Reusable nappies

[orangekitkat13]

Hi All,

Looking for a bit of advice about reusable nappies.

I want to try using them and have found a company that do hire packs so you can try them out without having to commit.

What I'm not sure about is whether to get a newborn hire pack to try them straight away or use disposables to start with and then try reusable ones when the baby is a couple of months old.

For reference I am a FTM and I'm 20weeks along (early to start worrying about it I know!)

Thanks!

We used birth to potty ones, but in reality they didn't fit until about 2 months old, though we were happy to use disposables then anyway.

I definitely wouldn't want to use washables for the first week as maconium poo is pretty awful. After that I'd considered how you are feeding, if bf your milk has laxitiv properties for the first 8 weeks or so, so baby poos every time you feed. We were doing about 15+ nappy changes a day at this stage so would not have been able to keep up with the washing. I think formula fed babies poo less, but no personal experience.

At about 2 months old it settled down to 6-8 wet nappies a day, and sometimes days between poo, so a lot more manageable. We were also less overwhelmed by parenting as a whole, so an extra load of washing every few was not that much effort.

I’d say leave it until baby is 4-6 weeks. I use cloth with ds nearly 2 and have done apart from holidays since he was 4 weeks. About to have dd and will use disposable until cord falls off at least. The early days are a bit of a all over the place time, so to get the most of the trial and work out what you want to use and how many you need I’d leave it until you’re more settled. That been said have you looked at eBay? I bought little lamb 2 parts off eBay for so little that it was cheeped than rental, and if they did work I could of sold them again. I haven’t because they’re amazing and have come out of storage for dc2.

^didnt work

Hey! We did cloth from 8 weeks. I had a C-section so it was a bit easier. By 8 weeks he was chunky enough to fit the birth to potty size.

See if you can get a mixed hire kit from your local nappy library. Then when you have figured out which brand fit/perform best for Baba then buy a few of those on eBay then slowly build up your stash.

Definitely look at cheeky wipes too. And get a decent sized household bin with a lid to put them in.

Download the manual for your washing machine and see if it has a nappy setting/prewash.

Cloth is awesome in so many ways, I'm excited for you .

I did disposable for the first few days then a nappy service which provided prefolds. I think I still had to buy my own wraps. Or maybe I hired those as well. They delivered a bunch of fresh nappies each week and gave me a bin to put dirty ones in that they collected. The service only provided prefolds which I found completly adequate and very easy to use. You can by disposable liners if you are worried about new baby poo. After a about 3 weeks of napppy service I invested in my own. As LO got more mobile I tried different styles. I found the prefolds over all the best as they were cheaper and much quicker to dry than shaped ones which took ages to dry but I did not have a tumble dryer. Top tip that I found really useful: buy a cheap fleece blanket from IKEA or similar and cut into strips to make excellent washable liners. Especially good for more solid poo as it does not stick. Good luck with your baby.

Oh and I also bought a few packs of super cheap flannels from IKEA and used those instead of baby wipes. Saved loads of money, did not have to worry about the chemicals in the wipes and felt smug that I was using reusable resources. Plus I did not have a stinky wheelie bin for of dirty disposables for up to 2 weeks which really is so much more vile than a bucket of cloth nappies that gets washed every few days. If I had known better I would have invested in cloth sanitary pads at the same time. By the time I discovered they were a thing they were not worth investing in for me as I was nearing menopause.

Thanks so much everyone, seems like waiting a couple of months is the best option so will do that.

@Whalehello2 have already looked into cheeky wipes and definitely going to get some of them. Are they soft enough for newborn skin or did you use cotton wool to start with?

@okeydokeygirl glad to hear that a nappy bin for reusables doesn't smell as bad as a wheelie bin of disposables as DH was worried about the smell!

Thanks so much for your advice everyone. Really keen to try to use them.

I didn't discover cheeky wipes until he was about 6 months old and they were fine, its similar to a flannel really but uses essential oils for the scent so it might be better to do cotton wool to start with then cheeky wipes when little one is bigger.

@Whalehello2 thanks

We clothed from birth, i didn't even buy disposables. My DS was almost too big for the newborn nappies I had ready!
The meconium nappies were no issue to wash, we used liners anyway & they washed out absolutely fine, as did the cloth wipes we used.

We used cheeky wipes from birth too, with just water. He had some dry skin at about 10 days old & we just added Child's Farm bath wash to the water for a few days. Never had nappy rash yet & he's 17 weeks old

You can try biodegradable nappies (Naty, Kit & Kin) for the early days too.

I wanted to do reusables and was lucky enough to get a load on freecycle, but just couldn’t keep up with the washing as was back working from quite early. Can’t stand the thought of plastic filled nappies so I use those and eco wipes too.

Number two on the way though so will make another attempt at cloth then!

We've just started full time cloth at 13 weeks, I found we got too many leaks to begin with however I didn't have different types to try as I went full in and brought AIO it's taken me about 7 weeks to finally find some nappies that work for us.

If you have a nappy library near you they are an amazing wealth of knowledge about different nappies. Their hire kits are really cheap & our lady is always happy to help with any issues

Just wanted to add to this!

We tried pretty much every cloth nappy out there and the best for us were definitely baba & boo - check them out! they are affordable (tho not the cheapest) and we never ever got a leak with them, they also make newborn sized ones that you can use from birth. Their customer service is amazing too.

Just a fyi - I'd stay away from anything microfibre, it leaks under compression (like a sponge basically) and a lot of the more well known brands use it (bambino mio for one!)