For this review, I was sent a Soft Bums Echo shell and one Dry Touch Pod for review from All About Baby Boutique. All statements are my own opinions and observations.
Price Per Diaper: ★★☆☆☆ This diaper can be a little pricey when you initially look into these diapers. The Echo shell alone retails for $21.95 and one Dry Touch pod retails for $4.95. This means the entire diaper would cost approximately $27 for just one. However, since this is an AI2 diaper, the savings occur when you buy more than one. You can purchase packs of one shell (to reuse) and three dry touch pods for only $35.95 which comes out to just $11.98 for three diapers! And, this diaper comes with some extremely unique features that may work well for your diapering style! So don’t count this diaper out based on initial pricing!
Leaks: ★★★★☆ This diaper is amazing at absorbing and not leaking. However, for night time use, I did find that this diaper needed a doubler or extra insert. Soft Bums does make Super Dry Touch pods, Organic Bamboo pods, and Dry Touch mini pods that can either be used as a doubler or newborn pod. Any of these would probably have fixed our night time leaking, but I did not have these on hand to test. I was sent the Dry Touch pod for this review. This pod is made of 4 layers of microfiber and topped with microfleece to sit next to baby skin. These inserts are extremely soft and comfy for baby while being very absorbent too.
Fit: ★★★★★ Can I give this diaper more than a five? Wow. That is all I can say. When the diaper first arrived, I knew next to nothing about Soft Bums and I thought “Ha! That will never fit Miss A, it is too small!” Then I discovered the pull strings in the leg gussets and decided to do a little internet searching. Slide2Size technology is BRILLIANT!!! This diaper has elastic strings in the leg gussets and a little tiny slide clamp (like you would find on a bookbag) to size the diaper to your child. You can slide it the entire way in to fit a newborn or slide it out to fit a toddler. Soft Bums does not list a weight minimum and maximum for this diaper, but rather leg measurements due to this unique system. This diaper will fit legs from 4 inches to 14 inches without causing red marks and without allowing leaks! You truly can customize this diaper to fit your baby! So as soon as I realized that the diaper came to me on the smallest setting and that I could let it out, I was absolutely amazed! And it fit Miss A like a glove! Even better, because of the way this diaper is made, it is extremely trim on any size child!
Ease of Use: ★★★★★ This is one of the easiest diapers to use! Once you snap (the one snap) in the insert, it is a simple on/off baby at diaper changes. Not only that, to reuse the shell is a simple one snap out and one snap in! Perfect for squirmy kids! The adjustment of the leg gussets is a simple pull of the string and clamp to the desired size and they are easily accessible through a small opening in the front of the diaper! My only warning is to watch the insert in the front of the diaper. Since the insert snaps at the back, the insert may poke out at the front and cause leaking. For smaller sizes you can fold the insert to prevent this problem.
Washing: ★★★★★ This diaper was extremely easy to wash. Simply undo the one snap that connects the insert to the shell and toss it in. No need to touch messy inserts. The laundry tabs are a simple fold back kind that may through time start to show wear, but in the time I used this diaper, I did not see any wear or tear on the aplix or laundry tabs. All in all, I was quite impressed with how well this diaper washed and how easily staining came out with normal wash routine.
Overall Performance: ★★★★★ Like I mentioned above, when the diaper arrived, I thought this was going to be BAD but once I realized the unique sizing of the diaper, I was in LOVE. This diaper is extremely trim and will fit any baby and any stature with just a quick adjustment of the Slide2Size elastic. This is a brilliant design and a well made diaper. This would make an excellent addition to any cloth diaper stash or would do well as a one and only kind of diaper in your stash! There aren't many OS diapers that I truly feel would fit from birth to potty training, but I really do think this one would! I am excited to try out my theory when number two gets here in June!