Cloth nappies - what am I doing wrong?

[cactusrevolution]

Started using cloth nappies with 4mo DD. Can't work out how to handle nappies with poo in without making a horrific mess!

As DD hasn't started solids yet, the poos are still pretty sloppy (sorry - TMI!). I'm changing her on a mat in her room. Have to take the entire nappy to the bathroom to ditch the flushable liner in the toilet. This gets rid of a good amount, but there's always quite a bit left on the insert and usually some that's got into the outer wrap, so I don't feel I can ditch these in the dry nappy pail without trying to clean some of this off. I followed advice online to "rinse the liner in the toilet bowl by flushing the toilet", but find this really ineffective - basically end up with a sopping liner with most of the poo still intact, which I then have to wring out into the toilet bowl, getting poo all over my hands, and transport back to the nappy pail in my daughter's room, inevitably with pooey (is that even a word?) water dripping all over the floor.

We haven't progressed to reusable wipes yet for poos (and tbh, it feels like the problem would be the same with them), and am also trying to work out how to deal with them - either have to troop downstairs with a pile of poo covered wipes to put in our kitchen bin which has a liner, or put in a separate bin in the bedroom, which is used only for poo covered wipes (and which therefore has to have a separate plastic liner, which feels very wasteful).

Most of the advice seems to be to do a nappy wash every 2 days, but the nappy pail contains soaked nappies covered in poo and absolutely stinks by the end of one day.

Any cloth nappy veterans who can tell me what I'm doing wrong?! Don't want to give up on cloth nappies before we've even really started, but this is not fun!

It doesn't matter of they have poo on, just put them in your wet nappy bucket, and then in the wash after a day or so (whenever you are doing the wash).

Keep lid on bucket and smell doesn't come out

Put nappy bin in the toilet and just put them in the wash at night. It doesn't matter about the poo x

Wetbag for your room to put liner and wipes in?

I wasn't quite sure from your post but just checking you know that so called "flushable" liners don't biodegrade fast enough and should not be put down the toilet. I find it too much hassle binning pooey liners so I use fleecy liners that go in the wash with the nappies.

I find liners more problematic than no liner (plus the disposible ones arenot very environmentally friendly and aren't flushable even if they say they are).

With poo prior to weaning my routine is:

1. Undo nappy (and if really big poo remove straight to pail at this point)
2. Wipe baby with reusable wipe.
3. Put nappy and wipe in dry pail - taking out nappy insert if required.
4. Use reusable wipe to clean nappy mat if necessary,
5. Clean nappy on baby
6. Wash hands.
7. Wash nappies every 2-3 days. (Cold rinse first, before main wash cycle). Never had a problem with smells (other than when you open the lid of the pail, but you get that with wee anyway and it's not particular bad)

I'm wondering if by having water in the mix it's making your smell worse?

Pre-weaning poop is soluble so no need to remove/rinse. Just pop into nappy bucket until there's enough nappies for a wash. A cold rinse followed by a full wash. No need to use liners until baby starts to wean. 'Flushable' liners aren't flushable, they need to be binned or may cause a blockage. Reusable wipes can just be used and put in the nappy bucket for washing with the nappies. No need for rinsing and much easier than disposable wipes that then need to be binned separately.

The Nappy Lady has lots of guidance on this, you can watch via her YouTube channel, you might find it helpful!

So, keep the dry pail with a nappy net inside in the bathroom.

Change the nappy, putting the dirty stuff to one side inside the wrap.

Take the wrap into the toilet to sort. Rinse down the loo anything that will go. Put the rest in the lidded bin. Wash hands.

Every other day, take the bucket to the wash machine, lift the net out and into the machine. The nappies will tumble out while washing. You may want to rinse the bucket and put a few drops of lavender essential oil in the bottom.

As baby gets bigger the poos will get more formed and flushable.

Don't try and wash it off. We use fleece liners that can go straight in the nappy bucket. With reuseable wipes we use cheeky wipes. we don't use oil for the clean ones just leave them in a tub of water and the "mucky" wipes go in the tub with water and a few drops of tea tree oil. We don't have any issues with smells. I wash the bucket out when the nappies are in the washing machine every other day, dry it and start again

Pre-weaning poop straight in the bucket. You only need to start flushing etc when they start solids.

After getting rid of the bulk of the poo and the liner, I used to soak mine in a nappy bucket; we had stuff called Napisan, a powder which was mixed with the water. After a good soak they'd go in the washing machine on a 90o wash. You don't need Napisan though (if it is still sold), any sort of soap powder/stain remover will do. I used gentle stuff in the washing machine. Mine only ever pooed once a day, I suppose I was fortunate in that. It would be a big one but never runny, just normal.

Those were the days. Disposable nappies were not so popular then but I used them when away on holiday and towards the end of him being in nappies. They were marvellous! However they seem to be going out of fashion now because of environmental concerns.

That sounds like a lot of effort pre-weaning! Formula and breastmilk poo can go straight in the machine because its water soluble.

I always use full dose of powder (ariel), rinse cycle first then long wash at 60. Not had any problems with nappies or machine 🙂

Just chuck them in the bucket and do a pre rinse in your washing machine. I don’t use liners.

Hello,

I am using fleece liner in each nappy before my lo started solids I would just put the nappy and liner in nappy bin if there was lots of it I would scrape some off liner with toilet paper and would flush that down the toilet..the fleece liner is a good size and literally covers whole inside of nappy so there was hardly anything on it once I took the liner out, even if was I would just put the nappy into the nappy bin..lid on or just leave tiny bit uncovered doing the wash every other day never had issues with stains or smells now he is on solids poo is solid and just peels of the liner straight to toilet..
Wipe wise I have white cotton Terry for happy change and color microfibre for hands and face both types from cheeky wipes absolutely brilliant I didn't buy the boxes just got cheap plastic box from Asda and both are in there dry and I wet as I go, nappy ones go into nappy bin, face ones go in any other wash.

I can highly recommend the fleece liners they are the bambinex brand but I know some people just buy fleece blanket and cut themselves

And when washing do a separate cold rinse cycle first before the main hot long wash

I found this which might be of interest to someone who doesn't want to use cloth nappies:

www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/kids/best-reusable-nappy-ecofriendly-nappies-liners-landfill-waste-a9033136.html

One thing I have learnt - to my cost - is that some reusable wipes/liners are just the right size to get stuck in the washing machine filter pipe. I have had to take the washing machine apart many a time only to find one stuck. And the washing machine repair man found one wrapped around the element once too. If I had my time over I would have put them all in a separate mesh bag thing.

Thank you so much everyone. Will follow through on these recommendations and see if they make things a bit easier!

General advice seems to be to ditch liners for now, and use re-usable liners once DD starts on solids. Out of curiosity, what's the point of using any liner at all if it's just going to go in the washing machine with the insert and the wrap? Seems that you end up with lots of poo on either the insert or the re-usable liner. Is there any problem in just using the insert without a liner if this is the case?

I don't use liners (on my second in cloth), just flick weaning poo off the nappy and into the loo. Some people seem to find flicking easier off a liner than off the nappy itself, others are worried about staining - I've only had 2 stains in over 3 years, one came out on its own after a couple more washes and the other disappeared after a day out on the line in the sunshine.

Fleece liners are extra comfy for the baby I reckon. Also easier to hold and flush, if that's what you do- they don't absorb the poo, they are stretchy, so you can detach the poo by flapping/stretching the liner a bit!

I didn't bother with liners until they were on solid food. And we had two nappy buckets (both lidded), one with water with a couple of drops of tea tree or lavender oil in for soaking poopy nappies, and one with no water for putting wet but poo free nappies in. Found it easier to fish through less poop when loading the washing machine.

My DS is nearly 11 months and I’m not using liners at all. I just tip anything solid into the toilet. No issues with staining.

Thank you all - really helpful to know how you all do / don't use liners.

I didn’t use liners until weaning and poo became more like poo. Didn’t bother soaking nappies either, nobody wants to put their hands in that soup when poo is more solid shake it off into the loo. Sticky bits you can dedicate an old spoon as a poo spoon if you want!
A pre rinse was plenty. Make sure you don’t use fabric conditioner as it can interfere with absorbency.
If the bucket is a bit whiffy take a spare nappy insert, give it a liberal shake of the tea tree oil and stick it on the underside of the lid.

I used old clothes cut up into rags (any size I needed) & binned the poopy rag (but could wash the wet onlies to reuse). Soaking was a recipe for extra mess so I didn't try that for long, either. Dry pail only.

We have lots of old clothes so plenty of rag material; rags would just go in bin, otherwise.