Ready to give up on washable nappies

[hjscho]

I'm 39 weeks pregnant and DS wants his nappy changing every couple of hours, as he gets very uncomfortable...finding this really hard, as being 18 months he wont cooperate once lying down. The worst thing is the smell of the nappies (have read the thread about nappies smelling of wee - I will try some vinegar, I have already reduced amount of washing powder and do extra rinses). I have recently changed the paper liner I use and I was wondering if anyone felt that this may make a difference to his soreness. Up until now I have been a firm believer in using washable nappies, but I feel like I am never going to cope with two in nappies and changing them so frequently. I also feel sorry for DS who seems to have a constantly sore bum.

where is he sore? insides of thighs or the seat of his cheeks?
i have just been thru this with ds1 who is 20m, ds2 who is 7m seems to be totally unaffected.

I take my hat off to all your mums who use washable nappies. I didnt realise so many mums used them until I started on mn.

ahhhhh, take a break from them for a while
I did in the last few weeks before dd3 was born, and for a while afterwords. I took a break in the cold weather , but we're back on track again with 2 in cloth

when are they smelling? whilst waiting to be washed or after they have been washed still?

They really smell of amonia quickly when he is wearing them and then once washed they smell still. I have made a huge effort to dry them outside and this helps a bit. It could be my hightened senses as i am pregnant, but i can smell them through his clothes. He only drinks water and he drinks a lot, so i have ruled out urine infection.

you might try fleece liners, both our children seemed to find them more comfy than paper. We bought a few, but then just chopped an old fleece jacket of mine to make a load.

Loopeymumsy...thanks for that advice. I was going to use disposables for the first few weeks on number 2, but a huge part of me feels guilty when i put a disposable on DS1. I suppose i desperately hope that by him feeling uncomfortable he'll be out of them quicker...how cruel is that!?!

hi hjscho
don't fel bad using disposables for a while.
or, if you don';t want to then just leave ds as much as poss without a nappy on to help the soreness.
try using fleece liner(ds has v. sensitive skin and it's the only thing that clears his napy rash)
your ds could be teething which is making his bottom sore all the time as well.

re nappies smelling of wee. chuck them in opn a 90 degree wash (ignore labels, all of mine have come out fine) then try soaking them in COLD water, or doinmg a cold rinse in the machine before each wash and adding bicarb to the wash and vinegar to the rinse.

my boys are 20m and 7m and i find ds1s morning nappy absolutely reeks but none of his day ones do and neither do any of ds2s, not even in the morning.
what type of nappies do you use? i am mostly cotton or bamboo and find that anything like say a minki or any type of stuffable or kooshies, harbour the smell and it never comes out totally. even when washed and dried, if you hold it to your nose you can smell it faintly.

fleece liners better than paper - buy a cheap piece of fleece cloth and make some.
Ammonia smell - do a bio powder wash, followed by a double rinse and add a cup od vinegar to the rinse drawer.

When the baby comes, I would be tempted to switch to disposables for a couple of weeks to make life easier!

Zofloyya...I just read the thread about silk liners and thought I might try them out. I've only ever considered throw away liners. Do you just rinse the poo off fleece liners whilst flushing the loo?

hjscho - I would certainly agree that you shouldn't feel guilty about using disposables for a while. I wonder if he's getting sore because his wee is too strong? How about giving him more to drink - then his wee will be diluted.

sorted then...

I use Kooshies at the moment on DS, but I have bought a few Easy Peasy nappies to try out. I feel like they would be better and will probably dry quicker.

Know how you feel - I've noticed ours started to wiff a bit when dd is wearing them. Do you soak them before washing? We've started 'dry-pailing' and

I rinsed before washing, washed with detergent and added vinegar into conditioner compartment, and then rinsed with vinegar again - then dried outside, and that seemed to do the trick for quite a few wears.

Another problem we had, due to living in a hard water area (I guess) was that the washing machine started to wiff a bit and that made the nappies worse - we did an empty boil wash with biological powder twice - no more wiff.

We use Motherease one size dry - and have had no problems with either ds or dd and soreness or rashes.

Good luck

I agree re the fleece liners, they are much better than paper at wicking away the wee and keeping the skin dry.
I am a bit lazy so use a paper liner (next to DS's skin) then a fleece one, so when he has a dirty nappy I can just flush the paper liner away. The fleece liner still works at drawing the wee away from the skin and DS has never suffered with nappy rash.
This was suggested to me by someone who runs a cloth nappy website so she knew what she was doing...
Also think the fleece liners are better than paper at reducing the wee smell.

I found that soaking the nappies made them worse, so i just dry pail now. It also makes the bucket easier to lift if nothing else!

I never soak mine either, just wash them at 60 degrees with some nappy fresh stuff.

I agree with the cleaning out the washing machine, they can get pretty stinky as well. You can put through a wash with vinegar at a high temperature.
Also vinegar to clean inside the rubber seal - it gets really gross.

fleece liners 50p each until the end of March

Oi - Flame read that...!

and thoroughly agrees - you are 39 weeks pregnant and caring for a toddler... give yourself a break!!!

Disps for a bit could help his soreness - try natural babycard (think thats what they are called... chlorine free disps from sainsbury's/boots).

The smell - dry pailing can help, a blast at 60 (after a normal wash) with no powder will remove any build up (possibly even two no powder washes), and some white vinegar in the wash.

You are tired and lumpy - do what is easy right now!!!

Have to say I am also heavily pregnant and my DS is quite hard work so I use a mix of cloth and disposables to make life easier, and I don't feel too guilty...
Moltex are good disposables, no bleach and v limited gel so good if your LO is sore.
Have bought Moltex for the new baby too, as don't intend to use cloth for at least the first 6 weeks (which was when I started using them with DS).
Look after yourself, not the end of the world if you take a cloth nappy break.... :-)

Tired and lumpy

I will probably give them a break for a while and also get hold of some fleece (I need to keep wearing my old fleece jacket as its the only warm thing that fits at the moment! Once I have got rid of the bump then I can cut it up). Thanks for all the help and advice.