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