Friday, November 6, 2009

Review: Kissaluvs Contours (Unbleached)


Diaper:  Kissaluvs Contour (Unbleached)  -  $6.95 for one diaper or you can buy them in packages which brings down the price.
Type:  Contour (I bought a Medium/Large)
Materials:  Cotton Fleece
Fit:  Newborn/Small 5 - 20 lbs.; Medium/Large - 15-30 lbs. (My son is 20.6 lbs. and 28 in. long)
How it works:  A contour diaper is a cross between a prefold and a fitted diaper.  This diaper will need to be secured with a diaper pin or a Snappi for a truly good fit, and will need to be used under a cover or wrap.  The Kissaluv Contour comes in two sizes, small or medium/large, that will be friendlier for a younger baby vs. an older baby or toddler.  The Kissaluv Contour contains a sewn in doubler in the center which claims to cut down on the drying time in the dryer, and adds 4-5 layers through "wet zone."  The diaper is placed on the baby much like you would put a prefold one on, only the work of the "folding" is done for you here by have a "contoured" shape.  Hence the name.  Once fastened with a pin or Snappi a cover is placed over it.  Kissaluv says that it can be used without a fastener if closed tightly enough with a good fitting cover or wrap.

Thoughts from Amanda:

Aesthetics -  The unbleached contour is not out to win any beauty contests.  It is a cream color by nature and has some purple serging around the outer edge of the diaper.  It is very fuzzy in feel which gives it a warm cuddly feel and is very soft to the touch.  The doubler itself looks slightly uncomfortable and stops in an awkward spot in the front of the diaper (more on that later).  This diaper is out to serve a purpose and probably saves you on money because it's not all cute prints that will be hidden under a cover anyway.
Functionality - Pain in the rear for me.  I found the diaper was incredibly bulky.  Not trim at all.  If I put the diaper high enough in the front it was showing some major plumbers crack in the back.  If I put it higher in the back then the rise in the front was too low.  It did have a lot of room in the waist which would have been great for my cutie pie, but the rise got in the way of that positive.  I also had to work hard to get some real stretch going on at first.  I was left with gapping holes in the leg area each time I tried to put the diaper on as I couldn't get the diaper to stretch quite enough to make a tight fit around his thighs.  Now I was using a Snappi, so it may have worked better with a pin possibly.  The Kissaluvs website does state that the diaper can be used with a Snappi, but with too much use it could pull at the fibers of the diaper.  They also say that you should be able to get a good fit without any fasteners of any kind and to just pull it tight and place a cover over it to secure.  I can tell you that there was no way this was going to happen for my squirmy guy.  Now he's crawling so I wouldn't recommend going without a fastener if you have a baby on the move.

This brings me to my biggest pet peeve of this diaper.  Yes, there is a bigger pet peeve than the rise and bulk.  The sewn in doubler sounded like a great idea as I am often doubling my sons diapers.  (He's a big wetter.)  I'm sure this doubler would be great for a girl, but due to the fact that boys wet more in the front I found that this doubler didn't rise high enough in the front of the diaper.  Now, I understand why they did this.  If they put the doubler all of the way to the top this diaper couldn't be considered a medium/large because you then wouldn't be able to fold the front end down at all to make it "medium."  However, this spells nightmare for a little boy.  The top of his diaper was soaked through in less than an hour and he had leaks every time I tried these within 30-45 min.  Not what I'm looking for in a diaper at all!  Now for a little girl who pees lower in a diaper this would not be a problem.  Also, as a crawler and a tummy sleeper my sons pee goes even more to the front, further spelling disaster for this contour dipe.  The cover contained the mess but my son was drenched inside of the cover.  Good thing I checked him often.  

Kissaluvs also claims that the diaper will dry faster due to the way the doubler is sewn in down the center.  This is not true either.  In the dryer the doubler folds over on itself leaving the area down the center seam to stay wet even after two turns in the dryer.  I ended up line drying them the rest of the way overnight.

The only reason I am giving this diaper a two is that it may work better for a girl than a boy and it is very soft.  But, it still seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Durability - I can't say too much about this as I got so fed up with my son being drenched I didn't use them very long.  I can say that my lint trap was packed through all of the preps and started slowing down after that, but a lot of fuzz came off of these diapers in both the washer and dryer. If I were you I would wash and dry these separately the first 3 preps from your other diapers.  But, if I were you, I'd skip these contours all together.  I'm giving these a 3 because I imagine the more you use them the more they will "shed" and knowing that the Snappi can cause pulls in the diaper is also a downside.


Thoughts from Natalie: 

After reading Amanda's review and many others I have chosen to not purchase or try these diapers. 

3 comments:

  1. Wow! I'm impressed with your site--very professional. Obviously at this point in my life, diapers are not an issue for me, but good luck with everything.

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  2. hi Amanda!
    this is Heather from Kissaluvs. I am sorry to hear the diaper didnt work well for you.
    i just wanted to make sure you tried the Kissaluvs Hybrid diaper which has elastic in the legs. The picture you have on the review is that of a regular contour not the hybrid.

    Also, i missed teh weight/size of the baby you tried it on and the diaper size you used. i would like to try to help to see if we can offer some tips on making it fit better.

    of course, Contour Diapers are not for everyone. Some people love them while they dont work for others.
    i can be reached at heather@kissaluvs.com. please feel free to contact me if we can help in any way.
    And, thank you taking the time to write a review. We appreciate your thoughts.
    Heather.

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  3. I have had great luck witht he contours for my little guy! I guess I have been lucky so far in that he will let me change him, but we have not had any problem getting a good fit around the legs. We do use a snappi and have not had any problems with snagging the fabric. After the first few washes we have not had the shedding issue you mentioned either. We have been using the med/large contours for about 8 months now and absolutley love them.

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