Tidy Tiger Silicone Baby Bib

I know I have been away from the blog a long time but it has been one hell of a year. I had two grandparents pass away six months apart and had a second baby. With that all being said I am still going to be in and out of the blog a lot. I will try to be back here a bit more regularly but I can't make any promises to you guy. I also want to go ahead and apologize because this post is more than likely not going to be up to my standards but I am not very good at post when I am not particularly fond of a product I receive.

I received this funny looking tiger bib for my son a while ago in exchange for a review but I was struggling to write the post and still am because I truly am not fond of the product.

Honestly we rarely use this bib because both my son and myself get so extremely frustrated trying to get around his neck because it takes far too long. It functions in a way that a silicone bib should once you get it on but before that it is terrible. My son is a very active little guy but he has no where near enough patients for me to get this on. 

I did receive this product in exchange for me to review and most it to my blog. 

Fluff Friday 8/7/2015 Diaper pail

I am so sorry this has been a crazy summer for our family and after I thought everything would calm down following our vacation everything went haywire. After returning home from Disneyland my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital for two strokes and was diagnosed with lung cancer. With that being said I have not been home much until this week. Everything is falling into a schedule and I will be able to return to the blog and not have to take another prolonged break hopefully!

This week we are going to talk about diaper pals and storing diapers after they have been used before laundry day! This is after you have removed any solid waste from the diaper.

First lets talk about a method that I don't personally use and don't recommend this method for multiple reasons but we will talk about that in a minute. A Wet pail some people use for diapers that have been pooped in only while others use it for all diapers. This method is basically storing soiled diapers in  water until laundry day. Sometimes people will put additional things into the water such as baking soda, white vinegar, essential oils, a small amount of laundry detergent among other things. Laundry soap and bleach are not recommended because they can break down your diapers. Some people think this method of diaper pail has less smell then a dry pail. I personally do not like this method as I find it to be not the most sanitary method as well as I have a fear of mold and mildew on my diapers.

I prefer the dry pail method you can use a readily available diaper pail that you put your own bag in or buy a cheap kitchen trashcan or buy hanging wet bags (see below for pictures of all three options). I did the second. With either of these options you will need to buy a pail liner (picture below) to contain the dirty diaper. Basically with this method for urine diaper you remove the diaper then place it in the diaper pail of your choosing.  A diaper with solid waste diapers you will remove as much of the solid waste as you can (click here for how to do that) and then place it in the diaper pail. There are so many options to fit every budget when it comes to diaper pails.

I personally use strictly a dry pail while others use a combination of wet and dry pails. Keep in mind the diapers are only being stored like this for no more then 4 days between laundry days. If you have any questions please comment and I will answer!

Pail liner image found here

Funky Fluff hanging pail/wetbag

Ubbi diaper pail

kitchen trash can with pail liner
photo found here

Next week we will be exploring the many options for storing clean diapers. 

Fluff Friday 7/2/2015 GlowBug review

It’s Fluff Friday again my favorite day of the week I have really started to enjoy talking to you all about cloth diapers and all things that go with it. I apologize I missed last week, but we were in Disneyland with my little man. We had a blast but missed our cloth diapers a lot. This week I am going to combine my two blog posts for the week into one. I am going to review Glow Bug Diapers. 

First, lets talk a little about the brand. The story of Glow Bug started when two expectant mothers Sarah Downey and Neta Telmor bonded in a prenatal yoga class and their daughters that were later born just a few months apart. They both discovered and enjoyed using cloth diapers on their girls. After the birth of both of their second children, they were both looking to find some new cloth diapers, but they could not find exactly what they were looking for. “Neta and I had the same concerns with the available brands. All we wanted were good quality, affordable cloth diapers but we were really frustrated the the product we were looking for did not exist” sara recalled. Glow Bug Diapers were born in 2011 to fix all of the problems that they found with the available diapers. 

Glow bug has an entire line of products that includes; Diapers, inserts, liners, bamboo wipes, and a diaper sprayer. They even offer gift cards if you would like to request these as gifts. I will only be reviewing the diapers. I will state up front they are only sold in sets of twelve or twenty-four. This is the reason that is quoted from their website on why they do that “Glow Bug Cloth Diaper’s design are sold only in packages, as we believe that buying individual cloth diapers, just to “try them out” is actually counterproductive and can get parents started on the wrong foot with their cloth diapering journey. We know to ensure success with cloth diapers, parents need to have an awesome design that gets the job done, have everything they need already included, and all the information. That’s what Glow Bug Cloth Diapers offers, and everything about our company is focused on those goals.” I will talk more abut the packages and pricing a little later.

Lets talk a little about the basics of this diaper. Glow Bug Cloth Diapers are a one size pocket diaper. In every Glow Bug set you get twelve one-size diapers, twelve microfiber inserts, six bamboo inserts, and one wet bag. Any order made before July 13th with get twelve free bamboo wipes. You are able to make upgrades to your order such as; upgrade all of your inserts to bamboo, add additional inserts, add bamboo wipes, add rolls of disposable liners, and add a diaper sprayer. 

Now its time to get to the fun part actually reviewing the diaper. I absolutely love this diaper I will admit this is not my number one favorite, but it is number two I actually like it better then all of the BumGenius 4.0s that I own. The quality is fantastic and it is relatively easy to get a great fit are all bonuses. it has a nice tight fit around the legs that keeps everything contained inside the diaper. I like the unique 360 gusset system keeps everything that happens inside the diaper. The SlimDry fabric is great because it keeps the diaper much thiner while still being just as functional. They also have water proof flaps on the front and back to prevent leaks. Plus my favorite two openings one on either end front and back to stuff and unstuff the diaper easily. I also like that there is a snap in the diaper that keeps the insert in place after you have stuffed all the diapers; honestly there is nothing that dives me more nuts then an insert that moves around inside the diaper. There is really not much I don’t like about the diapers and coincidently one of them also made the pros list. My son is now eating solid food which means sometimes there are how do I put this without being gross lets go with pieces in his poop and I have to spray out his diapers and as great as the 360 gusset is at keeping everything in it also is kind of a hindrance when you are trying to spray out poop that contains the aforementioned  pieces. The only other thing I don't like having a boy is that the inserts seem to be a little short, but since my son is not a super heavy wetter I am able to just use the one microfiber that I got with my diaper and it hold enough to last the two to two and a half hours between diaper changes. (Sorry little man would not let me get a good original picture)

This is the diaper I got.

As I mentioned before these diapers are only sold in sets of twelve or twenty four. A set of twelve costs $189 which is a great deal considering you get 12 diapers inserts and a wet bag I would say you are paying about $14.75 per diaper set plus $12 for the wet bag. That is great considering I like this diaper much better then a diaper that cost almost $20 per diaper. 

Glow bug has been nice enough to give all of my readers a 5% discount on their order from the glow bug website click here to get your unique savings code. I promise if you take the plunge and buy Glow Bug Cloth Diapers you will not be sorry I will be buying more some time in the near future. 

Thank you for reading and in the interest of full disclosure I did receive one diaper and one insert free of charge in exchange for an unbiased honest review. Feel free to comment and I will answer any questions you have and if I don’t have an answer I will get in touch with my contact at glow bug to get your questions answered. 

Xlear review

I apoligize to my reader for my recent radio silence it has been crazy around here between teething for one year old molars and prepping for a cross country trip with my son it has been a bit crazy here the last few weeks.

I can not say enough wonderful things about the Xlear products that I received to review. I received a number of products to try; Toothbrush, toothpaste, oral rinse, nasal spray, gum, and mints. I am absolutely in love with all of the items. You can also purchase a very similar kit that is a $65 value for only $25 by going here and entering coupon code SAVE50.

Lets start with the toothbrush. This is pretty much the same as all other toothbrushes except it is made out of bamboo. It being made of bamboo is really cool for the fact that it is one of the most sustainable products available. other then that its pretty much the same.

Oral Rinse. This stuff is delicious and alcohol free. It tastes just like the Wrigley's spearmint gum. The fact that it tastes so good and is good for my oral health is amazing. Spry Oral Rinse takes a more natural approach to oral health by using xylitol-rich, low-alcohol and p-H neutral formula. It also uses a mix of natural flavorings and herbal extracts such as aloe vera, chamomile, echinacea to help sooth irritated mouth tissues. It is available in Cool Mint, Spearmint, Wintergreen, and Cinnamon flavors and retails for $6.99. The price is very comparable to the main stream oral rinse you can find at your local store.

Toothpaste. Now this is one of my favorite products I got in this kit, after using this I can not go back to using conventional toothpaste. I actually accidentally used my husbands toothpaste the other day and I think I actually gagged because the texture and flavor just can not be compared. I will not be able to go back to conventional toothpaste now. The best part is that I can share this toothpaste with my son when he has bad breath from something he ate, because it does not contain fluoride. The toothpaste consists of 1/3 xylitol, which provides 20-25% of the recommended dosage per day. Xylitol also increases mineral absorption into the enamel of the teeth, resulting in greater protection with a clean, fresh feeling that really lasts. Spry Toothpaste retails for $5.99; on slightly more then conventional toothpaste.

Mints. I love these except I feel like the flavor is not quite strong enough. Xlear Spry Gems are naturally sweetened the 100% xylitol. They combine the benefits of xylitol with natural flavoring and calcium to create pH-balanced formula for advanced oral health. The gems are available in Berry, Cinnamon, Peppermint, Spearmint, and Lemon Cream and the retail for $2.19 for a 40 count pack.

Gum. I really like this gum it is very flavorful and does not stick to my teeth or dental work. Clear Spry Gum has a flavor profile that exceeds regular chewing gum with the added benefit of xylitol. The gum retails for $2.29  and comes in Spearmint, Wintergreen,Cinnamon, and Peppermint.

There was nasal spray included in the kit but I have not yet used it because I have not had the need to use it for myself and I had a good bit left of the one I use for my son with his allergies. These are the facts about the product. Xlear is a soothing nasal spry that helps alleviate congestion due to allergies, cold, flu, and sinusitis. It does this by being much more hyper osmotic than a traditional saline nasal spray and also by incorporating xylitol, a natural product that has been shown to decrease bacterial adherence in the nose. When used twice a day, Xlear nasal spry not only hydrates the sinuses and nasal passages but it also helps wash away airborne contaminants and pollutants that lead to many common upper respiratory problems. Unlike many prescription or medicated sprays with unwanted side effects, daily usage of Xlear Nasal Spray is non-addictive and will not damage the tissues. The 1.5oz container retails for $14.99 and will list 2-3 months with daily use. The economy pack contains three .75oz squeeze bottles and retails for $18.99.

I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of this produc 

Fluff Friday 5/22 The Waste

Well it is week two of Fluff Friday. I find the thought of writing this post every week so exciting. I really want this to be a place for beginner information about cloth diapers that is informational but not over stuffed with information, because cloth diapering can be scary and the research that goes into it can be even more overwhelming.

When I was trying to decide what I should write about this week I thought that since is the first week I am really writing something in depth it should probably be about the thing that scared me most about cloth diapers. For me the most scary thing was the poop. Since I have not written my product review for the week I am going to combined the two posts into one. Lets get down to business.

There are multiple ways to handle poop in cloth diapers. You can plop, use liners, scrape, spray, or dunk and swish. For me my preferred methods are plop and spray, but we will talk about those at the end. I want to touch on the other methods before I go into detail with what I use and do.

Liners- I linked to my favorite diaper brands, but I don't use them. But I hear they are great.
Liners are something you place inside of your cloth diapers to make clean up much easier they are flushable but many people don't risk it and just toss them but it makes clean up is effortless. Also these are great if you have a diaper rash and are not using a cloth safe cream because it protects your diapers from all the bad things in the cream.

Scrape
I did this in a way when we first started cloth when we would occasionally have a sticky poop. I would use a flushable wipe to get as much poop as could off. Some people use a kitchen utensil (spatula or plastic spoon) they have specifically for this purpose, but I find that a bit gross. To each their own though; what is right for one person is not what right for everyone.

Dunk and Swish
Basically with this method you hold the corner of the diaper that is not completely soiled then dunk the rest into the toilet. Then you swish it around and hope the water helps release the poop. Apparently from what I heave read flushing helps but don't let go of the diaper because that would be very bad! I personally don't use this method I can't put something in the toilet and still touch it even if it is already covered in poop.

Plop
This method is really only suitable for children that are eating mostly solids and are having relatively solid poops. Basically you take the dirty diaper to the toilet flip it upside down and the poop just falls off into the toilet. Sometimes I have to jiggle it a little bit to get it to release everything. This is the method we use most in our house, but for the occasional sticky poop we spray.

Spray- I linked the Amazon search results
We only use this every once in a while for poo; typically about twice a week. Lately we have been using it more because I think he is teething again so as we all know those poops are a little crazy and super sticky. This works great and gets everything off super easily, but if you don't have some kind of shield it can be crazy. I don't have a shield at this point maybe eventually, but I have heard great things about the spray pal.

The one above is the one I purchased it is called First Lil Diaper Sprayer I paid $26.99 on Amazon through prime so I had it two days later. I liked that it came with everything I needed, because many of the ones I looked at did not come with the valve and most of them cost more then this one. It is very sturdy and does not feel cheap and flimsy like I though it would considering it cost half as much as many of the others. It was also extremely easy to install. It took me maybe five minutes and it works perfectly. I do only use it twice a week to spray poop, but I use it anytime we cloth diaper at night to spray my sons night time diapers to rinse them before I put them in the diaper pail. I rinse his night diapers in the morning because they have a strong smell and it helps to prevent ammonia build up in the diapers. I highly recommend a diaper sprayer even if you don't think you need one, because you will defiantly use it. I went the first month with out one, but life has definitely gotten much easier now that I have a sprayer. I truly love this diaper sprayer it is easy to use and install it also has a lot of power. I will say if you don't have spray shield of some kind be careful to keep the sprayer on the diaper otherwise you will be getting wet. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog all of you readers mean so much to me. 

I did not receive any compensation of any kind in exchange for this review. 

Fluff Friday 5/15

Welcome to my first installment of Fluff Friday. I am really excited to make this a weekly addition to my blog. I have just recently started cloth diapering my son and I have quickly become a huge advocate of it and I have absolutely fallen in love with cloth diapering. Less than a month ago I did a guest blog about cloth diapering and I welcome you to go read it here. It kind of quickly covers the starting phase of my cloth diaper journey.

I wrote a lot about what the beginning of my cloth diapering journey was like. I will eventually repeat everything in that post but a lot of the topics will become their own blog post here. This week I will talk about what Fluff Friday is going to be and talk about the cloth diaper trial I did recently.

I am going to start by talking about what my vision for Fluff Friday is. Fluff Friday is going to be a place for me to talk about all things cloth diapers. I will also do cloth diaper and cloth diaper related product reviews to keep with the theme of my blog. For example in the coming weeks I will be reviewing Glow Bug diapers, and hopefully a few more brands as well. As for cloth related products I will review laundry detergent, cloth diaper safe diaper creams, and possibly even diaper liners. (I have yet to try liners so we will see) We will also cover all topics of cloth diapers such as wash routines, night time diaper solutions, cloth diaper pails, day time diapers, finding the right fit, and even picking the right cloth diapers for your family. I want this to be a place where people who are considering cloth diapers can find honest answers and my thoughts about all things cloth diapering. I know many of you are thinking there are already so many even possibly too many places to go looking for information about cloth diapers. I feel like I can bring something different to the table then all the other sources out there. First, I feel like getting answers from someone who was very skeptical is something that is not out easily found right now. Second, I feel like there are not any places to read answers from someone who is still very new to cloth diapering, and see how things work for them and how their views on different things change as time goes on. These are two points I hope to cover in every post I make.

When it comes to trying cloth diapers I highly recommend a cloth diaper trial I did mine through a store that is semi-local to me, but also ships called The Natural Baby.

website

Their cloth diaper trial is only $10 for three weeks and is awesome. You basically tell them what kind of diapers you are interested in or they can help you pick what you want to try and they will give you about about a days worth of diapers to try. They will give you a variety of the different types of diapers you were interested in to see if cloth diapers are right for you without having to invest a bunch of money and it not work out for you. At the end of your three weeks you give/send back what you don't like and only buy what you do like. There are many other cloth diaper stores out there that offer cloth diaper trials, but in my research I found that most if not all cost more then $10. For me after day one of cloth diapers I was sold and used the three weeks to find good deals on diapers and the prefect diaper brand for us. The fact is that there are bunch of different kinds of cloth diapers and once you figure out the kind you like there are probably a hundred different brands of cloth diapers to choose from and each one is different. But when you find the right brand you will know and you will want to buy all the diapers. 

Please comment with any cloth diaper topics you would like to see me cover. 

I did not receive any compensation in exchange for this blog post. 

Schick Intuition

I am so sorry to all of my readers that I have been MIA for last week or two. We have been having a rough time in our house. My son is teething yet again and going through a massive growth spurt (skipped an entire size of clothing) that has resulted in some massive growing pains and a lot of whining and crying. I have not been able to make it to the computer to write my blog posts; it has been so rough that honestly when he finally goes to sleep at night I do too. Now back on topic to the product review.

I noticed after I had my son that I am having less and less time to shower, which means I have about five minutes to shower and shave. As we all know showering is hard to do that fast; let alone having time to shave when you need to be that quick. That is where the Schick Intuition comes to the rescue.

The one above is the one that I purchased from our local Sam's Club. It truly has been a life saver, because as I let the conditioner work it's magic in my hair I can quickly make a pass over my legs and under arms and in less than three minutes I can be done shaving. I know my other half really appreciates this because as much as I hate to admit it I had been neglecting shaving as a whole because I was trying to be as fast as possible. With summer quickly approaching I realized I needed to find a solution to my shaving dilemma. I love that this a more natural option to many of the other things on the market. I love that this has the shaving cream/gel and the razor as one system all I have to do it make a pass and every little bit of hair is gone. My skin feels moisturized after I shave, which is something very different for me considering I have very dry skin and sensitive skin. I also love that with multiple trips coming up in the near future for me I don't have to worry about packing shaving gel and a razor; I only have to pack the razor. 

There are only two cons that I can think of for this product. One is that this is only a three blade razor but for me that is not that big of an issue, because I don't really notice a difference in a razor with three blades verses a razor with four or five blades. The second con for this is that the handle accumulates water when used which does have me fearful that mold or mildew may eventually grow in the handle, but to avoid this when I use mine I just drain the water before I put it up to store it until the next use. Overall I absolutely love this product and I don't think I will ever go back to shaving the conventional way, because shaving with this is much more convenient and much easier; not to mention much quicker. 

I did not receive any compensation for this review.