Review: KAO Merries Walker Pants Diapers

One of my blogger friends, Shu-Yin, asked if I'd be interested in trying out a new diaper brand in the market, and write a review of the product in my blog. This is the first time I get such request, and first time I write a product review.

Everytime I go for my grocery shopping, I'll check out the diaper offers. Having a 2nd kid now gives me a much better estimation on how much I should stock on which size, considering that both my girls grow almost the same rate. And I saw this new diapers, Kao Merries, in AEON recently. My first thought was, Hmm, expensive.

KAO Merries diapers display in AEON

So, when I was asked to try out this new diaper, I was more than happy to do that, especially since both my girls are still on disposable diapers.

When I received the package, I was eager to open up the box and happily found two packets of diapers in the box for my girls - 24xXL for Eunice, and 33xM for Natalie. Besides, it also has a bunny rattle, and a CD.

XL diapers (12-22kg) for Eunice

M diapers (6-10kg) for Natalie

Kao merries bunny rattle

I like the packaging of the diapers. It has a handle which makes it very easy to be carried around. I could carry two packets together and put them into my store room easily. Unlike the usual diapers that I bought, Kao Merrie's diaper handle doesn't cut into my hand.

Handle for easy carry

The instruction on the package are all in Japanese. Well, as a mother of two, I can easily guess it from the pictures on how I should use it. In the package, it also contains another small leaflet of instructions in English.

On the next day, I tried it on Natalie. My 14mo now weighs 8.5kg+ per the last weigh last month. Usually I'll buy a size bigger for her for the usual brands that I have been using, ie L size. However, when I requested for the sample, I only gave her Natalie's weight and she gave me M size. The first thing that came across my mind is, will the diaper cut into my chubby baby's thigh? Will it be too tight?

When I took out the diaper, I already can feel the difference from the usual ones that I have been using. It's much softer. Then, I thought, it doesn't look like it can contain a lot of urine? One of the reasons why I don't use cloth diaper on Natalie is because her pee pee amount is quite big. When she's on cloth diaper, the whole diaper will be soaking wet in just 1-2 hrs, unlike Eunice who pee in small amount everytime, she could wear cloth diaper for 3-4 hours, and sometimes longer.


When I put it on Natalie, I am surprise that even if it's M size, it fits her nicely. The thigh, the private part, all fit in nicely. I don't see her flesh being "squeezed".

First wearing the new diaper

See the blue tape at the back of the diaper? It took me a while to think what's that for, even EG asked me. And later on I found that it's to tape up the soiled diaper. Brilliant design.

Back view

However after a while, I found that the blue tape could un-done itself easily. It's quite frustrating as it sticks to some of the surfaces where my baby goes. I tried wearing dress or pants over it but if the frequency of taking on and off the pants often was high, it'll also be undone easily. Else, it's working good. It'd be better if the tape is more sticky.

Front view

 As a usual active baby, Natalie couldn't wait to get up and started playing around. According to the instruction, I should wear the diaper band above her belly button but her belly is not small, and it keeps slipping down. However, this doesn't affect neither the way the diaper works, nor the baby.

I watched her moving around with the diapers. She looked comfortable it in. Squatting up and down, walking around as usual. No complain of any discomfort. No red marks on the thigh or waist after moving for an hour. And I could see the diaper fits her snugly.

 

Sitting down, see the band comfortably fit onto my baby

Squatting down playing the blocks

After two hours of my first trial on the diaper, Natalie poo poo-ed. Good. I tried to tear off the sides of the diaper, it was easily done. I remember using another brand on Eunice previously and poo poo in a diaper pants was a nightmare as it was so hard to tear the side or remove the diapers. However, this time, it was done easily and beautifully. There's no leaking, and I could tape up the soiled diaper. Very good design. Even EG is impressed.

Soiled diaper taped up

I let Natalie sleep in the diapers, started first with afternoon nap. Kao Merries unique super absorbent really live up to its standard. Natalie normally naps for 2 hours in the afternoon. There's no leaking and she still looks perfectly comfortable in the diapers though I didn't change it immediately. To put it to another extreme case, I let her sleep with it at night. My sleeping beauty sleeps early, from 830pm all the way till 730am on weekend (woke up midnight once occasionally and 6am another time). Then, as a lazy mum, once she wakes up on weekend, I won't change her diaper immediately. I normally only change after her breakfast. And to my surprise, 1) the diaper doesn't look bulky after wearing for 12hrs+, 2) it's not as heavy and as smelly as the usual diaper that I've been using (for the same number of hours of wearing), and 3) best thing is, when I change her diaper, there's no marks of redness or rashes at all. I give credit to Kao Merries' design which allows maximum air flow, and baby can enjoy maximum dryness and comfort. Thumbs up!

Diapers while zzz

Taking her nap

Another design that I like about Kao Merries is the wetness indicator. It's in light yellow color when it's unused, and after a while, when baby pees more, the indicator will change color to dark green. When I see that, I know it's time to change diaper. Easy. :)

Wetness indicator in yellow prior use

Indicator changed color to dark green - time to change!

Another observation that I have is, as I mentioned, Natalie pees in quite a big amount. Her usual diaper normally will become very wet and heavy after a few hours if she pees. When I wear dress for her without a panty, the diaper will normally drop down and I can see the diaper below her dress hanging halfway while she's walking around. I don't really like that sight. But with Kao Merries, thanks to its super absorbency, the diaper doesn't become bulky or heavy even she pees. She looks perfect in her short dresses as the diaper was nicely hidden underneath her dress. Hence, when I go out for functions or dinner, Kao Merries is surely my first choice for Natalie. :)

Next test - to test on Eunice. Eunice is toilet trained in day time, but at night she still wants to wear a diaper. I have told her to not wearing it but she is not comfortable. Well, I don't force her. So she's still on diaper while sleeping.

Eunice is now 13+kg, close to 14kg. So the sample given was XL size - fits her nicely. The waist band looks soft and gentle on her. She doesn't complain anything when I wear for her - that's good.

XL size diaper on my ~14kg girl

Side view

 I asked her to move around with the diaper - so she did. Lied down, walk around, jump, sit. I asked her if the new diaper is nice, she said Yes. :)

Lying down comfortably

Same wetness indicator

Back view

For Eunice, I know she pees in diaper early in the morning like 3-4am once. The only observation that I see is same as Natalie's case - for a 3y8m old toddler, her pee amount can be A LOT. For her usual diaper, it'll be so heavy and bulky, but for Kao Merries - it still looks the same. Probably slightly bulky as it's holding quite a bit urine amount, but not as bulky as the usual one that I am using. It's not as smelly too. :)

Even now Eunice knows how to ask for new diapers when we wear diaper for her before her bed time.

All in all, Kao Merries is now in my top list. Though it's quite pricey but it's worth for its quality.
Double thumbs up for Kao Merries from me and my girls.

To Purchase
Currently Merries is available exclusively at AEON and AEON BIG selected outlets.

For more info, you may visit Kao Malaysia website.
Or MYMerries Facebook Page.


* Disclosure: All text and opinions are of my own honest opinion of the product. The sample received are for review purpose, no monetary incentive was received.

Cloth Diapers

A friend, who is going to be a mummy soon, asked me to blog about cloth diapers (CD) since she saw me using cloth diapers on Eunice, so, I complied. :)

I read about cloth diapers from a forum before I delivered Eunice, and took some time to find out what it is actually. But I didn't buy.

Reasons:
1) there are SO MANY brands out there
2) The price ranges from as cheap as RM20 per pc to more than RM100 per pc, which really really confused me what the differences are
3) I'm not sure if I'll use it since it's not that cheap, I never like to spend on things that I don't use

During the first two months, since Eunice is breastfed, she poo-ed almost every time after she drank. During then, disposable was the most convenient. But when she started going to babysitter on her 7th week, I noticed her poo poo time reduced to 2-3 times a day, comparing to 7-8 times in the first month of her life. So, after reading up, and some recommendation from friends, the first cloth diapers that I bought was GH (Gift-From-Heaven) brand.

It was a pleasant surprise when I used it. It is not that hard to use, and it's soft - makes me feel that it's gentle to my girl's bum bum. :P. Then, after reading up some reviews again, I got 2 more from Autumnz online. Oh I fell in love with CDs then. A friend coming back from US when Eunice is almost 5 mths old, and I got 3 more CDs from US (just wanted to have a feel of what is the difference between US brands & local brands) - namely Bum Genius, Happy Heinys, and Fuzzi Bunz.

All the CDs allow us to adjust the size - that's why it's called One Size CDs. I can button up the CDs to make it smaller, or unbutton all to make it bigger. That's why CDs are supposed to save cost - since it can be used from S to L. Most CDs can fit toddlers up to 15kg - 18kg.

After comparing, personally, I felt there there's no difference between local brands & US brands. And I think Autumnz has really good reviews, and their price is affordable and reasonable. Besides, they have nice patterns and they give free postage for purchase more than RM50!

Now, I have total of 8 pcs of CDs actively in use, and that's very little actually. I've seen ppl with 20+ CDs to 50+ CDs! Since Eunice is much bigger now, I only use CDs for her during weekend since she normally will have a clean disposable from babysitter that can last her until I change her to sleep. Well, I can actually use CD for her for overnight, but I was too lazy to do the rinsing in the morning esp it's always rushing, so I still use mamypoko.

I have been using CDs since Eunice is close to 3 months old, up till now. They do save me a lot of $$ for disposable diapers since they can be reused over and over again. Of course if I can do exclusive cloth diapering it'll be even better, but I admit I'm lazy, esp. on weekdays. :).

So, some pictures on my little girl on CDs.

Eunice @ 7 weeks with Autumnz CD,
noticed that the CD was folded to S size

3 mths old Eunice with Autumnz CD

6 mths old Eunice with Happy Heinys CD

9 mths old Eunice with GH CD

11 mths old Eunice with Autumnz CD

1 yr old Eunice in Happy Heinys CD

Oh, my watermark blocked the diaper.
Anyway, if your eyes are sharp enough,
this is the most recent pic of
my 15 mths old girl on Autumnz CD
(the one she's wearning on 3rd mth pic)

Some asked me, is it troublesome to clean the cloth diapers? Well, it depends. Whenever I change Eunice's CD, I'll rinse it off. If it's just urine, then it's easy. If she poo-ed, then I'll just rinse off to the toilet bowl, and rinse it a bit so that it won't stink my whole toilet, and put them into a pail. In the end of the day, I'll just wash all the CDs all together and hang them dry. Not exactly troublesome but just some extra steps to do. EG encourages me to use CDs a lot as it's environment friendly, besides, like I mentioned, the materials are soft and he feels that his precious girl should feel very comfortable in CDs - esp when they are also breathable.

When Eunice is on CDs, I normally don't wear pants for her since she looks really cute in those prints. :)... But for the CDs on velcro, she knows how to take it off. So, I have to put on pants for her for velcro CDs.

PS: There are a lot of information online on how to use a cloth diapers. You can also find it in Autumnz website too.

Parklon Playmat

Since Eunice hit her 6 mths old, she has been trying to lift herself up to crawl. We have a small piece of comforter where we let her lie down in the living room to have her tummy time or play time when she's not sleeping, but now the comforter is too thin for her. Several times she tried to crawl forward but she fell forward, and hit her face to the hard tiles. Of course she cries everytime.

The daddy was especially heartache to see his gerger who's learning to crawl, but always hit herself onto the floor. So, when my friend shared with me about the LG playmat, EG said we must get that for gerger.

After some searching in internet / forums, we got Parklon playmat (couldn't afford LG prime where the price is 2x of Parklon). I'm quite lucky to find a website to give me a good price and with free postage from KL to Penang!

As usual, the father is more excited than gerger.
We both like the packaging.

One side of the mat. We just took out from the packaging so it's slightly wrinkly.

My timid gerger was scared when we first put her on the mat. She dare not move and started crying. Haiyooo... I had to carry her and "introduce" her new mat to her by introducing the Pooh bear, Pigglet, Donkey and etc slowly. After a while, she's happily playing there! Phew!! Imagine if she doesn't like it - I'm going to cry as $$ wasted! That's always the risk to buy toys / stuff for babies as they won't be able to tell u if they like it!

The timid girl dare not move on her net mat

After warming up, now this is her playing area!

EG likes the mat very very much. Not only it's now safe for gerger to play on the mat, it's also very nice to lie on it. He sometimes will just take a short nap on the mat while gerger is playing. :)... He even suggested to buy another one to put in our bedroom.. =.="

Even though the mat is slightly expensive, but I think for daily use and safety purpose, it's worth all the money. And the material is very good. I believe we can keep it for the next baby in the future. :)

First Outing to the Mall

Since I'm pregnant, EG and I have been looking around for baby gadgets. One of it is stroller. Though many told us stroller might not be very useful but looking at the fact that we always go out together, of course we'll want to bring Eunice along. And since we travel to KL quite often esp. to attend friend's wedding, and I also want to bring Eunice back to Miri next time, stroller is in my list for sure as I dun think we can carry her everytime.

We have been looking around for a light weight stroller and the one that won't take up much boot space (imagine if we go KL and the stroller takes up all the boot space, then where am I going to keep all the other shopping stuff? :P). Most of my colleagues highly recommended Maclaren strollers for the light weight but the price is kinda high.

However, after surveying around, EG really likes Maclaren strollers comparing to others as he said, it's sleek, stylish and light. He can carry with one hand after folding it up. So after Eunice is born, we got the stroller. And see how happy the father is! :P

The happy father with the new toy for his princess

The quest sport model

The stroller is supposed to be used for babies from 3 months onwards, but if we have the head support, we can use it for Eunice too! So, we got a Kiddopotamus head support for her and off we went to Queensbay for our first shopping together with Eunice!

See how happy my cutie pie is :D

Overall, she behaves quite well out there. I think she likes to go out (this is my gene) and it's very funny to see her looking around amazed by many many things. It just never fails to make me laugh to see her looking so curiously for the surroundings. Maybe she's just too bored at home, just like her mother me. :P

The stroller is very easy to use and it's very light to push. Though there's no front bar but it's 5 points harness and after EG adjusted the strap nicely, this naughty girl can't even move much inside her stroller. But she's still turning her head left and right to check out her surroundings and it's really cute. :P... And of course, she never fails to get attention from others as well. Almost everyone who walk pass will look at her. :P

However, she only can stand for almost 2 hours and she started to make the LOUD rushing sound - means she's hungry. So quickly EG made the payment for our shopping and off we went home.

But overall, it's a good experience to bring her out. We shall try again next time when her feed is not that often.

Eunice Back to Penang!

After a month in Taiping, I noticed Eunice can start to focus on things around the rooms. I told EG I need to bring her back to Penang ASAP so that she won't get any anxiety later when we bring her back to our place in Penang (or actually I want to escape from Taiping after staying there for 1 month :P).

Eunice never really sits in her car seat before though the one we bought is supposed to be used from newborn onwards. When she's first born, she's too fragile. It's too scary to put her in the car seat so I used to carry her in my arm while we travelled from PG to Taiping - Yah dangerous I know but EG was driving like 80km/h on the highway. But thank God everything was fine.

So, after one month, we have decided to start letting her sitting in the convertible car seat that we bought for her (else wasted laaaa) while coming back from Taiping to Penang. I was worried that she'll fuss around in the car seat. However, to my surprise, she has been sleeping in the car seat for the whole journey (daddy was still driving slow so we took almost 1.5 hours to reach PG). I was even starting to get worried that she's supposed to get up for feed so my eyes never leave her during the whole journey to make sure she didn't suddenly get cranky.

My cutie pie in her Britax car seat

She has been again an angel all the way till we were like 5km from our home and she started to scream... Of course, she wasn't being fed for almost 2 hours+ and she normally will ask for feed in 1 hour to 1.5 hours. She must be very very hungry. Quickly I picked her up, calmed her. And thank God it's only 5 minutes to reach home and EG quickly opened the door and I rushed in to start to feed her!

But anyway, I'm really very happy with the car seat! We were looking around and checking out so much before we decided to get this convertible car seat. The price is reasonable esp. since it comes with a base. Looking at Eunice's response in it, it seriously worth all the money that we paid. I used to be worried that the fabric will be hot for her but seems like she's very comfortable in it. This will be her permanent place in my car wherever we go next time! :)

And yeah, Eunice is BACK TO PENANG!! :)