What are the best washable nappies?

[surfingbabies]

What are the best washable nappies & do you have any advise please.......the kind you'd wished you known before you started

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MNHQ

It really depends on what you want them for (part-time, day only, night-time or both), who's using them (you, DH, nursery, grandparents) and how you're planning to dry them.

The Nappy Lady does an advice questionnaire to match you up with the best nappy for your needs.

Fill-your-pants.co.uk does a trial service where you try all sorts of different nappies over a 21-day period to see what you like, what you don't etc. It costs £10 with a £100 returnable deposit. See here.

Personally, I really like Smartipants pocket nappies during the day and Little Lamb bamboo fitted nappies with a Blueberry wrap overnight. I also love Dudey Baba minky Velcro nappies (and they are super-cheap).

Things I wish I'd known when I started:

• second hand nappies on eBay are often there because they're not in good enough condition to sell elsewhere. Not always the case but ut's been my (expensive) experience. Try the Cloth Nappy Tree boards or Pre Loved Cloth Nappies and Accessories group on Facebook for second-hand ones.

• it's Cloth Nappy Week starting 6th April. Like the Facebook page for competitions. Loads of retailers will be doing big discounts so check their websites online.

And check whether your local council offer incentives too - some eg. Norfolk? offer a free trial I think, others vouchers. FWIW, I used terry squares the second time round, they were far better than the expensive bamboo ones I bought for ds1!

I think it depends on you. I CBA with nappies that come with separate wrap covers and prefer all all in one one size pocket nappy. We got a free trial pack from the council (5 years ago mind you) which helped us try various options.

I'd look to see if you can get any free from Freecycle or friends etc, then cheap at local places, and then just get a few second-hand ones and see what fits your baby.
I got lots from my SIL, some from NCT sales and Clothnappytree, and a few brand new Bumgenius, but the best ones for ds were the ancient Mothereases I got from Freecycle, with lots of equally ancient boosters - dd is now baby no.6 in them. Bumgenius were good for my dn who is skinny but useless for ds and dd who are chubby. I preferred nappies with wraps until about 1 year when stuffables and all-in-ones were much easier and nursery were happy to use them too. I never bothered with the prefolds but they made useful mats and towels.

There's so many brands now I'd just start experimenting - but I would go second hand as the environmental benefit is mostly lost if you buy all new. Sized nappies tend to be best at least to start with as 'birth-to-potty' means too big for first few months, too small by 2.6, and really bulky under clothes until 18 months ish. Size 1 was up to about 4-5 months so very glad I never got any of those new!
I'm no purist though - ds was using disposables at night by age 2 and dd by 6 months, and dd has been in disposables for travel etc too, whereas ds never was - he got rash in disposables, which was an incentive to keep washing!

Choosing the right nappy is a very personal choice. It depends on your lifestyle, baby size, house (space to dry nappies or not).
I would advice to
1/ visit a nappy library or a Nappuccino (cloth nappy demo in your area) so you can have a look at different types.
2/ buy a few different types to try them out and see how you nare getting on with them. Sometimes you can borrow some from nappy libraries.
3/ build up your stock slowly. And check council scheme or get your family to get you vouchers (like NapNap Vouchers) so you can choose the nappy of your choice.

Also very important: Real Nappy Week is coming up (15th to 21st April) so there will be lots of demonstration around the country + lots of competitions (check out Great British Nappy Hunt or NapNap competition for a £25 voucher) and lots of retailers discounts.

good luck!

stephy3 has given great advice.

Try to find a nappy library near you or find a retailer that will do a nappy demo for you (Nappucinos are helpful). We even had a skype demo at one point!

Definitely, build up slowly & find which type you prefer. Start with 10, say, because you can still use a few disposables while you get up & running.

Some retailers also offer trial packs & we found one that did a trial pack with the guarantee to buy back at 70% of the cost for any you didn't like. It takes all of the jeopardy away.

HTH