Cloth nappies from birth?

[RetroHippy]

Off to pick up my second hand bargain bamboo Little Lambs today 20 size 1 and 20 size 2, plus liners, buckets etc, which I'm hoping will be a good base to see us through.

I've known I wanted to cloth nappy since before ttc, but I'm wondering what we're likely to need for the first few days/weeks. General consensus seems to be a pack of newborn disposables for the first bit, then transition to cloth when you feel ready. At 28 weeks I appreciate I still have a while to obsess think about this, but for various reasons I can't do anything to get a nursery etc prepared so I'm doing other things!

I have muslins which I've heard are good for folded newborn nappies, and flannelette sheets which I've cut to terry square size. I'm conscious that people will soon start asking if there's anything we want/need as gifts for the baby shower SIL is insisting I have and I'd like to be able to say 'no nappy cake please,' or 'ooh, we could really do with some newborn nappies.'

Disclaimer: I know it's not advisable to buy in bulk before trying, but I'm truly atrocious where decision making is involved and I know if I get a nappy library 'selection pack' I'll just never choose and will end up in disposable forever! Reviews seem to be that these fit different shaped babies pretty well and we can always sell on if it doesn't work out.

[kaffkooks]

Littlelamb are a good workhorse nappy. You'll need some wraps as well so you could ask people to buy you some pretty ones for the baby shower. Real nappies make babies' bums big so they often don't fit normal clothes so you could ask people to buy baby leg warmers. I waited until the umbilical cord stump had fallen off and my baby had passed all the meconium before putting him in cloth. Real nappies are great. We're still using them at 2 years.

[RetroHippy]

Thank you for the reassurance . I do have wraps with the bundle too, but I've heard the LL wraps can be a bit unreliable, plus they're just white, so maybe cute coloured wraps would be an idea. And leggings for fat bottoms is another good suggestion.

Blown away by how soft the microfibre liners are .

[RetroHippy]

Stump and meconium deadline sounds like a plan too, hadn't thought about that.

[rallytog1]

LL are really good for newborns. I'm like you - I bought a bargain job lot, despite advice to the contrary. I figured that I'd just make what I had work (like they did in the old days!).

We ended up using disposables for the first couple of weeks - mainly for health reasons which meant I couldn't put them in and out of the washing machine. I also found that on the odd occasion it was helpful to have a day in disposables (eg if you're out all day), so it could be worth you getting more than one pack, maybe get some of the next size up too?

I'd recommend motherease rikki wraps to go with your LLs - the LL wraps were a bit too firm and left red marks in my dd's skin. I like a softer wrap.

Good luck!

[TallGiraffes]

We used them from day 1. Google lil joeys for super cute ones that fold down for the stump. There are lots of second hand groups on FB. I'd go for a selection of different ones, as all babies are different shapes and work better with some rather than others. The bum genius ones didn't work at all for us up until ~5 months. We then didn't pick up another brand until we potty trained at 22 months.

[kaffkooks]

I've found LL wraps are fine but motherease ones are better. Recently bought a blueberry wrap second hand and I love it but it's birth to potty so it might be a bit big on a newborn.

[trilbydoll]

Cloth nappies + skinny newborn legs can be a bit of a leaky nightmare. You'll prob be ok with the little lambs but maybe don't try any birth to potty ones until dc is a bit bigger, it could put you off for life!

[43percentburnt]

Newborn blueberry wraps are good. My 14 month old still fits in his newborn blueberry! I too have some little lambs, they are great. Yes skinny legs sometimes lead to leaks. We used them all the time from approx a month old. Just make sure people know trousers have to be big round the bum to fit the nappy in.

Also make some cloth wipes. I used bamboo cotton, it cost next to nothing. We cut it into pieces and sewed the edges with a sewing machine to stop it fraying. (I am not great at sewing they aren't the neatest things!). We have used them for a year, they just go in the wash with the nappies. I make up a homemade wipe spray with tea tree and lavender which has meant very little soreness even when teething. If you have a seamstress friend it would make a great little addition to your cloth nappies.

[RetroHippy]

I'm pretty nifty with a sewing machine anyway, people tend to think of me as the seamstress I've already made a few flannelette and microfibre prefolds, and a few wipes out of yet more flannelette (charity shop sheets = cheapy cheap!)

On further inspection, it would appear that my skills will be more necessary than I thought as the elastic is shot on quite a few of the Little Lambs

I suppose I can't complain at less than £2 a nappy.

[joaninha103]

I went a bit real nappy mad before ds was born! I have a vast selection of preloved styles/brands but agree with pp's that sposies are best for the first couple of weeks, until you get the hang of things! I then used standard muslins done in fold with smallest size bambino mio wrap - he was a tiny baby!- but was changing him every hour or so, so used boosters/another muslin folded up as well.

wrt elastic in the legs of your LL's, don't worry too much, as it's the wrap that does the 'containing' and needs to fit snug. the bamboo/cotton/whatever is just the absorbant bit.

I made wipes out of an old bath towel, cut into 15cm squares- got about 25 i think?- and zigzaged the edges. wash them with nappies, store damp from wash in a tupperware container.

thumbs up for charity shop sheets/towels/etc!

[RetroHippy]

I've gone through all the nappies; ten of the size 1s have the elastic gone at the back, and six of the size 1 wraps but that's easier to fix. Only one of each of the size 2s have gone though. Weird.

Leg elastic is intact in all of them though so I might just fix the wraps and see how I go.

Very excited to use them now!

[Missrabbitshouldjoinaunion]

It took me 7 weeks to recover enough to face using them and for DS to podge out enough for them.

Then used them until I went back to work at 1 year. Although I also used disposal out and about - I wasn't organised enough to remember to wash the ones I'd changed and got fed up of finding mouldy shitty nappies in the change bag 3-4 days later.

[RetroHippy]

Hmm, I suspect I may suffer from the same thing Missrabbit!

[PurplePidjin]

we've been in cloth since ds was 5 days old, he'll be 2 soon. ll are awesome, and still form the bulk of my stash as we were in full time wool until he potty trained himself last week (still use nappies at night)

you could ask for newborn aio's like totsbots teenyfits, bumgenius xs, realeasy small etc as gifts? or if anyone knits or crochet get them making longies - i can give you more details on wool types if you like

[chocolatemartini]

I had LL bamboo size 1s from newborn. I bought them for £50 hardly used and then sold them for £50 when she grew out of them! Was chuffed about that. They were amazing, and yes you can wash meconium out, so just use them if that's what you want to do. They are way more reliable than disposables, so fewer changes of clothes (both my newborns have hated changes of clothes) and I found when I tried disposables I had so many leaks I was washing poo all the time anyway, so quickly went back to cloth nappies.

Do make sure you do a cold pre wash To prevent them becoming smelly, and don't use too much powder.

[RetroHippy]

Good advice re: washing, thank you chocolate. I'm glad you had such a positive experience.

Was chatting to my DM today about it, she used terry squares for DB and me and was really interested in the idea of fitted cloth nappies.

I'm hoping to get at least 2 DCs use out of these, if they last then that's pretty damn good for £80!