Reusable newbie, help me spend my voucher!

[kviddy]

hello,

theres a local scheme where i live where they give you £35 to spend on reusable nappies. You can get any ones you want, be it from www/shop/home sales and they will just reimburse you. So I need some tips! Ideally, I would like to just spend the £35 and maximise my buying power... I hope to use nature care most of the time and keep the reusables around for emergency's or when(hopefully if!) baby has a bad rash and i can use them to let his/her skin breathe more. What brand would you go for?

Many thanks!

you definitely want a one size nappy then (often called a BTP - birth to potty) so they will in theory fit all the way through.
Bumgenius brand are very, very popular. The v3 (version 3) was replaced with v4 but both are excellent and there are still some very good deals on the v3 to be found online.
Baba Me and some other sites have a Valentines promotion on Flip covers and stay dry inserts - BOGOF so that is pretty good value. Again they are very popular, it is a BTP wrap and you have a choice of pad style insert - stay dry (which is microfibre so dry against the baby's skin) or organic cotton which you fold up but is best with a fleece liner so the baby's skin is not next to wet nappy. I think the offer is just on stay dry though.
If you don't have any experience of using cloth then Bumgenius v3 or v4 which are pocket nappies are the closest to using disposables especially if you chose the aplix(velcro) fastening as you can just put them on like a disp. No worrying about wraps and liners etc.
You may well find that you get on great with them and switch to full time use. I certainly started on Nature baby care ones and then at 6m with DD1 started using Wonderoos and Bumgenius and haven't looked back. DD2 has very sensitive skin and when I used disposables on holiday with her she reacted really badly so we are using cloth full time with her (day/night even holidays!)
Shout if you need anymore help - the cloth nappy terminology can be a bit overwhelming when you first start looking into it!

If you want to maximise your buying power then I'd have to recommend prefolds (or muslins or terries) and wraps rather than a one size BTP nappy, much as I love my bumgenius one size nappies myself!

For thirty five pounds you'd only be able to get 2 Bumgenius nappies (you could get more if you want second hand, but I doubt if the cashback scheme would cover second hand purchases). Whereas you could get some Bummis prefolds and a couple of wraps and still have a little to put toward something like a wet bag to store the dirty nappies...also, I don't think the BG Flip nappies would be great for a new born. I started using them once DS was on solids, so the poo was much more manageable. After a week of him being sick and being off food and mostly back on milk, they've been terrible as the runny poo gets onto the wraps constantly! Motherease, bummis or tots bots wraps are all much better in my experience.

Kviddy I know real nappies can seem expensive upfront, but they work out so much cheaper than using disposables (especially premium eco disposibles). CLoth nappy tree is a great resource for building up a stash of preloved/second hand nappies.

[waves to Smac]

Thank you very much for your replies!

I got a little overwhelmed with choice (who knew there were sooo many options with nappies?!) and then I found this trial pack:

www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk/acatalog/details-30MUMBAGKIT.html

I liked that it came with 4 nappies, 1 wrap, wet bag and a few other bits for £37.50. Hopefully it will give me a few to try and see what I like. If the concept works but these nappies and I dont get on, then i might have a go with the bumgenius as every time i read reviews they come out on top.

thank you for all your help

:-)

Looks like a great kit - the shaped nappies are great for night time (I used bamboozles at night for about the first 8 months - they take a while to dry but are v absorbent). And by the time you need to buy the next size up then you can decide whether you want more shaped two part nappy systems (nappy and a wrap) or an all in one pocket like a bumgenius.

Good luck with it all!