reusable nappies

[lagiulia]

Hello everyone,
I am a university student working on a project about eco-friendly baby products. I am looking into wether reusable nappies are a good and safe option/alternatives. Has any of you have had a positive or negative experience using them? What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance for your help and time.
Stay safe x

There should be a reusable nappy section, on Mumsnet or rather there used to be.

Positive experience - used them on all 3 of my children and oldest is now using reusable sanitary products.

I’ve had a positive experience using reusables with my son. He’s now 19 months and we have spent less than £400 on nappies (many secondhand and all ethically produced brands) which will last until he is potty trained (we are in the process currently but he will need overnight and nap time nappies for a while yet). We are due our second child in November and they will use the same nappies again. Our son has never had nappy rash despite having very sensitive skin and quite bad eczema which I think is likely due to the reusables. We’ve never used disposables on our own child so have never known any difference in terms of workload with laundry etc. which has been remarkably easy.

I'm a fan. Used them for my second as with my first we were in a small flat with nowhere to dry stuff.

Used boring terry towelling squares with a small muslin liner. Shook worst of poo off liner into the loo, held it and flushed if necessary. Then terry and muslin into a lidded bucket of Napisan (Boot's equivalent). When bucket full, tipped the whole lot into the washing machine for a couple of cold rinses. Hung on line where any stains magically disappeared.

Very cheap, bought 24 terries second hand for about £10.(And sold them afterwards!) Muslins about the same. Plastic pants weren't expensive. No problems with nappy rash, better than DC1. I suspect I changed nappies more often because it's more obvious when they're wet. Also think that may be why DC2 potty trained earlier and easier than DC1.

Lots of fun trying different folding techniques from Google. A kind of nappy origami. Different folds work better for different ages, to accommodate growth.

Brilliant, saves a fortune, helps environment - win win. I sold them on after 2 kids for what I paid!

Why on earth would you think they're not safe? Seriously what could possibly be dangerous about a bit of cloth?

Yes I find them very good. What sort of info are you after?

Used them with DD from newborn, absolutely love them.

I would have like to have used reusable nappies, but as I don't have a tumble drier, I wouldn't have physically been able to get them dry for a lot of the year.

I didn't use them. Cotton is not eco friendly at all, and I didn't have a washing machine or tumble dryer. I washed most of our things by hand for years,except for bedding, and you aren't permitted to wash nappies at the launderette.

We bought terries and some covers and nappy nippas / snappis before my daughter was born. Subsequently we were given a newborn-large toddler set of nappies where you insert the folded middle into the nappy cover.

SO glad we went for disposables. We've saved a fortune and avoided so much damage to the environment. We plan to reuse them for our baby (on the way) and and subsequent children, and after that to give away the ones we were given and keep the terries for cleaning.

Oh and having a dehumidifier has meant that we haven't needed to use the tumble dryer.

Cotton is not eco friendly at all
Many modern cloth nappies are bamboo or hemp. And often nappies are used for multiple children which means you get more out of them.

Used them but didn't start until DD was older and solid. Not sure I'd have coped with a newborn, didn't even have time for my own laundry at first.

It's been a good experience, they air dry fine, don't leak. I like how adjustable they are. I think they are nicer on her skin.

I use them, absolutely brilliant. No negatives so far. I also use cloth wipes.
Washing is easy, no nappy rash.
I will sell them in once finished with so they will get used by mire than 1 child.

We love reusables. They aren't perfect but neither are disposables. We use one disposable over night as we were getting leaks then for that long length of time. I can live with one disposable. We could have investigated alternatives but I didn't want the expense of buying different types.
We only bought second hand nappies and have spent under £200 and they will serve 2 children with us then we will sell them on. Who knows how many children have used them before us?!

I used them for both my children, loved them. Used the same 2 dozen for both children and then used them as cleaning cloths for years afterwards. Why wouldn't you think they are safe ? It's a cloth square.

I love mine.

I've used a disposable overnight with the second child because reusables don't last all night and I want to avoid changes overnight.

We're recent converts. We had six as back ups/potty training pants but when the lockdown began a friend struggled to fine nappies. We decided to save the reusables for the night and use the cloth.

We are now up to 26 pocket nappies.

Not sure I would have coped with a newborn in reusables but a toddler is fine.

Yes we used them with our second child, but not from newborn stage as that would have been too much for me to deal with.

Absolutely loved them, found the very easy to use, wash and dry. There was a lot of choice, nowhere near as much as today though.

I believe Ds2 potty trained earlier because of reusables as disposables wick away the moisture faster. But this was 13 years ago!

We used them from around 4 weeks ( after his umbilical cord fell of)
Never had nappy rash other then the weekend we were away on holidays and he was in disposables.

I used them with my 2 youngest. Once I'd got the hang of it it was easy.