Customer Reviews

Gro Baby Shell Set, Kiwi

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After months and months of research I decided to go with Gro Baby for my second child who would be my first in cloth diapers.

Pros:
-One size. I love that they will grow with her. I started using them on my 8lb 11oz daughter the moment she came home from the hospital. They fit and did not leak but they were definitely bulky while she was that small. Not the case anymore since she is 4 months old. I got the tip to try prefolds underneath the shell while she is a newborn and that works well too, although the prefolds are not as absorbent as the soakers that come in the shells.
-Reusable shell. I think its great the shell is reusable, because in the end it saves me money. I own about 12 shells and 19 soakers and do the wash every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. With this routine I hope the shells will last me through potty training and after four months of use I see no reason why the won't. -No leaks. With a newborn and her breastfed poop she does get poop on the shell sometimes but we have had only one or two leaks. I used disposables on vacation a couple of weeks ago and had 4 leaks in just 2 weeks. Since I have had half that many leaks in 4 months I know I made the right choice.
-Organic fibers. I prefer things to be natural fabrics/fibers and even more so when they are against my baby's bum. The fact that these soakers are organic is an even bigger plus.
-Easy to launder. I have no stains after 4 months. I have a pretty cheap washer and dryer so I am pretty limited in what I can do laundering wise but my routine is as follows. I do a cold rinse (no detergent), then I do a warm wash (1.5 scoops of tiny bubbles), then I take all the stained soakers and all the shells and hang them in the sun for about an hour or two, then I leave the shells on the line and throw all the soakers in the dryer with a towel and set it for 80 minutes. Like I said I earlier I do this 3 times a week, I was hesitant about using cloth diapers because I thought all the laundry would be a burden but its not. Its easy and I actually enjoy doing it unlike the rest of the laundry I am responsible for.
-No scratch Aplix(velcro). The aplix is not scratchy like regular velcro so if it rubs on the baby's tummy (which it hasn't yet) it won't be uncomfortable.
-Colors. The colors are bold and beautiful. Kiwi is my favorite. I have kiwi, blackberry and vanilla. The mandarin looks great online but I don't think it would be great with our skin tone so I skipped that color.

Cons
-Laundry tabs. Now this review is written in Nov '09 and i know they are working on a laundry tab solution but with the product I have right now the laundry tabs stopped working after a couple months of washing (and I never throw them in the dryer). I wrote the company and got a response back from the CEO with some tricks on how to prevent diaper chains. A few of them didn't work for me but this one did: Put the aplix on the front as if putting the diaper on the baby then turn the diaper inside out. Since I have started doing this I have no more diaper chains, woohoo! Also if you hate aplix they have a snap conversion to turn all your hook and loop dipes into snaps.
-Soakers can take a while to dry. I always throw a dry towel in the dryer with them and that works well. Every so often though I need to run a second cycle to get them fully dry.

No comment on using them overnight since I have never tried. I used my left over disposables when she was a newborn and I bought some pocket diapers during a seconds sale that I use now. The pocket diapers were just too bulky to use during the day but work great for night.

All in all I am so glad I decided to go cloth and Gro Baby. I highly recommend them.

Why I bought it:
I wanted to change to cloth diapering to save money, trips to the store, and reduce my family's amount of waste.

Pros:
With two kids in diapers, these definately cut down our diaper costs, they are very cute, one diaper could fit my new born or my toddler with the simple snap design. These are made with very durable construction. The snaps work well and the velcro holds tight. The inserts snap in holding them in place. They work very well with my infant daughter who sleeps on her back as the majority of the absorbant insert's padding is in the rear end. The shell prevents leaks very effectively.

Cons:
My toddler son is very active and the soaker pad tends to bunch up in an uncomfortable way in the front. The soaker is not very soft and tends to rub him a little raw when he is especially active. The soaker does not wick away moisture at all. The amonia smell from these soakers tends to be a lot stronger than other brands that I have tried.

What I've done to make this product work better for my family:
I mainly use these diapers for my infant since she is not as active. The soaker pads have a booster liner sewn on to them which adds to the bulk and doesn't really add much absorbtion, it also tends to bunch up, so I ripped it out. The diapers are now much more comfortable and not as bulky. If I use them for my son, I use a different brand's soaker pad and things work fine.

First, I'd like to say that I have been cloth diapering for over 5 years now. I've tried just about every type of cloth diaper and every brand of cloth diaper. I even became quite accomplished at making my own and was an approved seamstress.
Now on our third child, and having her and our 2 year old in diapers, the sewing became too much and I started looking for a brand that would work well for both of our girls. Gro Baby's work AMAZING!!! They are trim, yet the most absorbant diaper we have ever used! Not a single leak! We have been using them for about 4 months now and there's no turning back!
If you are hesitant, do what we did, try a couple. Once we were hooked we bought the Live Gro Baby set. We've sold off all other diapers and use Gro Baby exclusively!
Oh, and we've tried the disposable inserts as well. LOVE 'EM!!! They are incredible for trips out of the house, naps, night time, any time. I often turn to them when I get a little lazy on laundry. :)
Good luck!
If you have any questions, the Natural Baby Company staff are amazing as well!

I bought a trial set of these diapers when my daughter was about 6 months old. Admittedly, she's on the larger size, but I was nonetheless shocked when these diapers were too small! She was 18 pounds and very round. The rise on these diapers are very short.

The idea behind these diapers is great. Just take out a wet or soiled liner and snap a new one in. Since we usually use some pretty bulky pocket diapers, I thought these would cut out the bulk in our diaper bag since we could get away with just the snap in liners and maybe an extra shell, just in case. Since they are so tiny, I can't use them at all!

The company needs to come up with a better way to size these diapers so that they truly are "One Size." If I'm going to shell out extra money for this diapering system, I expect it to last longer than six months.

I like the idea of this diaper, I really do. The shells are fun colors, it's adjustable, no insert or pad to stuff in a pocket. But compared to the Fuzzi Bunz, Flip, and Smartipants diapers, it does not compare. It's just that they seem to leak every time I put them on my 19 month old twin girls. It's gotten to the point that I avoid them until there aren't any more clean diapers left. And then I groan when I have to use the Grobaby diapers. Maybe it's the organic cotton soaker as compared with the microfiber I usually use.

If I were to buy diapers all over again, I'd avoid these and go for the Smartipants. They don't leak and and even though they're pocket diapers and have to be stuffed after washing, you don't have to remove the insert before washing because the pocket is open at both ends.

I love the gro baby system. I have 6 covers, one vanilla snap, 2 kwiwi, 2 blackberry and one mandrin. I have used gro baby from the beginning of my CD experience (for 6 months). I loved the concept of using the covers over again. And when they came out with the bio saokers, I was thrilled. I reviewed them separately.

-Pros: The gro baby systems is super easy, snap in the organic soaker, and put it on baby. I have used these overnight with a booster, and no issues. I love how trim these diapers fit, even with the booster. I send her to daycare with them, I just have to teach the providers to reuse the cover. The new longer rise fits my baby great.

-Cons: For EBF babies, there is a tendency to get poop on the covers, which will prevent you from reusing the covers, and more wash. On the plus side, the covers dry fairly quickly. I have found the organic soakers can take awhile to dry and do stiffen over washing. The good news on that is you can use fabric softener on these with out worry. I found Ecover works great. You do have to watch the fit for chunky babies, and make sure all of the soaker is tucked in.

I believe I reviewed this product on Amazon, maybe for another shell set/color. We loved the idea of an AI2, because really, it seems more green than an AI1 when you aren't constantly going through outer shells. At first, these worked great. They fit fine (yes, the extra insert seemed a bit long at first) but it was absorbent and kept everything in. We were thrilled. We only used Rockin Green laundry detergent or Charlie Soap and are always careful about tucking in the Velcro before washing and drying the covers by hand.

Well, at 8 months, it all changed. My daughter's bladder could hold more and after a good pee, the diaper would leak. I cannot keep her in this diaper for much more than an hour for fear that she will leak everywhere. I unfortunately recommended this product to a few friends and they are all experiencing the same issue with their babies (all around 1 year of age). My daughter is now 10 months old and we have to put her in a disposable when we go out for a period of time (2 hours!) and I am extremely disappointed. It is too bad I only purchased this system. I do not want to spend money on a different system as she is in daycare most of the day and they don't let us use cloth there anyway.

I will probably use it on future babies for the first few months and figure out what to do when they get older. I would love to say I can go 100% cloth from birth to 35 lbs, but unfortunately, it is not the case with these GroBaby diapers.

We are six months into cloth diapering with our first child. We did a lot of research before settling on a system and we LOVE our GroBabies. We do cloth diapers full time and have 6 shells and about 16 snap-in liners. This means we do laundry about every other day. Things we love about the GroBabies:
- so much easier than stuffing an insert into a pocket diaper
- can also be used as a diaper cover with prefolds in the early days
- fit our child (8 pounds at birth) when he was about a week old
- when they get older and start exploring the velcro, you can send them to GroVia and get snaps put on for a low cost
- it's great to not have to wash the shells every single time...just when they get poopy
- the shells dry super fast
- the cotton on the liners is very soft and feels great against baby's skin
- six months in, we've only had one poop leak out (and that's on a breastfed baby)

Some things to know:
- if you're breastfeeding and your baby is pooping a LOT those first few weeks, you will likely go through MANY shells a day because it'll leak off of the liner and onto the shell; eventually, it'll slow down and you won't have to launder as quickly
- they sell disposable inserts for these (kind of like the G Diaper) and we've used them a couple times, but I don't much see the point....if you're going to use a cloth shell, you're still going to need access to laundry, so it doesn't help out much (and a warning, the adhesive on those disposable inserts is STRONG. It leaves some gummy stuff on your shells)
- I would highly recommend you buy a pocket diaper or some other option for overnights. GroBabies are great for the day and the early weeks when you're changing diapers around the clock, but they just don't hold enough urine to work overnight with an older baby. We use BumGeniuses with a hemp insert for our overnights.

All in all, I wouldn't change our system for the world. My husband and I both love it.

very well-made, nice mesh fabric on the inside of the cover, the piping on the edges isn't white (which can stain on other covers), the colors are adorable, it's adjustable from 7-35 pounds making it a great value, the velcro tabs are high quality, nice and wide, and the soaker pads are organic cotton. what's not to love? i highly recommend these!

I absolutely LOVE the cover of the Gro Baby's - the velcro isn't scratchy and it is really trim at the hips. They are cute, and seem pretty comfy. However, I have little use for the snap-in soakers (my husband loves them, but mostly because it is simple). As other reviewers have said, the soakers bunch (especially when wet) and the cover can get dirty pretty easily. Since our little one is still exclusively breast fed, there is no way to have a full poop in there that doesn't dirty the cover. BUT, I often lay in a prefold and find that (since it goes all the way to the edges, unlike the soakers) it works much better. I bought a 2-pack trial and as much as I love the covers, I don't think I can justify spending that much money on just covers. The soakers do take longer than anything else I have to dry as well.

Edited to add Dec 2011: Well, I love the covers a lot less now. They are a great, trim diapering option but the hook and loop closure really looses functionality after minimal wear. We have a large stash, so these were by no means regularly abused and washed (and we have had them for less than 2 years), but we can't put them on our now walking around 2 year old because they ends up opening up and falling down around her knees if her pants aren't holding it up and the diaper would not last at all if the pants weren't supporting it. I haven't tried the snaps, so perhaps that is a better option. We have been careful to take care of the covers and not use the dryer, etc. but they hook and loop just does not last. Too bad, because it is soft and cute.