Nappyholics, help me convince my sister.

[MrsDoolittle]

She is 6 months pregnant, she's tentatively said to me she would like to try reusables but her dh is very suspicious.
I'm aware that the Environment Agency has produced a study, although I haven't read it, which says that reusable are not more environmentally friendly than disposables. Her dh relished supplying me with this information.

I have said that it might be a good idea to wait a couple of months once the baby is born until suing reusables - I need her to be strong and I know she is likely to struggle poo.

She has asked me to send her some links, which I will do once I have researched the best possible selection to get her started.
I know that Swaddlebees Organic Velour newborn is a start. I also think she has to try a bambeasy, they are particularly cute once poppered down

So please post your suggestions. Be sure that they melt the heart of the most ardent sceptic - her OH.

(I think he thinks I must be a bit Herdy-Gergy)

Thanks you

ha ha! it should be done - im going to email itv and ask how much lol!!

"newborn poo doesn't require any scraping etc" Don't you remember ^meconium"??

what i remember about meconium is the 3am debate after newborn has fell asleep after a feed and your frightened baby will wake up screaming again for more but your sure a poo has happened and te sleep will be shorter as a result - in our house my dh popped his finger into the nappy and pulled it back out - in the dim light you could see the thick tar stuck to the end of his finger - lol, it still makes me laugh so much!!! You gotta love meconium !

NotaDragon: I can confirm that the meconium washed off our nappies without a problem. The fleecy lined nappies like bimbles are best for this as nothing sticks to 'em!

Urgggh for your DH and the finger in nappy incident Nappyzone

I know what you are saying about starting straight away with reusables, I did with ds but I didn't with dd who was first.
I think you really need to have the courage of your convictions to stick with reusables in the beginning. As much as I love Dsis she can be rather.. err 'lightweight' and I can see her caving in and going disposable when she is tired and sore in the beginning. And supposing dh is doing all the changes??
I think once dh has gone back to work and the 'novelty' of changing nappies has worn off, sis will be strong enough to try the very cute reusable nappies. She won't want to be thinking about the washing machine in the beginning, I know this.
She wants to use reusables but her dh is hugely influential. I'll have to be very careful and not intrude with my enthusiasm.

God, I can't imagine using disposables, but then this doesn't seem so obvious to many people.

So I'm still thinking Swaddlebees and bimbles. I'll ask the easy peasy nappy ladies if they'll do a bamboo bimble with poppers. Now that MUST be persuasive.

Mind you I'm quite impressed by nappyzones endorsement of fuzzibunz...........

And soupdragon?? How did you get on with your Bumgenius nappies?

My DH was always more swayed with price

I've never changed a meconium nappy !!! With DD I was ill after the birth, and my friend & DH did all the early dirty nappies, with DS, DH must have done them

i want another teeny tiny baby just so i can have it laying (asleep) in its little plaggy cot in hospital in a little teeny tiny white fuzzi bunz.... despite being 10 days late with ds i wasnt ready - my ds was in paper for his first days much to my regret now .

Mine was too - his wraps were too big

DS2s first nappy was an organic velour swaddlebees......lasted about 10 secs before it was filled with meconium! Washed out fine though. I have to say as a midwife I have changed loads of meconium nappies and found it didn't do that horrible "stick to the bottom" thing with DS2 as it does with babies in disps, I guess it's cos the gel in the disps draws the moisture out of the mec into the nappy leaving the really hard stuff stuck to all those dinky newborn bottoms....then some serious bottom scrubbing with nasty chemical wipes occurs, erugh!! Much better to have cloth from day one and water and washable wipe.......lecture over now!!

curlywurly - would you recommend the swaddlebees? What nappies do you use now?

i love the Swaddlebees but they are prob the most expensive nappy I have! I currently have two DC in nappies so use quite a few different ones, I love the Baby BeeHinds birth to potty bamboo, but they would swamp all but a very large newborn. I like Motherease Sandy's in extra small for a newborn, small Fuzzi Bunz are also sweet and work well if you are trying to tempt her with little cute nappies! Tots Bots rainbow bots come in gorgeous colours (but are being discontinued ) and I find these are a good all rounder and slimmer than an original tots. The new Bambinex Teddy nappis are very lovely and soft but may look a little big next to a newborn (which often puts people off when they are new to cloth). I could go on....and on and on, but I would just kill the thread!

Ah well I always forget about meconium because we never actually had any in a nappy-dd did most of it down my leg just after being born and the rest on her changing mat the next day.

MrsDoolittle, loved the BumGenius apart from the fact that out of 15, only 5 are usable 1 year on. All the others have "gone" leg or waist elastic or in one case, completely ripped velcro. It may even be less than 5 actually.

Soupdragon, that's poor! I was looking at the Bumgenius and have bought a trial one. Is there anything that you think may have speeded up the wear? e.g. were they tumbled a lot? Not much of a birth to potty nappy if it only lasts a year!

I think it is really important that you point out the negatives as well. the last thing you want is someone who has just had a baby and feels compelled to do the 'right thing' even if it is not working out too well.

This happened to me with BFeeding DS. I had mastitis and severe pain and still I felt I must must do the 'right thing'. As a consequence my bonding was seriously affected.

I'm sure there are many advantages to cloth nappies but I know there are downsides as well. If she feels you are being honest she is much more likely to choose the method that she will stick to.

I never tumble dried them, Liz, there's no need. According to the site I bought them from it was my fault for washing them occasionally at 60 degrees although how this would have affected the bog-standard elastic in the legs/waist I don't know. Bllox IMO, especially as the washing instructions were vague to say the least and washed off the label fairly quickly anyway. If you've got a BG mk2 though, you can wash them at 60. Oh, and make sure the velcro is alwy* fastend to the tabs when wasshing. Apparently because I may occasionally have forgotten, the wear on the velcro was my fault too.

You may gather I'm fairly p-ed off at having spent £200 on a "birth to potty" pack that lasted less than 12 months. When I can be ar$ed I'll have to sit down with the dead ones and replace all the elastic. [sigh]

Oh, and one of them was eaten by my old washing machine but I don't think I can blame BG for that

I have used the same 15 Motherease birth to potty one size for 2 children, DD and DS. Am just about to potty train the second. They are still as good as new. I just bought new wraps(only need 4) for DS as I think the waterproofing eventually goes. I do a wash every 2 days (10 nappies) at 60 and throw in loads of other light cottons that can be washed at 60 with no fabric conditioner, e.g. DH's shirts, tea towels, muslins, etc. So I alwaya have a full load. Nappies hardly ever have poo on them because after the first few months a bub's poo tends to be quite well formed and it is caught by the paper liner and gets flushed. I think ME are brilliant nappies. Check out www.thenappylady.co.uk for brilliant tips on resuables. Am still happy to almost be finally rid of nappies tho'.!! Will be able to sell my nappies second hand now - try doing that with Huggies!