FuzziBunz Trickle-Free Trainer from Cloth Diaper Kids: Review & Giveaway! (Closed)

Cloth Diaper Kids is an online shop based in Grande Prairie, Alberta which sells cloth diapers (no surprise there, huh? :) and other green products for mamas & babies with a focus on items that are Canadian-made and/or made or sold by stay-at-home moms. The owner, Stephanie, is a stay-at-home mom herself. Following a disappointing experience with a diaper service (the single style provided was not a good fit for her 5 lb son), Stephanie ventured out to cloth diaper on her own, and she was quickly sold! Her subsequent experience with many, many brands and styles encouraged her to open Cloth Diaper Kids as a way to stay home with her son and sell products that she loves, and that truly work.

I first discovered Cloth Diaper Kids via a giveaway I won early last year (yay me!), and when I checked out the shop was impressed by the quality and quantity of brands and products that Stephanie sells. Big names such as FuzziBunz and Bummis as well as boutique offerings; pockets, wool covers, trainers, swimmers, laundering supplies, teething necklaces, knit hats, slings - you name it and she's probably got it! :) For those interested in cloth diapering but aren't sure where to start, she offers a number of flexible, affordable options for getting started including rental kits, trial packs, discounted diaper packages and gently used diapers. 

Now that our daughter is potty learning, we're beginning to experiment with trainers so Stephanie offered to send me a FuzziBunz Trickle-Free Trainer to review.

Product Information:

FuzziBunz®'s Trickle Free Trainers™ are back by popular demand—and they're better than ever! The new and improved Trickle Free Trainers™ help transition your baby from diapers to big-kid underwear without the waste of disposables or the feel of a traditional diaper. And what's more they are designed to make the potty training process FUN for toddlers and EASY for parents!

• Design looks less like a diaper and more like big kid underwear
• Fun child focused digitally printed (no fading or peeling) designs are engaging to toddlers
• Minky fabric on inside allows for wetness to be felt yet cleans up easy in messy situations
• Perfect next-step purchase for loyal FuzziBunz® parents
• Available in a variety prints and white
• Easy dual side snaps makes changing accidents a breeze
  

Trickle-Free Trainers come in four colourful prints (as well as plain white), all of which are currently available at Cloth Diaper Kids.

My Review:

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a confession: this is the first trainer I have ever tried. So I am, literally,  a complete n00b. :) That said, on the plus side I hope this brings a bit of a fresh perspective to the review - knock on wood! Since I'm just getting my feet wet here, I'll forego my standard evaluation system (which would probably need to be adjusted for trainers anyway) and simply list some pros and cons (as I see them) at the end as a summary. Alright, onward and upward!

Our daughter is 23 months and 22 pounds, so Stephanie sent me a medium trainer in the Bee print. (I like this print because it's unisex, so it'll work for both our daughter now and our li'l man-to-be a couple years down the road!) The pattern is every bit as bright & cheerful as advertised, and I love that it comes with minimal, recyclable packaging.

 The back of the insert includes some potty training tips - a nice touch!

 The minky inner is super-soft - must feel nice & fluffy against a toddler's tushy!

Each side includes two sets of three snaps to contend with messes. It surprised me how close together they are; I feel like an extra half cm or so between them would be ideal, however I assume FuzziBunz has done their research here to optimize the distance for each size.

The waist and legs are elasticized, but aren't super-stretchy like most of my diapers are. Given my n00b-ness, I can't comment on how common this is with trainers though my personal preference would be a bit more stretchiness in the material, for comfort and ease of pulling on/off.

Finally, the trainer comes with a serial number allowing registration of the product on the FuzziBunz website. Registration activates your warranty and provides various perks such as automatic enrollment in monthly prize drawings, access to educational resources and ways to stay connected.

When we first showed our daughter her new Bee trainer, she appeared to be both intrigued and confused. (Is it a diaper? Big girl underwear that's fluffier than the others I've tried? Help a kid out here!) She was pretty patient while I fumbled around pulling it up and getting it on right, however. It definitely wasn't as easy to pull on as I thought/hoped it would be, mainly due to the aforementioned not-so-stretchy waist and leg material. Rather than gliding on, the trainer kind of "sticks" so you need to adjust the legs and waist individually to get everything in the proper spot. Pulling down is a little easier, however, which is good as this is the more important of the two steps for a toddler to learn to do on his/her own. That said, while our daughter can "navigate" the pull-down mechanism of regular underwear, she still has trouble with these. So all in all I'd say these trainers definitely need adult assistance for younger / less physically adept potty learners

The trainer certainly looks adorable on our little one...

...however I have to say that the overall fit is kind of odd. It manages to be both tight AND loose at the same time. The legs are particularly tight, even with the leg snap on the looser of the two settings.

Since our daughter is only 22 lbs, this makes me question whether the medium size would truly fit comfortably until 30 lbs (as advertised), especially for toddlers with chunkier thighs.

By contrast, there is some extra "bagginess" in front / underneath.

 

Finally, the waist appears prone to sagging down too far following active play.

Fit criticisms aside, this trainer does perform quite well! A few specifics:
- It holds a decent amount of pee. Definitely a trickle and up to a smaller "full" pee, if that makes sense. During our testing period our daughter wet her "Bee Pants" several times and we had a leak just once, following a super-big pee.
- It appears to contain messes well, and the side snaps are indeed helpful for managing the clean-up process. (Though note that we've only had one poop in it so far, and it was quite solid.)
- They certainly succeed in feeling wet, as our daughter tells us right away when she's had an accident while wearing them. (Now, the tricky part - getting her to tell us BEFORE she pees! She's doing so well with a bare bum, but as soon as she has any material down there it's a different story!)

As for care & maintenance, the trainer sprays down very easily, washes well and air dries SUPER quickly - within just 2-3 hours. Thumbs up!

Durability-wise, after several washes the minky inner continues to be nice and soft, and (true to description) there are no signs of the bright, vivid pattern fading at all. The only (very minor) issue I'm beginning to notice is slight pilling around the waist and leg elastic.

As for our daughter's opinion, well she appears to neither love nor hate her trainer. She does cooperate better for her Bee Pants than for a "regular" diaper, since we can pull it on her while she's standing or sitting. (She's beginning to loathe lying down for a change, which can definitely test our patience!)

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For those of you in a hurry, here's a summary of pros and cons (as I see them) and overall comments.

Pros:
- Performs well - holds a substantial amount of pee and contains poop without issue.
- Minky inner is nice & soft (even after several washes) and feels wet after an accident, which is important for potty learning.
- Side snaps are helpful when dealing with messes.
- Two sets of snaps are included on each side to customize the fit.
- Available patterns/styles are bright and vivid, and are definitely resistant (if not impervious) to fading
- Easy care & maintenance; quick drying time.

Cons:
- Unusual fit - tight waist/legs but baggy in the crotch. May not fit comfortably at the heavier end of the weight spectrum for a particular size?
- Challenging to pull up and down, mainly due to tight leg elastic. Adult assistance required for many, if not most, learners (especially those on the younger side).
- Limited number of styles available (four patterns + white).
- Waist and leg elastics show some pilling over time.

Overall comments: As I mentioned earlier, our FuzziBunz Trickle Free Trainer is literally the first trainer we've tried. That said, it does strike us as a high-quality product and we've found it to perform quite well. On the flip side, it has an "interesting" fit and we feel it would be most effective for an older learner who has mastered the skill of pulling tight pants up and down (vs. younger/less physically adept learners who would definitely need adult assistance.)

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Buy It:

Visit Cloth Diaper Kids to purchase a FuzziBunz Trickle Free Trainer of your own. Now's the perfect time to order as all pattern varieties are currently 21-27% off! While you're there, be sure to browse the full selection of available products - bet you'll find something else you love! :)

Note: Cloth Diaper Kids offers Canada-wide flat-rate shipping for $9.99 (free shipping on orders over $200). Local pick-ups are available by appointment. Shipping is available to the United States for a flat rate of $15.  


Win It:

One lucky Manager to Mom reader will win a FuzziBunz Trickle Free Trainer of their own! Winner chooses size and style, based on availability. ** Note: Open to Canada only.**

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Please follow all instructions within each entry option to ensure your entries are valid.


Vote: 

If you found this review valuable, I'd love if you'd take a moment and vote for me as one of this year's Top 25 Product Review Moms at Circle of Moms! I'm unable to award entries for this, however if I can make the Top 25 it should open the door to even more great brands and products to review here at M2M, and giveaways too!

To vote, simply click the badge, scroll to/search for my listing and click the Vote icon. (Note that from Nov 9 to Nov 10 I'll be under the Pending Approval tab while they approve my listing, but you can still vote for me under there!) Thanks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:  The prize is being provided to the winner by Cloth Diaper Kids.com.  I received no financial compensation for writing my review or offering this giveaway, although I did receive the sample item free of charge.  This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours.

"S" at 22 months: Chatty Cathy!

So this next S update was "supposed to" be at 21 months, however given our li'l monkey is already close to 23 months I decided to tack another month on there. (The OCD part of my brain is feeling a little anxious about this, but it'll deal. :) I do have to say - amazing what an extra month can add in terms of a toddler's developmental progress! Not only that, but I get to show off four month-to-month photos this time around. w00t!

19 months:

 20 months:

21 months:

22 months:  (She's giving me some 'tude in this one!)

Evidently, I have a bad track record of getting weight and height measurements on her milestone dates. At 21 months, we clocked her at just over 31 inches but then forgot (?) to get a 22 month update. Today (almost 23 months) she's 31 1/2, however, so let's set the official "guestimate" at 31 1/3 inches. :) Weight-wise, she was in the 22-23 lb neighborhood. So she continues to be 5-10th percentile for weight and about 25th for height. Our li'l peanut. :)

In dental news, her eye teeth started poking through at 21 months, and these babies take their sweet time, lemme tell ya! (Now, at 23 months, they're still only partially through.) Thankfully they don't appear to be causing her much discomfort, and the rashiness we were battling during months 16-18 (and onward to about 20 months) has eased considerably as well. We continue to give her a lot of bare bum time at home, both to air out her skin and assist with potty learning, which is coming along slowly but surely. In a nutshell, she's now close to 100% success with bare bum peeing at home (mainly on her potty but sometimes on the toilet) but we're still working on poop and have yet to venture into underwear territory when out and about. With both Chris and me working full-time and S in daycare, it's been difficult giving potty learning the attention it requires, so this is something I look forward to tackling when off on mat leave. (This'll probably end up with a post of its own!)

Here are some of the physical development strides S has made recently:

• 19-20 months
• Running, for realsies (vs. her "toddle run" from 16-18 months) 
• Attempting (and almost succeeding) to climb into the bath tub and scale her change table
• Twirling in circles
• Walking down stairs (with assistance) and refusing to go backwards on her tummy
• Climbing up on chairs at the kitchen table
• Taking off her own shirt (after we help her with arms), shoes and diaper. Attempting to put on shoes.
• 21-22 months
• Attempting (and almost succeeding :) to climb out of her crib. (Thankfully we'll be making the move to a toddler bed shortly!)
• Scaling the climber at her daycare 
• Standing on the seat of her Rock, Roll 'n Ride Trike (I think she got this move from her older daycare buddy!)
• "Just about jumping"; she gets the knee bend and springing action but can't quite get herself airborne just yet. Here she is having lots of fun doing splashy jump-ins with Daddy at Duck Tots!

If we do say so ourselves, however, the really impressive shtuff has been in the realm of intellectual, social and verbal development. Some highlights:

• She "graduated" from 2-word phrases to full sentences by 20-21 months. Some notable earlier examples: "I'll have water too please, mommy" and "Make a nose, mommy!" (the latter after I'd drawn a picture of a sun with just two eyes and a mouth.) 
• She has learned pretty much every popular animal (and some less common ones), and will correct you if you get one wrong. (Someone: "There's your monkey!" S: "No, that's an orangutan!")
• She started singing at 19 months (remember this li'l birthday serenade?), and by 22 months had accumulated a repertoire of about 20 songs, from Twinkle Twinkle to Rain, Rain Go Away (subbing in various family members for the "___ wants to play" part) to Call Me Maybe (this one's equally appealing, it would seem, to toddlers and seniors alike!)
• Her number skills progressed from everything being "2" at 18-19 months to counting past 10 at 21 months. By 22 months she could recognize most numbers from 1 to 10 but was still learning to associate the symbols and words with the actual amounts. Mad props to her ChildUp game cards as she's played with them almost every day since we received them. Here (at almost 22 months) she sings, recites the alphabet and counts "kinda sorta" up to 18 all in one fell swoop - though she does it kinda begrudgingly. (I think she gets a little self conscious at times being in the spotlight, so in the interest of not giving her a complex, we're selective (and sometimes furtive) with our camera & video usage!)

• Her knowledge of colours has really taken off. At 18 months she was hit and miss, however by 22 she could quite readily identify all the common colours, match objects of the same colour together, etc.
• We began "co-reading" with her (i.e. giving her opportunities to finish sentences in her favourite stories) at 18-19 months, and this continues to be one of her favourite activities. Here she is reading "Pigs" by Robert Munsch with Dad.

• She's already learning manipulation to get her way. :) For example, she'll tell us she needs to pee or poo when she really just wants that one extra book before bed, as she knows we never turn down a potty request!
• Her pretend play has really taken off. She likes to prepare coffee and "chocolate tea" with her Magical Tea for Two set, and give all the animals swing rides in her Animal Sounds Zoo.
• She's definitely adopted her Daddy's love of hide 'n' seek. Boo!!!

 

• At about 21 months, she began engaging in true conversations with us which has been one of the most exciting, rewarding developments! Here she tells us all the fun she had at daycare. (Side note: "onee-yonees" is how one of her daycare friends pronounces "macaroni" (one of his favourite foods) so she's adopted this pronunication herself!)

Personality-wise, she continues to sport a generally sunny and easygoing disposition. She's happy to play on her own which obviously comes in handy at times. She is in the midst of the stereotypical "mine" phase, but apparently every child (literally) goes through this, so we'll just ride it out and not worry about it too much. We do gently encourage her to share with her peers but don't make a big deal out if it.

Next up, the big 2 year update. Holy smokes!

In the meantime, I'll leave y'all with one more picture of our li'l sweetie at 21 months - just love this one. :)

So tell me - what were your favourite memories/developments during the 18-22 month phase for your own child(ren)?