BumGenius 4.0 Review: First Impression

Today is the official ship date for all brand spankin' new BumGenius 4.0 cloth diapers by Cotton Babies. How did I get them today you ask? Cotton Babies one and only retail store is 20 minutes from my house. Pretty sweet.

So, I sent Pete down to grab me a couple while I was at work. That plan was thwarted by a cranky baby and bad directions, but that's ok, they're open til 8pm, well after working hours for me. So, here I am, the proud owner of two BumGenius 4.0 CDs. P.S. Be very jealous about my proximately to Cotton Babies, their store is CDing Mecca. Here's the grand display of the 4.0s as you enter:

Now let's get down to business. Here are the new features in BG 4.0:

• Available in Snaps
• New pastel colors: lavender, pale green, and light yellow
• Replaceable elastic
• Improved hook & loop closure
• Accommodates larger baby

I purchased one snap CD in butternut (yellow), and one aplix CD in sweet (pale pale pale green).

For comparison I got out my BG 3.0 in twilight (blue) that's only been in use for about a month. Remember that. Blue = 3.0.

First, a general observation about the new colors. I don't mind pastels. Really, I don't. But these colors couldn't even be called pastel (except for maybe the lavender, but I have a boy so that's of no use to me). You know when you go to home depot for paint chips and they have an entire wall dedicated to "white". I guarantee you can find a "white" paint chip that matches each of the new BG 4.0 colors. They are really, really pale. If you like that, great. If you're worried that the new colors might be a little light for you, trust me, they are.

Ok, now for some comparisons:

Aplix

As you can see above, upon first glance they look pretty much the same. But, it's all about the details, so let's take a closer look.

Aplix on the 4.0 seems to be of just slightly higher quality, the fluffy side seems to have a little more poof than the 3.0 (I apologize if I'm getting too technical on you). The aplix tabs appear to be virtually the same size, the 4.0 might be just s smidge bigger:

Here you can see them with the tabs pulled back, and they look basically the same. At this point I did notice that the sides of the 4.0s appeared to be just a tad bit larger than the 3.0. And again, the fluffy side of the aplix appears to be of higher quality on the 4.0.

Close up of the differences in the size of the sides:

Opening them up it looks like the laundry tabs in the 4.0 are a little bit larger.

I searched and searched for where you would replace the elastic, this gap in stitching was all I could find. So, let's just go on ahead and assume that's some clue as to how you'd do it.

Now, the true fit. X was kind enough to volunteer to be my guinea pig, he actually gets a kick out having his diaper changed, so this was fun time for him. Unfortunately, the light in our nursery isn't all that great, and I didn't want to blind him with the flash, so I apologize for the blah quality of these photos. Oh, and I guess it might be helpful if you knew how big he is. He's 4 months old, 19 lbs 6 oz and 27 3/4 in long. Yes, apparently we make giant babies.

First, the 3.0. These are our most leak proof CDs, we use them as our night time diaper and they fit X wonderfully:

Now, the 4.0. The first thing I noticed was the PUL wasn't pulling tight on the first snap, so I tried the second, and although I know I could have snapped them shut I thought it would be a little too tight. For us, the 3.0 is definitely a better fit right now.

Now, on to the next one:

Snaps

Pete was unusually excited when he found out I got the snap version, probably because X is starting to discover he can pull velcro apart. As far as the snaps go, they pretty much work like snaps, so instead of figuring out something to go on and on about, I'll just show you pictures:

Oh, I thought this was funny. Looks like BumGenius missed a little detail on the snap conversion, the care instructions still tell you to fasten tabs to laundry tabs. Oops.

And finally, the fit. Don't ask me how, but these seemed even looser on X than the aplix. That doesn't make any sense, maybe it was the way he was squirming around as I was trying to get those pesky snaps fastened.

Bottom Line

• Yay for snaps!
• The new colors are really, really pale.
• Aplix is of slightly better quality.
• The fit will definitely accommodate larger babies, but I think you might have a problem getting a good fit on little peanuts. The irony of that? Cotton Babies claims the new insanely pale pastels were created to market to newborns.

So, would I recommend them? If you need snaps or have a larger baby that's grown out of BG 3.0 definitely go for the 4.0. Otherwise, the 3.0s are just fine (and maybe even better depending on the fit).