds or WI2s at home.

I have not been paid to write this review. The Grasshopper diaper was purchased by me.

Today, I wanted to tell you about a beautifully-made diaper from Rainshine Designs.  I’ve wanted to try this diaper for a while, but it usually doesn’t make sense for me to buy diapers when I can make well-fitting and cute diapers for my daughter myself.  Sometimes I get bored with my own diapers though, so I do purchase a cloth diaper made by someone else every few months.

Photo courtesy of Rainshine Designs

When I first looked at the diaper after opening the envelope, I thought it was very cute.  I then started looking at the stitching, fabric, etc. and was very impressed with the workmanship.  Megan, the creator of the Rain Shine Designs diapers, is a very talented and hardworking seamstress.  I rarely see such incredible top-stitching. [Read more →]

I bought a Large DreamEze AIO Cloth Diaper a while ago after reading some good reviews about how absorbent and trim it was. It took me a while to find a store in Canada or in the US that had it in stock and would not charge an arm and a leg for shipping to Ontario, Canada.  Once I received the diaper, I was really excited and was hoping it would work well for us.  Unfortunately, my excitement did not last long.

[Read more →]

One of the gifts my daughter received this Christmas was a pair of Padraig slippers. Up until this Christmas she has been wearing her Robeez slippers, but because we keep the house a bit cooler this winter, we needed something warmer for her. When I found out about Padraig slippers, I just had to get a pair for her.

[Read more →]

Just as most cloth diapering people, I occasionally use disposable diapers. Since plastics and the chemicals found in disposable diapers are a concern for me, I do try to look for diapers that contain as few of those chemicals as possible. [Read more →]

The AMP (Annie Marie Padorie) AI2 diaper has been created here in Canada by one of the friendliest women I’ve ever met (via email).  Today, I own three large AMP diapers.  I bought my first AMP diaper, when my daughter was 4 or 5 months old.  I was impressed with the quality and decided to buy two more a month later.

What I like about the diaper:

• Great quality.  The beautiful serging made me a little obsessed about how well I serged my diapers :-)
• It’s quite trim.
• Elastics in my AMP diapers have never left any really bad marks on my daughter’s skin.
• Still fits my daughter at 32 lbs.
• Comes in two sizes – not too few and not too many.
• Easy to clean insert.

What I do not like about the diaper:

• The leg elastics on the first AMP diaper I bought lost some of its elasticity.  It’s possible my early washing routines had something to do with that though.
• The microfleece is not the best I’ve seen however it seems to be a popular one for diaper making.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

NOTE: I bought my AMP AI2 diapers more than a year ago, so please keep in mind that AMP diapers might have gone through some changes since I bought mine.

A few months ago, I decided to buy a GroBaby cloth diaper probably because I wanted to try something new.  I must admit that now, after a few months, the diaper gets used very rarely.  I thought that at least my husband would like the diaper, but it looks like he has more trouble using it than I do.

What I do like about the GroBaby diaper:
1. The insert can be snapped in and out.
2. Can use other inserts with the shell (they will not snap in though because of the different snaps).
3. The diaper is quite trim.

What I do not like about the GroBaby diaper:
1. Elastic at the back is way too tight and leaves major marks on my daughter’s back.
2. Velcro does not stick to the laundry tabs in the wash.  When I take the diaper out of the washer, the velcro is usually stuck to the lining of the diaper and not the laundry tabs.
3. It’s not as absorbent as other diapers I’ve tried.
4. I find that I have to wash the shell after every poop.
5. Can’t make my own more absorbent snap-in inserts for the diaper because of the different snaps.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Lately, I’ve been asked a lot about PC Green Diapers.  These diapers are still relatively new and there isn’t a huge lot of information about them online.  So, I decided to tell you everything I know about them.

As I’ve written in a previous post, PC Green disposable diapers are chlorine and fragrance free.  Those of you who have had trouble finding other eco-friendly disposable diapers close to home, might have better luck finding these since PC Green diapers might be available in your supermarket store (owned by Loblaws).

What I do like about this diaper:

• Very stretchy tabs.
• The diaper is quite a bit cheaper than other “green” diapers.  The regular price of PC Green diapers is $15.99 for 46 diapers in size 4.  Seventh Generation diapers are $17.99-19.99 for 30 diapers in the same size.  Also, you can sometimes see the PC Green diapers on special for $12.99.
• No rashes so far.  It does not promote healing of rashes very well though.  I found that bamboo cloth diapers with wool covers at night promote healing much better than the PC Green diapers even though cloth diapers get quite wet overnight.  I guess it’s not a surprise since cloth diapers do allow more airflow.

What I do NOT like about this diaper:

• Contains SAP (Super Absorbent Polymer).
• Contains plastics.
• Packaging is not biodegradable.
• It’s still a disposable that takes hundreds of years to decompose.
• I wasn’t impressed with what is written about cloth diapers at the back of the packaging.  They make it seem like all cloth diapers are made of pesticide sprayed cotton.  Trust me there’s LOTS of diapers out there (including my daughter’s) that are not.  I also wasn’t impressed with the mention of detergent as if tons of it were being used on diapers.  The truth is, most people use only 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent to wash their diapers.  Some people use soap nuts/berries which grow on trees!  Also, a lot of people these days use front-loading washers which use quite a bit less water.

NOTE: These diapers do fit a bit bigger than SG diapers, so if you’re using SG diapers and your baby is almost outgrowing a size, PC Green diapers in the same size might still fit her/him well.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Just please keep in mind that I’m not an expert on disposable diapers – I normally cloth diaper only.