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.