to give up on cloth nappies....

[cerealqueen]

DD2 (16months) is in cloth, but am sorely tempted to give up on them. She does a lot of poos, and am sick of scraping poo into the toilet up to 5x a day and washing them and hanging them to dry (indoors still, grrrrr). Some of the poos are just scapings and dont always smell through the various layers of fabic and wraps them so she can be sitting in them for a while before I get round to check, eg after school run. (I seem to be forever checking for poo), so often gets some kind of rash, not bad but often red.

On the other hand, we have a lovely stash of nappies and we have come so far having used them on two children and we don't have over flowing bins with fortnightly collections and we are saving money..or are we with all the washing .

Please somebody inspire me to carry on (or not)

I did fleece liners, put a pair of yellow washing up gloves by the toilet and hold on tight to the fleece and flush, all the poo comes off and the fleece goes in the nappy bucket.

If you've used cloth nappies for 2 and a half babies, I really think you can cut yourself some slack. Use disposables for now, and if you feel like going back to reusables in a few weeks/months do so. Otherwise pat yourself on the back for using reusables as much as you have done.

Incidentally, I gave up on reusables with DC4 when she was about 18 months, because I'd had enough, and they were falling to pieces anyway.

I have tried the tots bots and the bambino mio liners. I prefer the bambino mio ones. They seemed to be bigger and prevent more poo from reaching the cloth.

YANBU to give them up, you have done well to last 16 months tbh, dc2 is 6 months and with the teething possibly(?) Is doing poo after poo and am tired of changing him. And i use disposables!

I admire the parents who have the patience and time in using cloth nappies but both are in short supply at my house!

Flushable liners are the future. You can get them in larger Boots apparently; I get mine from eBay shops or Amazon.

I personally wouldn't flush flushable liners as we have a septic tank and I wouldn't risk blocking pipes. The fact that some can go through washing machine and be reused makes me a bit about their environmental credentials. So I'd say use them and bin them, but saying that you might find her poops become more formed when she's a bit bigger and easier to get off the fleece and into toilet.

Yes, looking forward to poos that are more like a bhaji and less like a korma!

DP will definitely prefer anything that flushes, he hates cloth nappies. I bought a stash of pocket nappies that he mainly uses.

Just been reading about the flushable liners so they seem the way to go. Can't think why we have not been using them before now!

I've given up. I don't find the bin is overflowing with fortnightly collections and I pay £20/mth for Just 4 Bums disposables.

I wasn't convinced by the ecological approach as the necessary washing cycle was just so long, and I ended up having to use the dryer, on a low temp so again long to have enough to get by on a two day cycle.

What decided it for me though was that I once forgot to get the washing on, so they were in the bucket half a day longer than they should have been, and I could not get the smell of stale wee out of them no matter how many washes I gave them.

I used washables with DD1 but they didn't last the course unfortunately and were just not absorbent enough after the age of 1.

With DD2 I'm using disposables and there's no doubt they are more convenient, less work, and more absorbent. And I'm not spending a huge amount - I use Lidl brand which are excellent.

I still use washable wipes so save money there.

However, if you want to stick with washables, I also recommend the flushable liners - the ones that can be put through a wash (if just peed on) are good. I rarely scraped poo off.

I shared your dilemma, used washable with 2 dds then the combination of ...a move north and a harsh winter,.. a baby boy with allergies who explodes 6 times daily i couldn't carry on. i now use aldi nappies, 4.50 for about 55 really good nappies. Got to be cheaper than the washing and unavoidable winter tumble drying. When summer comes and the nappy bucket and washing can be outside I will get the washables out again! Life was too short, and no liners could contain the joys of my sons nappies.

Don't give up yet. Use liners (although I never flushed mine for fear of blocking the drains), and remind yourself that your babies are not sitting on a bed of chemical gunge.

Why do people have to act like its some kind of hellish sacrifice for the planet to use reusables, I just don't get it.

Every other day I pop the lid off my nappy bucket, poke into machine and shake, powder, on.

Drink wine.

A couple of hours later I hang them on one of those underwear hanger things, place on hook near radiator, go to bed.

What is so difficult?

I have used disposables when on holiday and personally find it much more of a pain the be constantly taking them to the outside bin and carrying those huge packets back from supermarket.

There are lots of reasons why I chose reusables, top 3 in order

That rank smell disposables give out when wet,

Reusables have those cute patterns and don't remind me if sanitary towels of the 90s

I don't like the thought of my dds nappies taking up more space on the planet than she does (2 ton per year ) and hanging around longer than she does (forever!)

yy to disposable liners, I get mine on amazon, I keep thinking about reusable ones but as yet none have really worked for me.

Reusable wipes however are great! I cut up a very used fleece blanket we were given when dd was born and have a little squirty bottle in the nappy bag, wipes stay with nappy.

Ta da

And I never have to worry about running out and not being able to afford more

Little Earthlets flushable liners. Dogs bollocks. Don't know why more people don't use Terries, I've had two kids in Terries (at the same time) for two years. Not a problem. I work full time btw, but don't find taking five minutes out of my extensive chocolate/wine routine to put a nappy wash on in the evening much of a sacrifice.

MummytoMog

Agree with you on the terries. Used them with plastic pants for DC1, then used them to stuff pocket nappies for DC2 before she outgrew those (late potty trainer) so then we had a few months of terries with Bummis wraps (too skinny for the plastic pants!). Marvellous, and so versatile!

Here's a novel idea, why not buy a potty? Put your DD on the potty when she wakes up from her overnight sleep in the morning, and after her midday nap. Read her a story on there. You'll be surprised, she'll probably do a poo or a wee. You'll not only save yourself a nappy but you'll introduce the idea of poos going somewhere other than a nappy.

(Another person who doesn't think reusables are much of a faff. It's been easy. The microfibre inners are starting to get a bit worn out after 2.5 years of constant use, but I'm told they're longer lasting than the hemp or cotton ones.

Do they not have diaper services in the UK? I have a service that drops off 80 clean cloth nappies every week on my doorstep. Dirty nappies go into a special bin (whole, no scraping!) and on Monday morning I put the bin liner full of dirties out to be collected. No scraping, no washing/drying, it's fantastic! The service gave me the bin, bin deodorizer disc (there really is no smell) and some plastic pants with Velcro closure so no pins either. I can't recommend it enough. I do have to pay monthly but I reckon it comes out the same as the cost of the hot water and electricity needed to wash them at home.

Do have nappy services in UK, they are quite expensive ime, wipes out any other possible cost savings.

To be honest, Missus, I think if I ran thru your numbers I could show that your laundry service is more expensive than disps, too, but depends just where you live, obviously. Most nappies can be very safely washed at home for 30 deg. C, for instance, laundry services had to be them much hotter for obvious reasons.

Errr try washing a smudgy poo off a disposable nappy No way it all gets folded up and put in a nappy bag. I did use cloth nappies for 6 months and had to give up du to severe eczema on my hands

At some point, I will post a video of my three year old folding a terry nappy and putting it on her dolly. I still don't quite dare let her try on DS, but mostly because he's a kicker. I think she'd probably get the nappy on pretty well. If my idiot DH and my delayed three year old daughter can get the hang of folding terries, I don't see that anyone else has an excuse. So versatile, so cheap, so easy. And they do wash better than even shaped cotton nappies and if they ever get really stinky you can bung the nappies (not the wraps of course) on a 90 degree wash with napisan and they'll be all spanky and nice again.

Some people say you can reuse the little earthlets ones if they've been washed, but I find that they disintegrate in the washing machine, so don't bother.

Follow Kiwiinkits' advice. She's bang on the money.

Yes, the diaper service is probably more expensive than disposables, but I still think cheaper or same as washing reusables at home. I'm not using cloth to save money. I use disposables sometimes but hate the thought of all that landfill.

When I worked thru my costs using cloth for 2.5 yrs (luckily DC1 was dry day & night then) and what I would have spent for only disp ...

Keeping in mind I did use a few packs of disps (maybe 3-4 packs/yr), like most cloth nappy buffs. And many, maybe 50%, of my cloth nappy items were Gifts. And I can only estimate full time disp costs from what friends told me. I have a background in cost benefit analysis so you can bet I lumped in every single cost I could think of. But I didn't include resale value (although I don't think could be too high), that's the only obvious omission because I had DC2 by then.

Cloth had saved me about £50. Over the 2.5 yrs.

I was shocked, too.
I think the savings maybe climbed to dizzying heights of £100-£200 per child for subsequent DC (over the first 2.5 yrs).

Love cloth nappies but always smirk at the silly estimates of cost savings.

DC3 was wet at night until after 7yo & I did get my money back buying him 3xME Bedwetters when he was just turned 6yo, I suppose I was £40-£80 quids in after resale.

I don't think these adding up the cost experiments are very useful tbh.

There are too many variables on both sides.
Expensive disposable or cheap. Huge difference
Expensive reusable or cheap
Mind boggling difference.
Wipes, cheap, expensive, reusable made at home or cheeky wipes kit for £30
Resale value of well looked after reusable surprisingly high

I spent £250 before dd was born and apart from washing have not spent anything else ( even disposable liner are still going strong as I had ten packs)

Washing costs, well I haven't noticed a sharp increase in my bills.

Different washing machines on different temp washes on one, two or three day cycles.

how can anyone profess to have an accurate estimate of the cost of washing, for anyone else?

I never understand why there's even an argument, it's glaringly obvious it's going to be cheaper and better for the environment to use something that is reusable. Your outlay varies, because the price range is huge, but savings are pretty inevitable.