Getting to Know HumBird Wool: The Natural Cloth Diapering Solution

I first tried HumBird cloth diapers and wool when Little Miss was peeing through most of our overnight cloth solutions. Guess what? She didn’t pee through her HumBird!

I was eager to get some smaller wool covers for her little brothers, and I was equally eager to get to know a bit more about the woman behind this Germany-based brand.

Dawn is a former American chemistry teacher who met the love of her life in Germany and has been there ever since. Being home with her two daughters in a foreign land was both wonderful and isolating (something I very much relate to), and HumBird became a way to reach out to other moms and create a community around her love of sewing and cloth diapering. Her company is named after her beloved father’s favourite bird.

After a few years of trying to find the right supplier and dealing with shipping delays from North America, HumBird’s wool is now custom-milled in Italy. Dawn worked with the mill to create a wool that has a high fabric weight (GSM) when woven, retains its stretch after felting and isn’t too thick to be worn under clothing while still providing a leakproof solution. All of this fancy textile mumbo-jumbo basically means that HumBird’s wool—sewn into a variety of styles of shorts and trousers—is das beste. (That’s German for the best, in case you’re wondering.)

We received our “Bubbles” style wool shorts in July and have been rocking them ever since!

If your kid pees through everything overnight, wool is the way to go. Wool is a wonder fibre: breathable, waterproof, comfortable and natural. It’s the only waterproof cloth diaper solution that doesn’t require synthetic or petroleum-based textiles like fleece and polyurethane laminate (PUL).

I have loved my experience with HumBird’s wool diaper covers because they have guaranteed dry nights. After talking to Dawn about her wool, I now understand why those nights are dry: the heavy weight of the wool and the felting process make for bulletproof sheep fluff!

Because of the stretchiness of HumBird’s wool, the boys have been wearing their Bubbles since they were 5-months-old and around 13–14 lb, and they still fit now that the boys are 16–17 lb and almost 9-months-old. I would expect them to fit until at least 1-year-old, but I’ll update you when they’re officially outgrown.

Underneath our wool Bubbles we’ve put our HumBird fitted overnight diapers (the Nebula is my favourite), our Lilly & Frank OBV fitted diaper and even our Mother ease AIOs. Yes, even though our Mother ease diapers have a waterproof cover, I still put our HumBird wool on top. This, my friends, is how you handle overnight leaks like a boss. I find with just the waterproof synthetic cover I get leaks at the waist after a twelve- to thirteen-hour night. With HumBird wool on top to absorb that excess moisture, sleep sacks and bedding stay dry!

I don’t typically put pants on top of our HumBird shorts, but rather just a long-sleeved top and then a sleep sack. If you choose trouser-style HumBird woolies, you can just use them as pyjama pants on top of your favourite overnight diaper.

HumBird wool does not come pre-lanolized. Lanolizing is easy, and you can find lanolin in the breastfeeding section of most pharmacies. Lanolizing is what makes wool waterproof. A sheep does not complain that her skin is wet because her magical lanolin from her sebaceous glands makes her wool waterproof! (If you’re curious, here’s how you get lanolin from sheep’s wool.) But since your woolies do not have a never-ending supply of sheepy-goodness, you need to apply lanolin to the inside of the cover yourself.

To maintain your HumBird woolies, you basically just handwash them once they start getting stinky and re-lanolize. That’s right: you do not wash wool after each use. Wool is naturally antibacterial, and even if it comes in contact with urine, it just needs to be air-dried until the next use. Dawn has provided instructions for lanolizing and washing your woolies on the HumBird website.

Dawn’s wool creations are by no means limited to cloth-diapered babies. Big kids and adults alike can rock her wool creations too!

The best way to get to know which HumBird product is right for you is to join HumBird’s Facebook group, which Dawn considers to be her extended family.

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