Buying second hand reusable nappies

[knittakid]

I am all for hand-me-downs and don't think a baby should have everything new, but somehow for the nappies I feel a bit squeamish. Do you have any experience of using second hand ones?

Most of ours were second hand and they were all clean when i bought them.

If you feel a bit odd using them give them a few washes on a hot wash first in your machine using some bio powder, put your mind at rest they really are clean thats what i do with all second hand nappies :)

I have some second hand nappies, I just put them on a wash with totsbots potion or bambino mio antibacterial powder and think about what i can buy with the cash i have saved

Thanks ladies! it does seem the best option for us.

Second hand nappies are great!
You don't have to do lots of prewashing to get them up to full absorbancy as they are all ready to go. You can also experiment with different sorts and trade them in if they don't work for you without feeling guilty.
Also a lot of cloth nappies are resold because the original owner was full of good intentions but found looking after a newborn hard work and washing the real nappies was too much to cope with so they are often not really very well used at all.
Nothing to be squeamish about

2nd hand nappies are best as you can try different styles and brands to find what suits your little one best - very cheaply too!

All of mine are second hand!

What I don't understand is that when I bought them they were all pristine, yet now they're all stained and dog eared. My ds must have particularly unpleasant poo.

Before you get secondhand ones why not consider looking around for other new ones at cheap prices. I bought some 'Boots' own label nappies from The Baby Catalogue as they were discontinued. For £3 each they were a steal, brand new and I could buy as many as I liked. Why buy old when you can buy new?

my 2nd child had 2nd hand nappies

given a good wash they're fine

and to 'shopwise'....because it's wasteful to buy new when there are perfectly good 2nd hand bargains to be had? save money AND the environment

It is illogical as obviously they can be wshed and therefore would be clean, but there is this odd thought at the back of your brain. I would suggest you get a packet of Mothercare's nappy soak which is fabulous and really does get nappies back to white and clean. It's cheap enough and can be used for regular laundry of baby's clother too.
It is anti bacterial, sterilsing and smells nice too.

Not always wasteful to buy new, as hopefully you will have more than one child and will feel more comfortable re-using your own nappies as happened in older times with the Terry nappies which often made it to the third child. So one inestment can do more than one child.

DS3 is coming up to two and I have never bought a new nappy for him. When DC4 arrives it will be using them too.

Why pay the price for new ones when somebody else has put in all the hard work of softening up some for you.
I pay about a pound a nappy. Even less for prefolds.

Thank you all, didn't know they'd need to be softened to maximize absorbency, so that makes sense. It also makes sense that not all second hand nappies will have been actually used.

We kind of plan to have this only one, so given that the real environmental benefits of the reusables comes with the second child, I thought that buying second hand would make more sense.

Any recomendations of brands and places to buy second hand? only if any of you have real favourites, as I can google this too.

Thanks.

just started using bumgenius V3's and so far no complaints on my newborn

Second hand ones are fab and save you a fortune. We're pretty certain we won't be having any more babies, but i've held on to the nappies for a bit 'just incase' - has taken me ages to get this great stock of second hand ones, don't want to have to do it again!!

I love little lambs although their wraps a bit on the small side, and lollipop micros (microfibre / fleecy). Both are quite economical new anyway.

Check out your councils nappy incentives - ours (Essex) do a Modern Baby trial pack for £10 which is a bargain (3 nappies and 2 wraps). And many others do cash back on nappy purchases.

You may well find that you want new wraps though, as they don't last so long. Our nappies are on their third baby at the moment (well probably more as nappies were second hand, but 3 of ours), but the wraps have done about 1 and a half children each. You don't need nearly as many wraps though - any council incentive could then be used towards new wraps maybe?

Also, NCT nearly new sales are a great source of nappies at very good prices usually. And a great place to sell them on again after you have finished with them.

there is a lots of hun and glitter and tickers but if you can see your way past all that the cloth nappy tree is a very good place to buy second hand nappies as it is fast moving and a good range of items constantly available.
A lot of people use abbreviations so it can be a bit confusing at first!
Sellers generally quote a price and say plus fees and postage at cost. They have a thing that calculates the paypal fees for you too which helps. Sometimes a price will be quoted all in (so includes fees and postage)
Do you know what sort of nappies you want? pockets? fitted with wraps? prefolds?
I like bumgenuis v3 pocket nappy (birth to potty so good value as one size is all you need) I also like Totsbots easyfit v2 (again birth to potty) and Tots bots Bamboozle stretchy has just won a Mother & Baby Gold award. It comes in two sizes but size 2 is a birth to potty. This one needs a wrap over it and I recommend Motherease Rikki wrap - they are sized but very good at holding everything in .
I could go on and on about real nappies but shout if you want to know more or you can send me a private message if you like.

I got a set of totbots bamboozles size 2 at a nearly new sale (not NCT) for £40 (usually almost £200) and most of my accessories are also second hand. Just last week I bought a bucket and some accessories, boosters for £15 new. The bamboozles were unused but washed as the poor lady with all good intentions couldn't cope with twins on reusables. If you're not due soon then why not just hunt around sales and see what you can find second hand and buy new whatever you can't find?

It is all very confusing! we'll go for the ones that can be taken appart and then dry quicker, but don't really understand the pocket wraps, surely you have to wash them as often as the fillers as things go through the pocket?

Yes I always wash my pockets along with the fillers, but with a small baby that just wees a lot then you could sometimes restuff and then wash every other time. But as I had more pads than nappies and the outer dried so quickly, it's easiest to just wash the lot.

Another reason to use second-hand nappies - you will be less hacked off when nursery use an idiot temp staff person who throws them away and you never see the nappy again. Lost my one and only new nappy (a purple velvet Itti) that way, plus two old ones I was much less fussed about.