can anyone recommend reusables for a newborn?

[insywinsyspider]

have one ds 13mo who has been in reusables since he was 10lb (think that was about 6 weeks) up till then we used disposables - expecting number 2 in Dec and would love to put them in reusables earlier, any advice for a good nappy to look at?

Flamesparrow has reusables - pretty colours and everything.

I have a whole stack of terries (my mum never throws any thing out it seems!!) but I found them difficult on ds when he was 10lb (bulky and dh wasn't keen on folding - I need him on board for this one! and don't want to undo all my hard work as he loves the poppolinis) - what fold did you use for a newborn? anyone out there used muslin??

I have heard that muslins in a small wrap are good too. I will try it if all goes well. Kittykins have generous sized muslins.

any recommendations of which wrap to use?

Snap insywinsy. I am due in four weeks and dd is 17 months. I tried the onelife btp nappies which are almost identical to motherease and found they came down to dd's knees. Ended up using disposables until she was 3 months old as she was very small. This time I am determined to do reusable from birth.

I have bought the little ewe generously sized muslins from kittykins and actually think they are a little big, but will let you know! They advised me that if breastfeeding, a small snug wrap is best and bought some extra small rikki wraps. They recommended the origami fold which is dead easy. Think that velcro/aplix wraps are easier and less likely to leak than the airflow popper types. Having said that a friend of mine told me the only time she had leaks was when she borrowed a disposable and she used airflow.

Hope this helps, but will let you know how I get on. (I have bought one small packet of nature boy and girl nappies for midwives at my home birth though!)

Oh and we are still using aplix wraps. DD isn't that inquisitive, but then she doesn't have a penis to play with!

Bimbles are loooovely on newborns, or for absolutely gorgeous there are the swaddlebees organic cotton velours in newborn size... they have a little popper down bit to stop the cord rubbing too!!

second flame.. I have mostly bimbles and they are fab, i think the kissaluvs are popular too but i´ve not tried them. My 8 week old is still in the bimbles but not sure for how much longer. Still, I picked them up second hand so it doesn´t bother me so much that they won´t last long. Bambineo´s size 1 are also good.. I did LOVE my swaddlebees´organic velour when I got it, it is so so cute BUT personally I do think it´s quite a ´show´ nappy and he seems to have outgrown it really quickly.. definitely worth having one or two but they´re quite expensive compared to e.g. bimbles so it depends on your budget..

Oh, and ME rikki wraps. I used small which were fine but for the next baby would get one or two extra small just for a super slim fit.

FWIW I also intended to try muslins as a newborn nappy and didn´t even get as far as trying! Shaped nappies all the way for me!

HTH

depends how big they are. If they are a good size then you can go straight into something like motherease one-size or small tots.

If they are tiny - then just fold a terry square into an oblong and sit it in the wrap. I even used muslins to start with because mine were really little.

folded muslin in a newborn sized wrap- the junior joy finn ones are good value (especially as they will grow out of it quite quickly!)

quick hi jack question, Just had a look a t the Swaddlebees on flames website and they are LOVLEY!!! Do you also need a wrap with there , whiich ones?

The newborn swaddlebees? Yup, they need a wrap. The pocket or all in ones don't (so if they are in the shaped section, they do)

Does that make sense?

Another question here - how many would you experienced users recommend needing to buy?? Can't seem to see this anywhere.

muslins chinese folded (standard nappy fold) and nippa'd work great for us. work on changing every couple of hours or so, so a dozen if washing every day, 20+ if every other.

muslins dry in minutes too

Not overly experienced but we started with 16 shaped nappies and this was enough to wash every other day but sometimes left us a bit short so we had to use a couple of disposables while waiting for them to dry.. then bought another 6 now (but have just gone ahead and got size 2s) so we can still wash every other day but still have enough reusables clean to use while the clean ones are drying. IYSWIM. Of course if you can wash every day then 16 would be fine. And I think we have about 5 wraps which is more than enough.

Speaking of which, I have nappies to go hang out..

Right, so for a complete novice at this (only changed a couple of disposables in my entire life let alone a reusable) what would you recommend starting out with ? The muslin/wrap combination or something else like the shaped ones ?

God am clueless

Well I was a complete novice too.. intended to TRY muslins but I know myself pretty well and also got in shaped nappies. Muslins you will need anyway so get a bunch of them cos if you don´t use them as nappies you will for just about everything else! Then maybe get a couple of shaped nappies and see what you think?

For me, folding just seemed a step too far - lol - and I´m pretty sure dh would have drawn the line there..so shaped were what worked for me, but muslins seem to work for loads of people and if they do, they´ll be tons cheaper..

Ah ok, that seems very sensible to me. Just that I saw those swaddlebees one size and wondered if it was just too good to be true, and how many I'd need

The advice I was given time and again was to try several different kinds before you commit yourself and it worked for us. I picked up quite a few second hand and then added a few new. It did help because I got a great idea for what I wanted in size 2 which is the bigger commitment because they´ll be in them for quite a long time.

I didn´t like the idea of second hand at first but gave it a shot and they were in great condition, besides size 1s are used for such a short time on most babies (think mine will be out of his by the time he hits 3 months).

So you think hitting ebay is the way forward then !! (I really appreciate you taking the time to give advice btw)

Yup 18-24 is about right to wash every other day.

I prefer shaped, mainly because I know DH couldn't master folding.