AIBU to ash for advice and thoughts on reusable nappies?

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I am due to have our 1st DC in March and I'm debating reusable nappies.
Is the initial investment worth it? It's a big outlay now but I know it will save over time.
Please can you let me know if you have used them and found them worth while and where you think is best to buy from?

My dsis uses them and has definitely saved money, they were a bit bulky on the newborn but he has grown into them now. A wet bag is an essential bit of kit aswell!

Used them with both of mine, and loved them. My two are prone to nappy rash and I think the washables helped. Used a disposable at night with my second though, as it got annoying to keep having to change him just because he had wee'd. I bought the generic ones with the poppers from eBay - you can get them quite cheaply. They have inserts and you can also get liners. I had bamboo liners, and also paper liners to catch solids (although you don't have to worry with breast milk only poo, as that can go in the washing machine).

Check if your local council have a scheme. I got a starter pack with 5 nappies for £20. I didn't mind them but they made my son's skin red so we only use them occasionally.

I'm planning on using then. Our council do a loan of a variety pack to try them out when baby is born so going to look at that first before buying.

See what your council does.

They are fab, we use them on our daughter. You need quite a lot for a newborn as you'll need to change every 2 hours or so and they take time to dry, depending on what material you go for. Different nappies suit different babies, so I would try and find a local nappy library and speak to them - you can probably borrow a kit to use at first and see which ones you like best

Used them with dc3. Didnt think to before stupidly! She had awful rash that was sorted by washeables.

My advice is really don't be tempted by any birth to potty or bulk buy deals. Buy a few and try. Different ones for different ages / stages suited and all in ones for the childminder ( but took ages to dry).

A dozen terry nappies and some Velcro motherease type wraps is a start that you'll not regret as it's cheap and easy ( Google the options - non pinned or we had some " nappy nippas" pins are ok but scary to start with !). Dd2 is 17 and the Terry's are still used as mega hankies for awful colds/ dusters etc !

Shaped nappies can be good but fit matters as you can't re fold them etc. More expensive so buy a few.

Worst we're pad folded prefolds in a wrap ( bambino mio?). Leak central! Though ok is pinned and folded.

We used tots bots teenyfits and Close pop in newborn nappies on DD who was 6lb14 when born

I bought all brand new from a variety of shops, after shopping around to find where each brand was cheapest.
I got more than I needed and some very cute patterns but I will still have broken even by the time baby is one. If we have another baby, we won't have to spend anything else.
Paper liners can get expensive, so try to avoid using those if possible.

Oh and we never soaked and all that faff. Unless really bad we just dumped the poo in the loo and washed ( yep with the rest if the clothes if needed - no one got ill! After all babies vomit/ poo on stuff all the time and you don't wash your jeans at 90 degrees after the after bath poonami gets you , do you!) .

When I had a heap of nappies and the time I'd do them at 60 but that certainly wasn't all the time !

I personally hated them. Too much faff as DP and I were both working full time and they are expensive so buying lots of them weren't an option back then so needed to put the wash in twice a day as a minimum. I gave up and returned to disposables.

We use reusables, have done so exclusively from about 6 weeks, now he's 15 months. I would say that all babies are different shapes so it's worth buying say one of each of a few brands to try or going to a nappy library to hire a kit rather than spending a lot on a brand which may not be right for you.
Also it may be a bit trial and error to get a good night time option once baby starts sleeping through as they do need to last longer - most people use a 2 part system (absorbent shaped inner and waterproof wrap) overnight.
For newborns we bought a few newborn size nappies as the "birth to potty" ones do swamp them a little! But you can just use a muslin or prefold nappy in a newborn size wrap for a slim fitting option.
Cost wise we've spent around £400. This includes buying size two night nappies when baby outgrew size ones. Our only ongoing cost is disposable liners but you can use fleece ones. The estimate is £1700 per baby for disposables (though I imagine it's less if you use Aldi nappies for example) so if our nappies last 2 babies we should make a significant saving. You can do cloth for a lot cheaper though - we use "all in ones" in the daytime which are probably the most expensive option!
There is a great Facebook group called cloth bum mums - fluffy advice and chat.

Thanks for all the info. There is even more to think about than I thought there was!

I'll definitely find out if the council does something. I'll get googling and researching or I might get DH to have it as a project - the geek in him will enjoy that!

Our cloth nappies have been used on both our DC so have been good value. With DS1 we hired a kit with several different types to try when he was a few weeks old as we had no clue what might work for us. We quickly found that some fitted much better than others and some were easier to use than others. For example, we had long thin babies so sized nappies worked best and we couldn't get on with the birth to potty options.
You need to consider how you will dry the nappies as some fabrics like hemp and bamboo absorb a lot of liquid but take a long time to dry whereas microfibre is less absorbant but dries quickly.
Also are you in a hard or soft water area? We have very hard water and when we had DS1 we didn't have a tumble drier so found our microfibre nappies stayed soft whereas the cotton ones could dry quite stiff. By the time DS2 came along we had a tumble drier and the cotton nappies dried nice and soft when tumbled.
There is a lot to take into account but my husband and I both work FT and didn't find washable nappies particularly difficult to fit into our lives. We even took washable nappies with us when we went to Portugal (self catering and laundry facilities) for 2 weeks when DS2 was 18 months old. Like pp, we did not presoak either.

I'd suggest buying a trial pack or buy off preloved.

My dd had terrible nappy rash whenever we used reusables so we ended up using disposables permanently

Used them from 3 months until potty training.
Worked well for us so definitely worth investment.
We didn't use overnight or while away.
We also got info through local council meet first.
There's a Facebook group where you get lots of secondhand ones too which might be worth investigating (can't remember name, sorry).

I would just like to second the uselessness of Bambino mio. They were terrible! Although I still use the actual nappies as cloths.

I used bumgenius and fuzzibums with first born. loved them. It is addictive. She had more than one with her name embroidered...

My dd now uses a couple on her dolls

We used them with all five or our DC. I loved them, but agree with PP not to buy too many in one style as different types suit different babies. Some of my DC were chunky and some slim and my DS1 was a 'heavy wetter' so couldn't wear pocket or all-in-one nappies, had to have a fitted plus wrap or we had leaks, whereas they were fine on the others. Give yourself a few weeks in disposables to get settled into parenthood and then start with a bit of trial and error. Just remember that new nappies take a few washes to reach full absorbancy.

I use them. The outlay doesn't have to be huge; buy them second hand

eBay sometimes has them, but preloved cloth nappy groups on Facebook is your best bet!

nappy libraries are great as you can try different styles. Nappy service even better as they wash them for you - but more expensive.

I used tots bots all in one to start with as mine were 8lb - boots were doing them on 3 for 2. Loved my fleece wipes.

I used two part system system with fleece liners (fleece liners stops getting too soiled). I found I have to change every 2/3 to stop leakage and rash but also used a cloth friendly barrier cream. Husband preferred all in one nappy though.

It was easy enough I had bucket in bathroom with wash net in it. poo got flicked off liner into toilet then just slung nappy into bucket with soiled wipes. Then every other day just lifted net out and slung in washing machine, little bit of non bio powered. Out and about just used a wet bag and slung into washing machine each night.

also a good tip is to tumble nappies for 20mins then line dry

DS 7 months old I have used totsbots since he was born! Tried them through a council scheme and then bought them second hand on eBay really easy and I feel virtuous about not adding to landfill.

I have used reusable for the past year and a bit. I love them, and they do save money in the long term. I love that I am not contributing further to landfill.

Personally my favourites are mio solos and bumgenius freetimes. Different people have different preferences though. You can try a local nappy library, also look to see if you're council does a voucher scheme.

We have been using them since my daughter was born (currently 10 weeks). As a pp said, the birth to potty swamp newborns so you do need some specific newborn nappies for the beginning. We used close pop-ins which were wonderful. Don't buy too many newborn ones as you won't use them for more than 6 weeks (even less if you have a large baby)

We use disposables at night as she sleeps through and I hate the idea of a wet nappy waking her (we did buy some shaped nappies and wraps but don't get on with them).

As per pp's advice, we have a few different brands of all in ones and pocket nappies. I am expecting some to fit better than others at different stages of growth.

Check out the Nappy Lady for advice, she really is wonderful although she recommended an entire system to me and I wanted to try a few different brands so have bought some stuff from her but not all. The individual brands also do sales which can turn out to be great value. Little Lambs in particular do sales twice each year - depending on when you are due, hold out for the July sale as they are great value.

My council don't offer trial packs but give a rebate once you have purchased the nappies.

There is a thread on here which discusses reusable nappies - I learnt a lot from it!