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Some days, I don’t have time to shower or eat. On other days, I’m balancing so much that I forget some things at the grocery store. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that, but if you’re a working parent, you know what I mean.
Like my son’s diapers.
I’ll reach his diaper drawer in the middle of a change and fish around, only to find no diapers. Talk about a panic-inducing situation! So far in my motherhood journey, there have been two instances where I realized I forgot to grab diapers at the grocery store.
That leaves me making an emergency diaper trip to the closest store to me (which is 30 minutes away, in case you were wondering). And do you know what happens when you have to go to the store and buy emergency diapers? You usually can’t find the brand that works for your baby. So, you’re left fighting skin irritation, diapers that aren’t the right size, or just plain crap.
After the second time this happened to me, I was done playing games. I was sick and tired of running out of diapers. Sure, Amazon was an option. But I’ve already tried out the Mama Bear diapers, and they didn’t work for us. They weren’t absorbent and weren’t worth the money.
That’s when I began looking around online for a diaper subscription. I’m obsessed with so many other subscriptions; I felt off my game when I realized I hadn’t considered signing up for a diaper subscription before. However, I knew that if my son was anything like me, he was going to be picky!
Fast forward, and I ordered my first Hello Bello Diaper box. Now, you’re probably wondering if they’re worth the money. You’ll have to keep reading to find out!
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Your baby’s bottom, the main scoop
Hello Bello diapers are okay. I wouldn’t say they’re great. Their nighttime diapers are much better and absorbent. I think the patterns are cute, but if you’re out traveling or need diapers you don’t need to change after every time they’re wet, I wouldn’t recommend Hello Bello. I think these diapers are really made for Instagram moms.
What is Hello Bello?
Hello Bello is a celebrity-owned diaper subscription box. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard own it. Now, I love Kristen Bell, but you can say I was a bit skeptical from the start. Hello Bello diapers are plant-derived, meaning they’re eco-friendly. All of the products offered by Hello Bello are eco-friendly.
Hello Bello became super popular once they started selling patterned diapers. Don’t get me wrong, the patterns on their diapers are CUTE! But, considering the cost of the diapers are exactly what you’re probably already paying for a box of Pampers, I would recommend Hello Bello to a select group of people.
Signing Up
I’m a mom. I don’t have a lot of time to spend signing up for anything. This was the best part of the Hello Bello experience. Their signup was super easy and fun! I have to admit, how easy the signup process for Hello Bello diapers was what got my hopes up. I was so excited to try out these diapers!
When first signing up, you get to choose the diaper bundle you want. You’ll have to choose between diapers, training pants, or a combo of the two. Next, you’ll need to choose a size. I LOVED that Hello Bello even offered an option where you could buy two different sizes!
Their size chart was super helpful, too. They offer Newborn all the way up to size 6! Hello Bello even lists the weight limits of each diaper and how many diapers you’ll get in each size, which made signing up even easier. I picked out size three diapers, with 175 diapers per bundle.
In one box, you get to choose seven different diaper designs. I’m obsessed with the patterns they offer. They even change out all the different options, too, so you’re not stuck with the same patterns month after month! I loved that I could dress my baby up in some cute fall-themed diapers. It made the aesthetic mom wannabe in me happy.
Also, there are different patterns for their daytime and overnight diapers. This was awesome too!
Once you’ve picked out your seven diaper designs, you get to pick out your freebie. I grabbed some lavender bubble bath because I can never seem to have enough of it in my house. They offer other products like surface wipes, sunscreen, balm, and even collagen supplements.
The last page you’re taken to before checkout allows you to add extras to your order. You get everything at a discount, and if you add five or more extras to your box, you get to save an additional 15%.
The Cost
One Hello Bello box will run you $69.99 if you don’t add in any extras. That’s 175 diapers (with your mix of daytime and overnight diapers picked out). You also get four packs of wipes and a freebie in your box, with free shipping.
Hello Bello will ship you a box out every five weeks if you stay signed up.
The Unboxing
If you aren’t a fan of bugs, I would recommend you skip this part. The excitement of getting to pick out *patterned* diapers for my baby was still buzzing fresh through my mind when my box arrived at my doorstep. How naive I was!
As I opened up the super cute cardboard box, one of my nightmares came to life: bugs! There were several silverfish walking around inside my box! I work from home, so one of my favorite pastimes is grabbing my Amazon and UPS orders directly from my mailman’s hands. This box wasn’t sitting on my doorstep forever. There was no way these silverfish got into my box from sitting outside!
I was disgusted, to say the least. I even did a little shriek when I originally saw them. But, the possibility of having patterned diapers for my baby to crawl around in powered me through. Thankfully, all of the diapers were packaged in plastic. I made sure none of the plastic had any damage.
Thankfully, everything was still sealed tight and didn’t have any signs of damage from the silverfish. I took the box outside, got rid of the box and the silverfish, and went on my way.
I was sad about the box, though. Hello Bello crafts each box so parents can put it together to make a cool little hideout/jungle gym for your babe. My box’s theme was supposed to be a sandcastle. I do wish there were instructions that came with how to put the box together to be a sandcastle because, from a quick glance (before I threw it out), I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out by myself.
The Diapers
First off, the package the diapers are in is SO cute! Hello Bello claims their diapers are
- Hypoallergenic
- Lotion-free
- Latex-free (which is super important for me because I have a latex allergy)
- Fragrance-free
- Chlorine-free
- Made with a plant-derived core insert
- Soft, stretch,y snuggly, and breathable
- Made for day and nightwear
- Sustainably made
After I unboxed all of the diapers, I joyfully laid them all down side-by-side to look at the super cute patterns I had picked out. I sat there and thought about all the fun adventures my son would probably be having while wearing these adorable diapers. I love that they had a nautical-themed set of diapers because that’s the theme I have in my son’s nursery.
I do love how I felt like they had an even share of feminine, masculine, and gender-neutral diapers. I really wanted to get him the cupcake-printed diapers, but the treasure map pattern diapers won me over.
The diapers I have in the pictures with white backgrounds are daytime-friendly. The diapers with a colored background, like the fall-themed diapers, are the nighttime diapers.
Daytime Diapers
I can’t explain to you how excited I was to put my son in these diapers. I’m all about spoiling my baby, and I’m all about finding ways to change up our day-to-day routine. I felt like these diapers were going to be the vital key to adding a bit of excitement into our lives.
My son, Nathanael, is a year old and wears size three diapers. Diaper changes are nearly impossible because of how much of a wiggle worm he is. Do you know how in NASCAR, they have those guys that change out tires fast? That’s me when I’m changing my son’s diaper.
I put Nathanael in his first diaper right after lunch. I figured it was the best time to see how absorbent use diapers were. The diapers fit him perfectly. He is 21 pounds, and the max weight capacity for size three diapers is 28 pounds. When I put the tabs on him, they were exactly in the right spot. They were a perfect fit for him. I don’t think they would fit him well if he was any bigger.
About 30 minutes later, I heard water hitting the floor. Honestly, my first thought was a pipe had burst in my attic. I looked down at my son to make sure that he was okay, and I noticed a puddle underneath where he was sitting.
Daytime Diapers Take One
At first, I thought it may have just been a fluke. I thought there must’ve been something that I was doing wrong. I know my son pees a lot, but he’s always been able to wear Huggies, Pampers, and a few other diapers just fine. No other brand of diapers that I have tried before has ever had leaking issues this bad.
I also ensured that I had positioned him the correct way in a diaper. I took it off, grabbed a different pattern daytime diaper, and put him back down to play.
Daytime Diapers Take Two
About an hour and a half later went by, and my son was waking up from his nap. When I grabbed him out of his crib, his bottom was soaking wet. I had to change the sheets on his crib because they had gotten soaked.
I was shocked. I grabbed a third-patterned diaper and sat down on the floor to watch my son play just to see how absorbent these diapers work. The second diaper lasted two hours before it was dripping. I could see the wetness indicator turn colors on the front, but it never changed colors on the back of the diaper. The diaper was soaking through, even though the entire diaper hadn’t been wet.
Daytime Diapers Take Three
I thought maybe it was just a problem I was causing. I thought there was some way that I was putting him in the diaper wrong. There was no question about whether or not the diapers fit him correctly. I know for 100% certainty they did. Still, I took him out in public and carried him around in my Tula half-buckle baby carrier.
And he had a blowout.
This was the first blowout I’ve ever had to deal with. I’ve never had poop come out the back of his diaper before, but it did with the Hello Bello diapers. He had covered his back and his legs. I smelled like poop because it got on me while he was in the carrier. That’s when I realized this issue wasn’t with my son; it was with the diapers.
That’s not my only issue with daytime diapers, either. I had a bunch of problems with the daytime, diapers fuzzing up on the front and the back. The diapers will get so fuzzy that my son was able to pull off the diaper material in strands.
That meant that I had to stay a lot more alert to make sure he wasn’t eating the diaper fuzz. I do have to say I know my son is incredibly hyper because of his health condition. But I don’t think the diapers should be losing so much fuzzy material just because a baby is crawling around.
They fell apart so much that Nathanael eventually ended up figuring out how to take off his own diaper as he pulled on the fuzz.
I did not have this problem with the nighttime diapers.
Nighttime Diapers
I was prepared to be completely disappointed in the nighttime diapers. However, there is a bittersweet ending to the story. I feel like the nighttime diapers are actually pretty good. They perform at the level that I would expect any daytime diaper to perform. They last Nathanael for around six hours.
The first night I put him in overnight diapers, and I woke up every hour to check on him to make sure he hadn’t soaked through. In the sixth hour, he had some wetness, and I decided that it would be best to change him. During the day, when he’s drinking, he is a lot more and a lot more active; they last him around four hours.
The Wipes
I feel like nobody talks about the wipes from Hello Bello. After all, you are paying for the wipes you’re getting in your box. Are they worth it? I don’t think so. The wipes are made from 99% water, so I’m going to compare them to Water Wipes. The Hello Bello wipes have a quilted texture and are made from a plant-based cloth.
I hated using these wipes! They were so hard to get out of the packages. They tore so easily. By the time I got one wipe out of the package, it was shredded. It was almost like my cat had gotten ahold of the wipe and decided to teach it a lesson. They weren’t useable.
On the off chance I was able to get a wipe in fair shape out of the container; it didn’t do a good job with poopy diapers. My fingers would break the cloth constantly, which was super gross. They were also super thin; you can see my hand through the cloth in the photos.
Plus, I don’t feel like these wipes were very wet. They didn’t do a good job of scrubbing my baby’s bottom when he had a dirty diaper.
But I decided not to give up complete hope on these wipes. After all, they are water-based, which means they’re safe for teething (I made sure to check the ingredients before giving them to my son). The other ingredients inside these wipes were aloe and chamomile.
I put these wipes in the fridge and gave them to my baby while he was teething. But, it was the same situation over again. These wipes tore really easily and didn’t withstand the stress my son put them through while he was teething.
I wouldn’t buy these wipes again.
The Freebie
For my freebie, I got the lavender-scented bubble bath. Scent-wise, I loved this bubble bath. It had a really nice lavender scent without being powdery! It wasn’t overpowering, and my son, with sensitive skin, didn’t have any problems with it. I loved how easy it was to store in my shower.
I liked this bubble bath, but I didn’t like it enough to order from Hello Bello again. I don’t feel like there’s any real difference between this bubble bath and the bubble bath I currently use, except for the packaging.
Alternatives to Consider
If I could be a bit sassy, I would recommend a newspaper over these daytime diapers! I know being sassy isn’t helpful, so here are my thoughts:
Rascal & Friends
Now, Rascal & Friends is my tried-and-true diaper brand. These diapers are cheaper than Hello Bello and hold SO much more! They don’t have the cute patterns (or even much variety, for that matter) compared to Hello Bello. But their diapers are super absorbent. I don’t even know if they have overnight diapers; I only buy one type of diaper from them, and they’ll last my son an entire 12 hours of sleep with no leaks!
The only thing is Rascal & Friends doesn’t have a subscription. However, you can find them at Walmart just like you can find Hello Bello diapers!
Honest Diapers
Honest Diapers has a subscription, and they sell their diapers in-store. All of the diapers from Honest are eco-friendly and have decent absorption. I think the absorption is better than Hello Bello, but it doesn’t beat Rascal & Friends. They have a diaper and wipe subscription box.
Plus, their diapers are made of plant-friendly materials (so are their wipes). You can choose to have your diapers delivered on a monthly basis (or on your own schedule). This was another feature about Honest Diapers that I liked over Hello Bello! An Honest Diaper subscription will run you around $80 every four weeks.
Abby & Finn Diaper Subscription
With Abby & Finn diapers, you can choose to sign up for either a diaper subscription ($50 a month) or a diaper and wipe combo ($60 a month) subscription. They have a bunch of different pattern options available, and all of their diapers are eco-friendly too! I love that you can order in multiple sizes with Abby & Finn too.
You can customize your delivery schedule with Abby & Finn. You can get diapers delivered every two weeks to five weeks (which is great if you have a bean sprout for a child) or whenever you need them! My favorite part about this subscription is every box you get delivered, Abby & Finn will donate 30 diapers to a family in need!
FAQs
Question: What’s so Special about Hello Bello?
Answer: Hello Bello diapers are free of a lot of junk that’s in other diapers. You won’t find any chlorine, lotion, fragrance, latex, or fragrances in Hello Bello diapers. Plus, they’ve got super cute patterns. That’s about all that makes Hello Bello diapers special.
Question: Are Hello Bello Diapers made in the USA?
Answer: The diapers aren’t made in the USA. However, they are made in Canada. The Hello Bello wipes are made in China. All of the other products Hello Bello offers on their site are made in the USA or made of materials imported from the USA.
Question: Is Hello Bello Cruelty-Free?
Answer: Yes, funny enough! Hello Bello diapers are cruelty-free.
So, Are Hello Bello Diapers Worth the Social Media Hype?
Girl, don’t let social media pull you into the trap of another overhyped company. Hello Bello diapers aren’t worth the hype. I would say their overnight diapers are nice, but they still didn’t last us overnight. I think these diapers are overhyped by #Instagramgoals moms.
I don’t let my baby sit in dirty diapers for long, but it’s unrealistic to have to change a one-year-old every hour or two because a diaper isn’t absorbent.
It’s so wasteful to have to throw a diaper away after he pees once or twice. I need diapers that’ll last a longer road trip or through the night. Thankfully, I have backup options to consider because Hello Bello is not the winner in my book.
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