The Bamboozles concept:
Tots Bots Bamboozles nappies are essentially the same design as their rainbow tots, the main difference being in the material used; where Rainbow tots are a looped cotton terry nappy, the Bamboozles are made from bamboo. That sounds odd when you first hear it, but bamboo nappies are becoming increasingly popular, and that's because it's simply a great material to make nappies from: significantly more absorbent than cotton, very environmentally friendly (as it has a short growth cycle and doesn't need the help of pesticides and fertilisers), naturally anti-bacterial and very soft. The bamboozle has a sewn-in booster, but doesn't have a sewn-in fleece liner.
Bamboozle cloth nappies in use:
Ease of use
Available in either aplix or popper versions (the nappi nippa version is no longer available), Bamboozle nappies are nice and easy to adjust for a good fit. Whether you prefer poppers or aplix is a matter of personal taste, and of how good your baby is at opening aplix, but we find both easy to use. The sewn-in booster saves time and effort while ensuring a thorough wash, so it's thumbs-up there too. Once on, you'll need a waterproof cover over the top of the nappy - Tots Bots have a couple of different kinds, but many other waterproof covers will also fit over the Bamboozle.
Comfort and fit
Like the Rainbow tots, the Bamboozles have generous side fastening tabs and good elastication round the legs and across the back to help get a good fit across a fairly broad size range. The bamboo material makes a real difference over terry in terms of bulk, these are really very slim for a shaped nappy and when on hardly look bigger than a disposable, so you'll have fewer problems finding clothes that fit well over this cloth bum.
The material is also far softer than cotton we think, and feels lovely and silky. Bamboo takes longer than cotton to go a little hard from washing, and fluffs up lovely and soft after a short tumble in the drier. This is all the more important as the Bamboozle is an unlined nappy - if you want to use a liner there'll still be part of the nappy in contact with your baby's skin.
Containment
We've only good things to say about the Bamboozle's containment capacities, we find it absolutely brilliant and it's definitely one of our night nappies of choice (now with an extra booster). The nappy soaks up everything our heavy wetter throws at it, and it's only now as he's nearing the top end of the weight range for his size one nappy that we're using and additional booster at night to be sure: Furing the day we really wouldn't think of using a booster with this nappy, despite the fact that it's one of the slimmest shaped nappies we've found.
Washing and drying
As far as washing goes, the Bamboozle washes well, thanks to the sewn-in booster. If you have the aplix version you'll need to make sure that you fasten back the tabs to prevent the nappy snagging other nappies in the wash. Where the Bamboozle scores less well, however, is in the drying. Although the Tots Bots website says that bamboo dries up to 20% faster than cotton, we've found that the Bamboozle is our slowest-drying nappy, and we do really mean slow - even on a sunny day it would take about twice as long as the Rainbow Tots to dry. Without using a drier we've found it takes the better part of 24 hours to line-dry, so you'll need to factor that in when considering how many nappies to buy. For us personally, we find the extra absorbency well worth the extra drying time and would always want at least a few Bamboozles in our arsenal, at the very least for night-time use.
