#77 Nappy Leaks Podcast: Live Jan 2021

Due to Covid-19 Nappy Leaks was unable to have our usual live audience, so we have a special guest, Keryn. She is Bubblebubs’ Cloth Nappy Support Specialist and comes across all sorts of questions from families starting with cloth nappies through to those who have used it across multiple children. She calls in to join Vicki and Vashti, discussing with the ladies the top 3 questions she gets enquiries.
I am just curious what the advantage of Minky vs PUL is?
Is it just that it’s nice and soft? And PUL is better at holding the liquid?
What are Snappis? With the microfleece liners which way do they need to be placed in the nappy?

 

Transcription: Jan 2021

Andrew: Welcome to Nappy Leaks with Vicki Simpson and Vashti Wadwell. How are you doing, Vicki?

Vicki: I’m good Andrew, how are you?

Andrew: Excellent, excellent, don’t you love that music? Really dig that music.

Vicki: I hate it, actually.

Andrew: Nobody actually asked me how the Bubble… the Nappy Leaks music came about.

Vashti: You sure you know which brand you’re talking about here?

Andrew: Yeah, the Nappy Leaks music. Isn’t that cool music?

Vashti: Didn’t you design it yourself, compose it yourself?

Andrew: I did. We’ve been doing this for almost four years, and nobody has asked me about the music. 

Vashti: Is it that long?

Andrew: Nobody’s asked me about the music.

Vicki: Because it sucks.

Andrew: It’s like 30 minute tutorial on Garage Band and there you have it.

Vashti: My kids love Garage Band. Michaela uses it all the time. She adores Garage Band.

Andrew: Have I said hello to you? 

Vashti: No, not yet.

Andrew: You’re not allowed to talk unless I say hello.

Vashti: Oh, sorry.

Andrew: You’re breaking the podcast rules.

Keryn: You’re taking forever, Andrew. 

Andrew: How are you doing, Vashti?

Vashti: I’m good Andrew, it’s nice to see you again.

Andrew: Keryn, how are you?

Keryn: I’m really good, thank you. 

Andrew: It’s so hard to keep everybody happy on this podcast. Just trying to get a bit of self promotion.

Vashti: It’s because you’re waffling. 

Andrew: I’m waffling, that’s right, I’m waffling. I feel like I’m just wasting money. 

Vicki: My money.

Andrew: Waffle, waffle, waffle. So Keryn, what are you here for? You’re here for the live episode, aren’t you?

Keryn: Yeah, I’ve got some questions that customers have asked this week, because they’re not here to ask them in person. So I’m here to deliver them to you, Vicki and Vashti. 

Andrew: Excellent, what’s your first one?

Keryn: My first one is, I’m really curious about the advantage of minky over PUL. Is it just nice and soft, or is PUL better at holding liquid in?

Andrew: I can answer that question. Because it’s furry on the outside, it keeps the liquid in better. 

Vashti: You are so full of it. 

Vicki: Actually, at is actually, the terminology is actually incorrect. Because minky is a polyester fabric with a pile. PUL is a polyester fabric without a pile. Both are laminated with a polyurethane laminate. So PUL is not really PUL. And minky is not really minky. They’re both exactly the same, and PUL is actually the laminate, it’s not…

Keryn: They’re basically just nylon and one has…

Vicki: No, no, polyester. 

Keryn: Sorry, polyester, sorry. And one is cut and one’s smooth, really. 

Vicki: Pretty much. We’ve got videos showing the printing of the fabric before it is laminated, and it is just light a knit jersey that you would get from Spotlight. That is what PUL is, before it’s laminated.

Keryn: Yeah, it’s just a woven fabric, really.

Vicki: Stretch knit. 

Keryn: It’s woven together.

Vicki: No, it’s knitted. A knit fabric is stretchy, and a woven fabric is not stretchy. That’s the difference between the two.

Andrew: So I forgot what I was going to say.

Vashti: So is one better than the other? No, they both do exactly the same thing. One feels nicer than the other. Then that’s subjective as well, because I’ve got customers who hate the feel of minky, they just can’t stand it. It’s a tactile thing.

Vicki: And it’s not popular at all in Europe. 

Vashti: No.

Andrew: That’s it, that’s what I was going to ask you. You were walking around the house the other day saying that some country doesn’t like one of them. Which one was that?

Vicki: No, all of Europe.

Vashti: Europe does not like minky.

Andrew: Does not like minky. 

Vashti: Which really surprises me, because I get a lot of questions about is minky hotter because it’s a longer pile. And I never found it hot. 

Vicki: And I can tell you, Europe is colder than Australia. 

Vashti: You would think that if there’s that concept that minky is hotter, that it would be more prone to be used in colder climates.

Keryn: Side note, it isn’t. 

Vicki: I wonder if there’s this perception, because they really like their natural fibres in Europe as well. And I wonder if there’s this perception that PUL is more natural than minky. Even though they’re both 100% polyester. They’re both identical fabrics. They’re knitted the same way. I could probably, remind me, someone write it down…

Vashti: Andrew is shaking his head.

Vicki: Remind me to see, because the one factories that we didn’t visit when we were in China were the fabric knitting, we did see the bamboos being knitted, but none of the polyesters being knitted. So I’ll see if I can actually get some videos so you can see what it’s like to see polyesters being knitted, and minkies being knitted. And the other factory we didn’t see was actually the lamination factory as well. That just didn’t happen. And second time I went, when I went with the kids, nothing happened. Nothing happened. Other than whingy kids.

Andrew: And whingy husband.

Vicki: Never take your children on a business trip. Never.

Andrew: Never take more children than there are parents.

Vicki: Yes.

Andrew: Listen to this, every school excursion ever, that’s why they ask parents to come along, so they’ve got enough people.

Vicki: But that’s alright, we could knock Abby off now, leave her at home. She doesn’t have to come anymore. She’s old enough.

Andrew: That’s right, she’s old enough. Gosh. 

Vicki: Be able to kick her out of home soon. And counting. 

Andrew: I reckon, before Vicki evicts our daughter, what’s your second question?

Keryn: What are Snappies?

Vashti: They’re a little piece of silicon that’s shaped in a T, so it’s got a bit of stretch to it, and it’s got little teeth, like hard plastic teeth…

Andrew: That grip into the fabric.

Vashti: That grip into the fibres of the nappy. 

Andrew: Replacement for pins is another way of saying it.

Vashti: Pretty much, yeah.

Vicki: Do you know, fun fact, they were actually made by guys. So if you actually have a look at the little ring pull, they were drinking beer, and they came up with the idea. So that little ring pull thing was actually designed by a guy who was drinking a stubby. No, stubbies are bottles.

Keryn: Stubbies have caps.

Vicki: Or cans? Anyway, it was cans, whatever, it was cans. So yeah, fun fact. I learned that from the people who invented them, Snappies.

Keryn: So they can be used with flats, prefolds?

Vashti: Flats, prefolds, fitteds. 

Andrew: All in twos?

Vashti: Well you wouldn’t need it with an all in two. 

Andrew: I need to clarify.

Vashti: Unless your all in two doesn’t have closures on it. Any nappy that doesn’t have…

Andrew: All the snaps broke off.

Keryn: I don’t know how you could do that. You’d have to have little patches that it could grip onto for an all in two, because an all in two has the water proofing.

Vashti: Yeah, you would end up putting holes into your PUL.

Keryn: I don’t think that would work.

Vashti: No, but they’re just something that’s designed to close the nappy, to keep it held together. There’s other, there’s lots of versions of the original Snappi. And then there’s Boingos as well, which is a similar concept, just slightly different.

Andrew: Is it a copy? Who came first?

Vashti: Snappi is the original. S-N-A-P-P-I, that’s the original. And then there’s been several variations of those. People have ripped them off. Boingos is different. They’re the same concept, but they’re two instead of one, and the idea is that in the early days, you only use one, and then when they get bigger, you use one on each hip. So yeah.

Andrew: So much better than a rubber band.

Vashti: Well, you wouldn’t use a rubber band on your child. 

Andrew: It’s just on the nappy though.

Vashti: But it would go around their bum.

Keryn: Some nappies, you tie them on though, Andrew. 

Vashti: Yeah, you can get tie nappies, so they’ve got little strings on the side.

Andrew: Oh really?

Vashti: Yeah, Dysana does a beautiful, all natural, organic cotton tie on nappy.

Andrew: That sounds really nice.

Vashti: It is gorgeous, it is stunning.

Keryn: I think tie on nappies are really popular in Asian countries. I’ve seen…

Vashti: They are, because they’re so easy to do elimination communication with. So Dysana is very, very popular in Europe. So they’re quite a popular, well they’re from Germany and they’re a very popular brand over in Europe. And that’s because they use all natural fibres in their nappies.

Keryn: And they have a wool cover, do they?

Vashti: They do. They’ve got two different sorts. They’ve got the knitted style, which is a pull on, and then they’ve got the boiled wool, which works just like another cover, with Velcro. So it goes over the top and does up, rather than being pulled on. 

Andrew: OK Keryn, what’s your third question?

Keryn: With microfleece liners, which way do they need to be placed in the nappy?

Vashti: Depends on which microfleece liner you’re using.

Andrew: Shiny side up?

Vashti: No, so it depends on the brand. There’s some brands that have fluffy on both sides. Most microfleece liners, and if you’re making your own fleece liners, from micro polar fleece, you’ll generally have a fluffy side and a flat side. You want to put the fluffy side towards bubby. So that’s the side that you want, the flat side is the knit.

Andrew: So fluffy side up.

Vashti: Fluffy side up.

Keryn: Would it really matter though, because it’s the same fabric all the way through?

Vashti: It is the same fabric all the way through, it just tends to work better fluffy side up. You could put it flat side up, but I found that it doesn’t work as well.  It sort of repels a little bit when it’s flat side up. So don’t ask me why or how.

Keryn: I’ve never actually thought to try it the other way. 

Vashti: Fluffy side up is so much nicer against your baby’s bum anyway.

Keryn: That’s what I think, yeah. That’s why I’ve never done it the other way. Why wouldn’t you do that side up?

Vashti: Well there you go, here’s an experiment for you tonight with your night nappy, Keryn.

Keryn: I don’t use the liners, actually. 

Andrew: No wonder you had to ask the question.

Keryn: I could do it maybe, because he can talk, he could tell me. 

Vashti: Yeah, exactly.

Keryn: I need to go. I’ve got messages coming in, important things to do today.

Andrew: Oh, customer? If you ever have a delay with Keryn getting back to you, it’s because she’s doing a podcast. Thanks, Vicki.

Vicki: Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew: Thank you, Vashti.

Vashti: Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew: Thanks, Keryn.

Keryn: My pleasure, thank you.

Vashti: Bye, Keryn.

Keryn: Bye.

[Music]

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