How did you get into cloth?

[makesachange]

I was wondering, what for everyone was the trigger to "try" cloth?

Also, where did you go for info to start with?

i'd been thinking about it for dd1 but didn't know anyone that used cloth or really any info about it at all... with second baby it was a bit more mainstream and the council had an incentive money offer on......went along to someones house and was hooked! dd2 and dd3 both in cloth at the moment. hoping that dd2 is out soon though

I thought they would help ds1, who was 2.5 at the time, want to start potty training as I thought they'd probably make him feel wet and soggy when he'd done a wee. I only used terry towellings and muslin squares, but he found them so comfy that I think it actually delayed his training - I really had to work hard to get him out of them!

Put ds2 in them at the same time, and found that they were so comfortable for him, and saved so much money, that I really couldn't justify buying expensive disposables. And I liked the idea that they were eco-friendly.

I came here for info to start with, the the Nappy Lady website.

wanted to try them with dd1. had the shaped terries and platic pants from mothercare, couldnt get on with them. so dd2 came along and we carried on with dispoables, then she outgrew them, the size 6/6+ werent about when she was under a year old, so asked on mn what to do, they suggested cloth, i contacted lollipop, who sent an advisor round, suggested size 3 tots and XL Me airflows. and that was that.

dd3 came along, and we went cloth nappies mad! but our realiables are still tots and motherease wraps.

Crystals - no-one else I have spoken to seemed to have it so bad, but DD always had gel crystals on her bum when I changed her(regardless of length of time in nappy, brand, anything).

Tried terry squares... and I can't fold to save my life, and since I had bought them in boots I had no wraps and no idea what I should be doing to stop her clothes getting wet

A bit of yahooing (didn't google in those days ) and I found bambino meos... so I bought the first bloody things I saw, assuming that prefolds were the modern equivalent of the terry square. Leaked everywhere, I got a modern baby wrap and (now I know) was leaving bits out, was getting wicking, and returned 3 wraps to the poor woman convinced they were faulty .

Then found nappy lady Got nippas, rainbow tots (and a bright blue one that isn't a rainbow, but is a tots -did they used to do different colours? Had a very bright pink one too), and originally rikki wraps I think, then swapped to airflows.

Brief fling with kissaluvs before she started fighting me and my friend (non-cloth) told me she needed to be in pull ups, so I changed her

Tried switching her back to cloth for night for a bit, but ended up back with pull ups because tots were too small, and bedwetters too big.

Got pregnant with DS and slightyl obsessive about being able to use cloth again... bamboozles n fluffles came out (and poor maeve at naturalbabyresource had me hysterical on the phone that my nappies weren't coming and I was pregnant and I needed them... then found out she was pregnant, trying to run a business and having problems with tots bots ).

DS went into them at about 6 weeks (the first 6 weeks I was still getting my head around "Its a boy?!"), got a trial wbb at about 14 weeks (I think)... fell in love

Sorry - you wanted "got into cloth" not "cloth life story"

I couldn't bear all the nappies in the bin, and the fact that everyone slavishly buys disposables without considering the alternative/the way that the disposable giants have a stranglehold on "nappying"....so I borrowed some (rubbish) nappy system (can't remember the name of it) from a friend. A few leakage disasters later I'd got the hang of it and I sought advice from nappy lady and bought a few motherease one size and it went from there. DD1 was 11 months by this point. Eventually I had two in cloth (for about 8 months) but it was great - never regretted it. Sad that more don't try it - don't know why that is.

I was given the nappylady website address by a pregnant friend at work while I was pregnant and I bought a trial few from there (tots, bumbo, motherease). Then after DD was born I bought some more trial packs from other sites (kooshie, fluffle, popolino)
Stayed with disposables 90% of the time and tried out all the others one by one until I decided Fluffles and motherease wraps were the best for me.
Sat down one day and figured out I had spent 200 quid on disposables and wipes already when this was my cloth nappy budget, freaked out, bought 15 fluffles, a load of wraps and some washable wipes from ebay and haven't looked back!

I'd done an Environmental Science degree ( a long time ago now!) and had worked in the environmental sector/had some green friends so I always knew thay disposables were not sustainable just adding to the waste mountain- saying that I didn't know anything much about reusables and made a bad purchase with my first lot. By accident on a trip to the ILs found Suffolk RNN (walked past their shop one day in Ipswich) and they we're brill and helped me get back on track (at the time guiltily using disposables) - without them would still not have got there I don't think!. Though I think there are some good retailers down this part of the world the Council seems to do virtually zilch. I did email them as one of the pages on their website mentions cloth nappies of one way in reducing waste and suggested they as a start put a page on their site about real nappies giving some basic impartial information- after a lot of chasing this got nowhere. I'm going back to work soon - if I had more time (if I have time???) I'd have liked to chase them again about this - some simple local info might just have got a few more into it. It seems that down here (perhaps I'm wrong??) you have to already be interested in cloth to get going.

I heard about cloth nappies making a comeback a few years ago when I lived in the UK so it was always in the back of my mind that I would like to try it when I had kids. When I got pregnant I started asking around (on here I think), got directed to the nappy lady and to tons of other sites and the more I looked into it, the more I liked the idea.

I like the environmental aspect of not chucking so much plastic into the bin and of course the cost aspect helps as well. Although to be honest, with the choice that´s out there I am sure you could easily spend a small fortune on real nappies that would rival anything you could spend on disposable dh was reluctant at first but willing to humour me but luckily the other day he caught a news item about real nappies and the environment etc etc and now he is as keen as me! Yay!

I'm gutted that I'm having trouble vwith cloth nappies. Her clothes wont fit over them and I just can't afford the expoensive cut4cloth or other special clothes sites

I was extremely fortunate that the Cotton Bottoms service was being well advertised in my area when I was pregnant with DD1. As a bonus, our superb midwife-led cottage hospital also used Cotton Bottoms so I had a professional demonstration before going it alone!

I never really considered using disps for my first (I guess I'm a bit of a lentil weaver) I had no internet, no knowledge, and n friends with children so I bought terry squares and plastic pants, and used them from birthfor dd1 until not long after I had dd2.
I also bought a few kooshies (too expensive for me, but wore out the three i had)

I lost it a bit when I had the two in nappies and used mostly disposable until they were toilet trained.

I had ds last year, and bought tots bots seconds on ebay, and later some wbbs from Flame. This time round it is much easier.

I also have unused prefolds which I got free from the council in 2003.

I never really considered using disps for my first (I guess I'm a bit of a lentil weaver) I had no internet, no knowledge, and n friends with children so I bought terry squares and plastic pants, and used them from birthfor dd1 until not long after I had dd2.
I also bought a few kooshies (too expensive for me, but wore out the three i had)

I lost it a bit when I had the two in nappies and used mostly disposable until they were toilet trained.

I had ds last year, and bought tots bots seconds on ebay, and later some wbbs from Flame. This time round it is much easier.

I also have unused prefolds which I got free from the council in 2003.

Trinity - it's a problem that many clothes are made to fit sposies nowadays - but not all. There are high street ones which aren't too bad.

Which nappies are you using though? May be worth switching to a slimmer brand.

I like the idea of reusables, but didn't know where to start. So dd was in disposables for the first couple of months of her life, and I was truly horrified by the volume of rubbish that we were putting out. A friend introduced to the local real nappy network, who administer council sponsored trial packs - you can borrow half a dozen different nappies for a couple of weeks - and ended up hooked to the extent I am now turning into a nappy bore . I use mainly bambino mios and bamboo shaped nappies, with a collection of other things I picked up cheap on ebay.

saw an article in a baby mag while i was pregnant with dd and was immedietly in love.

both mine have been in cloth since they were born and have not regretted the decision for a second. even my mother who laughed at me when i told her i was going to use cloth is converted!

was trying to save money with dd2, this was in 2002 found UKParents cloth forum, became addicted, spent fortune on 2nd hand cloth - she was a whopper and a mega wetter so it was tricky. Have since sold on lots of stuff and probably in the end it's cost me nothing, now on dd4 in cloth but dp has insisted we just have one system so we're using hempresto!

Trinity just put her in dresses! Also loo o ut for 3.4 length trousers so you can go up a couple of sizes and they will still fit when she is potty trained. also I love stretch lycra/velour type trousers they are fab over cloth.

I just suddenly felt terrible about the waste of disposables. Asked a few friends what they used, tried a couple out then went for it!

Trinity - are you having trouble with girls' trousers? I've not found a problem with any of ds2's trousers, because they're cut a bit more loosely, but dd (who wore disposables) never found any trousers even then to fit. The best we could come up with were the Cherokee from Tesco 'leggings' type - a bit looser, and elastic waists. Someone said to me, the cheaper the clothes, the better they fit over reusables.

It just felt so wrong to be throwing away mountains of disposable nappies,a feeling reinforced by the most basic research.
Trinity,you just need bigger sized trousers.You can roll the legs up.

torygraph article about cloth (or pos was in grauniad as torygraph sounds a bit unlikely)

I had a baby!

Seriously, never thought about using disp. If I had more money I would be addicted. Before ds was born I bought fluffles and tots wraps. I love the fluffles but after borrowing a ME wrap I have come to realise how much variation there can be in wraps! Also hav a couple of bamboo terries which I love. I've been banned from buying more nappies though so I'm looking forward to him reaching 20lb so I can go shopping again!

I'd never considered disposables, used to be a bit of an environmental activist so reusables were the only option! Plus my Mum was determined for me to use cloth nappies! I bought a selection from a local cooperative but then my DS was born 10 weeks early, and so disposables were only used in hospital, and when he made it home he was still tiny so many of the shaped nappies didn't fit- ended up using terries. All went well until I went back to work mid winter (7 months later), we had no tumble dryer and just couldn't keep on top of the washing/drying. A friend then said why not try disposables (also DS's nursery weren't keen on cloth nappies) and so I went back to the 'dark side'

Now I am working part-time rather than full-time I might dig them out again, especially as expecting LO in July... And DS gets some excema which I don't think the disposables help with.

I had a demo from a Lollipop advisor who showed a group of us what they were like, how they worked and how much it would cost. I bought my first set of MEOS from her and have since tried nearly every nappy on the market It was a combination of the cost, environment and boys scrotum temp that did it for me!