Ladys

I am very interested in using reusables for our LO. I am trying to do as much research 1st before i persuade DH. (I know its a lil early for me to be athinking about this)
There are so many choices out there (confused.com big time lol) and i totally understand that 1 nappy may be brilliant for one mum and not for another. But thats exactly what id like to hear
I came across Bum Genius as they are said to have very good drying times? Which is a top priority for me if i were to use reusables.
Pls pls share your experiences with BumGenius.

*Drying times with no tumble dryers? (I live in Scotland where the weather is rotten most of the time)

*Elastic wearing out after a year? BG's are pretty expensive so i would prefer them to last over a year. How long have your Bg's lasted?

*Washing? 40 degree or 60 degrees?

*Leakage?

*Bulkiness - does it in any way interfer with your growing LO

*Your personnal thoughts or advice for a novice.

If your best nappy is NOT a BG please share

Thank you stax in advance for your input.

(Apologies for posting twice - initially posted thread in wrong section )

My favourite staple nappy would be the Bumgenius Flip, though ive not used the v4.0 so i cant comment on those.

I live in Scotland also and found Flips to be great with drying times.
they are very slim fitting, the slimmest nappies i have! and birth to potty too

Leaks, hanst happened. These nappies are bomb proof!

Washing wise, i always wash at 60 degrees and havent had any problems with the quality of nappies degrading.

Personal thoughts, try out a few brands rather than going for one type. They may not work for you or your baby and you wouldnt want to be put off because one brand didnt work

i have most of the bg range in Q's stash.

V4s - love them, dry quick, fit well last good 3+hours, however i do find them bulky to transport around in the change bag, esp when dirty (I love the stay dry flips for this as they're really compact and are tiny in comparasion) however being a pocket nappy they are fool proof - anyone can use them!!

Flips - Stay dry one dry quick, they are slim fitting & quick drying (i've not used them on a newborn though as Q was 5 months when they launched over here) the fact that you buy one cover and many inserts make them a cheaper more flexible option.
We have the organic inserts for overnight and they are really absorbent (take a good while to dry though)

Bg organics - these are our stable nappy that we use for childcare. they're all in one so there no bits to add or insert to use. fab nappy but do take a while to dry (i have 15 of these + one print one on the way ) )

you don't have to buy just one brand of nappy, invest in a few that take your fancy and see what works best for you. i'm a circumstantial user - we have different nappies for different scenarios (ie days out, overnight, around the house etc)

*Drying times with no tumble dryers? (I live in Scotland where the weather is rotten most of the time)
I've only had BGV3s but I think the inserts are the same and they dry very quickly with the inserts being microfibre. If you want an even quicker option, I'd go for Flips as you can easily buy spare inserts. Even if you can't reuse the outer after a nappy change, having extra inserts means that you can wash the nappies and then an hour or so later the outers will be dry. The inserts won't be, but that's what your spares are for.

*Elastic wearing out after a year? BG's are pretty expensive so i would prefer them to last over a year. How long have your Bg's lasted?
I've used Flips (made by the same people) since January and they're still going strong.
IIRC, the V4s have easy to replace elastic if it does go. If you look after them properly I think they'd be fine anyway.

*Washing? 40 degree or 60 degrees?
I wash at 30 or 40, with an occasional 60 degree wash. I've had no need for always washing on hot, it's just a waste of electricity for me.

*Leakage?
I've not used the BGV4s, just the V3s, but they are very good for my LO. The fit of the V4s is supposed to be more like the Flips, which I have very very rarely had a leak with. They're our bomb proof nappies. This is what really varies from baby to baby though. No matter how well made or designed a nappy is, there will always be some babies that the shape just isn't right for.

*Bulkiness - does it in any way interfer with your growing LO
Our very bulkiest nappies have not interferred with LO's development. She took her first steps while wearing an absolutely HUGE night nappy and she's done everything well within the normal time frames.

*Your personnal thoughts or advice for a novice.
I would definitely recommend trying out a couple of different BGs. I'd try a V4, an Organic BG AIO (OS) and a Flip with a spare insert or two. I'd try a couple of different brands too.

I wouldn't buy more than two of anything until you have your baby. The ones I mentioned above are all birth-to-potty nappies which might be too big for your LO at first anyway (BG AIOS, the sized ones, and Tots Bots Teeny Fits seem to be popular choices on newborns, or you could use disposables at first). There's no rush to get a full stash of nappies straight away. IMO the best way to do it is to either have lots of different ones to try out for a week or two (if you buy preloved, if you want to sell some later you won't lose much, if any, money) or have just a couple and use them alongside disposables at first until you're sure you want more.

I have mostly BGv3s but I do have a v4 - they are similar enough to be able to answer...

*Drying times with no tumble dryers? (I live in Scotland where the weather is rotten most of the time)

if you have a radiator or a heated airer then they will dry quickly - a few hours.

*Elastic wearing out after a year? BG's are pretty expensive so i would prefer them to last over a year. How long have your Bg's lasted?

my V3s have been in use for 13 months and the elastic has held out fine so far. I don't tumble dry the outers, even though they can be tumbled, because they dry quickly anyway. the velcro is deteriorating, though, that would be an issue for me if I was replacing them, though I believe the velcro on the V4s is better in some way. also as has been said, the elastic in the V4s is easily accessible so it can be replaced if it fails.

*Washing? 40 degree or 60 degrees?

I usually wash at 50C or 60C because I use soap nuts and the hot water sanitises them.

*Leakage?

really not much at all, certainly not a regular issue, and the few times we've had it there's been something out the ordinary going on, like diarrhoea or user error (not been put on properly, left in too long without prior boosting)

*Bulkiness - does it in any way interfer with your growing LO

no, not at all. I've never found them to be bulky. my LO has been in them from 5 weeks old and he's 14 months old now. BGs are only a small part of our stash, we mostly have much bulkier fitted bamboo nappies and LO has not been held back in any way (he was crawling at 7 months, walking at 11).

echoing the Flip recommendation, we use these, too, and they are great. so quick to dry. also the suggestion to try a selection of nappies - we also have different nappies for different occasions. the BGs are mostly for my husband's ease of use. I keep Flips (stay dry with a hemp booster) for if we need a very trim and long lasting nappy (going out for a good few hours). my bamboo fitteds are for round the house and naps - cheap and cheerful but utterly reliable if bulky.

Hello

I LOVE our BGs. I am the loyalest fan ever!!!


*Drying times with no tumble dryers? Mega quick. Overnight on a airer. 6 hours-ish on my heated airer! (see Eala's Lakeland Heated Airer thread).

*Elastic wearing out after a year? BG's are pretty expensive so i would prefer them to last over a year. How long have your Bg's lasted? I've only been using cloth for 3 months. Buuuuut the V4s now have replaceable elastic anyway (unlike the V3s).

*Washing? 40 degree or 60 degrees? I wash at 50, no stains or build up for us

*Leakage? zero. LOVE them. They are the only nappies we've used to never ever leak, even with explosive BF poo!

*Bulkiness - does it in any way interfer with your growing LO? V4s are a bit bulky on a newborn. Flips are much trimmer. But not massively and actually the BGs are much trimmer than all of the other BTP nappies I owned.

*Your personnal thoughts or advice for a novice. Don't buy tons of the same brand, buy maybe 3 each of your top 4? Then buy loads more of your fave once you've used them for a few weeks- and sell the others on here! And use fleece liners- MUCH easier to wash poo out of them than a nappy.

If your best nappy is NOT a BG please share. I wanted to add that we now use BGs exclusively, after trying (honestly) at least 15 different brands! My partner and dad use medium BGs and v4s cos they love aplix, and I use Organics or Flips. All are EQUALLY as fantastic as each other!

Ooh thought of some more to add (sorry: fave subject!).

I massively echo the Flips recommendation- they are SO versatile and amazing value for money. I'm also lazy and hate stuffing pockets and there's none of that with Flips, it's also the reason I use organics cos they are AIO and take no effort!!! But Flips are amaaaazing and you can use the wraps for over fitteds, too.


And lastly, i'd recommend if you can afford it, look into buying some SMALL BG aios... they fit soooo good on little newborns, I love them so much, have a great resale value for when they outgrow them and it's great for the stage where they are so small that BTPs look a bit daft. I used smalls till about 7 weeks before moving into BTPs and mediums and i'm so glad I did.

If you want to see pics of my son wearing Flips, V4s and small BGs when he was a newborn then send me a PM and i'll add you on facebook

I LOVE Bumgenius diapers - most of my stash is now made up from them. We have 3.0s though. The Organics take a while longer to dry from my experience but pockets can be taken apart - the shell dries really quick, the inserts if laid out on a clothes airer should be dried pretty quick (I had two inserts hanging IN my shower (not in the water ) and even with the humidity from DH having a shower (I forgot they were there) they were still completely dry within about 12 hours - if they were on a proper clothes airer & near a heater it would be a LOT quicker.

We haven't had any leaks yet (we haven't been CD'ing full time yet) and DD is a HEAVY pee'er.

I have no idea what temperature our water runs at I've been handwashing also.

OS's are generally quite bulky on a Newborn - my girly is almost 4 months and my OS diapers fit her nicely now; as a NB they would have been HUGE though.

Get a few different kinds to try out - I read reviews (I'm in the US, but there's a super good website called 'the cloth diaper report' (I believe..)) and will buy one of a certain brand to try out (I bought 2 Piddle Poddles the other day mind...because they were pretty ) and then if we really get on with it I will stock up. I bought some Grobaby diapers before DD was born and they just don't suit her pooping style (explosive!) so I sold them on to buy more Bumgeniuses because they work a lot better for her. I have pretty much refined my entire stash - selling those that don't work/are too boyish for me now & buying more of those that work best for us!

Nightkd, I LOVE what you've wrote in your siggy! Soooooooo true!!!

Woweee!!!
Thank You Arcanegirl, Littlestar, Rachel_C, Mary Jo, Jetters and Nightkd

There are soo many xcellent points that you have brought my attention

like.....
*Every baby has a different shape - its not exactly one size fits all kinda situation
*Instead of bulk buying before birth - try out a few types
*That there are other quick drying diapers available

I feel that using reusables is going to be the way for us. (a few weeks after birth) The idea that they have a quick drying time is SUCH a relief.

I wish cloth diapering was a lil simplier (its just my ignorance really) The choices are enormous lol, and i say Thank God for youtube videos.
I truly did not not uderstand the whole concept of inserts/flips before watching a few vids.... I am im still finding my way but all your help has been soooooo reassuring.

Nite nite ladies...