Well, after 11 months of use, I’m retiring Tommy’s medium sized Fuzzi Bunz after this load of diapers. He has a lot of grow room width-wise, but his torso is getting long enough that they’re starting to leak out the top. (Note how much of his belly you can see in this picture from yesterday.) A few days of three or four outfits a day has made me face the facts.
It’s sad, really. I have been a firm Fuzzi Bunz fan ever since my friend Kathy and I discovered a common intention to cloth diaper our babies. I was vaguely thinking of the prefolds, diaper pins, and rubber pants of my childhood, but Kathy (6 months ahead of me with this baby thing) did the research and discovered the amazing new breakthrough of cloth diapers: Fuzzi Bunz! At $17 apiece, they seemed prohibitively expensive to our law school budgets, but friends and family came through to help. Through the generosity of my family, we started cloth diapering with 18 prefolds and two Bumkins wrap covers, rubber pants (only ever used as a last resort), and 11 beautiful size medium Fuzzi Bunz. According to the manufacturer’s website, they have been known to fit kids from 6-30 months. Tommy started them at two and a half months, and we have basically never had complaints. Their innovative waterproof cover and fleece lining to wick away moisture into the microfiber insert worked great! At one year, he was going strong in the original 11, plus a couple more one-size-fits-alls of other brands that I’d picked up along the way. I was so pleased!
Besides the fact that his diapers are adorable and can even match his outfits (I always used his orange one when he had Detroit Tigers gear on), they have saved us SO much money. Only having to buy disposables for trips, church nursery, and–lately–overnight, we can afford to treat ourselves to the top of the line: Pampers Cruisers. Over the months, I tested every other kind of diaper possible at Walmart, Target, and Walgreens, and the Cruisers were clearly the best. If I’d disposable diped him with those, we’d be out thousands by now. Even assuming that I’d bought the ineffective cheapo brands, I figure we’re several hundred dollars ahead. And we didn’t fill up landfills. And we have the Fuzzis for the next baby!
After nearly a year of constant use, our Fuzzi Bunz do show wear. Despite being air dryed, the elastic is giving out, and the soft white fleece is a little dingy. After I redo the elastic, I’ll pack them away until a sunny spring day when I’ll sun bleach them before packing them away for the next baby.
This post is not all sad news, however, because we have new diapers to take up the mantle. I’ve experimented with three kinds of one-size-fits-all pocket diapers, and Derek and I agree that the Bum Genius and Haute Pockets are quality work! Note how much more of Tommy’s tummy is covered in this brand new BG. When we have another baby, we can snap these down to make them smaller. We currently own two BGs, two HPs, and another less cool one-size diaper. We’ll alternate those with his good ol’ prefolds with Bumkins wrap until I get a chance to visit the Bum Genius store here in St Louis! I’ve discovered that the folks who make BGs donate diapers to missionaries working to share the gospel with unreached people groups. How cool is that?! Bum Genius has won my loyalty by their quality worksmanship and great Christian values. I’ll be buying them from here on out. They’re even better value than the Fuzzis because you can literally use them from birth to potty training.
So while I’m sad to see the Fuzzi Bunz go, I’m excited about the next stage of cloth diapering.
I am really intrigued by the Bum Geniuses. My sis-in-law ordered a dozen or so of them for her May arrival, and I cannot wait to see how they work. I am considered buying some for the next time around….
[…] got some medium Fuzzi Bunz for shower presents, and then used them from 2-14 months. When Tommy outgrew his medium Fuzzi Bunz, we bought him more one-size pocket diapers that will last ’til potty training. […]