We've been using the bumGenius diapers since a few days after we brought H home from the hospital, and a couple of months ago a few of them started leaking a little. I finally figured out that the elastic had stretched out too much (and the Velcro tabs had worn down a little leading to the dreaded diaper chain coming out of the wash!). So, I ordered some bG fix it kits (for $1 each and free shipping - a great deal), and put it off for as long as I could. With all of our holiday traveling, I found that car rides were a great time to take off the old Velcro and elastic, and then when I got home I could put in the new. This has definitely solved the leak problems, and will give these cloth diapers a second life with baby number two - which also means that the savings of using cloth will be even more!!!
It was a very tedious process, which seemed to take about 45 minutes with the first few, but by the time I was on to diapers 20-36, it only took me about 10 minutes to sew each one. I am thinking that if we need to replace the Velcro again, I may just purchase a snap machine and convert them all to snap diapers - no need to replace snaps ever!
We have and still love using cloth, and will look forward to doing so with our future children. One thing that I admire other cloth families for doing is traveling with cloth. We always use disposables - both for ease, and that is a lot less to travel with if we don't have to pack up all of our fluff and bring it too. Do the people who travel with cloth bring their diaper sprayer also??? I think that is the only way that I am willing to clean a stinky diaper....
H in his bG's playing with his shape sorter:
H in his bG's playing with his shape sorter:
(He has learned how to cheat with this game - if he gets frustrated with a shape that just won't go in, he pulls up the door and throws it in....)
All done!
H suddenly looks so much older! He is adorable. We use disposables when we're traveling, too. By the by, I have been meaning to tell you - over the past 2 or 3 weeks, our diapers have collectively been giving up the ghost. One by one, they are starting to leak - and I think it's as a result of having replaced the elastic - all that extra stitching - maybe I wasn't using the right kind of needle or something - who knows - but it was like 1.5 years ago that I replaced the elastic, so hey, an extra 1.5 years is an extra 1.5 years. So we have been throwing them away - I don't think they're fixable. I'm not complaining, because I mean jeez, we got 3.5 years' use out of them. But when we start replacing them, I'm going to get the new kind of Fuzzi Bunz, because you can replace the elastic without having to rip anything up. *end overly opinionated transmission*
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