Review / List of Chores
Thursday, July 19, 2007

This post is dedicated to Danielle for 2 reasons:

1) She asked me to review my new stash of diapers (you know, the ones I am obsessed with and keep going on and on about?)

2) Every time I visit her blog she inspires me with a list of tasks that she sets out to do and then crosses them off throughout the day as she completes them. I have tried the list thing before and failed miserably. But honestly, I think I am in dire NEED of a daily list. It seems like I never get anything at all done. I avoid sitting on my furniture because of the dog hair and my toilet looks like it belongs in the restroom of a run down gas station. These thing ought not be, seeing as how I am a stay-at-home mom with only one child. You'd think I could find a little time to keep up with things like that.

So, here is my review of Baby BeeHinds One-size Bamboo Fitted Diapers:

When I received my first one in the mail, I could hardly believe how soft it was. I wanted to rub it all over my face. I think I DID rub it all over my face, actually. It came with 2 snap-in soakers: One long "snake"soaker that you fold in two and one small oval shaped booster. I believe the website boasts that if you use both of them at once, there are 14 layers of bamboo fleece in the soaker zone. WOW! It is meant to fit babies from 8-35lbs. The rise folds down for younger babies, exposing another row of snaps. I like the fact that you can customize the absorbancy with the 2 soakers.

The care instructions say to wash the diaper 3 times to prep it. Once with detergent, and two more times without....and always in water that is no hotter than 60 degrees celcius (It's an Australian diaper....erm, I mean "nappy"...so that would be 140 degrees Farenheit). Then, you are to dry it either out on the line or in the dryer on low heat.

I did all of that and I was prepared for its crazy-long drying time, as I had read other reviews about the diaper on The Pin. I think it took about 90 minutes on low, plus another 20-30 on no-heat/air fluff to dry in the dryer. That's quite a lot. I'm not super thrilled about that, but I am willing to live with it....especially now that we have a clothes line. I was/am also a little nervous about not being able to wash them in scalding hot water, like I used to do with my prefolds. I'm not sure what our water temperature was when I had turned the water heater up really high (it doesn't have degrees marked on the thermostat), but I have since turned it down because I'm scared I'll shrink the diapers. At $20 bucks a pop, I am treating these things like little babies. (Okay, well we DID get a little bit of a discount by buying them in packages, but not a huge one)

Scout can pee through a prefold in no time at all. One pee, and it's all over. With the BBH diaper, I can put it on her at 11 PM and take it off of her at 9 AM and it only feels a little damp on the outside. These things are thirsty! I am not in the habit of letting Scout go for more than 2 hours between diaper changes during the day....and I'm not too happy about letting her go all night in a pee-soaked diaper, but I think that the nighttime combination of a BBH diaper with a fleece liner, and a wool cover makes for a cool, dry bum....and dry sheets! I will admit that she does smell like a wet sheep that has rolled around in a puddle of pee in the morning, but hey, at least her butt isn't trapped in a hot plasticky outer shell.

I feel very confident when I use these diapers for outings. I have never had a leak or a poo blow-out with them. If for some reason I have to go more than 2 hours without changing her, it's no big deal because I know that the BBH will sop up any flood she throws at it. A lot of the time, she goes coverless in them during the day when we're at home and I throw a lightweight wool wrap like a Loveybums jersey cover or a pul wrap like Bummis Super Whisper Wrap on if we go somewhere. A few times when she's gone coverless, the pee might hit the diaper at a weird angle, causing it to sort of bypass the soaker layers in the middle, which makes the leg ruffles really wet.....but that is only a minor annoyance and is of course only an issue if the baby doesn't have a diaper cover on. It's probably just a matter of finding the best place to put the doublers and then getting them in the right place every time.

The fit is really nice. When we got our first one, I think she weighed a little less than 14 lbs. I was able to fold the rise down and snap the tabs on their smallest setting, so I'm not sure how they would fit a newborn. It seems like the legs would gap, but I could be wrong. Now, she's 15 lbs 4 oz and while I still could technically fold the rise down and get an okay fit, I usually just leave it up because I don't mind the top of the diaper sitting above her belly button. It's pretty trim if I only use one doubler (which is what I do during the day), but with both doublers it's a little bulky.....but what diaper wouldn't be, with 2 doublers?

Here are the drawbacks:

Like I already mentioned, the drying time sucks. I really wish that they were a little more practical in that respect. The fact that I can line dry them right now is nice.....but what about during the winter?
I have had some noticeable shrinking....on some, more than others. I have followed the washing instructions, so I'm not sure why that would happen. I might be crazy, but it seems like some colors shrink more than others. The purple and blue seem to have gotten denser and smaller than the others. I don't know. Maybe it's my imagination. I was worried that after the shrinking, they may not be big enough to last until the promised 35 lb weight limit. That would be a real bummer, since the one-size feature was the biggest selling point for us. But my fears were put to rest by some other BBH users who post on The Pin forums with 30lb toddlers wearing the BBH comfortably and still have a little room to grow. Some other Pin ladies have said that they like the hemp BBH's better than the bamboo because you can wash them on hot, they dry faster, and appear to be more durable. I am tempted to try one, but I already have a few hemp diapers that I am not too fond of. The hemp seems so scratchy to me and they shrunk horribly. Maybe it was just that certain brand.
The price. $20 for one diaper is pretty steep. And they're not even and all-in-one, so technically, they require a cover. If they last Scout through potty training and if we can use them on the next baby, they will totally be worth it. Heck, even if they fall short of those lofty expectations, they'll still be worth the $420+ that we spent on them when you consider how much disposables cost. I know that cloth diapering can be done WAY more frugally than that, but once I find something that works, I stick to it. I have tried prefolds w/ polyurethane laminate covers, pocket diapers, and all-in-ones. And I have found that super absorbant bamboo fitteds with lightweight wool wraps is what seems to work the best for us. Since our stash is pretty much all one system now instead of a mish-mash of things, I find cloth diapering very easy and enjoyable.

**ETA**

I forgot to mention that they are 100% natural fibers (70% bamboo and 30% organic cotton) FOR NOW. The company is in the middle of switching over to a blend of materials in the outer layer, with (I believe) 30% polyester. This would only be the outer part of the diaper. The part that touches baby's skin will still contain no polyester. One advantage to them having poly is, of course, a shorter dry time and it may minimize shrinkage. But I would assume that less bamboo means they will be a little less absorbant. The very few of them that remain in the States right now are the "old style" with the 100% natural fibers. The next batch that U.S. retailers will get (sometime in August) will contain poly. On one hand, I wish I would've waited to at least TRY the poly before buying so many of them. But if I would've done that and found that I didn't like the ones with poly, I wouldn't have been able to get my hands on any more of the original ones at that point.

Nature's Nappies has a list of all the US retailers HERE if anyone is interested in trying to get some of the original 100% natural fiber Baby BeeHinds, although I know that colors are very limited at the stores that actually have some left.

Alrighty....and now for my list:

Bathe Scout. I put some vitamin E oil on her scalp to help heal her cradle cap and it was about the consistency of Karo syrup. Her hair is so gooey and sticky right now, but I didn't have a chance to wash it today. DONE - I actually managed to get a few smiles out of her while she was in the tub and she didn't cry when I was drying her off. Woohoo! There is still some oily residue in her hair. Phooey.
Clean the bathroom....and that includes sweeping the floor and scrubbing the tub. No exceptions. DONE! I had intended on cleaning out the drawers and cupboards in there too, but Scout up from her nap too soon. (And pooped in her potty again, I might add!)
Get the bedroom straightened up.
Clean up the kitchen. DONE...didn't sweep the floor in there, but I don't care...no little baby hands and knees crawling around on it just yet.
Feed the dog. DONE
Take burgers out of freezer to thaw. DONE - well, didn't need to. Box says to grill them frozen.
Fold diaper laundry. DONE
After everything else on the list is done, price as much yard sale stuff as I can. DONE - priced a bunch of baby clothes before finishing the rest of the things on the list because Scout fell asleep in the sling and I was counting on her napping by herself while I clean the bathroom. Guess I'll have to do that later.

There's a lot more than that to do, but if I put anymore than that on the list, I'll get freaked out and I won't do any of it.

Labels: cloth diapering, household chores, lists, pics of scout, product reviews

posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 11:08 PM,

3 Comments:

At Fri Jul 20, 08:48:00 AM CDT, Annika said...: I don't know where you live, so it may be impractical, but I do know that if you're able to hang your diapers on the line in winter they will dry, and I've heard that they'll be softer than heat-dried diapers. Might be worth trying!

My experience with one-size diapers (in this case poo pockets) is that they do not work on newborns. But the Baby BeeHinds sound so fantastic that maybe they would! I definitely want to try them when we're able to.
At Fri Jul 20, 11:54:00 AM CDT, eipwek said...: Oh yeah! I think that Wendy had mentioned something about hanging the dipes out in the winter as well. I will have to try that. Somehow, I can't wrap my mind around frozen diapers actually drying.....but I suppose it makes more sense logically than diapers drying in the summer because it's WAY less humid in the winter (at least here in the land of Bill Clinton, anyway)
At Fri Jul 20, 09:52:00 PM CDT, Danielle said...: Thanks for all the info and your opinions on the dipes! Wow you got a ton done!

Go EC, Go EC, Get your groove on, Go EC, shake your bootie now...(I know I'm a freak, but the song is totally appropriate for the situation we are talking about!)

You all are rock stars with the potty...I can't even get my almost three year old to go poop on the pot.