Alva Baby reusable nappies

[BeHereNowx32]

Hi!

Does anyone have experience of Alva baby reusable nappies? Or recommend a good starter kit, please.

I have been wanting to start reusables for a while now. And I know it’s best to try different nappies. But they cost so much!
These are a good price on amazon.

I’m also not the best at keeping up with washing, so something easy would be great!
Thanks!

I like my Alva over little and bloom. Strongly suggest getting on the cloth nappy Facebook groups I have clothed for a year and they have been a fountain of knowledge.

From what I gather the pockets themselves are fine, as are Littlez and Bloomz off ebay, but the inserts that come with them are rubbish.
So you could buy the pockets but buy better quality inserts, such as the bamboo ones from Little Lamb.

I use size 1 or size 2 prefolds / terries as inserts. Much cheaper and for us more absorbant that even hemp.

I’m using them and they seem fine so far. No leaks and they are better than my tots bots I think. Don’t be put off by the price, I think it’s easy to get sucked into spending £££ on reusable when they all do the same job

Thanks everyone. Will give them a try, then look into the inserts etc. Good tip!

@Katnisnevergreen they did seem too good to be true with the price! Good to know they work well.

Thanks!

I own Alva baby nappies now!

@Loosemoose28 @Mamamooligans @Katnisnevergreen what do you wash them in? Non-bio powder?

Thanks!

I had the charcoal version of these with my first and they were great! I was very suprised because they were so cheap. I have no idea if the white / non charcoal ones were any good though.

Non -bio and half as much as you think you need, and on the wettest cycle if you're not pre soaking (nothing eco).

Non bio powder not liquid and I do a cold rinse, long wash on 60 and then another cold rinse.
I use about 2/3 the amount of powder the box says to use. It will look mega bubbly but that’s what the second rinse is for. They should smell clean but not of powder when they are done.
For best results the machine should be about 3/4 full when it’s wet. You need enough to agitate the nappies but not too much that there is not room to move.

Depending on how old your baby is, you might also want to use disposable liners, breast milk poo is soluable and can just go in the machine and will wash off, when they are weaning you need to get the poo off first so I use paper liners which I can then throw away or people use fleece and rinse them before washing
Good luck!!!

@Chwaraeteg these are white, so I hope just as good! Thanks

@SeptemberDays thanks for the advice

@Katnisnevergreen ok, thanks for advice on liners. Baby’s poo is still pretty soft! She is 20 weeks, so will buy some liners for weaning.

Hoping this works out ok. Just enough for trial just now.

Let me know how you get on with them, I have a bundle of miosolos off ebay but not a full supply, and the price of alva is appealing.

If anyone else comes to this thread looking to try them, the trial scheme on fillyourpants (£10 if you end up sending back) includes an alva nappy.

@Triskaidekaphilia will let you know. I’ll need to wash them first, so it could be a couple of days yet. Hope they’re ok. Baby does have really full nappies often.

@daisydoooo oh, every 2 hours is quite a lot! My baby seems to have full nappies a lot! Slightly nervous now!

@Triskaidekaphilia first day of using the nappies so far. They seem good! I’ve had to change every couple of hours because DD had a poo (which the nappy held all in). About to pop out to the local shops with one on, so will see how that goes.

I’m using the two inserts and a liner. Which makes the nappy look massive! Are all cloth nappies like this?!

It will take me some getting used to, but I’m happy to give it a go, then maybe get braver and try other nappies

@BeHereNowx32 yes, they are pretty bulky! We use pockets, sometimes Alva, with two inserts and a fleece liner and they look quite big. I'm not sure there's a way to get them slimmer really. Little Lamb inserts are not too bulky which helps.

@GinMama1 ok, thanks. Will take a look. Do you have any recommendations for a night time nappy? I’ve put a disposable on DD for tonight. Wondering if I will need a different style of insert.

I used Alva Juniour at night and sometimes need an extra insert. I wopuld say a good day nappy but not best for heavy wetters. (But on par with many other pockets.)

@BeHereNowx32 we've never been brave enough to do reusables overnight!

@june2007 @GinMama1 hi! The nappies are working well. But after washing, they still smell of pee 😔 I’ve just been putting on a 60 mins cycle... would a 90 be better?! It doesn’t say temperatures on my machine.. also, just using a normal store brand washing powder (non bio)
thanks

Non bio powder is fine but the wash definitely sounds a bit short, do you have a handbook at all that would tell you which cycle is which? I do my nappies (a mix of Alva and little bloom pockets mostly) on a hygiene cycle, which has a pre-rinse and then washes them at 60° - it lasts about 2 hours.

@Littlehouseinthebigcity thank you. I do have some pre rinse settings. I’ll try different ones. The hand book will hidden in a cupboard somewhere! But I will try longer wash.

@Littlehouseinthebigcity actually, one says pre 60. Which sounds similar to what you use. Will try that one next time!

I do a rinse first, and then a full wash at 40. Our wash cycle is pretty long. Apparently it usually works best if the machine is about 3/4 full, so after the rinse I add other stuff to the machine too.