Bambino Mio Reusable

Today I would like to bring to your attention how much those who buy disposable nappies contribute to this countries landfill problems. Nappies are classed as municipal waste which means that when you stick them in the bin after use they have only one place to go and that's into landfill sites. Nappies we use account for a huge 4% of all household waste taken to landfill and it equates to one tonne of waste in landfill for every baby in disposables up to the age of 2 and a half. I had been reading this quite frankly horrifying figures and decided that I would have to start using re-usable nappies. I looked at many brand of re-usable nappies but finally settled on Bambino nappies. Now I am not going to tell you they are really cheap as they are not but in the long run you will be saving money, it is all to easy to think of the initial outlay but you have to consider that you have to buy disposables weekly.

So what are Bambino nappies well I'll tell you now, there are three main parts to a Bambino disposable nappy the outer cover which consists of a plastic waterproof outer shell much like any other nappy but without the insides such as the nasty chemical balls that absorb moisture. The covers have elasticated leg holes for babies comfort and Velcro straps for sealing the nappy around babies waste these can be adjusted to fit baby at different sizes. Next you have 100% cotton nappies which fit inside the cover these are a long length of material with padding in the middle to soak up mess, but I hear you asking what about number two's well that's where the liner comes in to it. Between babies bum and the nappy you have a liner that is designed to let water pass through but not back and keep all solid waste inside it preventing it reaching the nappy itself. The liner's can then be removed with number two's included and flushed down the toilet and treated how all toilet waste should be. When baby has messed all you need to do is remove the nappy and place in a fresh one with a new liner and Velcro the cover back on.

I have used these on two of my babies and after initial trepidation I began to really like them but using this system doe's have it's down side's. I keep a large tub with lid in my kitchen with water in to store dirty nappies until washing this takes up space and can get quite smelly should you not be washing for a couple of days. To avoid this I place a small amount of fabric softener in the bucket and wash the nappies a minimum of every three days. The nappies are best washed at 90 degrees and can be tumble dried on low heat. As for the covers I wash mine twice a week at 60 degrees and then line dry them. Another down side is when you do have a particular badly soiled nappy it can stain the cover and this although ending up clean can look very unsightly.

So next I should cover just how many nappies you will need to buy well this depends entirely on you but as I guide I find that 20 nappies and 4 covers has served me well and the liners are sold in boxes much the same as baby wipes. I tend to stick them through the wash every two to three days and have only had to replace 2 covers due to soiling through 2 babies so not bad. I have plain white nappy covers but they do come in a huge variety of colors and patterns as well as animal designs. The Covers come in sizes Newborn to XL and the nappies themselves are only in sizes 1 and 2 these go by baby weight size 1 being up to 16lb and size 2 up to 35lb. The liners tend to come in boxes of 200 at a time so they last a fair while.

Next I had better tackle the actual cost so please bear with me whilst I list the prices and bear in mind you may be able to find cheaper elsewhere. I will use the cost of having this system for a newborn baby to about 16lb.

24 x Nappies Size 1 £48.00
4 x Covers any design £36.00
1000 x Liners £20.00

This is all I needed to get started you can purchase special washing powder, nappy bins and or storage bag but this are extras you can buy that are not necessary. In total this comes to £104.00 yes sounds a lot but when you consider a pack of disposable nappies is about £8.00 and they last a week for the same sort of age coverage you would be spending £96.00 its not bad and safer for the environment. My local council is also helping parents who want to use this system of nappies to prevent landfill and gave us £30 towards each system we needed for different ages. So in all the re usable nappies ended up costing me less. Yes there is a lot of extra work but surely in this day and age when recycling and preventing landfill are so vital it's got to be worth ago.
For those people who have been interested in this review you can get a trial pack for £11.50 which consists of everything you need to give it a go and can be kept as part of your set should you decide to stick with it. I have never really found any disadvantages compared to disposable nappies apart from the extra time washing and drying but I am happy to do this just the same as putting my tins and papers out for recycling.

I hope this review has been informative and helps you to change to a re usable nappy system after all how many more nappies can we bury and what is all that waste doing in the sense of contamination I dread to imagine. It is overall a cheaper system than disposables and I must say my babies seem to be far more comfortable in re useable nappies than disposables and no more nasty leaks of jelly type chemicals from their nappies. Should you need to know anymore please drop me a comment or message in my guestbook and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Barry