lo-wren

muse. mom. maven.

Tiny Tush Elite 2.0

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TinyTush2.0Cover

Despite being in the potty training phase, we are still using cloth diapers for naps and running errands.  I recently became a Tiny Tush affiliate, and was sent the Tiny Tush Elite 2.0 pocket diaper to test out and share with you.  If you have a larger baby or a toddler, you’re going to want to check these cloth diapers out! [Read more…]

The Little Bee Co.: Cloth With a Cause

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* I was sent product, at no cost to myself, in exchange for my honest opinion.



I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with The Little Bee Co., sharing both their amazing mission and talking about their wonderful cloth diapers!  The Little Bee Co. is actually ‘local’ to me, just an hour-and-a-half away, but their impact is global in nature.

The Little Bee Co.’s mission is: Bee changed and change the world.  According to Little Bee Co., “Along with providing a quality diaper, our passion is to help children in need and bring an awareness to the orphan crisis consuming the world today.”  What exactly does this mean?  Well, it goes far beyond the scope of cloth diapers, that’s for sure.  When you make the choice to purchase a Little Bee Co. cloth diaper, you are being economical, helping the environment, AND you are helping children around the world.  The Little Bee Co. makes it unbelievably easy to give to give, they do the work for you!

How does it work?  Well, The Little Bee Co. has one of the most generous cloth diaper donation programs I’ve come across, donating one diaper to a child in need for each diaper they sell.  Let me repeat, The Little Bee Co. has a 1-1 matching system, which means that for each diaper you purchase from them, they will match your purchase and donate diapers to an organization in need.  Recently, The Little Bee Co. had one of the most amazing Black Friday cloth diaper deals I’ve seen, as they ran a Buy 2, Get 1 Free deal that extended to matching, meaning that the free diapers customers received were matched and donated!

Now that we know that The Little Bee Co. is a noble company with a wonderful mission, I’m sure you’re wondering how their diapers perform.  For review purposes, I was asked to choose a color, which is another interesting thing about The Little Bee Co.  Each color/design is representative of a country with children/babies in need.  I chose the Bee Changed Microsuede OS Pocket w/ microfiber inserts in Polk’ish Dot, honoring my Polish heritage (my grandmother came to the US from Poland in the early 1900s), and The Little Bee Co. added a Bee Changed OS All-in-One in American Meadow, symbolic of my heritage and my present cultural identity.

My beautifully packaged diapers w/ detergent sample

My review diaper is the Bee Changed Microsuede One Size Pocket diaper in Polk’ish Dot.  Having a boy, the soaker design is perfect, with the ability to fold one end over and secure with snaps (this is perfect for putting towards the front of the diaper where it gets the wettest), and the choice to attach another smaller, contoured soaker (newborn) to that of the larger for added absorbency.  With a 17 month-old, I go all in, doubling up the soakers for maximum absorbency.  For those of you that stuff your diaper (I just lay the soaker in the diaper with a fleece liner on top), the opening in the back is elasticized and helps to hold the insert in place.

I’m using the Bee Changed All-in-One to illustrate the snap design.  As a one-size diaper, there are two rows of snaps to adjust sizing.  Two rows of snaps on the tabs secure the diaper in place.  One of my favorite features of the Bee Changed Pocket is the elasticized front waist, which creates a snug fit; I can’t tell you how many times my son has peed straight out of the top of his diaper!  The elastic keeps the diaper nice and close to the body, which is great when you have a
boy.

The fit looks as though it’s super snug, but it’s actually on a loose setting, thanks to the added security of the front elastic (the loose setting I’ve used is why you see a little extra diaper fabric peeking over the hip tabs).

The fit takes a little getting used to (I’m not used to having elastic in the front), but I think Bee Changed diapers are great choice for chunky babies (Declan’s on the leaner side and has plenty of room in these diapers).  If you melt at the sight of fluffy bums, The Little Bee Co. diapers don’t disappoint!

The AIO doesn’t have front elastic

From mission, to function, to fit, The Little Bee Co. does it right!  To purchase your own Bee Changed diapers, and to change the life of other babies across the globe, you can visit: www.thelittlebeeco.com.  To find out the latest news, you can connect with The Little Bee Co. on Facebook and Twitter.

Does your little one(s) sport Bee Changed diapers or swimmers?  Please share your thoughts with others by commenting below!

Window Shopping: Creating My Ideal Cloth Diaper Stash

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*This post contains affiliate links.
If I could cloth diaper all over again
If I had the chance to start over and build my cloth diaper stash from scratch, what would I do differently or the same, knowing what I know now (after 14 months of cloth diapering)?  And how would I create my stash if I was given a $200 budget, or $500?  What would I choose with an unlimited budget (more like, what wouldn’t I chose)?  When Tara & Carolyn, from Padded Tush Stats, threw this topic out, I knew that I would have fun with it.  Window shopping, with all of the cloth diapering experience I’ve gained over the past year, has been fun and a challenge.
ClothDiaperBudget
I began putting together my cloth diaper stash when I was two months pregnant, so I had plenty of time to shop.  I read cloth diapering blogs like it was my job!  A couple of the first nuggets of wisdom I encountered were that a.) I would need to try a few different styles of diapers to figure out what worked best for us, and b.) not all styles of diapers work on all babies (it’s like finding the right pair of running shoes).  I knew that I wanted to diaper with prefolds (flats intimidated more than prefolds back then), but also wanted to try pockets, AI2s, etc.  I purchased prefolds new, little by little, and decided to buy pockets used.
I realized early on that pockets were not going to work for us, and gradually sold them to add more prefolds and fitteds.  It’s amazing how diaper preferences change over time…and over the course of your baby’s growth.  I was a staunch prefold advocate for the first year of diapering Declan, but when every diaper change became a wrestling match (aound the time he turned 1), I quickly realized that AIOs and AI2s were my ally on the changing mat, and I have been adding them to my stash here and there.  Every baby is different, but the following ‘dream’ lists are based upon my experience thus far diapering D.
To simplify things, I’ll be creating my stash using just one diaper store (no comparison shopping): Diaper Junction.  It pays to use one cloth diaper store because most of them have points/award systems that give you credit based upon what you spend.
Creating a Diaper Stash for $200
This task proved to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined, but it’s still no problem for me, a prefold lover.  I actually plan to use flats with our next baby, now that I’m no longer intimidated, and they are a perfect solution because they fit babies of all sizes.
12 – Preemie Indian Prefolds  $9.00
2  –  Bummis Newborn Diaper Covers  $13.00
2  –  Thirsties Duo Wrap size 1  $20.82
2  – Thirsties Duo Wrap size 2  $20.82
1  –  Econobum Diaper Kit  $49.95
10 – Charlie Banana 10 Reusable Double Sided Wipes, Blue Emb.  $12.99  (these are my absolute favorite wipes)
1  –  10-gallon step trash can (Target)  $15.00
There’s no wet bag included, but grocery bags work just fine when you’re out and about.  No frills diapering, but this will take you from birth to potty training for $193.97.
Creating a Diaper Stash for $500
Now with $500 I should really be able to create my dream stash, right?  Well, I had a tough time fulfilling my dream stash for $500 (those AIOs & AI2s are expensive!)!  For $500, however, I do get the luxury of having plenty of diapers for the newborn stage.  One thing I wasn’t keen on was doing diapers almost daily the first 2-3 months with Declan.  However, once babies are on solids, their daily diaper usage decreases drastically, and I really didn’t factor in a decrease in diaper usage when purchasing our prefolds (we have a lot…as in over 100 in multiple sizes a lot!).  With D, we have way more prefolds than we can use in our current rotation because his pH changed once he began teething; this meant that I went from doing diaper laundry once per week, to doing them every 3rd day (or have an insane ammonia stink emanating from the pail).  I’d rather have more diapers for those early sleep-deprived days, and this stash reflects that:
1 – 3-Pack Snappi Diaper Fasteners  $3.95

24 – Diaper Rite Flannel Wipes  $11.98
1 – 10-Pack Charlie Banana Wipes  $12.99

1 – Bummis Newborn Pack  $42.00
     12 prefolds
     2 covers
12 – Preemie Indian Prefolds  $9.00
12 – Diaper Rite Flats  $17.50
12 – Infant Indian Prefolds  $18.00
2 – Thirsties Duo Wrap size 1  $20.80
1 – Blueberry Cover  $16.95
1 – Applecheeks Cover  $19.00
12 – bumGenius Freetime AIOs  $239.40
1 – Step Trash Can  $15.00
2 – Planet Wise Pail Liners  $33.00
1 – Planet Wise Hanging Wet Bag  $29.99
1 – Planet Wise Wet Bag Medium  $16.50
All of this for a grand total of $493.07 – whew!  What’s interesting to note is that we’ve spent around $500-600 on our current stash, but have way more options.  Part of this is because we had a few of our cloth diapering items given to us as shower gifts, and cute covers for Christmas gifts.  The other reason why we have so much more is because I had the luxury of plenty time to shop around; I purchased used diapers, shopped B1G1 diaper sales, and lucked into meeting a woman that was liquidating her online diaper store inventory (I was able to purchase a lot of items at cost, including our pail liners and wet bags).
My Ideal Diaper Stash (no budget)
 
No budget?  Since money is no object, and the budget is out-the-door, the (cloth diapering) world is my oyster!  The interesting thing is that I didn’t go nuts.  At-the-end-of-the-day, diapers, for me, are pee and poop catchers that serve a practical purpose.  I don’t like clutter, so I hate to over buy.
One area where I minimized, compared to what I currently have, is with my diaper covers.  I have WAY more than I need now, so I would definitely scale back if I had it all to do over again.  Other changes?  One more set of my absolute favorite wipes (Charlie Banana double-sided), more (fun) wet bag options, more newborn prefolds and wool…lots and lots of wool (I.love.wool.).  I scaled back on the number of larger sized prefolds I would get because I would plan to switch over to AIOs around the one year mark.  This is my ideal cloth diaper stash (*drum roll*):
1 – 3-Pack Snappi Diaper Fasteners  $3.95
3 – 10-Packs Charlie Banana Double-Sided Wipes  $38.97
Wipes Warmer  $29.99
4 – 5-Packs of Bummis Fleece Liners  $20.00
Step Trash Can  $15.00
2 – Bummis Newborn Diaper Packs  $84.00
12 – Diaper Rite Birdseye Flats  $17.50
1 – Blueberry Cover  $16.95
1 – Applecheeks Cover  $19.00
1 – Thirsties Duo Wrap Cover  $10.20
1 – EcoPosh Wool Cover  $34.95
1 – Kissaluvs Wool Cover  $39.00
18 bumGenius Freetime AIOs  $359.82

A grand total of $1,033.21.  Disposable diapering can cost anywhere from $1,500-$2,000, so I’m still saving money while having my dream diaper stash.  The crazy thing?  These diapers will diaper all of my kids and I’ll still be able to resell many of these items when done and recoup some money (cloth diapering just makes cents).  I feel I should have a disclaimer — I’ve not tried Blueberry or Applecheeks covers, I’ve just heard so many great things about them that I had to include them.  Also missing?  The diaper I am absolutely dying to try right now is a Smart Bottoms Smart One 3.0. I just can’t justify any more diaper purchases when we have so many diapers that go unused each rotation (even though I really, really, really want to add just 5 more AIOs/AI2s to my stash!).

Window shopping has been fun, but it makes me want so many more diapers (and another squishy baby to put fluff on)!  I was surprised that I had difficulty with the $200 budget even with exclusive flat and prefold diapering.  While I was pretty much a prefold-only gal (with a few fitteds thrown in for good measure), I did have a lot of comforts along with those diapers, in the form of multiple wet bags, pail liners, premium cloth wipes, wipe warmer, and way more cute covers than we have ever needed (who knew?).  The biggest comfort I factored into my $500 and unlimited budgets was having the luxury of more diapers and cutting down on the frequency of laundering.  What I didn’t factor in was a laundry service, but that may just be a topic for a future post…