Cheeky wipes

Well when I was pregnant and researching alternatives to cotton wool in the early days. I stumbled onto Reusable baby wipes as I had already decided we were going to do cloth nappies so wipes was an easy choice. After a bit of research we decided on cheeky wipes.

We brought the baby mini kit which includes :- 25 wipes (we brought terry as Bamboo were out of stock at the time) 1 fresh wipes container, 1 fresh wipes waterproof out and about bag, 10ml of Lavender & Chamomile fresh wipes essential oil blend.  At the same time we also purchased an extra 25 terry wipes and a mucky wipe bag.

(Note oil in picture is not original bottle)

How does it work?

You take the fresh box and for every 25 wipes you need 2-3cm of water (the box has fill lines marked inside so first line for 25 wipes) and 3 drops of the fresh wipes essential oil blend. Throw 25 wipes in and turn over a few times until damp. If any excess water squeeze it out and tip away or wipes start to go musty smelling quickly. Cheeky wipes say wipes are fresh in the solution for up to 3 days I've never managed to make them last that long. When you go out you pop some wipes in the fresh bag and your ready to go. Then when used place in mucky bag or wet nappy bag then when you get home into the nappy bucket and wash with the nappies. You don't need to dry the wipes after washing they can go straight back into the solution. We only use the mucky bag at home for after food clean ups.

(I used a drop of squash to show water level in photo. For the curious this is 400ml of water)

Using cheeky wipes

We have used cheeky wipes from day one they get Menconium poo off really easily. My sister is a midwife and could believe that I only needed one white not 15 balls of cotton wool. They easily do the job of 7 disposable wipes. I'm not new to changing bums I've looked after lots of babies over the years and changed hundreds of bums. With disposable wipes you can never seem to only get one wipe out of the packet at a time so they are quite wasteful. Recently on holiday with no washing facilities we used disposable wipes and in 1 week we had used up 3.5 packets which is stupidly expensive. Well cheeky wipes are so simple quick wipe and throw in nappy bag. They wash really easily and if you do dry them they don't take long on the line. 10mls of the oil blend lasts us 3 months so it's really good value. We have a fresh box of microfibre wipes on the dinner table great for cleaning Isla and Daddy up after food.

I have only tried the Lavender & chamomile oil blend, I love the scent and the healing properties. I might try the other blends in the future.

After our initial purchase we have since brought the 100ml bottle of oil blend, 25 bamboo terry wipes, double wet bag, extra fresh box for weaning and got 25 microfibre wipes for free.

The different wipes

Bamboo terry, terry, microfibre

Bamboo Terry wipes- These are suitable for for hands, faces and bottoms. They are super soft and gets poo off easily. They stay soft in a hard water area. I prefer the bamboo terry over the normal terry ones. These are the most expensive £18 for 25 wipes.

Terry wipes- These are suitable for hands, face and bottoms. They don't feel very soft in a hard water area when dry however when they are wet it makes little difference. You can strip them with white  vinegar every so often it really helps. They are cheeky wipes original product so should last. They are grippy and get poo off easily. Even with the messiest breast fed poo I have only had to use 3 wipes on one nappy change. These are the cheapest ones at £13 for 25 wipes.

Microfibre wipes- These are great for weaning for hands and faces. Cheeky wipes sat don't use them for poo as it would get trapped In the fibres so I avoid using them for nappy changes.The clean really well and the come in lots of colours. We have a rainbow set. They stay soft in a hard water area. They cost £12 for 25.

Conclusion 

I love cheeky wipes and how well they clean up baby. They smell stays strong on the wipes all the time but is delicate enough for baby. My only real criticism of cheeky wipes is that the fresh bag logo fades badly after a short period of time, my daughter is only 5 months and this bag has been washed 

twice on delicates due to hubby getting poo on it by accident. Also logs on wipes fade after one wash but that doesn't really matter.

New bag on left as you can see logo fades!

If your doing cloth nappies you don't really need a mucky bag at all as you will have a wet bag for out and about. I don't soak my dirty wipes as I put them with my nappies. A scoop of miofresh keeps them fresh and stain free.

gNappies

Manufacturer: gNappy
Nappy Name: gNappy
Type of Nappy: hybrid
Fastener: Velcro
Material: gPants 92% cotton and 8% spandex; gPouch is a breathable nylon; gRefills are made of cellulose rayon, fluffed wood pulp, and sodium polyacrylate (SAP) & gCloth are made of 2 layers of polyester microfleece and 2 layers of hemp/cotton
Size: sized newborn 2-4kg (6-10lbs), small 3-7kg (8-14lbs), medium 5-13kg (13-28lbs), large 10-17kg (22-36lbs) & extra large 15+kg (34+lbs)

Reliability: 10/10
Absorbency: 10/10
Cuteness: 10/10
Drying Speed: 10/10
Slimness: 10/10
Value for money: 8/10
Use: hybrid for holidays can be used with cloth or biodegradable insert.

Overall Comment:
Fabulous!

We visited the baby show on Sunday, although I had seen gNappies before DH didn't see why we needed them (I wanted them for holiday).  DH looked very intrigued about them after watching the demonstration he said he thought they would be great for holiday and when Nannie is looking after DD. We ended up purchasing 5 gPants, 2 gPouches, 1 pack of gRefills and 1 pack of 6 gCloths to try. The colours we brought are:- gPant goddess pink, gPant great orange, gPant Gulf Stream (minty green), gPant gauze (white), gPants go fish (blue). 

gNappies are a hybrid nappy that bridges the best of both world between biodegradable disposables and cloth nappies. I would recommend hybrids for holidays abroad when you do not want to be hunting washing facilities.

How they work?
There are 3 parts to a gNappy:- gPant (Gulf Stream in photo's), gPouch and gCloth or gRefill.

The gPouch is popped into the gPant and the gRefill or gCloth is pushed into the gPouch. Then you put on baby ensuring the gPouch is right up in baby's leg creases (where knickers would go), Velcro tabs at the back (more about this later) and check gNappy is pulled up high enough.

gCloth

gRefill

The gPants are 92% cotton and 8% spandex. The gPouch is a breathable nylon. The gRefills are certified Cradle to Cradle so everything in them goes back into the earth in a positive or neutral way. They are made of cellulose rayon, fluffed wood pulp, and sodium polyacrylate (SAP). The cellulose rayon and fluffed wood pulp comes from sustainably grown and harvested softwood. Sodium polyacrylate (SAP) and is a green and non-toxic water absorbing polymer. The gRefill can go into your compost bin and will complete break down in 50-150 days. (Normal disposables take over 182,625 days or 500 years). The gCloth inserts are made of 2 layers of polyester microfleece and 2 layers of hemp/cotton.

The review

Right so loading the gNappy was very easy even though the inserts look like they won't fit at all, they do and make the gPouch form a 'u' shape. I tried the gCloth insert first, put it on Isla which was a little tricky at first because they do up at the back. You have to make sure you get the gPouch right into their knicker line (where pants would go). Isla fell asleep for 3.5 hours which I wasn't expecting, the gNappy held everything in really well. I got a slight leak at the back (by waist band) due to doing the nappy up too tight. But over 3 hours without a massive leak. When I tried again with another gCloth and ensured I could get two fingers under the band of the gPant it worked perfectly and got 2 hours with no leaks what so ever.

Next I tried the gRefills as I am desperate to use only this combination on holiday. They were easy to pop into the pouch, put it on Isla and remembered not to do it up too tight. She then fell asleep again (my daughter sleeps lots) for 2 hours. When she woke I changed her and she had done a poo. Well my first thought was I bet it's everywhere, the joys of breast feed poo is it's very runny. I have to say I was very impressed the pouch does it's job of catching any escaping mess and the gPant was spotless. I just clipped in a new gPouch and was off again with a new gRefill. This is going to be brilliant on holiday.  

Well after trying both combinations of inserts for gNappies I have to say not only are these good for
holiday they would be brilliant every day. I love the choice of colours for gPants as they are beautiful. I love that you can compost wet gRefills and that they don't contain nasty chemicals. The gCloth would be my favourite as it's so soft and lovely next to a baby's bum. Once you get the fit right they are super easy to use. I actually love that they do up at the back as it will make it harder for little monkey's to get them off. I have to say I found this nappy super reliable. The lovely thing about gNappies is their slimness they are one of the slimmest reusable nappies I've ever used. The gPant, gPouch and gCloth all wash really well and are super fast drying.

The cost of gNappies well you can buy a starter bundle for £31.95 which contains 2 gPants & a packet of gRefills. gPants are sized so the fit is much better. The sizes are newborn 2-4kg (6-10lbs) which popper down at the front for unbiblical cord, small 3-7kg (8-14lbs), medium 5-13kg (13-28lbs), large 10-17kg (22-36lbs) & extra large 15+kg (34+lbs). The gPouches, gRefills and gCloths come in two sizes n-s (newborn-small) and m-l-xl (medium, large and extra large) which means they will last longer. gPants have two prices £14.95 for block colours and £17.95 for pretties. The best thing is for full time use you only need 6-8 gNappies so considerably cheaper than some systems. To use gRefills all the time would be comparable to using premium brand nappies daily as they work out to be 23p each roughly.

Increasing absorbency

With gNappjes you can increase the absorbency very easily their website suggests a few methods and when I first read it I was a bit unsure as I needed a picture to help me out. 

The sushi roll – tuck in one disposable insert like normal. Then take a second insert and roll up so it makes a smallish rectangle. Place it on top of the first insert, in the middle for girls, up front for boys.

Girls

Boys

Insert plus doubler – tuck in a cloth insert. Lay a disposable insert on top of the cloth insert.

Hemp sandwich – Using two cloth inserts, place the hemp sides together so that they're in the middle, fleece side faces baby's bum. With the g tickets on the inside of the sandwich. Then tuck them inside the gPant.

Conclusion 

I really love gNappies flexibility to be both cloth and eco disposable. I think it's great that you need so few gPants for full time use. Also the large range of gPants has something for everyone's taste. Since our initial purchase we have also ordered the Going to Grandma's white lace one as it will look lovely under dresses. The real test will be my weeks holiday abroad when I am only taking gNappies I'll post results when I get back. 

Bambino MioSolo

Nappy Name: Bambino Mio Solo

Type of Nappy: AIO

Fastener: Velcro

Material: stay dry core, waterproof cover and microfibre

Size: BTP

Reliability: 10/10

Absorbency:  10/10

Cuteness: 10/10

Drying Speed: 9/10

Slimness: 10/10

Value for money: 10/10

Use  everyday and night time

Overall Comment: 

Fabulous!

I simply love the cuteness of the Bambino Miosolo (Solos) prints and block colours are very bright and eye catching. The nappy is an adjustable birth to potty (BTP) nappy, however, my daughter was premature and this nappy would have been too bulky to start with and wouldn't have done up tight enough. I have to say it fits better now she is over 12lbs. Solos are made out of absorbent fabric is super soft and made of microfibre.

It copes very well with my heavy wetter and contains breast fed poo well. I haven't had a leak yet. I find Them very slim fitting and work well under any clothes. We normally use it at night with a Bambino Mio booster and we get 7pm-7am out of a nappy. We have quite a good stash of these as I love them so much. They are super easy to put on similar to putting on a disposable so are great for Daddy's and child care.They wash really well and haven't had any issues with staining. I find them very quick drying as you can pull out the core with special loops and dry very fast on the line or over night on the airer.

The block colours:- Cola Cube, Sherbet Lemon, Peppermint Cream,  Marshmallow, Parma Violet & Flying Saucer.

The prints

Ecoegg

If you have read my washing advice you will see I use an ecoegg to wash my nappies. Actually I use an ecoegg for all my washing (including my husband's rugby kit). I've personally always had allergies with washing powders and only ever used a bio brand that my parents repeatedly used. So when I had a baby began to use a nonbiological washing powder. I was washing my daughters things separately then cleaning my machine before washing my own clothes. One day I was reading the cheeky wipes blog and it mentioned using an ecoegg to help keep wipes softer. I did a little more research  all ecoegg's are approved by Allergy UK and the fragrance free one is also approved by The National Eczema Society. Also they are not tested on animals, which is a big plus for us. The price is also brilliant 720 washes for £19.99 rrp, works out at 3p a wash.

We have both a fragrance free (yellow one) and spring cotton (blue one) both do a brilliant job of cleaning all our washing. Your clothes are not heavily scented with the fragranced ones but we don't mind. The egg shell comes with a 10 year guarantee and you simply buy more pellets to refill it.

How do they work?
This is really clever they are filled with two pellets,  grey coloured ceramic pellets – these weaken the adhesive forces between the dirt and fabric & white mineral pellets - these naturally ionize the oxygen molecules in the water which then penetrate deep into the fabric lifting away the dirt and grime, without fading colours or damaging the fibres.

For more information and stockist visit their website ecoegg.

Nappies are not rubbish!

So I know I would rather have a line looking like this

than a bin full of dirty nappies for two weeks. 

Sunshine is magic!

Promise not to tell my dd I ever did this when she is a big girl, else I'll get a vote for the worlds most embarrassing Mummy! As I know often the biggest issue people have with cloth nappies is what happens when they get a stain. My husband saw a stained nappy and wanted to rewash it. I eventually got him to trust me that the sun is magic.

Some examples before and after:-

The science behind it is the chemicals that make poo a certain colour are broken down by sun light. This also works on other organic stains.