Tell me about reusable nappies please?

[Lou573]

Expecting our second and really can’t justify another 2 years of disposables - already feeling guilty that we did for our first. Would appreciate advice on brands, how many I need, how to store dirties, wash etc - I have no idea where to start! Thanks

I used old-fashioned terry cloth squares, along with liners, and plastic pants. The squares would be folded and secured with a nappy pin.

The liners would get thrown away. I think with 'solids', they'd be held in the loo first in order to flush the poo away, The nappies would be soaked in a bucket with something called Nappisan, then washed in the machine. Plastic pants would also be rinsed out.

The whole thing was really really cheap. We were skint at the time.

This worked for when we were based at home. We would occasionally use disposables when going out/on holiday.

If you're in the UK a good place to start is a Nappy Library. www.uknappynetwork.org
Birth to potty Nappies often don't suit babies from birth, but usually do from around 10lbs.
You don't need to soak modern cloth nappies- and until weaning the poo can go straight in the washing machine too.
A standard wash routine would be something like : 20 min cool rinse (I have a 30 at 30 which I use), then add detergent and was on a 2h cotton cycle at 60. Don't use eco settings and avoid fabric conditioner.
If they come out smelling of detergent, rinse and use less next time.
If they come out smelling soiled, rewash with more detergent and consider adding more detergent/using a longer or intensive cycle next time.

We used a nappy service which collected/delivered weekly ( from both us and our childminder at no extra cost). It was less than the equivalent cost of disposables at the time and saved me the hassle. All I needed was a special bucket thing to put dirty nappies in ( supplied). We occasionally used disposables eg on car journeys. If we had had another I would have bought them and done it myself. The only issue for em was my baby was premature and it was hard to get the nappies into the hospital on Easter Monday and to get small enough ones! But it was all fine. I would recommend

Seconding a nappy library, but also look for 'preloved' nappies on selling groups. Get a large bundle. Experiment. All you need is a couple lidded buckets and a washing machine - when both were full I'd do a wash, 1 hour, standard 40 degrees, or 60 once in a while. Paper liners were handy once on solid food - flush if pooed on, wash if not. Drying space for 20 nappies - rack sticking out from a radiator, then a drawer to keep them in.
Second-hand prices vary but once a design goes out of fashion, they are almost free. I found nappies with a nippa and separate wrap worked best, but ones where you stuff inserts to add as much absorbency as needed were fastest to dry. Nursery were happy to use any that were presented to them as a unit, either all-in-one or a stuffable.

I never added anything to the bucket of dirties, but sometimes Napisan in a wash. I think I had about 40 nappies, only 2 new, and several that were only used in emergencies. There were a couple days out when a nappy wrap and a T-shirt of mine or a spare babygro made an excellent nappy!

Btw, Jack and I are not the same person

Great minds!
I was going to be sarahparlabane but the name was already taken.

I'm a bit of a washable nappy evangelist, especially railing against the types who claim they want to be all eco but then buy 30 brand new nappies...

Ha! I ended up running a nappy library for similar reasons

It's been a while but I used close parent pop ins. They are birth to potty so I didn't have to buy lots of sizes. I cut up an old fleece blanket to make fleece liners, and also used cloth wipes.

I just put the dirty nappies in a bucket lined with a wash bag. Poo was plopped into the loo first.

Every 2 days I washed at 60 degrees. My wash routine was:

1 - rinse cycle
2 - 60 degree wash with a tiny bit of detergent (use much less or you get build up on the nappies and they stink!)