bum genius diaper psa
This post is a little weird, I know, as it has no pictures of the baby. I’ve put together a short slide show of Nora hamming it up for the camera yesterday morning, though. Anyone completely uninterested in diapers can go watch that instead. :)
I’m not a hippie cloth diaper zealot. I’m also not receiving any free diapers or kickbacks for this post. If our trip to California taught us anything, though, it is how much we really love Nora’s Bum Genius diapers. They’re very easy to change, easy to clean, they’re growing with her, they’re attractive, and she seems to like them. Most importantly, though, they never, ever leak even a little bit at all ever. They don’t leak.
We used (two different brands of) disposable diapers while traveling assuming they’d be “easier”. First of all, they smell *horrible*. These things smell like they need to be changed even when you first put them on. Purchasing them is a bit of a risk as there’s no assurance that they’ll fit your baby (or that you’ll use them all up while they still fit). But the feature that makes them unusable, for us, is the leaking. We had four disastrous blow-outs while traveling (twice as our plane was landing when there was nothing we could do about it). Our friend Ryan Leigh showed us how to get the disposable diapers on N a little better (and this definitely helped and the diapers definitely fit), but we still experienced leaks.
Parenting gives one enough to worry about without having to wonder if the baby’s diaper is going to fail and make a terrible mess of the carpet, your clothes, the car seat, or her crib. Her B.G. diapers completely remove this concern. Even if these diapers weren’t more environmentally friendly. Even if they weren’t cheaper to use over the diapering years. Even if they didn’t mean never having to run out in the middle of the night for diapers. Even if they didn’t help prevent the bean from suffering diaper rashes. Even if they weren’t so easy to clean and use. Even if cloth didn’t apparently shorten the time to potty training. Even if all other things were equal (which they definitely are not) we’d still use the Bum Genius diapers just for the peace of mind.
The only real problem we’ve had with these diapers is that they’re bulkier than disposables so some cute baby clothes don’t fit properly or stop fitting earlier than they should.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Four blowouts during the trip? Whoa, that’s a LOT! Have to admit, we probably averaged that many a year once our kids were in size 2s and beyond (there’s something mysterious about size 1s that just makes them more leak-prone). Although I guess that makes me a “success” with disposables, I’m certainly convinced to give cloth a try when baby #3 arrives (whenever that may be - don’t read TOO much unto that!). Not only do I feel totally guilty for doing my part to wreck the environment, but now I have someone I can go to for advice about cloth diapers (since you are the ONLY folks I know that use them).
PS - I looked at the slideshow too. I am convinced that you have the happiest baby on the planet. Nothing you can do will make me believe otherwise.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 am
I totally, whole-heartedly agree with this endorsement. There was a period where we loved the BG so much we called them the “special dipes”.
However, they’ve fallen off their high pedestal for us in the past 6 months or so.
1 ) They smell awful after containing urine for longer than an hour. I think they give off an ammonia or some off-gas or something that other cloth or paper dipes don’t. Perhaps there’s a build-up that we need to address by leaving them out in the sun to kill bacteria and bleach them.
2) We grew so reliant on them for overnight capacity, and then they failed us, miserably. There was leakage all over in the middle of the night. We tried different closing strategies, which worked at first, but then ended up in disaster after disaster, and we’ve been exclusively Seventh Generation paper at night for over the past 6 months.
We still use the Bum Genius - during most of the day in fact, and maybe it’s time to try them out at night again, since her body shape has changed.
Another diaper that we really like is the Blueberry: http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/