Cloth Diaper Purchases in Manila: Review

So Baby J has outgrown the wonderful Mother-Ease Sandy cloth diapers we inherited from a good friend. These are not available in the Philippines, in fact the entire system of fitted cloth diapers don't seem to be available. All we have are pocket diapers, of which there are many brands. Was not, still am not, a fan of the pocket system because of all the fussing around with stuffing pads into pockets. Turns out though that there are no other cost-effective options for cloth diapering systems around Manila, of course except for the traditional lampin which is too complicated for me.

In my search for affordable cloth diapers in Manila I went through many many baby retail shops and kiosks and department stores. The pocket diapers will cost anywhere between P600-1400 per piece! I will need at least a dozen and at those prices the whole argument of cloth diapers being cost effective flies out the window. The solution was found online. I went to three sites to purchase different brands: Bambino, Alva, and Next9.

My criteria for selecting these brands are that they don't use velcro (irritates baby's skin), they will adjust to fit the baby until he should be out of diapers altogether, and they will dry easily after laundering. All three brands fit these criteria, all three cost the same (3 for P1000). All were purchased from online retailers and all retailers were prompt in delivering and easy to contact.

So here are the reviews:

1. Alva diapers. The lining on these are not as soft as the good quality fleece on expensive brands like Charlie Banana. They look good though, and there is a very wide selection of cute designs. The tabs have rounded edges which flip over, exposing the white lining when it is on the baby. Not a big deal but slightly annoying. The outside cloth is sort of shiny, which I think makes it look a little cheap.

2. Bambino. These I found on their fb page, very helpful and professional customer service and prompt on email. The diapers look bigger than the rest so may be in use longer. Construction is the same quality as all the others but for some reason I can't think of, these leak easily. Maybe it's the size, I don't really know. It's not as snug on the legs as the other brands. The pee will leak out of the snaps in front and from the gussetts. Also the fleece is the same not-so-good quality as the Alva. Too bad because I really like that it comes in black with white snaps.

3. Next9. This brand now sells the velcro kind, I had to make sure they sent me the ones with the snaps.  Of the four kinds I tried, this is the one I liked best. It fits nicely around Baby J's bum, doesn't leak easily, and comes in fun prints. Its most appealing quality is that it uses a very soft fleece lining inside that always feels dry even when the soakers are completely full of pee.

A word on the soakers, the system that worked for me is to have 2 soakers per shell. All the soakers are P100 each regardless of where you buy them and quality is the same. When you buy a shell it comes with 1 soaker. I don't recommend the bamboo soakers, they are slippery and annoying to deal with when in the pockets they don't stay in place.

So the winner is Next9, I bought a few more to complete my daytime cloth diapering needs. Glad I went online to look for these, all these brands are not easy to find in retail stores and when you do find them they have like, 2 pieces in stock.

As for the whole pocket diapering system, not as good as fitted diapers definitely. There is a lot of work in this system, if I had to do the stuffing myself I'd be really pissed, luckily we have helpers to do that but still...takes up time. There is room in the Philippine market for fitted diapers, somebody bring them in and make them affordable.