Thursday, August 5, 2010

Review: Bluberry Trainers

We got these cute trainers from BlueBerry, and purchased them locally at No Pins Required, our favorite (and really, our only local brick and mortar diaper shop). I purchased a "size medium" in a green with brown leg/waist edging. A variety of sizes and 5 plain colors are available.


Blueberry trainer, green with brown edges
This is our BlueBerry trainer - see the water up there in the upper right?

Materials: These have an inner lining of cotton velour, a hidden layer of super-absorbent microterry and a hidden layer of PUL. The outside seems to be some sort of knit. The insides are super soft and cushy.

Closures: I wish they had snaps, just in case of serious messes, but we're hoping not to have too many of those. These seem somewhat less stretchy than some others. The waistband and leg bands are nice and soft.

Sizing: Acorn is about 29 lbs, and mostly wears size 2T clothes - he can wear most 18 month pants, but they're too short, and he can wear 3Ts but they're too long. As you can see, he's not super skinny or super chubby, he's pretty proportional overall:


Acorn, standing in the livingroom
Diaper and t-shirt: standard toddler attire at our house

The sizing chart says Small (22-30 lb), Medium (25-35 lb), Large (32-42 lb), so we purchased a medium

These are really tighter than I'd expected, given the sizing. They're not bad, and they'd be super trim under pants, but they're a little difficult for him to get up and down (and we're just learning that too, so it's a challenge all around).

Absorbency: My standard absorbency test goes like this:  A toddler/premium prefold (our typical diaper, 4x8x4 layers of twill) and a flat (a typical Little Lions birdseye weave, 27"x27") both easily hold 4 oz of fluid. They're really soaked at that point, all the way up the front and back, but not dripping - so that's at least 2 pees, maybe 3. Knowing that trainers are meant to hold one pee, I've been testing all of them by slowly pouring 2 oz of water in towards the front of a clean, freshly washed, dry trainer. Acorn has a hypospadius, so his urine doesn't come out quite where it should (yet), but this should be pretty close to right in between where a girl or a boy would go. Most are tested after the first wash, though I'll probably test some of them a second time if it's something we're expecting to improve over time.

How did our BlueBerry do? Well....at about one ounce of water, it started puddling in the crotch area. It then ran off the sides and wicked up the leg bands. It also takes a looooong time for the water to soak up the front and back. In future reviews, I'll mention it, but just about everything else we've tested so far has quickly wicked up the rest of the soaker, spreading the wetness through the entire soaker area. This one took a good 10-15 minutes to soak into the rest of the soaker, and since it wask wicking around the leg bands and across the outside at the same time, the entire front of the trainer was soaked.

In fact, one morning this week, Acorn went in the potty, we put this trainer on, and within a half hour, the outside was completely soaked - he'd gone again (obviously not a full pee, since he'd just gone), and it had wicked across the leg openings and then out across the front of the trainers. By then they'd been washed at least a half dozen times, so it's not an issue of prepping something.

Drying: These are pretty good. Turned inside out, they dry with the regular diapers and are dry at the end of the cycle. The weather here has been too humid for line drying.

Final thoughts: I want to like these - the always helpful Emily at No Pins Required said most of her customers love them (if you're local, you should stop in her shop, and if not, you should check out her website, linked earlier in the post). They'd be great in a few months when Acorn is a little more accomplished at going on the potty, and this fall when it's cold and he has to actually wear pants, but right now....not so much.

Disclaimer: these trainers were bought by me, and this review is my personal opinion of them based on our usage of them. No compensation was provided.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for doing this review! I'm about to start the potty learning with my 2.5 year old and have been looking at different brands. This review is very thorough and while I'm still considering Blueberry trainers, I will definitely only purchase one to start with if we go that route, and see how well I like it.

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  2. Thank you for doing this review! I'm about to start the potty learning with my 2.5 year old and have been looking at different brands. This review is very thorough and while I'm still considering Blueberry trainers, I will definitely only purchase one to start with if we go that route, and see how well I like it.

    ReplyDelete