Our Bambino Mio challenge hadn’t gone as easy as planned and I must admit that by Day 6 I was trying to work out which nappy to use the Bambino one for that would potentially be least hassle.
As it happened, everything that day was much more hassle than anticipated, and we had a stressful morning of me trying to juggle being mummy with being working employee with being good housewife. Moments before cleaning the fridge with the laptop and attempting to do some catching up online using the chicken that was destined for dinner I caught myself and thought Wow, I’m stressed today. Since I’d accumulated plenty of hours already over the course of the week for my work, I sent an e-mail around saying ‘unavailable’ and turned off the laptop. I dropped The Boy into his lovely Scoot Along car (a birthday present that I will be doing a review on soon!) and as he was entertained making engine noises and playing with a variety of buttons for more noise, I quickly finished the housework and made myself a cup of tea.
“What can we do today then?” I asked The Boy, and he smiled at me cheekily and made a grab for my mobile phone. As I swept it out from his reach I realised there was a message on it that I hadn’t noticed before, and it was a message from a friend of mine who lives locally asking if I was free for a catch up that afternoon. I quickly replied to her that we’d love to go round, and whisked myself and The Boy off upstairs to get ready. I realised as I was getting him dressed that it would be a good opportunity to give the Bambino Mio a test run out of the house, but in an environment where it would be easy to change The Boy’s nappy if the need arose. So I folded up the nappy with a liner, stuck it in the Miosoft and dressed The Boy before sorting myself up, packing up the nappy bag and getting all of the junk and us into the car. It wasn't until I was harnessing him in the carseat that I realised I'd folded and put on the Bambino Mio nappy without even thinking about it! So after only five days of using it once a day it was already a lot easier to do than I thought it would ever be!
We arrived ten minutes later, and The Boy was quite happy in his carseat talking to his bunny. I got him out, and carried him to the front door. My friend has two children, a daughter of junior school age and a son who is seven months old. She also has a very friendly dog and a sleek three legged cat! The Boy very much enjoys going round to their house, as he can roam around the front room freely (our front room is smaller, and contains more junk, so he’s limited!) he can also go out into the hallway and into their kitchen (where the dog biscuits are! Yummy!) As well as lots of crawling around the place, The Boy also did lots of bouncing while sitting on the rug in the front room as my friends daughter did lots of dancing and singing for us, and also once he was a little bit more relaxed The Boy did lots of dancing and singing with my friends daughter, plenty of crawling after the cat, lots of rough and tumble with the dog and some playing with his seven month old mate too. We stayed for almost three hours, and The Boy had been very active the whole time. When I checked his nappy just before we left, I realised he’d wet it but nothing else, so I quickly changed him before we set off so he wouldn’t then be squished in the carseat wearing a soggy nappy for a ten minute journey home!
Of course when my friend saw his nappy she immediately started asking me questions, because the first thing she noticed was the funky Miosoft cover, and so we started chatting about using Bambino Mio and reusable nappies in general, and she asked me if I thought they were any good. I had to be honest and tell her that while I can see the benefits of doing it if you can, personally I didn’t feel they were right for me on a full-term basis. The fact that I can wash it in the machine is fantastic, a huge bonus point for me, but I can’t wash it with anything else that I want to use fabric conditioner with, which limits me to washing them with towels or washing them alone. As I’ve only got two, I think that’s pointless, but if you had enough to use them on a constant basis you would frequently have enough for a wash load. This would mean though that you’re probably adding an extra washing machine load to every day – I already do at least one washload per day during the week, and as we’re on an electricity metre I can tell you it costs about £1.20 each time I use the machine. I’m having to use Vanish powder in the wash to ensure all the stains are gone as I’m not finding the Miofresh does anything for stains, though it’s my understanding that’s more of a sanitiser than a stain remover, but that to me just adds to the expense of using reusable nappies. It’s an expensive layout and it’s not a cheap upkeep either – certainly the money saved on buying them vs buying disposable nappies is there but only if you didn’t then need the other extras over course of time, such as Vanish powder, the additional washing machine load, and then there’s the travelling with them. I don’t see reusable nappies as being particularly quick or easy to deal with while I’m out and about. I’ll need a spare Mionappy, the Mioliners, plus a spare Miosoft just in case of accidents, along with the baby wipes, the nappy bags, the folding changing mat, the cream etc etc it all adds up, and for me space saving with a disposable or two folded in the bag is more beneficial.
I realise I’m being completely selfish about the environmental viewpoint, and so I will touch on that now. I think it is pretty disgusting that in the space of time between being born and becoming fully potty trained that a toddler will use a huge amount of disposable nappies, and I understand that they won’t degrade particularly quickly so in years to come we’ll all be sitting on hills made of used disposable nappies, and this reason alone makes using reusable nappies a worthwhile thing. As I finished chatting to my friend and putting The Boy into a normal disposable again and bagging up the Mionappy to take home, I found myself telling my friend that while The Hubby remains to be impressed by the idea, I’ve actually started to come round to it, to a certain extent. If a friend asked me, “Would you recommend disposables or reusables?” having now tried both I would tell her to buy a trial pack of each and give them both a go to see what works better for her and in which situation. While we’re at home I think the reusable nappies are a lovely idea, they’re better for his skin, they’re better for the environment, they’re lovely and soft and easy to use and there’s something essentially baby about seeing that patterned Mionappy cover as The Boy crawls round the bedroom floor wearing only his Bambino Mio nappy and a t-shirt as he plays. When you’re at family or friends house weigh up how easy it is going to be to find somewhere suitable to change baby, the friend I visited has a young son herself so a changing mat, creams and bags and wipes and all kinds of essentials were right there, but if you’re struggling to do it on your lap it isn’t as practical. When you’re out and about shopping or something I wouldn’t rate using reusables, as every dirty nappy has got to be bagged and dragged round with you for the rest of the day! I am definitely now happier putting him in a reusable nappy if the situation is good for both of us throughout the day: But for conveniance I still prefer a disposable when we're out and about.
Only one more day for the Mionappy Challenge – Tomorrow Night: The Overnight Nappy (with MioBoost!)
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