Real Nappy Week 2012

Well it really crept up on us this year but it nearly upon us happening on 16th and 22nd of April

For those of you who have not heard about Real Nappy Week its a fantastic week when cloth nappies are pushed to the front of the agenda. Many many people and organisations come together to spread the word about real nappies and get more people using the.

The question always is, how to really raise the profile of cloth nappies and get people realising they are not soaking buckets and folding and pinning. But that modern cloth nappies are as simple and easy to use as disposables. They are much much cheaper and in many instances much much better. I can recall countless tales of moms who reached to cloth nappies when they were fed up with the poo explosions up the back.

Here we do many things to promote cloth nappy awareness and real nappy week. One of the most fun things we do is the CAN challenge. Quite simply it challenges people to change 5 bumGenius cloth nappies as quickly as they can. The record time is about 27 seconds. I love doing the can challenge, its sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun. Some people become terrified of hurting the doll and take such care. For others a natural competitive instinct comes out and the poor doll is comatosed {you know who you are!!!}. The Can Challenge website will give you more details on its activities for real nappy week 2012.

Flip in albert

So, how would you promote Real Nappies? A random comment below will win 500 fluff points, for our brand spanking new, dedicated to cloth nappies website, fluff heaven.

And the winner is....

Comment no 1 =

Kara Minty said...

take lots of lovely bumgenius nappies to baby groups, doctors surgeries, swimming pools etc to show mums and dads how lovely they are!

Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple

We're just back from the Baby Show and whilst my feet are still aching, I really love doing them. Only at the shows do we get to talk and listen to parents. Parents that have used bumGenius, parents that have used cloth nappies but not bumGenius, parents that are considering cloth nappies, and then just parents walking by who had no intention of using cloth nappies but just got drawn in by the colours. 

If you have never been to the baby show, we are erm a very bright stand! We are PINK!!! with bubbles, and off course nappies : {thats me, Maebh aka Mrs Baba Me, looking very confused by it all - clearly pre morning coffee :-)}.

This time we were showing our new Genius range for the first time and the reactions to it were great. Immediately we could spot cloth nappies users as they did 'the albert walk' - this was a hands out, ignoring all of us, straight to the Albert print going 'Albert, Albert'. Not one but two sets of parents just bought 20 albert as their kit, without demos. They did not even care if it was the V4 pocket or the bg Freetime, they just wanted Albert. On further discussion they were all scientisty/mathsy people, and just had to have him! helllooooooo if you are reading this.

One guy, passing by out stand actually asked if he could buy our genius graphic - and was serious! He loved it and asked if we could make posters of it. Quite simply it sums up bumGenius - the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.

People really understood this mantra when they came across the new bumGenius Freetime cloth nappy. Cloth nappies do not come any simpler than this nappy. It takes about 3 seconds to demo. Although I did do my very very best to try and drag the demo out to 10 seconds. But really, it is just open, put on baby, close. Thats it. Job done.

Years ago, pre bumGenius days, cloth nappies were complicated. And hard work. And only for the hard core eco warriors. Now, bumGenius have made them simple, easy, and fun. This show we had so many people who were just shocked at how simple bg Freetime has made cloth nappies, they kept just saying 'thats genius'. Yup. Well done Cotton Babies! 

It was also interesting this time to see how mainstream cloth nappies have become. Now, it was very much all about saving money, more than saving the environment. A true indication of our economy and the tough times we find ourselves in. But great that people are now seeing cloth nappies as a viable alternative, a great way to save money and the environment.

So another show over. See you in Birmingham for the next one, when my feet might just about have recovered!

Baba Me and Music

The Baba Me team are a wide and varied bunch. Very wide and varied! Without giving too much information away we range from 19 years to (ahem) late 50's. My son Seamus is the youngest team member - with Aunty Mary the eldest (I am so in trouble when she sees I have posted her age range!!!). Those who have visited know Baba Me is a family affair, with aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews all employed! and yes, Aunty Mary really is my aunty Mary! I was once advised to outsource my warehousing, but as that would make 5 members of my family redundant... maybe not!

With such a wide range of ages there is off course a wide range of tastes, and tonight we are talking music. Baba Me recognise the important of music for pre school development and we have a section of our website dedicated to it - musical play. Those who have visited our baby shop in Newry know there is a wide selection of musical toys out for children to play with, and kids are always welcome to blast the rainbow maracas as hard as they can, we love it! Some days the rainbow recorders are.....put up high :-) Getting children involved in music from an early age, even something as simple as singing nursery rhymes, is so good for toddlers development. Getting them instruments just helps them get more involved and more into the fun and games that music can bring.

Last night I had great fun reminiscing about childhood toys. Me and Mr Baba Me spent a good couple of hours talking about the sweets and the games we played as kids. Today we are carrying that theme on and, to appeal to all ages {not just old ones like me as was subtly pointed out last night :-)} I asked the staff in the office this afternoon what was the first album they purchased. This was actually a really fun exercise to do and 90% of staff members were mortified about their first album (most notably Paddy who bough be*wtched!!!!)

So tonights game - guess which member of staff bought which album, 8 to get correct.. Some are obvious, but some might prove tricky so I will give clues every 30 minutes if no one has guessed all 8 correctly.

We have a winner!!! Mel correctly guessed :

 

I love bumGenius organic, marathons and central.

A blogger wrote to me today and told me how much she loved bumGenius organic and how she would love to review it and gave me a little prod about not promoting it that much. I agree with her. Those who have tried it love the natural fibres, it super slimness but its thirsty absorbency rates. I have been told off about keeping the bumGenius organic secret before, sorry.

I think the reason is that it is less well known is that it has always lived in the shadow of its famous stable mate, the V4 Pocket. And now bG Freetime. Poor old neglected Organic. Yet it IS a Mother & Baby Gold Award winner for Reusable Nappies. It won a joint title three years ago with the V3, and it is a REALLY good nappy. Those who have it, rave about it. It has quietly created its own fanbase over the years.

So tonight, we are celebrating the bumGenius organic, sorry bumGenius Elemental. I'm old, its takes a lot for me to get used to new things like the change of name. Its like marathon and snickers... I'm still in the marathon camp. It will always be marathon to me.

I moved from Birmingham to Ireland over 10 years ago yet I still call our local ITV channel Central not UTV {Brummies will know what I am on about on the Central and anyone from Nothern Ireland on the UTV}.  My husband knows what I mean, the kids just give me 'crazy momma' looks when I say, turn over to central....

So tonight you have the choice of winning a bumGenius Organic, sorry Elemental... or a Freetime. Yes the Elemental does come in ALBERT! Its all about Albert these days...

To win simply guess which childhood sweets I have hidden in the picture below.

We have a winner, helen hales was the first to guess : gobstobber

 

To win no2: Just tell us why you love the bumGenius organic sorry elemental. Random comment picked tomorrow at 12.