introducing.. Mums and Bums!

I've mentioned a few times that my sister and I are going into the cloth nappy business, well now that our website is close to ready, and all our stock is arriving, I thought I'd share the general premise of the business!

Mums and Bums.  Our aim is to demistify the often daunting world of cloth diapering, and make cloth diapering easier and more enjoyable!  Upon start up we'll be stocking five brands of diapers - Little Lamb, Bummis, Real Nappies, Ecobubs and Sunbaby, and we will hire out trial packs, containing all those brands (or more customised, depending on the customers needs/wants) so that parents can get an idea of what they like about certain brands, and dislike about others - and hopefully work out which cloth diapers are going to be the best option for them & their little ones.  We are also going to be the distributors of Boingo's for New Zealand.  Along with our trial packs, we will also be selling the various brands I mentioned, it won't be necessary to do a trial pack, in order to buy from us.

We are also going to be making and selling cloth products for Mum's - cloth breastpads and cloth sanitary pads, but these will probably be a bit further down the line.  I am also going to be making and selling fleece and PUL covers to sell.  Really the sky is the limit!

We aren't 100% sure when we'll be 'going live', but we are certainly getting ready for that - and we have a fabulous graphic designer working on our website, which is going to look amazing when it's finished!  

It's a very exciting time for myself, my sister and my brother-in-law, and I can't wait to share the journey with all of you!!!!

If you want proof that we really are in existance, just check out our website so far... is it rather sad that I cried *just a little* when my sister gave me the link to this? Mums and Bums

Night time is just Snazzi!

I've posted a lot about my issues with overnight cloth diapering, and leaks - but in June-ish I finally found something that worked for me, and started using prefolds and covers overnight.  I got a little bored with that and started using pockets at night time again, and using woolen or fleece covers - because they NEVER leak, and well, sometimes it's nice to just throw a diaper on, and not worry about if you have 50,000 natural fiber boosters and the like.  I was qutie happy using FuzziBunz petite overnight, with 2 microfiber inserts and 1 bamboo or hemp booster, but I still didn't feel 100% successful, because often around the legs would be a bit damp (take into mind she often sleeps for 14 hours at night)...  BUT with the wool/fleece soakers - leaks that made it to the clothes or bedding were never an issue, so I let it slide.

A fabulous friend of mine gave me a whole bunch of fitteds and covers she'd used with her kiddos, including some size 2 Snazzipants - I had used size 1 Snazzi's when Emersyn was younger, but after she grew out of them never got around to upsizing - for once I couldn't justify buying MORE diapers, when I already have a bunch sitting in the diaper chest, waiting to be used.  My friend told me that she'd loved using Snazzipants overnight - something I'd not really tried, because as a whole I'm not too fond of fitteds, because of how wet they get, however I decided to give it a go one night....

I took a Snazzipants fitted, and then used a trifolded infant prefold and put it inside, along with a hemp booster, which has a staydry layer on it, and I finished it all off with a lovely woolen soaker.  I expected a soaking diaper the next morning - and that the wool would be damp - but was amazed when I got her up, took her pj's off and found that the soaker felt perfectly dry - and what is more, the Snazzi fitted wasn't even FULLY wet - there were still some dry patches on the outside!!!!  It hasn't been intentional really, but since then I've been using the Snazzi's at night, and haven't had ONE leak.  Even with the woolen cover on, the diaper isn't too bulky - and it seems to fit perfectly, because there are no gapes between her tummy and the top of the diaper, which is something that I seem to find happens with all other diapers I've used at night (except the Ecobubs woolen pockets).

I know a lot of my readers are from outside of New Zealand, and aren't able to get Snazzipants - but if you EVER find one somewhere, buy it!!!  They're a great little fitted, and they are nice and gentle around the legs.. and also nice and soft and fluffy...  The brand new Snazzi's are DIVINE, I have never felt material so soft, and to be honest I'm quite jealous that babies get to have such softness on their tushies!

I'm writing this from my parents computer and have no photos on hand, but in the next couple of days I'll post some photos of Emmy in her Snazzi's!

and it's solved.

Hooray - our night time issues are solved [insert exclamation mark here... since my keyboard exclamation mark doesn't work]

I have tried the Ecobubs, prefold, microfiber, fleece cover combination for two nights now, and both mornings she has woken up dry, we probably could have gotten away without the fleece cover both times... but since i made my first fleece cover, I've been wanting to use it LOL [did I even blog about my cover??? I don't think I did...].

It is such a relief to have this finally worked out, and I'm thrilled with the combo that eventually worked because it is actually really trim - I don't think it is a lot bulkier than a daytime diaper with two microfiber inserts inside it... and I think that helps Emersyn to sleep better at night too - night before last she slept through from 10.30pm [as usual she woke up during Desperate Housewives and the SERIES final of Brothers and Sisters...], and then last night she woke an hour after going to sleep, but went back to sleep after I gave her her dummy/pacifier - and didn't wake up until early this morning.

If it turns out that an uncomfortable diaper is what has been preventing Emersyn from sleeping through the night, I am going to kick myself.

Moral of the story - if you are having a hard time with cloth, keep at it, you will EVENTUALLY fix the problem, or find a new solution.... and then you will feel a whole new renewed love for the fluffy side of life.

Night time update, y'all

FINALLY.  

SUCCESS...

I think that after 4.5 months of battling leaks and explosions and frustration, I have finally found THE night time solution for us... well, for Emersyn. I posted last week about my success using a toddler prefold, bamboo insert and microfiber insert inside a pocket diaper... with a fleece cover over top - I'm still using much the same system, I've just refined it a little.  

To start with I was using a bamboo terry trifold insert, wrapped inside the prefold, but I decided to give the [trimmer] bamboo fleece a go... luckily that worked just as well as the bamboo terry.  I also wondered if there was a way to fold the prefold so it would actually be the length of the pocket, and I wouldn't have a bunch to fold over - which added a lot of bulk to the whole diaper... I remembered seeing infant prefolds being trifolded width ways, as opposed to length ways [see photo later in post], so I tried this and VOILA - it was the perfect length... it also cut down on quite a lot of the bulk, which if you remember was one of the issues I had with that whole diaper setup.  Last night I began wondering if I even really needed the bamboo inside the prefold - because I know the bigger prefolds are more absorbent, so decided to give it a go and leave out the bamboo.  This morning I was pleasantly surprised when there were no leaks.  

So if you've lost track, the new diaper 'set up' is a toddler prefold trifolded width ways, with a microfiber insert on top of the trifold - and then it's all inserted into a pocket, and a fleece cover is put on top.  I am now wondering if I can eliminate the fleece cover by using a better fitting pocket diaper... I have been using FuzziBunz petite, which fit Em well when they are just stuffed with microfiber inserts during the day, but I find that when they are stuffed to the max they gape at the legs, and the top of the diaper doesn't fit snugly on the tummy - that also gapes.  Those two issues were the reason I used the fleece - I knew the fleece would catch any leaks up the top, or down at the legs.

Upon a suggestion from one of my lovely blog followers, I decided to take another look at some pockets I have - Ecobubs woolen pockets... These are side snapping diapers, and I know they get a really nice fit around the tummy during the day, so I decided to put all my absorbency in and see how it looked on Emersyn.

BINGO.  It was a LOT trimmer than the FuzziBunz, and there was absolutely no gaping around the legs - and the fit across the tummy was nice and snug.  Obviously I need to wait until tomorrow morning to give an official verdict, but I think that if she wakes up leak free [or relatively, depending on how many bottles she has overnight, and how long she sleeps in the morning], we may have found our DREAM night time solution.

Here is a visual representation of the diaper composition, for those of you who like visuals...

step one - the toddler prefold, obviously pre trifolding.  if you look closely you can see the two horizontal lines in the fabric, which would normally be vertical

step two - sides of prefold are folded into the center.  again if you look closely you can see the two horizontal lines

step three - the prefold is then folded into a pad type shape [ie completing the trifold]

step four - the microfiber insert is then placed on top of the prefold

step five - the prefold and insert are then placed inside the pocket - microfiber closest to the microfleece layer [white] of diaper 

step six - 'here is one I made earlier' - place the diaper on the baby.  this photo was the actual diaper that Emersyn wore to bed - I decided to do a photo tutorial AFTER she'd gone to bed..

a better view of the fit around the legs

I will hopefully have a positive report in the morning.. I sure hope so anyway.  If it does work, I guess I need to invest in some more Ecobubs too...

Fluffy Wardrobe - 2nd April 2011

Just for fun...
today Emersyn has been wearing:
- Ecobubs woolen pocket, in baby pink & brown
- Ecobubs woolen pocket, in baby blue & brown
- Itti Bitti Bitti D'Lish AIO in pink
- Snazzipants prefold with blue Bummis Super Brite cover
- MyBaby pocket, in blue - with a Bummis Super Brite cover (for overnight)

Cloth diapers are more expensive than disposables, right?

I came across an article online - High Cost of Diapers Forces Some Parents Into Risky Practices - the basic premise being that a lot of low income parents are unable to meet the costs of buying disposables for their children, so are doing certain things to 'extend' the life of the disposable - including washing the diaper out & reusing it.

It's a very sad truth - the statistics in the article say that 1/3 parents are doing this, and I would believe it.  Here in New Zealand for a regular sized packet of disposable diapers you are looking at paying $5.10NZD/3.86USD for the cheapest packet, and for the more expensive brands you're paying around $16NZD/$12USD - and that is for a pack of 15-20.  If I was to buy disposables for a week, I would need basically 2 packs for a week - so at the most approximately $64.00 a month - that doesn't sound like a lot really, but when you are barely making enough money to make ends meet each week, that is a lot. 

On my worst weeks by the time I have got groceries, gas & paid all the bills - I might have $40.00 left over, to buy things for myself & the girls & cover any unexpected costs that come up.  If I was buying disposable diapers, that would mean I'd have around $100 to live on each month, by the time the diapers had been purchased.  THEN you can take into consideration the fact there are women out there who DON'T breastfeed for whatever reason - and they have to purchase formula too - it all adds up VERY quickly.

It's fairly obvious that for me my main motivation to use cloth diapers was for financial reasons.  My initial stash was 20 OSFA pockets which cost $11.00 each - so $220.00, I also purchased extra inserts which came to $30.00 - so all up I spent $250.00 on my initial stash... which I paid for by layby - paying $10.00 a week over 25 weeks.  Yes, it was a long way to go about it, but I paid for the diapers at a rate that I could comfortably afford, and it wasn't as if I needed them straight away - they were paid off in May & Emersyn was born in mid June. 

When I look at the actual numbers, my total cost of $250.00 is the equivalent of
15 packs of 20 diapers - or 300 disposable diapers all up,
which I would have gone through in basically 7 weeks, if I was using an average of 7 diapers a day. 
7 weeks & the cloth diapers had paid for themselves.


Lets pretend I go through an average of about 25 diapers a week across the 3-ish years that Emersyn is in diapers, that'd be a total of  3900 diapers, and if those were disposables purchased at $16 for a pack of 20, that would be a total cost of $3120 for diapers alone (if my math is right!)... not taking into consideration the fact she could be in diapers for longer than 3 years - the total cost could easily be more like $4000.00.

Now lets pretend I didn't buy any extra cloth diapers & stuck with my original $250.00 worth - that would mean I would be saving $2870.00!

Obviously my cloth diapering addiction kicked in at some point & I've now spent a LOT more money on cloth diapers than I had originally, BUT each of those cloth diapers - which can be used hundreds (probably thousands) of times cost less (in most cases) than the price of one packet of disposables, and then when I am done with the cloth diapers I can sell them & make a little money back.  That isn't to mention that if I had another child I could reuse those same cloth diapers - potentially saving myself close to $6000 by the time that child was potty trained.  The average number of diapers is just an estimate - but I think that whether or not it's accurate it is easy to see that cloth diapering is by far the more financially viable option.

What's the whole point of this blog post?  I'm basically saying that there needs to be more of an awareness of cloth diapering, of the costs associated - and the comparison with the cost of disposables.  It's very true that you can spend upward of $40.00 PER diaper for some brands, however it is also true that you can be very thrifty with your diaper buying - and like me if you purchase pre-loved diapers you can pay well under half the normal retail price.  Here are a few examples of the bargains I've had...

3x barely used Snazzipants fitted diapers.. RRP - $84.00 / I paid:  $17.00
3x used, but in great condition Bummis Super Brites - RRP - $72.00 / I paid:  $17.00
5x used, but in great condition Bitti D'Lish - RRP $135.60 / I paid:  $76.00
8x used, still in good condition FuzziBunz pockets - RRP $263.60 / I paid: $40.00
3x used, still in good condition Ecobubs woolen pockets - RRP $119.85 / I paid: $30.00

GRAND RRP TOTAL:  $675.05 (average of $30.68 per diaper)
I PAID:  $180 (average of $8.20 per diaper)

I COULD of course sum this whole long winded post by saying:
NO, cloth diapers are NOT more expensive than disposables!