Lost in the reusable nappy world!

[DulcetMoans]

We are due our first baby in July and have been sure we will be using reusable nappies wherever possible. I joined a local network on FB and bought a bunch second hand so have a small collection but know it won't be enough. They are all multipart as well and I still don't understand how they work!

I am interested in buying some all in ones but I look at the online shops and just get totally confused!

Does anyone have any experience of setting up and how to go about choosing the best ones for you? Is an all in one as easy as it sounds? Also, is it likely we can do this from day one or will we need to ease ourselves into it?

Any advice welcome!

There are some very good guides on the clothnappytree forums.

What brand are the nappies you have, if you know?

We eased ourselves in partly because many nappies do not fit well until your baby is over something like nine pounds. You can buy small ones, but this seemed and extra expense. So we used disposables for the first month or two. All in ones are good, but you have to fold and put them back together which is a little bit of a faff, but fine. You might find a nappicino meeting near you where you can find out more.

Overall reusable nappies are brilliant and I am pleased we use them. They rarely leak in my experience and are very simple to use. I am really glad we used them.

I used washables from day 1 with my first 2. I can't advise on brand as I'm not sure the ones I had are still available. I used a bucket with a lid (from local pound shop) with water and a few drops of tea tree. Nappies were rinsed and then popped in the bucket. At first I was probably doing one wash a day (newborns often poo after each feed and some seem to feed permanently in the first couple of weeks while your milk supply is catching up to demand). But soon you can go a bit longer between changes. I used a cloth inner, with an extra booster pad at night and a waterproof wrap. I found Velcro fastening wraps perfect for fitting onto newborns but as they got older and wrigglier I used wraps with poppers which held fast better. You may find you need slightly bigger clothes to fit over cloth nappies as they can be bulkier than disposables. I'm sure others will have some more helpful tips. Good luck.

There are cloth nappy libraries springing up all over the place. They are an excellent place to find out more.

What nappies do you have now? If you don't think you have enough, instead of buying more, consider hiring a kit from your local nappy library so you can try a range of types.

Also real nappy week is coming up so you should see plenty of promotions. :)

Personally we use bumgenius pockets almost exclusively. They take time to stuff after each wash but I love that they go on like disposables, so grandparents etc are happy to use them, and they wash so well. Never had any stains.

I was lucky in that I only tried one other type before finding these work for dd2.