My bumgenius nappies don't smell of wee anymore

This is a quick blog to say that my 'recipe' has changed a little for washing the Bumgenius one size v3.0 nappies now they're back again for a second run. 

Major U-turn

" Your baby will get through up to 5,000 nappies before she is potty trained, so getting the right nappy for your baby is a must. "

Well, we're nearly there now. After throwing so many nappies in the bin since March (see old blog, Major Bummer), I contacted a nappy advisor through the fill your pants site, who have region-based advisors (mine's from Nottingham, Heather Rai). She suggested that I first freshen up the old nappies to improve absorbency, in case they've got clogged with detergent, nappy creams etc. You do this by strip washing, using washing up liquid or dishwasher tablets, see bumgenius site for more instructions.


I spent early this week washing them through and have been testing them on our 24 month-old for the last four days.

Major bummer

I totally love reusable nappies.


Unfortunately, our bumgenius 3.0 ones (the most recent design when we bought them in 2009) didn't fit around my daughter's dimensions so well by about 18 months (think it was the thighs and tummy that did it). She was getting rubbed on her legs because they were too tight, and would leak out of the top when she laid down to sleep, as doing them around the sticky-out tummy would leave a chance for them to slip down, under her tum, and be too loose to hold the wet stuff in. It meant that by about 3am, we'd be woken up by Abigail crying and soaked in wee. We'd have to do a full change and she'd wake up wet again too.

Bum Genius

My sisters and I were brought up in terry toweling nappies.I knew when I had children that I had no problem in doing the same for my children, no disposables for me. However, researching what to do when pregnant opened up a minefield. It took a long time to grasp exactly how these clever reusables worked (we’d decided to opt for next generation on from terries).


I scrolled through many, not necessarily user-friendly, reusable nappy websites. A lot assumed prior knowledge and talk of outer liners, inner liners, wraps, bamboo, cotton and so on were frustratingly inaccessible. I didn’t want to have a nappy that added more work to my soon to be new Mum life and looked for the most straightforward design.

The bumgenius nappies came up time and time again as the most simple, logical design.