Cloth nappies with twins

[Cosmogirl86]

I am due my twins in August and I am a first time mum.

I know I have months to sort this out but I am already looking into nappies. I decided before trying to concieve I would use cloth nappies, but when my scan revealed twins, I'm concerned I'm crazy.

Can I cloth nappy twins? Or is it just too much work?

Also, drying inside on radiators, clothes horse etc isn't an option however I have a line outside and a tumble dryer.

I have twins and had the same thoughts as you about cloth nappies. I decided against it and went with disposables.

In the first 3 months we were averaging about 20 nappies a day.... that's a whole lot of washing.

I would say start with disposables and then move to cloth later (if you want to) once things have calmed down.

Congrats! Join tamba!

Uh yeah, you'd be insane especially in the early months. Maybe see how much sleep you get first. Newborns can get through ten nappies a day, plus all the puke and poopy clothes, and your clothes getting milky and sicky and sweaty and bloody... That's a lot of washing. You'll want to sleep rather than do laundry.

You can reduce landfill by other measures - biodegradable nappies if you can afford them, using cheeky wipes instead of wet wipes, buying secondhand, avoiding pre-pack baby food etc.

We had twins as DC 2&3 - had cloth nappied DC 1 so went ahead and did cloth most of the time with twins. Was a lot of washing but think how much you are keeping out of landfill...! We washed every day in the first few months, but you could have more nappies and not wash so much especially with the larger washing machines you get these days (twins are now 10yo)

My washing machine holds up to 11kg so I'm not too concerned about daily washing, I could easily do that alternative days.

I was considering using muslins first as an initial nappy with fleece liner and wrap, until they grow into a birth to potty size. It's really important that I can tumble dry though during poor weather as I don't dry laundry indoors due to a previous issue with damp

I used cloth on my twins (who are now 14) and also had a 2 year old in cloth as well. Despite being incredibly crap at housework stuff it actually worked and they were in cloth till they toilet trained.

I tumble dried them all the time during winter, no problems at all or I wouldn't have done it!

Also cloth nappies are really really cute.

I looked into cloth nappies as well but knew I'd probably struggle with the extra washing. In the end I went with Naty eco nappies. They are plant based which I thought was great and dd never once had nappy rash. You can get them in boots and Sainsburys and I'm sure other shops now or direct from the website I think.

Your simplest options would be prefolds and wraps once the babies out wee muslins. It's absolutely achievable. Check out www.uknappynetwork.org and contact your local library. Well fitting cloth nappies can massively reduce poo leaks so you may not have appreciably more laundry than if using single use Nappies.

Thank you so much for that! I admit that I don't know much about prefolds. Are they tricky to get the hang of?

I've been in touch with the nappy lady and she recommended bum genius pocket nappies with a seperate wrap, but my issue with that is the drying time. Can prefolds also we used at night time?

I have contacted my local cloth nappy group and am waiting on a response

Prefolds can certainly be used at night. You'd probably need to boost them with hemp or bamboo as the babies grew. The Nappy Lady's advice is understandable, but Bumgenius pockets are microfiber which though it dries easily, actually isn't anywhere near as absorbent as cotton and other more natural fibres.