Product Review Series: BumGenius Freetime Cloth Diapers

This is the fifth post in our Product Review Series which will run every Saturday until July 7th. As a reminder: the products in this series were purchased by us for our use and no compensation was received from the companies who make them. I'm just a mom sharing objective and unbiased reviews on some fabulous products for babies that I think everyone should know about!

The product up for review today is:

BumGenius Freetime Cloth Diapers

Before we started cloth diapering, I thought that I would primarily want to use prefolds with covers due to cost effectiveness. We used a lot of prefolds when Lily was a small newborn but it wasn't our favorite style. We preferred our BumGenius 4.0 pocket diapers once she was big enough, and we still love those.  However, our favorite diaper is hands-down the BumGenius Freetime. It's an all-in-one diaper, and is sized from 8-35 pounds, so Lily will wear them until she is potty-trained. Unlike the pockets, no stuffing is required. The "inserts" are sewn into the diaper in the form of two flaps which can be folded in different ways to increase the absorbency towards the front or the back of the diaper. The shell also has another layer of absorbency sewn in. I decided to post a photo of the official BumGenius rendering of the Freetime diaper because I think it best shows how it works. Additionally, my internet service here at Lakeside has made uploading photos very difficult, so pictures today will be courtesy of linked images.

Via Change-Diapers

And here is an actual photo of a Freetime with aplix (velcro). You can see how the inserts lay in the diaper. The inserts are as advertised: super soft, and they stay that way even after washing. If they stain, a couple of hours in direct sunlight bleaches the stain right out to the point you would never know it had even been there. (I speak from experience on that one)

Via Lucky Cloth Diapers

Lily can easily wear this diaper during the day for up to 5 hours, and we have never had a diaper blowout with any of our BumGenius Freetimes. Ethan finds them very easy to use, as do my parents, sister, and friends. The flaps can be a little bit confusing at first, but after you learn how to put it on, it's super easy.

We own 19 Freetime diapers, and we generally reach for these when we're going to be out and about. We chose snaps for our diapers, but you can also purchase these in aplix (velcro). Velcro tends to wear out faster, and toddlers can remove their diapers much more easily. 

So, what do we like about the BumGenius Freetimes? Well, for starters, the colors are adorable.

Via Easy Cloth Diaper

We own every color except for Albert and Noodle, and have multiples of several. I match the diapers to whatever Lily happens to be wearing that day too. My personal favorite is Lovelace - the four different colored front snaps are just too cute. 

Lily wearing a clementine BumGenius Freetime

We wash these diapers on a cold wash with extra rinse and follow with a hot wash and extra rinse. They are hang-dry only, and they are the fastest drying diapers we own, which is a major plus. Our other diapers take much longer to air dry (even in the sun). We try to wash diapers while we still have 2 days worth left, but sometimes life gets in the way. So it's nice to have diapers that will be dry the same day they're washed! I only packed Freetimes for our vacation here at Lakeside specifically because of the fast drying time, and they have been perfect. I may eventually phase out our pockets to use Freetimes primarily, but I don't want to get rid of my pockets as they may work better for us when Lily is a toddler, etc. Sometimes a diaper that didn't work for me at one stage will work perfectly later on!

DRAWBACKS:

• At $19.95 retail price per diaper, they are more expensive than other diapers on the market. However, I bought in bulk from different online retailers (and with a coupon that I found online). With free shipping and sales tax I paid less than $13 per diaper when all was said and done. You can also buy them used at Hyena Cart/Spot's Corner, Diaperswappers.com, and from local cloth diapering For Sale or Trade groups. I bought a few of them that had been "used" - as in, the mom used them once before deciding that cloth diapering wasn't going to work for them, or they didn't like the Freetime enough to keep it in their rotation.

• BumGenius does NOT fit every baby, so you need to make sure that they fit your baby before heading out and buying a huge stash of them. This goes for any diaper out there. I wanted Fuzzibunz to work for our family and they were the worst diaper ever that we tried as far as fit for Lily, but they have worked perfectly for several of my friends. So: order one of each that you're interested in trying and use them for a week or two before deciding 100% on buying a significant number of them. I would hate for someone to read this review and buy their entire cloth diaper stash based on it only to find the diapers didn't fit their child well. 

Worth the money?

Depends on you and your budget! I would hate to pay $20 for one diaper, so I simply don't on principle alone. With a little shopping around and research like I did, you can avoid paying retail price like I did. That being said, for as well as they work for us, and as easy as they are to use: I don't think that $20 is exorbitant.