BumGenius Cloth Diapers Feedback

We have now switched her over to the one size cloth diapers because she was getting to big for the small kissaluvs we were using on her and she was leaking through the diaper over night.

Here is my feedback on 3 different versions of the BumGenius diapers and let me start by saying I love the diapers.

BumGenius 4.0 One-Size:

• Description - It is a pocket diaper and you insert the pad between the water proof layer and the cloth cover.  The diaper is very soft.
• Blow Out Test - It held everything in the diaper.
• Keeping Baby Dry - The cloth cover does exactly what is claims, that is it keeps the baby dry.  I have touched the cloth portion when changing her and it was completely dry however the insert was soaked (2 thumbs up).  
• Ease of Use - The diaper is very easy to use and fits snuck around my daughters legs that are on the skinnier side with a little chub.  My husband prefers the velcro version and I will say they are easier than the snaps, however as she gets older I could see her being able to pull them off easier so I like the snaps.
• Cleaning - Spray out the poop diapers with the Bumgenius sprayer  over the toilet, it takes a little bit of time but not bad at all and you remove the insert from the cover making sure to put the velcro taps on the washing tab.  Like the others I do 3 washes (rinse spin, wash, rinse spin) and in the first rinse I add a little vinegar to help with the odder.
• Drying Time - The inserts go in the dryer and I add a dry towel to help them dry faster.  The covers I hang inside on a stand up drying crack and they take a few hours to totally dry.
• Over All Rating - 5 stars!  These are great diapers and well worth the money.

BumGenius Organic

• Description - It looks like the 4.0 except the organic cotton insert is sewed onto the cover and for smaller sized you fold it in the back for girls and in the front for boys.  The diaper is made of soft fabric for the insert making it very comfortable.
• Blow Out Test - It held everything in the diaper.
• Keeping Baby Dry - Nope if the baby is wet he/she will feel it with these.
• Ease of Use - The diaper is easy to use but others watching your baby who are not familiar with how to folder the insert for smaller babies might be a little confused.
• Cleaning - Same as 4.0 except you can not remove the insert.  They are a little easier to spray the pop out of.
• Drying Time - Because I can not remove the insert I hang the whole diaper to dry.  It takes a full day and night for it to drying hanging in the house on a drying rack.  I don't dare put them in the drying because I am worried they will get ruined.  I have 2 of these and I will not be buying more just because of the drying time.  If you had a drier where you can insert a shelf to dry items flat I think that would work.  
• Over All Rating - 3 stars because of the drying time.

BumGenius Flip 

• Description - These come with a cover and pre fold inserts that look much like the inserts for the 4.0 except there is no button to keep the insert folded.  As long as the cover doesn't get to wet you can just change out the insert vs changing the full diaper cover and all when baby gets wet.
• Blow Out Test - It held everything in the diaper.
• Keeping Baby Dry - The inserts have 2 sides one is smooth and softer and that is the side that goes up against the baby and it does tend to stay drier than the other side when wet.
• Ease of Use - A little more difficult because you have to get the insert to stay in place as you put it on but ones you get the hang of it then you are good to go.  Because you have to do this as you are changing the baby it doesn't make it easy for those not familiar with the diapers to use. 
• Cleaning - Much easier to spray out because the insert comes right out and there is no cloth cover to spay out also.  I wash them the same as mentioned above.
• Drying Time - A little faster than the 4.0 because I put the inserts in the drier and the water proof cover hangs to dry.
• Over All Rating - 5 stars! They hold up to the night time pee challenge and I have the ability to double up on the inserts at night if needed. 

How Many?

I started with 12 diapers.  I am going to be buying a few more because with the 4.0 and Organic once they are dirty the whole diaper is dirty.  They are very cute and come in some great colors but for the next ones I get I am going to get gender neutral ones so I have more that I could use on the next child in the event it is a boy.  

Diaper Rash?

Nope!  Annabelle has not had diaper rash once since she was born and I think the cloth diapers have a lot to do with it.  When she was a newborn we used disposable but changed them right away when she got wet or did number 2 and we went through a lot of diapers and that can get $$$$!

First Time Mom's Using Cloth Diapers

You can do it!  Get a few different diapers so you can find what works best for you and most of all get a BumGenius sprayer.  Get yourself 2-3 pail wet bags the best one I found is made by thirsties liner I have another one made by another company and I don't like it.  You don't need special laundry detergent or sprays for the diapers if you plan to wash them daily.  OxiClean works great to keep them looking like new and plain old baking soda and vinegar works wonders to get the odor out, so save your money on buying those "special" sprays.  I use odor free Arm and Hammer detergent and it works great and is cheap.  Don't be worried about cleaning them out.  This is my nightly routine:

• Spray out the poop diapers over the toilet using the BumGenius sprayer
• Remove the pads from the diapers and make sure all velcro tabs are secured to the wash tab and put in the washing machine
• Turn wet bag inside out and place in the washer
• Add a little vinegar to the wash and then put on rinse with warm water
• Once the rinse and spin is done then I wash them with some Arm and Hammer detergent, OxiClean powder and Baking soda again on warm
• Then one more rinse and spin
• In the morning I put the covers on the rack to dry along with some of my wet bags (the thirsties one is awesome because it can go in the drier) then I put the inserts in the drier with a dry towel for about 45 mins on Med-High heat
• Then once everything is dry I put the diapers together

It sounds like a lot of work and yes it takes time but not that much and it is so worth it to save money, prevent diaper rash, keep all the mess in the diaper and to keep from running out of diapers.

I hope you all found this helpful and if you have any questions please let me know :-)

Annabelle is Growing & Cloth Diaper Update

Annabelle and I playing around the the video camera

Last week Annabelle had her 2 month check up appointment and boy is she growing.
  
Weight:  9lbs 5oz - 9%
Height: 20 7/8 inches - 3%
Head:  15 1/4 inches - 70%

The Dr. said she is doing great! She is still a peanut compared to most 2 month old babies but for her birth weight she is making great progress.

What's New:  She now recognizes Jerry and I and gives us big smiles.  She starts chatting up a storm telling us all kinds of dramatic stories (LOL).  She is starting to interact more with her play mat by kicking the the rattle and hitting the little birdie.  Her hair is also coming in more now on top of what she had when she was born.


Cloth Diaper Update:
Annabelle and I filmed a vlog on cloth diapers but with Jerry traveling on business I have not had a chance to sit down and edit the film.  I will say that we are enjoying using cloth diapers because we don't have dirty diapers sitting around stinking up our house, it's also nice to not have to worry about running out of diapers.  I will also say that cloth diapers holds the odder when she goes #2 in her diaper and we don't smell it until we take the diaper off, when she was wearing disposables you could smell it right away and it would stink up the room.  We always change her right away but when we are out in public it is nice not to worry about others smelling it.

For those who can I would recommend using cloth diapers it really isn't hard.  After she goes to bed each night I spray out the #2 diapers and wash all the diapers and covers and then do the final rinse in the morning.

Go Green Friday - Cloth Diapers Update

With Earth Day right around the corner I thought it appropriate to give you and update on my cloth diaper adventure.  I recently read that over 24 billion disposable diapers enter landfills each year and that number seems to be increasing every year.  Another little fact I found is a disposable diapers take 250 to 500 years to break down, think about it that means since they started manufacturing disposable diapers everyone of them that has been used is sitting in a landfill today.  Yes it is convenient to be able to just throw away the poop and pee mess but is it really worth it when you think of what it is doing to our environment?  Just some food for thought.

Confession 
I will be the first to admit that yes I did and still do at times use disposable diapers on my daughter.  Being a first time Mom it took us time to adjust to life with a new baby and adding washing diapers on top of that for the first few weeks just wasn't going to happen.

I had done my research and bought a supply of cloth diapers yet I was finding it so hard to switch and give up the convenience of a disposable diaper.

Type of Cloth Diaper 
In talking to other Mom who are experienced with cloth diapers while I was still pregnant I learned about all the different types of cloth diapers and I also learned that putting a newborn in a one size fits all diaper just won't work even though the manufacture says you can.

Kissaluvs

Because she is still so little at almost 7 weeks now we are using our small size cloth diapers.  We use kissaluvs with a thirsties cover over them.   The size 0 kissaluvs diaper says it can be used from 5 - 15 pounds and the x-small thirsties can be used for 6 - 12 pounds.

You might be wondering why you need to use two so let me tell you.  The kissaluvs will absorb the urine but because it doesn't have a water proof cover on the outside it would come through onto clothing.  The thirsties cover will keep the urine right were it needs to be (in the diaper).  This also means you don't need to change the cover each time you change out the kissaluvs liner as long as it isn't very wet of have poop on it I have been reusing them.

thirsties diaper cover

In my research I heard that you don't want to use cloth diapers when they still have their umbilical cord because it will rub.  Kissaluvs solved this problem by adding a snap to make the diaper lower in the center while the baby still has their cord.  Because my daughter was only 5 lbs 10 oz when we brought her home she was so skinny around her tummy and her legs that the cloth diapers looked huge for her.  This resulted in us having even more of a reason to use the disposables. We didn't start using the cloth until she was almost 7 lbs.

Even though she has grown the diapers still make her bottom look so big and some times we have a hard time getting the onsie to snap over the diaper.  We do own 2 pairs of g diapers and we tried them out once and found they are less bulky however, I find putting on the kissaluvs is more like using a disposable in the feel because you don't have to mess with putting in an insert into the diaper.  I also was worried about the g diaper leaking as it seemed as though the cloth liner was not fitting in the diaper that well, we didn't have any leaks but we only used this ones and it was a small pee diaper.

Once she gets to big for these we will be using Bumgenius 4.0  (we have some snap and some velcro) pocket diaper and Bumgenius Flip diaper.  I purchased one Fuzzibuns to see what they looked like in person but I didn't care for the elastic leg adjustment because it was a pain to stuff the extra elastic back in the diaper so, I didn't purchase any more.

Cleaning
I purchased a wet bag for putting the diapers in when they are dirty and this seems to keep the smell down.  I must add we have not had a poop diaper in them yet as it seems she waits for a disposable before she gives us her daily blow out (yes we are still easing into cloth diapers).

To wash the diapers you simply put the thirsties velcro tab on the washing tab on the inside to keep it from sticking to the other diapers and put the kissaluvs and thirsties covers in the washing machine along with the wet bag.  We do have a bumgenius sprayer for cleaning poop off the diaper before washing.  We use armenhammer sent free laundry detergent and we add oxy clean.  Be sure to also wash the wet bag I put it inside out.  I wash ours in hot water and then when they are done I put them in for another rinse and drain to get any extra detergent residue off.

To dry I put the kissaluvs and the bag in the dryer and I lay the thirsties covers out on a rack.  During warmer days I hear you can lay them all out on a rack outside and the sun will work to help bleach the diapers.

Review So Far (My Two Cents)

Pros:  

• We will never have to make a late night run out for diapers.
• Now that I see how many disposable diapers we were using we will save money for sure using cloth diapers.
• Cloth diapers can be used for additional children we plan to have.
• The smell in the house isn't as bad because we wash them daily and we won't have a trash can full of dirty diapers sitting around for days stinking up her room and our living room.
• The ones we are using are easy to put on and have lots of room for adjustments.
• They don't leak (the only time they leaked was when the cover was not covering all of the kissaluvs)

Cons:

• Not as convenient as disposables.
• Right now on a newborn they are a little on the bulky side.
• It takes a little more effort to see if they are wet because you have to feel them.
• It adds to the daily laundry.
• The poop diapers need to be rinsed off first before washing them.
• When you are away from home you need to put a dirty cloth diaper in a small travel wet bag and take it home, you can't just toss it. 

Cloth diapers have changed so much over the years and they now are as easy to put on as a disposable and they are much cuter now then in the past. 

Things To Think About

Before planning to use cloth diapers you might want to decide if you will be returning to work after the baby and if not will your child care provider change cloth diapers.  From what my friends have told me this is usually a BIG NO.  If your child care provider won't change cloth diapers and you still want to use them I would suggest using them when you are at home on the evenings and weekends.  You won't need to buy as many (I started with 16 small) unless you plan to use them all day while you are on leave from work.  I think if you bought as many as someone using cloth diapers full time you wouldn't see the savings because cloth diapers are not cheap but in the long run they pay off for those using them full time.  

Coming soon:  A Vlog to show you the cloth diapers we are using in a video. 

Cloth Diapers

"Look at me in my cloth bottom and leg warmers"

 

 

While I was pregnant I had researched cloth diapers and we decided we would use cloth diapers.  Seeing as though Annabelle was born under 6 pounds and was not chubby at all using them when she first came home would of just looked silly.  Now that she is a little bigger I decided we should start using the small cloth diapers we have. 


Day 1 - I decided to use some cloth and some disposables.  She went through the cloth diapers fast as she was peeing like crazy.  She is a princes and hates to be in a wet diaper so she lets us know if she is wet.  I put them in the wash last night and we put them in the dryer this morning.  I have been down stairs with Annabelle most of the day and I have not had a change to check on them.  I will say only one had a small poop we got lucky and she did the big poops in the disposables.  Easing into this slowly.. LOL

Day 2 - That would be today.  I am doing the same thing using half and half.  It was so funny because her onsie hardly snapped over the diaper.. LOL.. She looked like she had a big bottom, to funny.  I showed Jerry how to put them on today.  I think once we get going we will like using cloth because we won't have to worry about running out of diapers late at night. 

BTW - Check out my update on the Graco Pack N Play.  They are sending us a pre-paid Fedex label to send it back and we will get a full refund!  It was very easy for me to get a resolution from Graco A++ Graco!