For those of you who know a bit about cloth nappies, you’ll know that there are some seriously heavyweighters when it comes to nappy companies. Those that people seem to always know the name of. Bumgenius is one of them!
Now, I’ve blogged about their nappies before as I send their V3 pocket nappies (the version before this one) to nursery for the ladies there to use on Monkey, so I was quite excited and rather happy when Baba Me offered to send me over a V4 Aplix nappy in ‘Sweet’ (a very soft green colour) to include in my demo pack for the cloth nappy library that I run.
The V4 is a big improvement on the V3′s in many ways. Firstly, it fits a bigger weight range (from 8lbs to 35lbs +) and there’s a clear difference when I put them on Monkey. He’s heading towards the top end of that weight range (chunky little Monkey that he is!) and our V3′s have been starting to feel a little on the tight side.
The leg elastic around the V4 is another improvement on the previous version and gives a really great fit whilst staying lovely and soft, which is so important as you don’t want to get horrible red rub marks on little legs (we’ve had those with other nappies and they’re really not very nice at all). An amazing bonus is that the elastic is easily replaceable, unlike many other pocket nappies/ wraps, which I was very impressed with. So no more having to get a new nappy or outer just because the legs have gone a bit. Brilliant!
They’ve also made the Aplix (hook and loop closure) a lot stronger, which is great if you have a wriggly toddler who is desperately trying to pull at his nappies. I actually have a few V4′s in a popper closing (which was a very welcome addition to the bumGenius range) and they are great! Aplix closure does allow you to get a perfect fit around the waist for your child, but the poppers are practically toddler proof, which gets my vote any day!
The bumGenius V4 is a very practical BTP (birth-to-potty) pocket nappy that comes in a wide range of colours and a few funky prints.
It comes complete with two inserts (one that can change size by poppering it up or down and a newborn insert) and is lined with a gorgeously, strokable, soft suedecloth inner that acts as a fabulous stay-dry layer. The inserts are made from microfibre and are very absorbent. The only criticism that I have is that my Monkey can pretty much outwee most pockets nowadays due to doing power wees (ones where toddlers start to get more bladder control and wee a lot of urine in one blast). Most pocket nappies find this kind of heavy wetting rather difficult to cope with and I would love to see more pockets coming complete with a bamboo insert as well (the stuff dreams are made of, eh!)
You can adjust the rise of the nappy by altering the poppers on the front, like most BTP pockets. By fully poppering it down, you have the smallest setting and then you gradually popper it at the next level, and then fully unpopper it for the older child.
When it comes to washing a bumGenius V4, it really couldn’t be simpler. Pull out the inserts if you wish (they do sneak out of the inner quite easily in the wash, but I prefer to separate everything just to ensure that it gets a thorough wash) and fling all of it into your wetbag/pail. Then, wash according to the instructions and you’ll find that the inserts come out of the machine feeling pretty dry already. The nappy is really quick drying and one that I know I can rely on to be dry in the morning if I’ve had it in the wash in a panic the night before.
Thank you, Baba Me for donating this nappy to my nappy library. I look forward to showing it off to a whole range of wannabe cloth bum mummies!!!
daisytheclothbummum was not paid for this review. I was sent the nappy as a donation for my nappy library and all words, thoughts and opinions are my own.
