I've been cloth diapering my daughter ever since she was two weeks old and as a busy parent, cloth diapers aren't always the fastest or necessarily most convenient way. The cleaning and rinsing and spraying of poopy diapers just takes it out of you some days.
When I got the opportunity to review and test Munchy Baby Bamboo Cloth Diaper Liners, I was immediately on board, specially since it seems to make the whole poopy diaper mess a lot easier to clean.
Munchy Baby is a company from parents for parents that supplies you with a bio-degradable, free of harmful additives, environmentally sustainable and renewable made of bamboo product that is touted as 100% biodegradable and flushable.
When I opened the package, I first noticed the logo which I personally think is super cute, the color concept of the packaging was also very appealing to me, but the best part was taking it out of the wrapper. The liners are so incredibly soft and smooth, it feels like a good quality fleece fabric but thinner.
Lengthwise, the fibers are so strong that I could not stretch it at all but sideways it stretches a great deal and no matter how far you stretch them, they don't loose their softness. This part was actually very important to me personally. My daughter has very sensitive skin and I was worried that a rubbing of the liner would cause her discomfort or a rash, but this was not the case.
We had used bamboo liners once before when a friend of mine dropped off an unbranded roll of flushable liners but I wasn't quite the fan of them and passed them on – sadly, because now I wish I would've kept them to show a comparison.
I remember them feeling not very soft and they weren't very flexible – another reason why I was so surprised by how soft the Munchy Baby wipes are!
We even used them overnight and they didn't bulk up or ended up as a ball in the diaper.
When it comes to containing poop, they do leave the diaper cleaner and it's an easier and more convenient way to remove the liner with the solids and only having to do a small rinse by hand instead of my usual 'shake the poop in the toilet, spray rest down with diaper sprayer and depending on how much mess there is, rinse the rest by hand' routine.
However, once we reached that situation I was wondering what I am I supposed to do with the actual liner now? Flush it? Dispose it in the trash can?
On the packaging it states:
“It is your duty as the end user to know the capacity of your plumbing and/or septic system prior to flushing Bottom liners. We know you have plenty to do without possible plugged plumping on your to-do-list.”I know our plumbing isn't the best and even without flushing anything besides toilet paper and bodily waste we often have issues with it clogging up, so I was leery about flushing them on any regular basis.
So, how do you test if something is actually flushable? To answer this question, I got help from a fellow reviewer/editor who showed me an experiment she did before and I basically just copied it.
I used a metal bowl filled with water and placed a bamboo liner in it.
Then I waited.
After four hours was my first check.
Nothing really happened except that it got soaked. It didn't feel much different and it hasn't dissolved. Pulling on it in all direction changed it's shape from a rectangle to something more like a square.
The second check was after 24 hours.
No big improvements to the last check, but I felt like the fibers are getting thinner and further stretched out.
The third check I did after 48 hours.
No noticeable difference.
My last check was after 72 hours.
I completely removed the liner, drained the water and squeezed the excess water out.
Compared to a new liner, it felt a lot thinner but most of the fibers were still very strong.
Some holes have formed where it seemed like some of the fibers started to dissolve but while I could tear it, it still maintained most of its shape.
What was my expectation when starting this experiment, you might wonder. I don't know.
I thought that it might dissolve like toilet paper, or that the individual fibers would get weak and “break” on their own.
Neither happened, but when I compare my four hour and 72 hour results, then there is a big difference.
But that still leaves them intact in your pipes for a longish time - I personally wouldn't feel comfortable flushing it, given the not so great plumbing we already have issues with on a regular basis.
Disposing it in a trash bag or trash can, most likely lined with a plastic trash bag, would defeat the purpose of its biodegradability.
Even so, I think Munchy Baby bottom liners are a great product with a wonderful idea in mind – making cloth diapering more convenient and easier while providing a product safe for our children skin and our planet.
Would I recommend them? Definitely.
If we end up living somewhere where I can have a compost in my garden or with better plumbing, I will definitely be a returning customer. Right now, giving our current housing and location situation I – sadly, for the sacrifice of convenience – will not be using them regularly.
A small update: I did try flushing a few of these over the course of a couple weeks, and experienced no plumbing issues. I'd still prefer to be cautious, though, and make no recommendation that it'd be a good idea to flush them.
Munchy Baby Bottom Liners are available for purchase via Amazon for $14.00 for a package of 100.
If you'd like to give these a try, read on to see how you can enter to win a package of your own!
http://www.munchybaby.com/
https://www.facebook.com/munchybabyproducts/
Munchy Baby is giving 5 US Winners a pack of their Bamboo Eco-Friendly Bottom Liners!
To enter the giveaway, you must leave a comment in this entry as instructed by the Rafflecopter below, then leave the name you commented under and your email in the box in the Rafflecopter entry. (This allows us to contact you if you win!) This will open up additional optional entries to increase your odds of winning.
This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY and will end just before midnight ET on 2-9.
The winner will be notified by email within 24 hours after the end of the giveaway. In order to claim the giveaway prize, the winner will need to respond within 24 hours of notification, or an alternate winner will be selected.
Once the winner has responded and confirmed, their first name will be posted on our Giveaways page.
Good luck everyone!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
