Saturday, February 21, 2009
AMP Duo Diapers
 A number of people have asked about AMP Duo diapers, fit, inserts, etc. So I thought I'd post a little "tutorial", particularly for those of you with newborns.
AMP Duo diapers are Canadian-made All-in-Twos (AI2), meaning they can be used as a pocket diaper, or with the insert folded and placed on top of the fleece. With the insert placed on top of the fleece, it can then be changed and the cover reused. This provides the option of quick, easy changes and/or natural fibres against baby's skin, or, the stay dry convenience of a pocket diaper.
We've been using these diapers on Spunky for a number of months, in our "testing" phase before making them available for our customers. They came very highly recommended by several of my cloth diaper retailer colleagues, and we've been looking for some time for a great Canadian-made pocket diaper to support our Canadian manufacturers. We've been very happy with the fit and performance, and ooooh, do I love hemp!
Spunky is now 23 months old and weighs about 27 pounds, very different from a newborn, but I've been lucky in that our neighbours had a baby 4 weeks ago and just happens to be wearing some AMPs, and they graciously allowed me to do some experimenting with their beautiful little girl and snap some photos.
Newborns, regardless of their weight at birth, tend to have very skinny thighs. Even large babies tend to carry most of their weight in their heads and torsos, at least for the first few weeks. Despite the brand of diaper, including disposable diapers, quite often it's difficult to get a good seal around the legs, which can cause wetness to escape. This is particularly true when babies are breastfeeding and lying on their sides. This is a fit issue and will correct itself with time.
Newborns also have very small bladders, and they are nursing almost constantly. Take this into account when diapering a new baby - input equals output, so for those first 8-12 weeks until their bladders grow a little larger and their nursing routines become longer and spaced further apart, they should be changed each time they eat.
Hemp also takes a number of washes to fully prime. Hemp is not highly processed and retains a lot of natural oil, so please be sure to wash the inserts 3-4 times on hot prior to first use, or, if you wash only once or twice, be sure to change more frequently while the hemp is priming. We have found that the AMP inserts require more washes to prime than some other hemp fabrics we've worked with over the last 4 years.
Babies have very narrow builds and there is not much space between baby's legs. In the very early days, you could wrap the hemp insert around baby in exactly the same way you would a prefold using the bikini twist method, secured with a Snappi.
For use as either a pocket or an AI2, we've found the best way to fold the insert, particularly for newborns, is as follows:
With the tag in the top left corner, fold each edge into the middle.
Fold the insert over on to itself to create a narrow rectangle with four layers:
Place the insert in the pocket or on the fleece, if you have a little boy, be sure that the insert is pulled all the way to the front of the diaper so there is lots of fabric to absorb the wetness.
Once fastened on to baby, tug upward on the front panel of the diaper with the receiving snaps to help snug the leg opening around tiny thighs - this will become less necessary as baby grows.
Be sure to use very little detergent when washing, we recommend Allen's, a great no-residue detergent, for all of your cloth diapers.
Happy Diapering!
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