Mellow Mummy: The Sunday Review – BumGenius Reusable Nappies (MiniSocialite) : Taking life as it comes...

Sunday 24 October 2010

The Sunday Review – BumGenius Reusable Nappies (MiniSocialite)


You will hopefully have all read earlier this week about how Lara and I have been struggling with our current brand of reusable nappies. I was offered the chance a couple of weeks ago to try out the brand new range of BumGenius cotton nappies – what great timing.

BumGenius have just launched their new range of 'Mini Socialite' nappies in the UK. They are a limited edition range of brightly coloured One Size reusable nappies with some gorgeous abstract designs by designer Chelsea Perry. My favourite design is the yellow one called 'Free Spirit' but Lara looked pretty groovy in the blue one too (Retail Therapy). I love the fact that the designs are quite grown up and not cutsey at all.


 


The BumGenius One Size nappy is unlike other reusable nappies I have tried. The nappy comprises an outer cover which is the bulk of the nappy and into it you fit a small insert. Where with most other brands you tend to keep the outer cover for use again for the next cotton nappy, the BumGenius One Size cloth nappy is intended to be washed after each use. At £15.99 per nappy and a recommended stash of around 12-15 nappies, it took me a while to get my head around that. To start with, I felt uncomfortable putting the brightly coloured wrap straight into the wash after just a mildly wet nappy.

The BumGenius nappies have surprised me in their absorbency. Given the huge volumes of moisture that our nappies are having to deal with at present, I was expecting a one-use nappy to last Lara a matter of minutes. It didn't. One nappy was good on Lara for 2-4 hours so the insert must be very absorbent and I certainly didn't feel that Lara's skin was wet in any way after taking the nappies off. I folded over the cotton insert and snapped it into position with poppers to add greater absorbency at the front of the nappy.

I also really liked the shape of the nappy. It is well elasticated around the legs and seems to be tailored well. Wearing the BumGenius One Size nappy, Lara didn't look any more bulky in the bottom-area than when she is wearing a disposable nappy. This is a good thing for us because it aids her movement and means she can fit in to more of her clothes!

I found the nappy easy to take on and off. It fastens with poppers rather than velcro which is great because Lara hasn't yet worked out press studs so can't pull the nappy off like she normally does. Once again, just like the OneLife nappy, I was perplexed by the enormous number of press studs on the nappy! At least on the BumGenius nappy I understand why they are all there. The BumGenius nappy is a one-size-fits-all nappy. It arrived fully popped together in its tiniest form (which was very cute) and you un-snap various parts of it to extend it for older babies.

We are currently using it fully un-snapped but with plenty spare poppers around the main fastening to allow Lara to grow a little more over the next year or so as she moves out of nappies. I had already noticed that with my Bambino Mio nappies that the covers we were using were getting worryingly small and they don't make any bigger than that! For a reusable nappy to be truly birth-to-potty, it has to go from really tiny to pretty damn huge in size.

One thing I didn't like about the BumGenius One Size nappy is that there was no-where for me to put a liner into it. A nappy liner helps when dealing with a soiled nappy and I find it helps to reduce staining on the fabric. It surprised me a little and I even had to go to the babame website to see if I was just being dim!

I had no problems washing or drying the BumGenius One Size nappies. I put them into my normal nappy wash with a small amount of detergent and they washed well at 40 degrees (and coped fine at 60). I found that they dried really quickly because the insert and the liner can be separated and both on their own are quite thin. This is a good thing for me as I often do a wash in the evening and *attempt* to dry the nappies overnight in time for me to leave for work in the morning.

The BumGenius One Size nappies are available in Mothercare and several online retailers. Find out more at www.thenaturalbabyresource.co.uk and www.babame.com . The Mini Socialite range of nappies are bound to be as collectable as the plain coloured nappies and so if you want one, you'd better snatch one quick as they are a limited edition and may only in the shops until Spring 2011.

Images courtesy of threepipe.
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