Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper Review

I received this item at no cost in order to facilitate my review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I already quite like my Smart Bottoms 3.1 AIO cloth diaper. It has a lot of features I really like in a cloth diaper: it’s trim, it’s made with natural organic cotton, it’s a one size diaper, and it’s made in the USA. These are all wonderful things, but if I had my way I would have changed one thing. I’d love it to be more absorbent. When Jennifer of Lollypop Kids asked me if I wanted to review the all new Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper, I was ecstatic! Smart Bottoms has jumped right into the world of hemp with the Dream Diaper, and I was keen to see if this diaper had the increased absorbency I was missing in the 3.1. I’ve been giving the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper a go on Petit Prince over the last handful of weeks, and I’ve got to say that I’m impressed! What makes the Dream Diaper different and better than the 3.1? Let me show you!

The Details:

The Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper is an all-in-one (AIO) cloth diaper. This means that all the absorbency of the diaper is attached to the waterproof shell of the diaper. The Dream Diaper has a PUL outer and a 55% hemp/45% organic cotton blend inner and soaker. The inner lining of the shell consists of two layers of hemp/organic cotton, and the soaker consists of four layers of hemp/organic cotton. The soaker snaps into the back of the shell of the Dream Diaper and can be folded completely in half to create a total of ten layers of hemp/organic cotton. Because the soaker is quite long and snaps in only at the back, it can be folded in different ways to adjust the level of absorbency where your baby needs it most (up front for a boy or in the middle/back for a girl). At the front of the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper is a pocket opening. This allows you to add inserts or boosters to increase the absorbency as needed. There’s a wide band of PUL at the back of the diaper, and an open flap of PUL covering the pocket opening at the front of the diaper.

Like the Smart Bottoms 3.1 AIO, the Dream Diaper has wide elastics at the leg openings and along the back of the diaper. The elastic at the back of the diaper is encased in the PUL (ie. sewn into a casing), while the leg elastics are not. The leg elastics are sewn into the outside edge of the leg openings without being run through any casing. This gives the leg openings a slight “puffy” appearance. The Dream Diaper fits babies from 10 to 35 lbs. It accommodates that range of sizing with a 4×3 snap rise setting on the front of the diaper. The diaper closure is a double row of snaps, with two snaps on each of the tabs.

Smart Bottoms refers to the Dream Diaper as having a “no prep natural fibre interior”, meaning that it only needs to be washed once after purchasing and then it’s ready to go on the bum. This is a vast improvement over the 3.1 AIO which requires six to eight washes to reach its full absorbency.

Also available is the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper overnight insert. This insert doubles the absorbency of the Dream Diaper making it absorbent enough to last all night. The overnight insert consists of two regular four layer Dream Diaper soakers sewn together in the centre. There are two snaps in the centre where the overnight insert can be snapped into the Dream Diaper shell. On top of the overnight insert is a single layer of micro fleece. This provides a stay dry feel for baby who will no doubt be spending a good twelve hours in the diaper overnight. When snapped into the Dream Diaper shell, the overnight insert is folded in half providing sixteen layers of absorbency plus two layers from the inner lining of the Dream Diaper shell for a total of eighteen layers. If your child is sensitive to micro fleece or you prefer a natural fibre against baby’s skin at all times, the overnight insert can be folded in half in the opposite direction (so the snaps are hidden) and laid inside the Dream Diaper shell or it can be stuffed into the pocket. For toddlers and children that are especially heavy wetters overnight, the daytime Dream Diaper insert can still be used with the overnight insert. If the overnight insert is snapped into the shell, the daytime insert can be stuffed into the pocket. If you prefer to stuff the overnight insert, the daytime insert can be snapped into the shell.

How It Works:

Petit Prince wears the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper on the medium rise setting. He’s 20 months old, 32.5″ tall, and about 22.5 lbs. The fit on Petit Prince is nice and trim. In fact, I’d say that the Dream Diaper with the daytime insert fits exactly like the Smart Bottoms 3.1 AIO. If you love the 3.1, you’re going to love the Dream Diaper. The Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper is one of the narrowest cut diapers in our cloth diaper stash. For the most part, this is a good thing. The Dream Diaper fits nicely under all Petit Prince’s pants (even the few pairs of 12-18 month pants I haven’t quite gotten around to putting away in storage yet). Petit Prince has become quite lean, much like The Heir around this age, so he doesn’t have a tremendous amount of bum to cover. This means he gets enough coverage with the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper. The Dream Diaper is very narrow through the crotch. I don’t mind this for Petit Prince, but his poops are also (for the most part) in the completely solid phase. With its very narrow crotch, babies who are still having runny poops may find there just isn’t enough surface area to absorb everything before it hits the elastics and attempts to escape out the legs.

Speaking of absorbing, let’s talk about the absorbency of the Dream Diaper. It’s spectacular. For the last six months at least, I’ve had to add a booster to the Smart Bottoms 3.1 AIO diaper for daytime use with Petit Prince. It had gotten to a point where I was only using the 3.1 at home because I wasn’t confident that I could get more than an hour out of it before it leaked (and that’s with adding a random narrow bamboo booster from my  stash). The Dream Diaper has us leaving the house in Smart Bottoms once again without a care in the world! Though it is equally trim and slim fitting to the 3.1, the Dream Diaper is easily twice as absorbent (if not more) with just the daytime insert. I can fold the insert perfectly in half and that diaper will last a solid three hours and even longer if Petit Prince takes an unexpectedly long nap. This is fabulous, and it’s why hemp is my favourite cloth diaper material! It is magically absorbent.

What really sets the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper apart is the addition of the pocket opening at the front. I have to admit that a front pocket opening is my least favourite position for a couple reasons. First, if the PUL flap doesn’t stay down then wicking up the front is more likely. Second, you’re guaranteed to be touching pee when you pull the insert out after changing the diaper. If you’re snapping the insert into the Dream Diaper shell, you don’t need to do any unstuffing at all, so at least you’re spared touching a drenched insert unless you’ve stuffed a booster in the shell. I do appreciate what Smart Bottoms was trying to do with the inclusion of a pocket to their newest AIO. It’s great to have a place to stuff additional absorbency. However, because the Dream Diaper is so narrow through the crotch, you’re really limited in what you can even fit in that pocket. Getting the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper daytime or overnight inserts in there is no problem. If you have other boosters and inserts in your cloth diaper stash that you like to use, you might have a hard time getting them into the Dream Diaper pocket. To be fair, the Dream Diaper is plenty absorbent on its own, so unless your little one is an extremely heavy wetter, you won’t need to be adding anything in that pocket anyway.

The pocket opening itself and the PUL flap over it could use a little tweaking, in my opinion. The top edge of the hemp/organic cotton inner at the pocket opening is just serged. Once it’s been washed and dried (in the dryer or hanging to dry) that top edge rolls out away from the PUL and into the inside of the diaper. The tag is attached there as well, so inevitably, the tag ends up inside the diaper instead of tucked into the pocket. The PUL flap has a tendency to flip up as well. I have to be careful to hold that flap down while pulling the diaper up over Petit Prince, and then when I bring the wings of the diaper around to close it, that flap tends to try to flip itself upwards. It took a little practice, but I did eventually develop a technique to get it on with minimal fussing to keep everything tucked in as it should be.

The Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper is top notch for daytime absorbency, but what about that overnight insert? The overnight insert worked great! Because Petit Prince is a toddler and toddlers tend to wet more than smaller babies overnight, I decided to use the overnight insert snapped into the Dream Diaper shell and stuff the daytime insert into the pocket. This way, Petit Prince got the benefit of the stay dry micro fleece against his skin, but had a few extra layers of absorbency just in case he needed it. In total, there were 26 layers of hemp/organic cotton absorbency. That’s a lot! Surprisingly, this didn’t make the Dream Diaper too terribly bulky (nothing in the realm of an overnight fitted by a long shot). I was a little concerned that the very narrow crotch would make it difficult to get a snug fit over the legs with the thickness of the overnight and daytime inserts all used together, but it worked just fine. All that hemp/organic cotton resulted in Petit Prince waking up with dry pyjamas! After 12 hours and one middle of the night feeding session, the overnight insert wasn’t even fully saturated. I call that a win! Next time I use the Dream Diaper overnight, I won’t even bother with the daytime insert, as it really isn’t necessary for Petit Prince.

Pros:

• Made in the USA
• Natural fibre absorbency: 55% hemp & 45% organic cotton
• “No prep”  so it’s ready to go after just one wash
• One size fits from 10 to 35 lbs.
• Double row snap closure
• Very trim fit
• Strip of PUL inside the back of the diaper and at the front of the diaper to prevent wicking
• Inserts snap into place and can be unsnapped for faster drying
• Excellent absorbency
• Pocket allows additional boosters to be used
• Overnight insert has a stay dry top layer
• Overnight insert is absorbent enough for a toddler overnight

Cons:

• Pocket opening rolls inward/PUL flap flips upward
• Very narrow through the crotch limits the size of boosters/inserts that will fit inside the pocket
• Overnight insert is not included and must be purchased separately
• High price point

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I’m impressed with the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper. I like a trim fitting diaper for daytime use, and Petit Prince was out-wetting his Smart Bottoms 3.1 much too quickly. The Dream Diaper has Petit Prince back in super trim Smart Bottoms diapers once again, and I’m not constantly worried he’s going to spring a leak after just a short time. I love that the Dream Diaper is “no prep”. As much as I love doing laundry (and I really do), I also appreciate just being able to get a new diaper on the bum ASAP. The way the daytime and overnight inserts are constructed mean they dry fast with just one run through the dryer on low heat. One wash of the Dream Diaper and Petit Prince was wearing it. It did not lack in absorbency for that very first wear, and I put it to the test by leaving it on for a solid three hours that very first time. The Dream Diaper has yet to leak on us, even when we used it overnight with the overnight insert. Though I appreciate what Smart Bottoms was doing by adding a pocket to the Dream Diaper, I just don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been. In all honesty, I don’t think the pocket needs to be there at all. The inner material that makes the pocket is the same material that the inserts are made of, so there’s no real benefit to stuffing the daytime insert in the pocket. Yes, you can add the daytime insert inside the pocket when using it with the overnight insert, but it’s also possible to just tuck the daytime insert underneath the snapped in overnight insert. If the pocket opening didn’t roll inwards and the PUL flap didn’t flip up, I would be much happier with the pocket of the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper. It’s great that the Dream Diaper truly lasts all night with the overnight insert (sold separately). It’s not a bulky overnight diaper, so I was skeptical that it would do the trick, but it absolutely did (and with more absorbency to spare).

I think it’s important that I briefly touch on the price of the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper. The Dream Diaper retails for $37 CAD and the overnight insert retails for $14 CAD. Now I know that seems like a hefty price to pay for one cloth diaper. I do think the price is a little on the high side, but keep in mind that Smart Bottoms diapers are made in the USA. The hemp/organic cotton combination is incredibly absorbent. You won’t need to use boosters with this diaper, so you’re going to save money there. It is a super trim fit and it’s going to fit for a good long time. Petit Prince at over 22lbs and 20 months old is still only on the medium rise setting. He has two more rise settings to go before outgrowing this diaper, so it’s absolutely going to get him through potty training. Adding the overnight insert is going to increase the cost of the Dream Diaper, but I can tell you that many of the overnight diaper combinations that I’ve come up with over the years cost $45 or more to put together (and some of them aren’t absorbent enough to use on a toddler anymore). Overnight fitted diapers are going to cost more than $45 each AND you still need to purchase a waterproof cover to go over them. To get an overnight combination that’s so trim fitting, super absorbent, and has a waterproof layer built in for $51 isn’t totally unreasonable to me. Remember that if you’re washing your diapers every third or fourth day, you’ll only need 3-4 Dream Diaper overnight inserts to have a complete overnight diaper stash. With the Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper you’re getting high quality construction, diapers ethically made in North America, and high quality hemp and organic cotton absorbency.

The Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper and overnight insert is available to purchase now from Lollypop Kids! If you’re in the USA, the Dream Diaper is available to purchase from Nicki’s Diapers.

How would you like the chance to WIN a Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper and overnight insert from Lollypop Kids? One lucky reader will win one Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper and overnight insert in the in stock colour of their choice from Lollypop Kids. Just scroll down to the giveaway and get your entries in for a chance to win. This giveaway is open to Canadian residents, 18+, and closes on March 20th, 2017. Sponsor is responsible for prize fulfillment. Don’t forget to follow the giveaway “hop” and enter the other awesome giveaways linked up below!

Can you believe that Spring is right around the corner? I know that we are all getting excited for the weather to start warming up! But we don’t want to forget the month we’re in. Anderson’s Angels, This Mamas Life, The More The Merrier and Woven by Words, are very excited to bring you the Lucky Clover Giveaway Event! We’ve teamed up with over 20 other wonderful bloggers, to bring you another great giveaway event! Each blog has gathered a prize package worth $25 or more so be sure to visit each blog and enter!

 

Enter to win a Smart Bottoms Dream Diaper & Overnight Insert

Disclosure: Hosts & participating hop bloggers of the Lucky Clover Event are not responsible for sponsors or self-sponsoring bloggers that do not fulfill prize obligations. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any other social media are not affiliated with this giveaway. Open to Canadian residents, 18+ only. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Prize fulfillment is the responsibility of the sponsor(s). For questions or to see your product featured on The Monarch Mommy blog contact Stefanie at https://themonarchmommy.com/work-with-me/.