Bambino Mio Nappy Challenge: Day 7

For our final day of the Bambino Mio challenge, I decided to bite the bullet and put the nappy on The Boy for an overnight sleep. I used the boy fold that I’ve always used as this is for extra absorbency and the nappy would have to survive about 12 hours and The Boy has a tendency to roll onto his front while he’s asleep. I used the additional Mioboost which is specifically designed for overnight and long journeys, and I got everything prepared before I needed it so I was confident that I had it right before I even attempted getting it on The Boy.

The Boy has a bedtime routine which works well for us all: We go upstairs around 7 and has some nappy free time to play in his room, then I sort the bath out and he’s in his PJ’s drinking his milk by 8 and usually asleep by half past. Last night The Hubby was home from work by 5.30 so I had his assistance with getting The Boy all sorted out for bed which made it easier to prepare the nappy before I needed it. The Boy has been throwing mega temper tantrums about nappy changes recently, screaming and wailing, kicking and hitting, turning red and purple and wailing so hard he can’t catch his breath, real tears and snot and everything – it’s been quite spectacular, quite scary and quite annoying all at the same time!

So while The Hubby was bathing The Boy, I got the Bambino Mio nappy all sorted out, with the Mioboost as well, and chose a sleepsuit as we’ve just started using the next size up and they’re quite baggy on him. Once again I was doubtful at the sheer size of the nappy once the Mioboost pad was in the Miosoft as well, but I decided as The Boy had been busy all day and was quite tired, and I figured it was as good a time as any. I’d been putting off this challenge because I was apprehensive about what might happen, but realised that it was now or never!

Once The Boy was finished in his bath, The Hubby brought him back into his bedroom to get dried and dressed and eyed the nappy. “You’re putting that on him? Overnight?” He asked. I nodded. “It’s the final part of the Bambino Mio challenge.” I told him. He went to pick it up and I stopped him. “I’ve got it folded perfectly; I don’t want you messing it up!” I said. I dried off The Boy and got him into his Bambino Mio nappy, vest and sleepsuit. When I lifted him up from the changing mat I couldn’t help but giggle at him, which made him giggle too. His top half looked so small in comparison to his huge, bulky bottom! The Mioboost seriously adds to the bulk of the Bambino Mio nappy! But what the hey, I figured, better a bulky bum than a leaky nappy, right?

What struck me as odd was that it didn’t seem like it should be comfortable – it feels heavy, solid, like there’s a lot of fabric and not much space, and it makes his legs stick out differently to a disposable nappy – but these issues I have mentioned before, and they’ve never seemed to bother The Boy before. I admit with the Mioboost the nappy seemed even heavier and more solid, but The Boy didn’t seem unduly worried; When I put him on The Hubby’s lap for his final feed of the day he didn’t wriggle about any more than usual getting comfortable and I kissed him goodnight and left them to it.

An hour or so later, The Hubby came downstairs with an empty bottle and told me that The Boy had gone to sleep without issue – as normal.

Every hour or so from then until I went to bed I kept checking the monitor and he hadn’t moved any more than normal, nor did he seem restless or wake up at all, so I presume he was comfortable enough. When I went up to bed I checked in on him and put the covers over him and he was dry and snoring softly.

As much as I anticipated a disturbed sleep, thinking that the Mionappy would leak, or that The Boy would end up getting too wet and uncomfortable and waking up, he slept through til 6.30. Now this is early for him – usually he’ll go from 8.30pm-8.30am – so when he started up at 6.30 it was with very bleary eyes that I staggered into his room.

The Boy was also bleary eyed (he’s not good with early starts either), so I shushed him but didn’t speak too much (a tip I learned from Super Nanny if you don’t want them to wake up properly don’t interact too much!) I put him on the changing mat and undid his sleepsuit ready for the nappy change. I was greeted with a very soggy, very full Mionappy – but between it and the Mioboost it had absorbed 99% of the wee and the rest of it had simply made the inside of the Miosoft damp. The vest and sleepsuit were completely dry – no early morning wash, change of PJ’s or bed covers required! So I just changed him as usual, swapping the dirty Mionappy for a clean disposable, gave him some formula, and put him back to bed, where he slept for another two hours before waking up wanting breakfast. I dropped the Mionappy, Mioboost and Miosoft into the washing machine with some towels and some Miofresh and The Boy started his day with Weetabix.

I was very impressed by this performance of the Mionappy! I’d not had a fantastic week with the Bambino Mio nappies but it hadn’t been awful, I put a lot of it down to me being inexperienced and not knowing what to expect, and if I were to continue with using them I’m sure I’d get the hang of it quickly and become more confident with using them. For now, the Bambino Mio supplies will be used as and when I feel comfortable with them, like when we’re indoors or with family or friends where I can change The Boy easily. I’m not confident enough to deal with them in the supermarket, or while I’m out in town for the day!

I can see why the reusable nappies route works for some people, and I can see why it doesn’t work for others. For me, in all honesty, it hasn’t made me a complete convert, but it has opened my eyes to the alternatives, and made me realise there are many more options available than I initially thought. I will definitely be looking at all the reusable options more closely, and for Baby 2 maybe we’ll start off younger and use them more frequently, who knows!

I haven’t used any other brands of reusable nappies so I don’t think I could fairly say that I’d recommend Bambino Mio over any other brand as I don’t know what other brands are like, but I would recommend that a friend who was considering reusable nappies has a look at the Bambino Mio range as I think it appears to be one of the most straightforward types of reusable nappy to use, and with the added advantage of the Mioboost I’m happy for The Boy to use this nappy time and again because as difficult as it was initially to get to grips with, now I’ve dealt with a nappy a day for a week I feel I could cope with using this option more often. I’m considering purchasing another couple of Mionappies so that I can use them more often when I’m at home with The Boy to make it easier on the whole washing and wearing front, as with only two you’re kind of limited!

Although I had some initial difficulties, perfecting the fold and getting the right size Miosoft for The Boy (he had to be awkward!) overall the nappies have been absorbent and apparently comfortable, though I think perhaps the design of the Miosoft could be altered slightly to include a stitch or two underneath the Velcro band that the tabs attach to, just to stop it rolling over when the child is being active would be a great benefit. When washing a dirty nappy I always used Vanish powder in the wash and the staining didn’t always come out first time – but I tried my mum’s recommendation of some lemon juice in a water spray bottle, lightly sprayed the damp Mionappy while it was hanging on the line in the sunshine and a couple of hours later it was brilliant white just like a washing advert which was great! Though there are a great range of designs for the Miosoft covers I’d like to see something funky, brightly coloured and jazzy rather than the spots in soft pastels and citrus colours that seem to be in fashion at the moment for baby stuff (I had the Citrus originally, then the smaller size sent was in Berry, both lovely, but I think the funky Heart Print is lovely and bright, though perhaps not so suitable for The Boy!). Once the sizing was right and I got the hang of the folding it all worked well and I give the Bambino Mio nappies a solid four out of five!

This is Summer Mama and The Boy signing off from our Bambino Mio Real Nappy Challenge! With much thanks to all the lovely team at Bambino Mio for sending us the Real Nappy Challenge pack and all your support & advice.

Bambino Mio Nappy Challenge - Day 6

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!)

Bambino Mio: Re-Useable Nappies - Our Adventure Starts Here!

Shortly after I got pregnant with The Boy, I discovered the Bambino Mio system of re-useable nappies. Being very keen to save some pennies (how expensive are disposable nappies?!?) and plus knowing that it’s kinder to the environment and better for baby to use re-useable than disposable, I investigated the possibility of purchasing a starter set.

However, the Bambino Mio re-useable nappies come in different sizes and I wasn’t sure which size would be better. As myself, my brother, my Hubby and his sister were all 8lb+ babies at birth, I was anticipating The Boy would be in the same region. It would mean that I’d only get a couple of weeks use out of the first size of Bambino Mio before I needed to get the next size up, and I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to sort that out as well as juggling with a newborn baby as a first time mum.

As it turned out, when The Boy was born he was 6lbs 10.5oz so I would have got a fair amount of use out of the first size Bambino Mio nappies. However with several nappy changes a day and our washing machine on full time to handle the clothes, bed stuff and muslin cloths anyway, I put the idea of re-useable nappies to the back of my mind as something else to wash that I didn’t have time to deal with. My family and friends also put me off, saying that it was just something else to worry about washing, and drying, and dealing with dirty re-useable nappies is not the most pleasant experience!!

Now The Boy is almost a year old, and I heard on the grapevine that Bambino Mio were looking for people to test their range. It’s called the “Real Nappy Challenge” and they’re asking testers to use one of their re-useable nappies for just one nappy out of the day for a week, and compile a diary on how successful the nappies are and see whether it is enough to convert you to a full time re-useable nappy user. They reckon that just one re-useable nappy per day can save you £40 on disposable nappies!

Well, The Boy is tall for his age, and broad, but he has very slim hips, a non-existent bum and a slender waist, and I find a number of problems with disposable nappies. They have to be pulled very tightly to fit him round the tummy well, and even then the overnight nappy tends to leak by the morning (he sleeps round from 8pm til 8am usually) If it’s just a wet leak that isn’t too bad and it’s a case of an early morning wash and change of clothes for him, with a change of bedclothes as well (but it isn’t nice for him, lets be fair!), but if it’s a dirty nappy leak that’s another vest and sleepsuit/pair of pyjamas potentially stained (no matter how I wash them there’s always a trace left isn’t there!!) I’ve been very lucky in that he has only ever had nappy rash when his bottom has been particularly active when he’s teething or unwell, and usually it’s for a couple of days and lashings of Sudocream and a couple of hours ‘nappy free’ does the trick, but apparently re-useable nappies will mean his chances of getting nappy rash are even lower. I find named brand nappies no better than supermarket own brand: Pampers don’t fit him well and leak very easily – Huggies are probably the better named brand than most, but they have a tendency to feel quite hard at times and they’re packed badly quite often and you end up tearing bits off them when you’re trying to open it up to put it on. Supermarket own brand nappies are all about the same: Fine on the whole, not a terrible fit but not fantastic, and if the nappy is particularly wet it will soak through around his legs and waist.

Bambino Mio - Birth To Potty set (can save you £700 on disposable nappies!)

I got in touch with Bambino Mio and completed their questionnaire and they’re going to send me two re-useable nappies and one cover so that I can use a re-useable nappy for one nappy change each day for a full week and see what I make of them. I’m very interested to see how well they fit The Boy (who is more slender around the waist than many of his peers and I think this is the root of the problem with disposable nappies) and how much they can take (after all, without chemicals and gels to keep the wetness away from his skin, can it handle his 12 hour overnight sleep without squishing all over the place?)

I’ll be posting a daily diary entry detailing our findings with the Bambino Mio re-useable nappies and let you know how we get on!