The Dirt on bumGenius

As a follow-up to our Cloth Diaperdom discussion, I begged my friend to give us the inside scoop on her experience with the bumGenius brand of cloth diapers… and she delivered. Thank you, Jenica, for passing along your wisdom. Blessings to all on this Mother’s Day!

We use the All-In-One version of Bum Genius, without inserts or covers. I think they are made up of cotton, fleece and polyester with velcro tabs. They come in 4 sizes: XS, which is for use before the belly button cord falls off; S, our daughter was in those for about 3 months; M, where we are now and (I think) go up to 22 lbs; and L, up to 30 lbs.

We have loved them right from the start. They are so easy to use and wash. When they are dirty, they roll up just like a disposable. We have had no stains or lingering smells. Our system has been to have a open basket in her room for dirty diapers. The outer part of the diaper must contain smells very well because her room has never had a bad odor (it is also hard to tell if she has a dirty diaper when they are on her, usually can’t do the smell test, have to look). So, we take off the dirty roll it up with the wipes, poop and all (the velcro tabs stick to each other) and toss it into the basket. We are usually washing every other day. We take the basket to the laundry room and dump the wipes into a small garbage bag. Now that she has started solids we are also dumping some of the now solid poo. We wash in warm then do a hot rinse and a cold rinse. We dry with 2 dry towels to speed up drying time. They seem to take a long time to dry which is the biggest con.

When she was in the Small size we had some leakage around the legs and around the top in front. I think our daughter just had a larger bladder compared to the size those diapers were designed to hold because once we put her in the Medium size, which are larger and hold more, we have had almost no leaks. We also may have been using too much detergent and had a little bit of build-up when using the Small size. We have had a couple (literally maybe 3 or 4 in the last 3 months) of leaks around the front top when she has been sleeping on her belly.

I swear she gets less diaper rash because of the cloth diapers. The first time she had a rash was when we were slack about washing and had her in disposables all day. Her little tush gets red from lack of air flow when she is in disposable, but not in cotton. And I love all the money we save!! It is a challenge sometimes to stay motivated to continue cotton when I feel like “I just washed them” and now they are all dirty again! But, it’s all worth it to do our part for the environment, to keep some cash in our pockets and of course to do the best for my baby’s bottom! I think about all the women who had babies before disposable diapers and if they could do it with only cloth, then I can too!!!!

Also, if anyone has any insight into the new bumGenius 3.0 (one size fits all), please inform us!