Just starting with reusables, a few questions - help please?!

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I have a 10 week old ds, & I bought some WBB's in size 2 last week (nippa) which have been great so far but I only bought 6 to see if I'd get on with them. And now I find myself with loads of little qu's about the whole business, can anyone help?
And I've been getting on fine but I'm finding that they take aaages to put on with the wrap, the nappy & the nippa but assume I might get quicker at this! Wondered if I should get some pocket/AIO nappies as well for when dp/mum or nursery has him. Swaddlebees??
If I want to wash every 2 days, how many nappies do I need? I don't have a half load option on my washing machine so I think I need 2 days worth for a full load. I'm line drying in my sunny spare room next to the radiator but the WBB's are still taking nearly 2 days to dry.
Whilst I bought nippa WBB's the first time, is there any advantages to them over aplix as dp would prefer me to buy all aplix, he thinks they're easier (not that he's actually changed a nappy yet?
Also, I'm finding the ME airflow wraps (medium) are cutting into his tummy on the widest setting, are they just not for him or should I try a large wrap? He's got a quite chubby tummy & legs, and is nearly 14lbs. I have a tots wrap size 2 as well, which I really like, but everyone seems to rave about ME. Only prob with the tots is that he 'rustles' in it, quite a plasticky feel which ME don't have. Would rikki's suit better or nature babies?
Any suggestions for good liners as I haven't yet bought any? I'd like to buy flushable ones & also try some cloth ones that I can bung in with the nappies. I only seem to see rectangular liners, are there any shaped flushable ones I can buy as they seem a better shape?
Finally, I washed the nappies & wraps together at 60 degrees as I'm dry pailing, but the poo stains didn't come out - help?
Thanks in advance to all you nappy experts!Sorry my post is soooo long!

Well my record for changing is 28 seconds (with nippa - we had a contest one Real Nappy Week).

I'd suggest an assortment with some faster drying ones, www.kittykins.co.uk have a good chartt of what dries fast so you could check that out.

My biggest problem with pockets is it's expensive, esp. if you run it along side shaped nappies as you need to buy inserts or prefolds to stuff them with. The pocket it self can be £9 and some inserts sell for £4-5 each in different sizes.

As to the wraps, you could try something with fleece binding like lovebums which would be gentler, check the measurements before buying to see what works size wise

bamboo is lovely but does take a long time to dry - do you have an airing cupboard? hanging them in there can speed it up a bit.

you can buy shaped and rectangle fleece liners.

you can also buy fleece/wool wraps that won't rustle, or try another type of wrap or a different size maybe?

you will get quicker, promise, but you can also buy velcro or popper nappies if you find nippas too fiddly.

see if you can find a nappy agent who can do you a demo or offer you a trial of different kinds of nappies - they should be quite easy to track down both online and in rl and there is no obligation to buy.
plush pants.com, the nappy lady and lollipop are all good.

or keep your eyes peeled in the for sale mn threads, ebay (tough bit expensive) or general classified ads for 2nd hand nappies if you want to try a varierty without shelling out too much

hth

you will need about 18 + nappies if you're going to wash more than every other day i reckon.

and if poo stains didn't come out the first time, they will next time. hanging in a window or actually outside is good too.

less than every other day, rather

Sunlight removes poo stains (at least in natural fabrics).

While you can pay £4-£5 for an insert for a pocket nappy, you can also buy (or could a couple of years back) a packet of three Value range microfibre cloths in Tesco for the princely sum of 89p, and when folded up together they do just as well.

I found that nippa nappies coped better with changing sizes and proportions, plus DS learned to unde velcro very early .

fleecehats (on ebay) make fleece liners in nice shapes.

We're just about to bring out some lovely soft paper ones, but not got them yet!! Most paper ones are just too wide, and a little hard to be comfy. Can send you a sample when we get them if you like. In fact it's the Bambineo brand you have (WBB) plus bamboo wraps to match.

Rikki wraps may suit better than airflow as they're more adjustable than airflow, but def sounds like he needs the next size up

Did I understand right, that he's in a size 2 Tots wrap at 10 weeks old???

Fluffles may be an option for faster drying. I love them - so soft and comfy, and really absorbant. They make a good mix with WBB as they dry faster and stay soft when line dried. They come in popper fastening as well as nippa so your DH would get on with them.

Don't worry about poo stains too much as the nappy is still clean when washing at 60. After a while the old stains fade and new ones join them... then when you start to wean you get lots of colours!!!

Ooh, thanks all, that's answered quite a few questions!
So I oughtn't to expect poo stains to come out in the wash, it's just I manage to get them out of ds1's pooey pants at 60 so surprised they didn't come out of the nappies. Just the wbb's look so nice. I do dry them at a sunny window, and the poo's faded a bit so there you go! I don't have an airing cupboard, unfortunately so I guess I'll have to either buy lots of nappies as suggested or ones that dry a bit quicker, like the fluffles.
Emma, wld be interested in a sample of liners, yes please holyhandbagatyahoodotcodotuk I've just bought some of the ebay ones tho, they were v.nice indeed.

No, think I have a tots wrap size 1, he's in wbb's size 2's is what I meant. I'll see if I can exchange my ME wrap for a large as haven't used one of them yet. I was quite taken with wacky wraps, but can they be daytime wraps as well? I haven't used wbb's at night yet.
thanks all again, knew I'd get answers from mnetters!

Glad you liked the fleece ones :-) Fleecehats is a good seller and I've bought a lot from her, including some cuuuute hats and mitts! Fleece liners do help to protect the nappies from stains. Not sure why nappies hold on to stains but pants don't!!

I will post when I have the liners, and also when I have bamboo wrap samples for trials.. will need volunteers!

Did you buy the ME wrap from us? No prob replacing if so.

Emma

Surprised your airflow wrap is too tight, I have only just stopped using it on my 20 pound almost 7 month old. I have ordered a large one, but you can also get medim/large

I dry pail my nappies too- but if any are really stained I stick a scoop of nappy bright in the drawer with the washing powder and put an extra rinse on- always works a treat for me.

I found the ME Airflow were great with my dd. However, now my ds is in her old ones they fit really badly. Rikkis are definitely better for him. Perhaps it's boys. He definitely has chunkier legs than she ever had!

1. Yup, your speed improves with practise 2)AIOs - there are several different ones out there (apparently not best to get swaddlebees...), but teaching the other carers to use what you've got can be fairly quick and easy
2. If your wbbs are taking 2 days to dry and you want to wash every 2 days, then double the amount you have iyswim (possibly with a couple extra for rogue clean nappy poos)
3. Yup, sounds like you need the next size up wrap, or the rikki - it is a similar shape to the tots, but feels the same as the airflows 4)Purely for my own research - why do you prefer shaped liners? I have started making and selling rectangle ones because I am happiest with a big liner that completely covers the nappy... pondering making shaped too now
4. Sunlight for poo

Oh, and fleece/wool/wacky can all be used during the day too (wacky especially as it is waterproof)

We use Fuzzibunz pocket nappies in comination with Weenees pouch pants - both use microfibre cloth inserts or similar for stuffing. The Weenees are a lovely fit, nice and trim and easy to adjust, and the cloths dry very quickly. We've had some probs with pouches leaking, however, I've just been talking to Lollipops who say they will replace them! Hurrah! So perhaps mine were faulty.

Fuzzibuns are ok, good to stuff extra into and easy to adjust, but we find not good for poo containment (weenees are good).

Sorry, not sure if this is useful!

If you do buy anything requiring stuffing/prefolds, I very highly reccomend you but a few meters of Hemp Fleece fabric from www.babeco.co.uk. Its £7.50 a metre, made me about 7 nappies I think, and is so absorbent. You dont need to hem it as its fleece (just wash to shrink, then cut) and you can sew it into double layer squares as I did, or leave it as one layer and fold it more, which would make drying even faster.

I also bought cheap microfibre cloths from tesco but after buying this fleece I binned them all as the fleece is more absorbent by far.

HTH!

I use a bit of Ecover Laundry bleach in the wash at 60 and nappies have no poo stains (I also dry pail). I have 15 nappies (tots bots) and wash them every 3 days or so, but my little one is 2 so I don't need to change him very often (usually goes through 3-4 nappies in 24 hours).

Just a suggestion re poo-stains (although I would understand you might not want to do this to your nappies!) I was using terries, nippas and waterproof pants up to about 6 months (fiddly at first but once I got the hang of them found them fab, and very quick drying), but found the poo stains a bit depressing, so I dyed all her terries shocking pink. They looked great! The binding around the edge stayed white (as man-made fibre) so made a nice contrast. Never saw another stain again

when i used ecover for my nappies ds got terrible nappy rash so beware!!

I am a totsbots lover as i have tried several different nappies but none can beat totsbots IMO. I use ME airflow wraps as I found that the tots wrap velcro cut into their tummies but totsbots are now advertising bummies wraps on their website and they look really nice- has anyone tried them?

You don't have to only wash nappies if you want a full load just stick in some other stuff- like towels. Especially if washing at 60.

If you have a tumble dryer you could always tumble the nappies for 10-20 minutes and then hang them up and they will dry a lot faster but it's still better than fully tumble drying.

I would definitely get some aplix for ease of use (not that a nippa is difficult but sometimes it is handy to have an alternative- particularly if you can't find the damned nippa anywhere!) Also totsbots now do their bamboozle in poppers aswell which might be harder for a child to undo.

I loved ME staydry boosters for night time- would definitely recommend a couple of those and always use a fleece/wool wrap at night as much more comfortable.

So much advice to process, but as I only have 1 wrap now that fits my little fat buddha, I can't use reusables at present. Many thanks to all, very useful bits & pieces here. Good point about washing with towels, that might save me buying more nappies to make up full loads. I don't have soak on my machine, but do have pre-wash, would that be the same, I thought I had used it last time but perhaps not.
Emma, didn't order my ME wrap from you (tho did get my wbb's) but will order some rikki's I think. Would fluffles in size 2 fit my boy as I'd rather not have to buy size 1s as well, don't think I'm having any more lo's? He's prob 14 or so pounds.

My dd has been in bumbles size 2 since 3 montns ( she's now 6months) and they fit fine ( she was 9lb at birth and 13.5 lb now)

I find if i run a rinse cycle before washing and wash at 40 i dont get any stains. Washing at higher temperatures can set stains. Also a few days on the line will fade any stubborn ones

i expect size 2 fluffles would fit - my dd has been in a s2 totsbot since she was about 12lb or so - looked massive off but ok on. it does look a similar size to my size 1 fluffle though so maybe see if you can look at/borrow one before you buy.....?

i always manage to post something about these somewhere...terry squares are really not as much hassle as they are made out to be - are really cheap and quick drying too.....

Hi, not sure if this is relevant to you really, but if you did want to try out a few different nappy types before buying more then www.babykind.co.uk does a hire service - £1.50 per nappy for two weeks. I think I'm going to try out a few different ones using this service - same price applies to the wraps too.

Oh, they also offer another way of trying nappies - buy them, and try using them for a month, and if you don't like them, return them and get 70% of your money back.

ps - love that idea of bleaching terries bright pink!!

The popper versions of both the Fluffle and Bamboozles can be used from 10lb.

I had the same problem with the Medium Motherease Airflow cutting into my dd's chunky legs. We're now using Nature Babies wraps which are a MUCH better fit.

Thanks again. Kate, have just ordered some fluffles size 2 in popper & nippa (I like nippa, but dp & nursery will do better with popper) so I'll see how they fit. My ds has chubby legs & chubby tummy so I was looking at nature babies, will order some today too if I get a chance!

And Manoo, wish I had done that really, but v.happy with my wambamboos, I just read mumsnet for 3 months before I decided they were for me! Might have a look at a few other nappies that way though, maybe a minki/swaddlebee or something like that.

My Bumgeniuses just arrived in the post today and I can't wait for them to dry so I can try them out. They really do look just like disposables - in terms of the slimness and shape.

The other day I did a hot wash of a few New Nature Babies Stuffables and my ME Airflow and stupidly put a red synthetic shirt in that wash... guess what, the colour ran.

So sad. If anyone has any tips at all for how to get the red colouring out, I would be so grateful! The inside of the Airflow wrap is a kind of dirty fuschia colour. It's not cute at all, unfortunately. Ditto the bindings of the Nature Babies.