Hello friends, and welcome to another post from "The Happy Baby Blog".
First of all, Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrates it. It is a great holiday in the United States to spend some time with your friends and family, and enjoy the outdoors.

Today I will be talking about the bumkins AIO cloth diapers. Consider that since I don´t have children, my experience and experimentation with this diaper is merely objective to the function, rather than what happens in specific situations with real live babies. As you all have read before, my husband and I are planning on getting pregnant next year, and I have all this time to research and test products before having to rush blindly towards something that I might need and not work when I do need it.




So, why cloth diapers? Why not? Our grandmothers and mothers used them, and there are many younger moms that are using them too.

• First: It saves you tons of money.
• Second: You help protect the environment, specially if you wash them at home.
• Third: The fact that you can re-use them, creates less trash. Do you know that it is estimated that a disposable diaper will take between 250 and 500 years to decompose? And that is just an estimate, no-one really knows.
• Most if not all disposable diapers are made with lots of chemicals that could potentially hurt your baby´s health.

And those just to name a few, there are tons of reasons why changing to cloth is better. Now, I am not saying it will be fun, but they are worth the extra work, and they could look so adorable on your little one.

Now, there are many cloth diapers out there, where to start? Pins, snaps, Velcro... It gets very overwhelming. However, my very own opinion would be something that gives the baby a hard time to take the diaper off, but not something that will wear out as I wash the diapers over and over. My preference has been snaps since I started my research.

I really wanted to test some cloth diapers before having to deal with issues of testing them with a real baby and having to deal with the stress that comes with being a mom and juggling with the kiddo at the same time. I was lucky enough to win a cloth diaper from a great blogger and was able to get my very first cloth diaper from Thanks Mama.
My very first and special cloth diaper was a bumkins AIO with Dr. Seuss´print. Both my husband and I love blue and he loves the cat in the hat, and thought that would be very cute.

Features of the Bumkins AIO cloth diaper:

• It is Waterproof: PUL stretchy exterior that provides a trim and leak-proof fit.
• The Leak Protection has a gentle leg elastic that will help you contain the mess inside the diaper.
• It is Super Absorbent. The cotton and bamboo rayon panel extends to act as an insert and can be adjusted.
• You can Customize Absorbency. It has a pouch or what some people refer to as "pocket" so that you can add more inserts of your liking.
• It offers Superior Comfort with its soft, breathable bamboo rayon, and this is what you want your baby´s skin against.
• One Size, that will fit most babies with the use of the snaps that allow you to let the diaper grow as baby grows. The small use is for 7-14 lbs, the medium for 12-22 lbs, and large for 20-32 lbs, which really gives you room for the usage of these diapers.

Estimated Price: $16.95 usd (This total price may vary at the time of purchase due to local taxes, plus the shipping rate. Remember I do not set the prices so it may differ by the time you purchase.)

I was exploring the diaper, how it was made, how it worked, and this is what I loved:

Liked: 
I loved that bumkins have "environmentally responsible products" according to their AIO diaper package.
That they are reusable, like most cloth diapers are, and that they are All-in-one (AIO) so that I don´t have to be worrying about inserts. That is, unless my future little one becomes a heavy wetter and then we would have to get some. The diaper comes with easy to understand instructions about the care you should give the diaper before your baby gets to enjoy it. And also instructions on after it is used and how to handle during wash. It gives you suggestions about what detergents are safe to wash your cloth diapers so that they are safe for the baby and the cloth diaper may last longer. They also make "stripping cloth diapers" recommendations, information which I know for sure will come handy eventually.

The fact that it has so many snaps, makes the diaper adjustable for your baby, and allows it to be used as your baby grows. It also guides you on how to use the snaps, since at the beginning some people may find it a bit overwhelming. Specially for a grandparent or someone new to the snaps in cloth diapering.

I love the PUL exterior, though it is not my favorite feature, water-proofing is always welcomed since at the end it is not just water like in my experiment coming through the fabric, right?



The interior, what matters the most to me, is made of cotton and bamboo rayon panels. These act like inserts and are very absorbent, and the design allows you to add more inserts if needed. I loved the colors that they have to choose from, and my favorite are the Dr. Seuss prints, which you have to be checking often, because they just get sold very quickly.
I am a trusting person, so when I see a stamp that says "green" I have to see if it truly is. Reading the symbol in the package that says: "CPSIA Lead Free Compliant. No BPA. No PVC. No Phthalates." Makes me feel more at ease and trusting of this product.



Dislikes:
I believe the purpose of snaps are to make it harder for the baby to take his own diaper off. The problem is that they were a little too tight and I have to remember to gently pull the snaps off when handling them. I was truly afraid to tear the fabric. I haven´t used them as much to know how long they will last before something like this may happen. Since I wasn´t going through the stress of a baby crying or pulling things while diaper changing I don´t know if I will be able to remember to pull them gently or not, so that was something I wasn´t very excited about. However, i would prefer snaps over Velcro, just because the pulling of Velcro back and forth gives me anxiety. I have been told I am very hypersensitive and those types of noises can mess with my emotions. I think some Velcro is fine, but when it is something you have to change 8 to 10 times a day, times two because it is when you put it on, and when you take it off, it is too much of a scandalous noise to me. But that is just me, I know there are people that are fine with it. Even if I wasn´t using a real baby, the insert placed inside seemed a bit bulky, so I decided that I would just use it folded outwards rather than inwards and just use another loose insert for the inner part if necessary. I know I used a doll, but my flat-bum doll still looked a bit bulky in different areas, so I don´t know how comfortable that would be for a baby.

Conclusion:
Over all, the dislikes are things that can be solved and may allow me to give this brand of diapers a very good use. I was so happy with the first one, that as soon as I got another chance to acquire more cloth diapers, I went with the same brand, and the same company because of their service. The shipping was fast, even if there were some holidays where the post office does not work. Communications with the company were great too, so I was very pleased, and would probably buy from them again.


How much liquid may it hold?
Now, how much absorbency is in each diaper? I did some reading, and testing, and this was the fun part about this review. The package really doesn´t tell you how much water a diaper holds. I know all babies are different but somewhere I read that babies (Not newborns) may sometimes pee about 300 ml per day. I think that number is too low, considering that babies are eating all the time. Or at least, that is what I´ve noticed.


However, I made the test, and I noticed that the Bumkins AIO cloth diaper that I am showing you in these photos and review, can hold up to about 1 cup of liquid. This is about 250 ml before it spills all over the place. This is also considering that I poured the liquid right in the center, instead of spreading it around like it may happen in a normal baby-pee-pee situation. Now, if a baby supposedly pees about 300 ml a day, and this diaper may hold about 250 ml, which means that by the time it hits the 250 ml mark it may start spilling all over the place and making your baby uncomfortable, and added to that you know that in average you change a baby´s diaper 8 to 10 times a day, then I believe that you are more than safe.
Now, don´t take my word for it. Always test it yourself. While you are pre-washing your cloth diapers use a measuring cup to pour water in your cloth diaper and test how much water it can hold before it leaks. For me, a cup was the breaking, or better said, leaking point. There may be variations in the results, but at least now I know that if for some reason I am out and my baby pees about 30 ml per hour just to make up a number, and for whatever reason I don´t have a diaper change, I have enough time to get home, and change the little one before it leaks all over the place.

I can truly say it was a lot of fun changing both the "happy baby" and "happy bigger baby" into these adorable diapers and testing them with the water.

I can also say that this is a brand of diapers that I would probably continue acquiring whenever I get the chance. I do like them a lot. And to show you guys how much I care, I will be hosting a giveaway right here in my blog, to give a lucky winner the opportunity to get your very own cloth diaper experience, either if you are a mommy, daddy, or know someone that would love to have one, or even if you are like me and are just building your cloth diaper stash, you are all welcomed to participate.

This will be a raffle-copter giveaway, and you will be asked to do certain tasks to gain more entries for more possibilities to win. Neither bumkins nor Thanks Mama are responsible for this giveaway and should not be held liable for any issues that may come from this event.
Your privacy is important to me and "the happy baby blog" so it won´t be shared with anyone. For any and all participants your email and real name will be asked, so that I can contact you in case you are the lucky winner, and it will be then that I will send that lucky winner a notice to which there will be a time lapse of only 48 hours to respond. In case I don´t receive a response within that time frame, I will be choosing another winner. If I don´t hear of the next winner within the 48 hours after notice, I will be choosing a random winner until one responds in the time I´ve established.

• This giveaway is open to: US residents only (Sorry for the moment this is the rule, maybe in the future there will be some open to more countries.) Please remember that the prize is a gift card, and you may want to read the shipping policy from Thanks mama first here ( https://www.thanksmama.com/Articles.asp?ID=57) so that you know for sure they can ship the products you buy with your gift card(if you are the lucky winner) to your home address. Also be aware that the gift card does not cover shipping costs.)
• Entry time is: This giveaway will start on July 4th at 4 pm pacific time, and will end on July 31st 2014 at 9 am pacific.. The winner will be announced between August 1st and 4th of 2014. So check your spam folders too, just in case.
• One lucky participant will win: A $25 usd value gift card code to "Thanks Mama" (http://www.thanksmama.com/ )
• Prize delivery: The prize will be shipped via electronic email. This means that you need to write a real and valid email that you check often in order for me to send you your gift-card code if you are the winner of this giveaway)
• Sponsor and host: "The Happy Baby Blog"

Good Luck

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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