Are you curious about what’s involved in prepping the Blueberry Organix Simplex Cloth Diaper?
Recently I tried and reviewed the Blueberry Organic Simplex All In One diaper. This cloth diaper is so simple. It’s basically an altered prefold sewn into a diaper cover. If you use prefolds, you know how amazing they are. They’re virtually fool proof when it comes to absorbency. They are also so simple to wash and can take abuse better than any other diaper. On the rare occasion that I need to use a non-cloth diaper safe butt cream or detergent, I use it with my prefolds and they still work well. The more they’re washed, the better they get. Like all natural fibers, they are less likely to get the funky smell that microfiber diapers get after time and they don’t trap nearly as much buildup after dozens of washes. The Blueberry Organic Simplex AIO diaper takes the prefold (layers of birdseye cotton) with all of these amazing qualities, and makes it super easy to use at the changing table by combining it with their well-fitting diaper design. The only thing that makes it different from a prefold and cover is that it is attached to a layer of PUL so you don’t have to worry about folds and fasteners.
I assumed that since the Organic Simplex diaper’s inner parts are made of birdseye cotton, it would have to be prepped much like a prefold does, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Prefolds have to be prepped a lot before you use them. They only hit a good level of absorbency after about six washes, and even then they continue to get more absorbent as they’re used and washed. This is because cotton has natural oils that can repel moisture and need to be thoroughly stripped before it can reach its full absorbency. I was so excited when I got the diaper that I wanted to use it right away. We were leaving for our first road trip in a couple of hours so I washed it and machine dried it quickly in order to be able to get it one one of my babies’ bums before we left.
I wasn’t sure that using this diaper on a road trip after only one wash was going to be the best idea, but I did it anyway and the diaper did great. As I continued to wash it for the second and third time I still found it to be fully functional even though it hadn’t gone through my regular “6 washes for prefolds” routine. The instructions on the Organic Simplex diaper do say to wash it just once before use, but because of my experience with prefolds I didn’t really believe them. Apparently, it’s true. Blueberry knows their cloth diapers! Even after just the second and third washes, when I started trying the diaper on my big, two-year old, heavy-wetter son, the diaper didn’t leak.
Brand new prefolds come to you smooth, flat, and large and they pucker, quilt, and shrink after being washed and dried. The more they’re washed and used, the softer and more quilted they become. The inside of the organic simplex was the same when it was brand new, only it seemed to get all its dimples right away. I photographed the inside after multiple washes and it was just as quilty and rumply for every photo. I didn’t have to wait until I’d used it a ton for it to be absorbent. Was it at it’s maximum level of absorbency immediately? Maybe not, but it was completely functional for my purposes which is all I needed to know.
Unlike a prefold, the Blueberry has elastics and PUL which do not improve with the abuse of a dryer or the sun. It’s not that the diaper can’t be machine dried. It can. Doing so won’t immediately destroy it. Throw it in the dryer regularly and it will do great for a year or two, but it probably won’t last through your next baby’s diapering years. Keep in mind that any diaper with PUL and elastics will have a shortened life with regular machine drying or sunning. To prolong the life of your simplex and any pocket or AIO, you should line dry it indoors most of the time which means more waiting between uses. I guess you need to decide what is more important to you: being able to use it right away, or being able to use it for a long time. When natural fibers are air dried, they’re stiffer. I honestly prefer the feel of natural-fibered diapers after they’ve been machine dried—they’re so soft. However, I slowly ruined one of my favorite organic AIO diapers over the course of a year or two by constantly putting it in the dryer, so most of the time I choose a slightly stiffer inner so that I’ll get to use my favorite diapers for a nice, long time. I expected that extensive prepping of my organic blueberry diaper would be time consuming.
Since it only needed to be prepped with one wash, this wasn’t the case. You do need to wash it at least once before using it or you will pay the price with leakage—I can tell you that from experience because I have often been so excited to use a new diaper that I don’t prep it first—whoops! However after following Blueberry’s instructions of just one spin through the washer and dryer, the diaper worked great and I was happy not to have to delay the gratification of using it for the first time.
If you’re looking for a diaper that combines your love of prefolds with the ease of use you look for in an All In One then you should consider buying the Blueberry Organic Simplex OS AIO Cloth Diaper. Shop Blueberry Diapers on Amazon here.
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