Right. Our nappies are ten years old (sings: Happy birthday to them..) Talk me through what we need to update!

[Flightty]

Hello

I have a vast collection of old, used, cloth nappies in the cellar. I will be honest: I ditched them last time, which was nearly 5 years ago, because they were smelly and horrid and it was a hassle. I did well with ds1, but I do know things have changed an awful lot since then and I need a bit of a recce about what's out there, and how to get it right this time!

First off we are in a hard water area, which made the terry and cotton ones dead hard - tumble drying, line drying, etc did not work (or the vinegar thing - it's serious chalk country) and I heard that bamboo is less likely to get hardened? Is that right?

Basically, if we can get something that won't be ruined by the water quality, it'll be worth it, and if we can't then I shall just do disposables, and stick to my own reuseable pads in terms of being green

So honest answers are much appreciated. Also - costwise - what is the best product, the easiest to use, etc etc. any and all info gratefully received!

Thankyou x

Ooh no one! Well never mind...

Can't give you much advice as we've only ever used bum genius v4.0 and (recently) bum genius free time. I love them, but they are expensive when you first get them. If you want to go for an all in one, one size nappy then I would highly recommend these. I have bought most of ours during offer weeks to get the best deals. Poppers are better than Velcro as toddlers learn Velcro quickly and they lose 'stick' eventually. We don't live in a hard water area though so no ideas on that one!

I found with a ten year age gap that nappies haven't improved much.

I found that bamboo nappies took forever to dry. Some people like pocket nappies which are fleece and have an insert inside typically an old terry. However I hated pocket nappies with vengence. I felt they were ridicoulously expensive for the scant amoutn of use they had.

I suggest adding aquasoftener to your washing machine and washing the old nappies at 60 degrees without any detergent. I live in a hardwater area. I found that motherease nappies were best for staying soft. I also like naturebabies diddy diapers as they stayed reasonably soft.

A fleece linner keeps the bit on the bottom nice and soft. Boots disposable linners are also really nice and soft (but are not flushable, thuugh stand up to being washed once or twice if onle wee'd on!)

Thanks girls - that's good to have some replies!

I had Motherease nappies and still have them - also the One Life which I think are pretty much the same.

The thing is they seem Ok and then you start using them again and they absolutely pong.

Is aquasoftener a brand name, if not, where can I get it from? I will try what you suggest and see if it makes any difference.

I will have a look at bumgenius!

I didn't realise the bamboo take ages to dry - we're expecting a winter baby so that's no good

Thanks again for all your replies.

Think we have still got a few fleece liners - thankyou for the tip!

Aquasoftner is a brand name and you can get it from super markets. Its similar to calgon. Its lot cheaper to get water softners as a powder than as tablets like calgon.

Tescos do their own water softnering powder which is even cheaper.

Thankyou will have a look later!

Hemp and Bamboo both take an absolute AGE to dry in my experience. Basically anything that is extra absorbant, advertised as more absorbant than cotton, will take longer to dry than cotton. I'm a terry squares fan laregly becasue they are easier to dry than most other things and most of our nappy time has been spent living in a london flat with no tuble dryer! I got a night nappy made of bamboo becasue the terries wouldn't cut it over night so I'd been using disposables at night. Totall waste of money, it takes 3 days to dry! Our water's prety hard too, I just go for soft liners to make it more comfortable.

My nappies are 5 years old and mainly the Totsbots Bamboozles, although I had the odd Motherease and Onelife.

They did take time to dry on the radiators (we mainly tumble-dried), but I had a 2-day supply and they were great. It helped that dd only pooed every 4 days .

Loved my Bamboozles. I used them with a flushable, disposable liner.

There are so many out there at the moment its unreal. Back in the day we used fuzzi bunz which were great in our dodgey water area and dried quick, my sil at the moment is using the new Miosolo one size from bambino mio which are a one size system, i was sceptical but they seem to be a really good system. She got them in real nappy week from Nappyzone as they were on special offer wit hthe boosters and looking now they still are.

My terries are nearly 40 years old. I believe some may be closer to 50. Do I win a prize?

I can't help with the crisping issue BTW.

my old terrys are great for drying the car off

try something like Little Lambs - they come in separate sections. (they dry quicker too)
so you've got the outer like the motherease ones (you can still use those of course), and the inner is a velcro shaped nappy with a separate booster.
you don't need the booster for newborns, but when they get a bit older you do.

We're in a really hard water area too, and I don't care about the hardness.

just for a bit of info, though - the little lambs liners are soft and fluffy, even after washing - i think they're microfleece?
Now, my favourite nappies are the Nature Babies Diddy diaper - that's a terry nappy with a teeshirt fabric next to the skin.
Even though they get a bit stiff on the outside, it's soft soft soft on the skin.
(and the grippers go in the fleece better)
they take longer to dry, but only about 2 days in our cold room. (i keep turning them over)

Little lambs here too, get a mix of bamboo and microfiber as the latter dry super quick. you could try one of those magnetic balls in the wash to deal with lime scale?

I didn't like how wet the microfibre ones felt.
I preferred the cotton ones (the bamboos are great, but don't dry so quickly)