[Bummis Series #3] Compare Liners: Fleece vs. Bio-Soft Liners

Bummis Fleece & Bio-Soft Liners

Welcome to Part 3 of Mummy’s Reviews™’ Bummis Review SeriesTiny Pants provided me with both washable Fleece Liners and flushable Bio-Soft Liners to test out on Vee. Previously, we only had 3 washable fleece liners and had to use conventional disposable liners at times. I certainly welcome more fleece liners and like the idea of biodegradable liners.

What is a Diaper Liner?

Traditional cloth diapers (for e.g. square nappies) don’t have a stay-dry layer, so a diaper liner may be placed on them to wick moisture away from baby’s skin. It’s usually a thin layer and comes in disposable or washable types.

These are situations when diaper liners are useful:

  • Provide a stay-dry surface on cloth diapers without one (e.g. cotton, bamboo diapers), especially for long hours or night-time use
  • Prevent stool stains on cloth diapers, especially for newborn’s meconium or diarrhoea
  • Prevent diaper cream from coating cloth diapers, thus avoiding build-up issues
  • Ease removal of stool from cloth diapers (A flushable diaper liner allows stool to be disposed into the toilet easily. Note: Stool should go into the toilet, not into the garbage bin.)
  • When a disposable diaper needs to be used (for e.g. during travel), you may lay a washable diaper liner to protect baby’s skin from touching the disposable diaper
  • During travel, you may lay a liner onto a pocket diaper. During diaper change, simply replace the insert and liner, and reuse the pocket diaper. This converts the pocket diaper into an AI2 (All-in-Two)!

About Bummis Diaper Liners

These are the main features of the Fleece Liners:

  • Material: Repreve “more than recycled” polyester, guaranteed lead, phthalate and BPA free
  • Dimensions: 11″ x 4.75″ (28cm x 12cm)
  • Country of origin: Made in Canada

These are the main features of the Bio-Soft Liners:

  • Material: 100% viscose rayon, a cellulosic fibre derived from natural sources
  • Dimensions: Baby-sized (Large): 11.25″ x 8″ (28.5cm x 20.5cm)
  • Country of origin: Made in England

Bummis’ website states that the “Bio-Soft liners are made of a non woven material with no binder, and will biodegrade very quickly (within 8 days in a sewage treatment system or 20 days in a septic tank).” A smaller Infant-sized is also available.

First Impressions

Bummis Bio-Soft Liners

The Bio-Soft Liners come in a roll, and can be torn off for use, just like disposable kitchen towels. After removing the plastic packaging, I’d to keep the roll of liners in a zipper bag. Each liner is thin like tissue paper, soft and smooth.

Update on 1 March 2011: Tiny Pants updated me that the packaging can be opened from the top, then pull out the liners easily. I’ve been trying it out for a while and it works wonderfully:

Bummis Bio-Soft Liners - Package

The Fleece Liners are relatively thin, and also feel soft and smooth. This is what they look like:

Bummis Fleece & Bio-Soft Liners (Compare Size)

A closer look at the materials:

Bummis Fleece & Bio-Soft Liners (Close-Up)

How to Use The Liners

Fleece Liner: Simply lay onto any cloth diaper that requires wicking or protection.

Bio-Liner: Bummis’ website doesn’t mention anything about it wicking moisture. The main function seems to be facilitating poo removal. So, lay onto a cloth diaper that requires protection. For wicking moisture, you’d still need a stay-dry diaper or washable liner.

Bummis Fleece & Bio-Soft Liners (With diaper)

How We Tested Them

(a) Prewash & Laundry: The Fleece Liners “fluffed’ up a little after several washes, without any pilling. As expected, Vee’s diaper cream left a faint greyish stain on the liners. Our diaper cream is rather cloth-diaper friendly, so I wash the fleece liners with other diapering items. If unsure about your diaper cream, you’d need to wash the fleece liners separately, and strip wash them occasionally.

(b) Comfort: The Fleece Liners wick moisture away rather well, feeling only a little damp. I like its softness against Vee’s skin.

The Bio-Liners don’t seem to wick away moisture as they feel quite damp when used with prefolds. So, when using prefolds, you may wish to use place the Bio-Liner ON the Fleece Liner.

When used stay-dry diapers (such as inner layer made of suedecloth or microfleece), they feel drier. They’re rather dry on bamboo velour too. I use them when Vee needs diaper cream and all the fleece liners are in the wash.

(c) Ease of Use: The Fleece Liners are of the right size and don’t require any folding.

The Bio-Liners can be folded across the width to suit the diaper. Since it’s very thin, I like that it’s wide enough for folding to get 2 layers. This protects the diaper well against diaper cream.

Since my home sewage system is very old, I didn’t dare to flush them down the toilet. Anyway, Vee’s potty-trained for poo, so the liners are only wet. I simply dispose the used liners into the garbage bin. Even before Vee was poo-trained, I find it easy to spray or dump poo into the toilet, without using any liner.

During our 1-week trip to Perth, both liners were very useful in converting my pocket diapers into AI2s. I brought only several pocket diapers for the trip, and managed to cloth-diaper Vee almost full-time in the day!

At home, fleece liners allow us to use prefolds for a longer period of time, up to 2-3 hours (with a Bummis diaper cover). Since Vee’s a heavy-wetter with super-sensitive skin, either liner isn’t stay-dry enough for 12 hours of overnight use. They’re more suited for his day-time use. Other babies may be fine with them though, so you’d need to try to find out.

(e) Overall value: The price of 5 Fleece Liners is SGD8.90 (~USD7 or RM21) — absolutely value-for-money. A roll of 100 Baby-sized Bio-Soft Liners is SGD12.90 (~USD10 or RM31). Since Vee’s poo-trained, we don’t get as much use out of them. They’d be more useful on a younger baby (especially when expecting a BIG poo outdoors) and better if they wicked moisture away from the cotton prefolds.

Stay tuned for the upcoming review in this Bummis Series: Bummis Fabulous Wet Bag & a BIG GIVEAWAY!

Fleece Liners

What we like about them:

  • Just the right size
  • Very green — made of recycled polyester, even the packaging is made of chlorine free recycled fibres
  • Good quality at a very affordable price

What can be improved:

  • Even more stay-dry for baby with super-sensitive skin (Erm… am I asking too much?)

Bio-Soft Liners

What we like about them:

  • Baby-sized: wide enough to be folded as needed, to provide 2 layers of protection (especially against diaper cream)
  • Biodegradable in a short time
  • Some parents like that the liners are flushable, which facilitate easy poo removal

What can be improved:

  • Wick moisture away from cotton prefolds

Note: We didn’t get to try the liners with poo and didn’t flush them down the toilet.

Get Your Own (with Discount!)

To get your own Bummis cloth diapering products for baby, visit Tiny Pants (distributor for South East Asia).

  • Special Treat: 15% discount storewide
  • Discount Code: MV15B
  • Validity Period: Until 31 December 2010, 2359hr

You may also check the prices at Amazon.com here:
Bummis Fleece Liners*
Bummis Bio-Soft Liner (Baby)*

Disclosures: I received 1 pack of 5 Bummis Fleece Liners and 1 roll of 100 Bio-Soft Liners for review.

*: affiliate link to support the growth and maintenance of Mummy’s Reviews™

P.S. Need help on cloth diapering? Read all our Cloth Diapering Tips.

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