Charlie Banana One Size - Review

Hello to my fluffy friends.

So you know from my previous posts, my cloth journey started whilst I was pregnant with my son, Toby. I came across Charlie Banana pocket nappies and thought I would give them a whirl once he arrived. They are a branded one size nappy and cost in the region of £15 each although you can buy them in packs of 3 or more from about £38. We have tried them a few times and would like to tell you more about our experiences with them.

Here is Toby modelling a Charlie Banana at about 8-9 weeks old and weighing about 8lbs. My little cutie pie.

So these are a pocket nappy with a soft fleece style inside which is soft against babies bum and an opening for the pocket at the front instead of the back. They have poppers that fasten shut at the front and you can overlap the flaps for the smaller waist (as shown in Toby's pictures)

They come in a variety of pretty prints and block colours. They have some real pretties for girls.






They come with microfibre inserts that have a large sewn in label which is very handy for pulling the insert out after use without having to touch the wet bits!!

Front pocket with insert shown

As well as the poppers for adjusting and fixing the waist, they also have elastic in the legs which is adjustable with a bra strap style buckle. This is hidden inside the pocket at the top of each leg and goes from extra small, two small, two medium and three large settings.

Bra strap style adjustable leg

These are quite fiddly to get to the size you want however once set at the right size for your baby they are good to go.

The legs are also covered in a soft fleece on the inside making them very soft against babies skin.


I guessed I would need xs when I tried these as Toby was only about 6lb when I first put one on. To be honest I think he was a little too small for them in terms of the rise intially but the leg size in xs was perfect.

The pictures of him above show the leg as a medium given he started to get chunky monkey thighs.

In terms of bulk I think these are average for a pocket nappy. They look big on Toby but would probably be less bulkier on an older baby. Not had any issues with clothing not fitting properly so that's always a good indicator.

So how do they fair with wee? Well they are okay actually. I get about 3 hours out of them. I have had leaks but that does tend to happen with microfibre if it becomes saturated as it acts like a sponge and will leak when compressed, say by clothing or sat in a car seat. You can combat this and make them last a little longer by adding a bamboo insert with the microfibre.
Microfibre is great at soaking up quickly so I would always suggest this is closest to baby with the bamboo underneath, furthest away from baby as they are slower to absorb but hold an awful lot more. Bamboo inserts tend to be very thin so would add very little bulk overall.

The inside leg doesn't leave any compression marks nor does the waist. Overall its a good nappy but I find I now have to boost each one with a bamboo insert to assure it will last at least 2-3 hours without leakage.

In terms of number 2's the containment is again fairly good but the leg is a single gusset so any gaps would more than likely lead to some leakage.

I like these nappies. I like the designs and they are very nice against Toby's skin. Not my favourite nappy but a nice one to have in your stash :-)

Keep spreading the fluffy love. xxx

A very happy birthday with surprises!!

So yesterday was my 31st birthday and my day was fairly interesting as it goes so I thought I would share.
Firstly Richard had paid for me to have my hair cut and coloured as a birthday treat and to make me feel a bit better about myself after having Toby. I want to tackle the weight gain but figured my hair was a quick fix for now and it worked :-)

I woke to a few gifts from my family and two bags of popcorn from Richard, being fairly quirky. I also received a lovely framed photo of my boy. The best bit of the morning was receiving a series of gorgeous smiles from Toby for the first time. He has done little ones before but he was the smile king yesterday. I swear he did it especially for mummies birthday.

I had requested a lovely charm from Moms Own Milk, a site which turns a small amount of your breast milk into a treasured piece of jewellery. Seeing as I had a very hard time with the breastfeeding mentally I decided it would be nice to have something to mark the fact I did manage to feed Toby for as long as I possibly could. I wanted a very simple bead but he brought me a necklace. It is very nice but a bit green! Not what I was expecting but still very nice.

Below is my two favourite men, Richard and little cutie pie Toby at 8 weeks old.

Richard had arranged for us 3 to go for dinner somewhere nice with good food. Now, being a man and a new father he had no idea that some restaurants have a no children policy after a certain time of evening. I asked him to check with the restaurant that Toby could come. He called them and they rudely advised he couldn't! Well that was upsetting to say the least so in the end we went to Chiquitos. You cant go wrong there really. We had a nice meal (although the service was very sparse) and I enjoyed a few Mojitos seeing as it was my birthday.

We came home after a fairly uneventful day as birthdays tend to go as you get older so I hear. I started to do the washing up with my marigolds when I heard Richard enter the kitchen and start talking behind me. He wandered what I would say if he told me he had brought a ring? A ring? Oh my god! I couldn't turn round for shear fear as I knew what was about to happen! I did turn around and there he was, on one knee in the kitchen with a grey shiny box which he opened to reveal a gorgeous diamond ring!! Eeeeek

He asked me to marry him and I just laughed. I was shocked that he was doing it! The first thing I said was where did he get it from? It looked to good to be true. After the initial shock I said yes! After over 4 years of being together and bearing him a wonderful little boy he has finally plucked up the courage to take me on full time as his wife :-)

Before you ask yes I have included pictures of the ring for you all to awwww at. I particularly like the fact the washing up bowl and marigolds are in the background as seems kind of poignant to me. Today we keep calling each other Fiancé as it sounds so weird but lovely. I cant wait to get wedding planning, hopefully for winter 2015.

Thanks for reading my happy news xxx

The Nappy addiction - it's very real!

As many of you reading this will know, once you buy those first few fluffy gems for your little one and find they work well on their bums there is no stopping you from buying more and scanning the cloth chat groups, as well as the preloved groups on Facebook. If you don't know this yet and are taking the first few baby steps into the cloth world then a huge welcome and hold on to your hats!

The only barrier tends to be finances but what do you do? You sell some in order to buy some more. Lets face it. Reusable nappies are an addiction and quickly lead to reusable wipes, amber anklets for baby and other zero waste products such as cloth sanitary towels and wipes to replace toilet roll in the household. I don't know many ladies who have committed to ditching the loo roll but why not eh?

There is an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction knowing you are helping the planet but more importantly your own pocket in these hard economic times. Yes the initial outlay can be a fair amount but once you have your stash you are good to go and almost all brands of nappy are guaranteed to last from birth to potty training and if looked after, for more babies to come.

My stash building - photo taken May 2014 of my original stash before Toby arrived. This has changed a lot and grown!!

When pregnant I started to buy a few of each brand to try out on the recommendations of a few ladies I knew who already used cloth. Tots bots, Charlie Banana, Bambooty, Little lamb bamboo (for overnight) Close pop in and a few gnappies in small to use after my newborn ones. I was also gifted some preloved wraps and tots bots bamboo for overnight use. I would sit and play with them all but obviously had no little bum to actually try them out. In the end I let some of my friends who had babies try them out and report back to me. That was a positive thing to do as most now use cloth on their babies too :-)

I was added to cloth groups on facebook and that's when the addiction really took off. I found the world of preloved and went crazy buying so many different types from some lovely ladies. Thanks if you ever sold to me in the past. I don't know what it is about prints but they draw you too them and you can spend a pretty penny very easily. I, on the other hand was more interested in trying out all cloth nappies known to man, not just for my own interest but so I could also give my advice to others if considering cloth. I still haven't tried all brands but I know every type of nappy out there and I also learnt that what works for one baby may not work for another. This is why if I ever see a mama who is about to buy a BTP (birth to potty) set of nappies in one brand I shout NOOOOOO don't do it! It could be a huge mistake.

On that note this is why nappy libraries were invented. You can trial various nappies for a very tiny fee and find out what is best for you and your baby. This is harder to do when your pregnant but remember cloth nappies hold their retail value very well if looked after and so what you don't get on with you can sell on. The nearest libraries to me are Ely and Peterborough but you can find yours through this link greatbritishnappyhunt.co.uk.

Also make sure that you check whether your local council have an incentive scheme as you could save some money. 

Now I have found the few brands that work for us, I have calmed my spending down a little and sold on most of what I don't like. I'm still always scanning the selling pages and I have just invested in some  very pretty gnappie prints all the way from America that a very good friend is bringing back with her. Cheers Emma :-)

I would be interested to know how far some ladies have taken this addiction. Has anyone got any shocking stories relating to how your stash came about?

I also use reusable wipes which I cant praise enough but I will save that for another posting soon.

Thanks for reading and keep sharing the fluffy love.

Our first reusable nappy experience - Newborn Gnappies

I know I said in my previous post that I wasn't going to explain the different types of nappy but what sort of person would I be if I started to talk in jargon about certain brands and not explained anything beforehand?

Well I can make this fairly easy on myself a there are lots of sites which explain the difference in nappy types. Here is a link to just one of them which I feel explains them well... www.clothnappytree.com.

Our nappy story starts with Newborn Gnappies...

When Toby arrived into the world I had intended to use cloth from the very start however he was so small, just 5lb 3oz that I had nothing I felt would fit him. We therefore chose to use micro disposables for a week or so before I took the plunge. I found they always smelt of wee! As soon as I put them on I could smell wee. This doesn't happen with any of my cloth nappies so I swear they must put something in the sposie to make it smell strong in order to get you to change it more often and therefore buy more. 

The first nappy we trialled was a newborn Gnappy or Gdiaper. To see what I'm talking about follow this link  www.gnappies.com/shop/getting-started/newborn-bundle-baby-nappies Gnappies are American and I have heard them being referred to as Marmite, you either love them or hate them.

The newborns are small all in one pouches which are suitable from 5lb 5oz to about 9 or 10lb. They are a two parter style so you add an insert. The website recommends you use their disposable inserts only however I think this is just due to the meconium poos being quite nasty and probably staining reusable ones.

We tried these with a small Bambino Mio prefold folded into the pouch.www.thenappylady.co.uk/flat-pad-and-prefold-nappies/bambino-mio-prefold-nappies.html shows you these.

I also used a tots bots disposable liner on top. These are great for catching poop and when it comes to changing all you need to do is lift the liner off the nappy, complete with "new addition" and flush down the loo. I learnt the hard way to start with as I forgot to use the liners and had to scrape thick "Korma style" poop from the prefold with a plastic knife. Yummy. Sorry for the image implanted in your head right now and also sorry to anyone who loves Korma.

Anyway so the gnappy is different as the velcro tabs do up at the back and have to be aligned with each other to get a good fit. The pouch section of the nappy also sits high up in what will be the babies knicker line. It doesn't seem like enough to hold the pee and poop in but it did do the job. I did get a few leaks to start with but I put that down to my lack of experience in putting them on and it did get better as time went on. I did find that sometimes the pre fold was possibly a little thick in the pouch as its folded up. You can also use gcloths (gnappies own insert) bamboo inserts or a combination of any type of insert really.

We stopped using them after a few weeks as I found the elastic tabs seemed to go round the top of Toby's legs and not his waist. This worried me that they may fall down and besides I was trialling other types of nappy which I found a little easier to put on that this one.

I have some pics of my little dude in newborn g's. He was just two weeks old and weighed under 5lb as he lost 12% of his birth weight in the first week or so. They look huge on him.

These were definitely a good start at his weight and size and once we got over the first few days of cloth nerves (we all get them when starting out) it was plain sailing and even my partner could put them on.

In terms of washing they were very easy. Both the pouch and insert go in the wash. I washed them at 40 degrees with non bio washing powder (I now use bio but that is another story) and lined dried both parts as the weather was good. The pouch is very quick drying as its just a shell and doesn't need to be tumble dried.

I have since sold these nappies on to a lovely lady in Germany. I had 10 in total and was able to resell them as a bundle and made back what I paid for them pre-loved. If you are thinking about trying these then I would recommend buying a few pre-loved from one of the buy/sell/trade groups on Facebook. It will be cheaper than buying the bundle from Gnappies and if you don't get on with them you can sell on to someone else who would like to try them. If you would like information on these sites then please comment and I will be happy to add you to some.

Thanks for reading and keep a look out for new posts about other brands.

Spread the fluffy love

A whole new world..............of fluff?

First of all welcome to my blog and thank you for reading this far. My name is Amy, I'm 30 years old and a new mother to my gorgeous 8 week old boy called Toby. We live with my parter of 4 years Richard, my 8 year old Springer Spaniel Jem and two cats, Jasper and Pixie. 

Toby was born at 37 weeks and 4 days by c- section weighting a hefty 5lb 3 oz. Perfect in every way but nicknamed Tiny Toby for obvious reasons.

We are both new to the world of parenting and whilst I was pregnant I researched many ways of bringing up a child in a more ethical and cost effective way. One of these areas was reusable nappies and wipes, an area I feel every new mother should be given some knowledge in. Well that's what I want to share with you all, as well as some of the ups and downs of being a new mother. 

Where to start............

Initially reusable nappies would conjure up images of my younger sister, Rebecca having her nappy changed in a home video at the age of 1, with a large terry towel secured with an even larger safety pin and finished off with a white wrap resembling a plastic bag with cuffs. Nice eh. Not very slim and probably not very good at containment either. 

Well if you type "reusable nappy" into Google now you are greeted with a huge number of sites offering all types of nappy from partly reusable to overnight ones. All at different prices too. I was overwhelmed and very confused. I started to look into them at about 13 weeks pregnant and thank god I started early. 

Some weeks later I was introduced to a lovely lady on a Facebook birth group called Melissa. She became my bump buddy as we were both expecting babies on 20th July (although neither of us managed any where near the due date in the end) and if it wasn't for her I doubt I would have got into cloth. She has a 2 year old son who uses cloth nappies and she passed on nuggets of information as well as introduced me to Facebook sites and even brought me along to a nappy meet where I met other mums who were using cloth or were thinking about starting. It was still a lot to take in to start with but her advice and guidance certainly shaped how I perceived using cloth and influenced my choices. Thanks Melissa x

Anyway there are many sites that explain the different types of reusable nappy and I need not spend time explaining them all but if anyone has any questions I can certainly try to help if requested. The main reason for my blog is to provide new and expectant mothers with my own personal reviews of certain nappy brands to aid in your choices should you choose to cloth your child. 

What are the benefits..........

Again there are many benefits to reusable nappies vs disposables and I shall no doubt mention these throughout my blog pages in the months to come. The main one is the lack of waste. I don't have smelly bins full of stinky nappies and don't need to buy nappy sacks or one of those silly nappy bins where it twists them into separate sausages for ease of transferring into a bigger bin outside once it gets full. 

The cost is also a big benefit.

Whilst pregnant I mentioned that I was going to use reusable nappies to a small group of my sisters friends. One of them laughed and told me to let her know when it all went wrong. I asked her why and her first response was they were extra hassle. What is exactly extra hassle? There is nothing I can think of which would be deemed a hassle at all. I do a nappy wash every 2- 3 days, so that is one extra wash a week. Big deal. I wash at 40 degrees with a normal washing detergent, no hassle there either. I dry on the line or in the tumble dryer on a low heat. Nope still no hassle there. I don't have to wash them whilst spinning plates and juggling fruit as that probably would be a hassle to me. 

What else could be a hassle? Putting it on? Most are very similar to a disposable nappy and I don't know anyone who cant stick one of those on a little bottom. Do they leak? Well every nappy can leak for various reasons. A bad fit and being on too long it becomes saturated are the main reasons and are valid for both reusable and disposable. The fit is more key on the reusable to assure comfort and good absorbency. Every brand fits a baby differently too, so one could work amazingly for one and not so good on another little bum. 

I have not had the pleasure of having a "pooplosion" with Toby but have heard that these are almost unheard of in reusable nappies than they are in disposables. I guess the containment of a reusable is so much better. 

What is against your babies bum........

Cloth nappies are made from natural materials such as Cotton, Bamboo and Hemp. They also use micro fibre and fleece. All very nice and soft on squidgy bums. 

Disposables contain all sorts of things to make them absorbent but have you ever wandered how hey can make them so thin yet it seemingly holds a small swimming pool worth of liquid? The following information was taken from Reallypants.co.uk and explains what's in that nappy. 

The Real Dangers of Disposable Nappies

We all know that modern disposable nappies are produced using valuable resources such as petroleum based plastics, and wood pulp, as well as adhesives and a host of chemical products-as parents, it is our duty to carefully evaluate these chemicals and assess their potential consequences.

Taken directly from the Huggies website, they list some of the components that make up their nappies:

‘The inside absorbent padding on Huggies® nappies is made of wood cellulose fibre, a fluffy paper-like material, and a super-absorbent material called polyacrylate. 

Other materials used include polypropylene, polyester, and polyethylene. These are all synthetic materials designed to enhance the fit of the nappy and the help stop leaks. The elastic strands in all Huggies nappies are made of synthetic rubber to provide a snug but gentle fit for baby. In addition, Huggies nappies feature an all-over breathable outer cover”

This ‘list’ is described in a promotional manner, however these synthetic substances and plastic ingredients are hardly reassuring when you take a closer look….

Polyacrylic Acid- Ever noticed little gel balls on your babies bottom after wearing a disposable nappy? Welcome to Polyacrylic Acid - A Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) that turns urine into gel and can absorb 100 times its weight in liquid. This is a substance which was banned from use in tampons in 1985 due to its link with Toxic Shock Syndrome. Employees in factories producing Polyacrylate suffer from female organ damage, fatigue and weight loss. No long term studies have been conducted to assess the risks of 24/7 exposure to this compound on a babies vulnerable genitals.

Due to its extreme absorbency, this chemical has been found to draw moisture from the skin, causing severe nappy rash and bleeding of perineal and scrotal tissue. Polyacrylic Acid is also lethal to cats when inhaled.

Dioxin- The most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals, and a by-product of the paper bleaching process. Certain dioxins have been shown to be a carcinogen and to affect the reproductive and immune systems, cause skin disease, birth defects and liver damage. Several European countries have begun phasing out the bleaching of wood pulp with chlorine due to concerns about dioxin and it potential negative effects on health.

In response to scares over dioxin exposure, several disposable nappy manufacturers have started to product nappies that are unbleached or bleached without chlorine.

TBT (Tribulytin)- This substance was found in Pampers® Ultra Dry nappies in May 2000. TBT is one of the most toxic substances ever produced, it damages the immune system and impairs the hormonal system. There is also speculation of a link with male sterility.

Xylene, Ethylbenzene, Styrene & Isopropyl - These are some of the chemicals which were reported to be released from disposable nappies in a study published in the Archives of Environmental Health (1999). Anderson Laboratories exposed lab mice to various brands of disposable nappies and found them to suffer from asthma like symptoms, including bronchoconstriction and eye, nose and throat irritation as a direct result. Xylene and Ethylbenzene are suspected endocrine, neuro and respiratory toxins; Styrene is a suspected carcinogen and respiratory toxin; Ispropylene is a suspected neurotoxin.

Male Infertility- In 2000, a scientifc study was conducted at Kiel University in Germany which indicated that the widespread use of disposable nappies, which heat the testes above body temperature, is a significant factor in the declining fertility rates in Western European males.

Nappy Rash- Reported instances of nappy rash rose from 7.1% to a whopping 61% with the increased use of disposable nappies according to a review of Proctor and Gambles own studies (The Landbank Consultancy Limited, 1991). How very handy for Nappy Rash Cream manufacturers!

So, we can see that the petroleum based plastic and wood pulp compounds of the disposable nappy are harmful enough to us and our world, but adding chemicals such as Polyacrylic Acid and Dioxin into the mix, as well as allergy causing irritants like fragrances and deodorants, we could potientally have serious problems. There has currently been no where near enough studies assessing the long term risks of the modern disposable nappy- especially because they are ever changing, and always being ‘added to’- so really, is it worth taking that risk?

Anyway I have done enough rambling for one day. I hope you find this a small but intriguing insight into the fluffy world of cloth nappies. I shall be back soon to share more of my cloth journey and my experiences. 

Thanks for reading and share the fluffy love :-)