Toddler nappies: looking ahead do i see a large bill looming....

[micromummy]

doing quite well at the moment with (cheap) prefolds and terries in a variety of wraps on 4 month-old but wondering how they could cope with the mobility/weeing skills of a 1 to 2 year old...just looked at shaped nappies and while very cute horrified to see about £8 each...how many do you need???help!! budget ideas appreciated
in the middle of moving house at the moment; great fun...

hiya
am a bit of a novice myself (to cloth, not babies) but my 19mo is the one in the nappies...
have been told that about 16 should cover it for washing every other day. i have a few more of the pocket variety... and am building a stash of night nappy options in tandem.

there are places/ forums in which to buy second hand... might that help with costs? i know i'll be giving all mine away when im done with them- have a couple of procreating cousins in mind .

even if you get a bit carried away, like i, it still works out cheaper than disposables, so there is at least that to think about.

OH, just remembered - theres a thread on here about people who make their own, complete with links to patterns and instructions etc. all looks very doable too.

good luck!

I had a newborn and 18 month old in terries, the eldest was about 27 months when I finished using them with him because mainly they just weren't absorbent enough, but also I couldn't get the plastic pants big enough - they kept cutting the tops of his legs. Mobility wise I found them o.k, just really bulky! Shen he was between 1 and 2 he always seemed to be soaking wet at night. I only ever used the terry squares. I didn't realise how poorly absorbent they were until I changed to disposables. Good luck!

Yup, 16 would be more than enough to do every 3 days washing. Second hand is perfect (various sites to buy from), also you could stagger the cost and start buying them NOW iyswim, just one every now and then so not a big bulk spend.

forgot to add - no tumble dryer if that affects number of nappies needed...what second hand sites? am happy to do folding but dh may well not be, hence interest in shaped nappies for later when i go back to work and he takes over the nappying duties.
thanks again

www.usednappies.co.uk
www.thenappylady.co.uk has a classifieds section.

If you look in the small business section on here then I (Bumfluff Nappies) have a classifieds section too.

www.clothnappyaddicts.co.uk have a buy/sell board too.

For second hand there is a section on my nappy blog here UKParentsLounge is good for a great variety of nappies, and there are a few other places springing up since Ebay banned the sale of second hand nappies.
Hope that helps a bit

You can double layer terries (although it is bulky), but a good option is bamboo nappies, but in terry squares rather than shaped, as they're much cheaper then shaped. Not sure who sells them (we don't) - Flame? NN?

You can also pop bamboo boosters (which all of us sell I think) into a folded cotton terry to add more absorbancy. These are really cheap and

AND (oops sorry) nice and slim, and really cheap, too!

Bear in mind that bamboo does take longer to dry than cotton, but it does stay softer.

HTH

Nappyzone sells em atm

I would leave any actual purchase of nappies till she is ready for a bigger size. Just do lots of research in the meantime - there are new nappy styles out all the time and you want to try every style.

I made my own larger sized ones when ds1 grew out of size ones at 6 rotten months. DS2 was out of them even quicker. But if we'd bought birth to potty instead of sized nappies we'd still have needed a 2nd larger set as my two boys are very tall.

And I knitted my own organic wool soakers too . I'm not an earth mother or anything, just REALLY TIGHT

ahem. is awool soaker the same as a wool wrap?

good ideas everywhere...like the idea of some second hand ones to try a few styles. Also like the idea of bamboo squares/boosters but would have to train dh on folding. i have a few bamboo prefolds for nighttime which are very very absorbent and fluffy but do take about twice as long to dry as cotton.
maybe nearer the time i will try and get a mixed batch of trial nappies to see what suits....

Yup, soaker and wrap/pants are the same

Second hand is definitely the way forward

I've been using washables for 2.5 years now, and just recently started buying second hand (2 nappy wearers in the house) and wish I'd thought to do it sooner

You can also sell on any out-grown nappies and wraps to help fund your purchases of course

Wool soaker, I had never heard of until I went on some US nappy/diaper knitting sites and that's what they called woolly shorts, the kind you pull up with a drawstring or elastic in the waist. I think that's pretty much what a soaker is.
A wool wrap I think is more like the shape and style of a regular PUL wrap, like Mother-ease airflow or Cotton bottoms. You usually put the wrap on the baby when he/she is lying down (if the baby is in a helpful mood) and they are fastened like a wrap with poppers or velcro.
Or at least that's how I understand the two things.

this may be a stupid question (sorry), but which is nappyzone's website?
Put ds1 2.6 (he lived in disposables) in a terry square (over his dinosaur pants) just to see what one lookes like on a toddler - he thought it was hilarious but wanted it off pronto, so no idea if it would have stayed on. Nappy nippas arrived today - they are brilliant and may decide to go the flat nappy way if i can just get a bit neater at folding (currently bulging badly round the legs...)

Micromummy, I started off with terry squares, apart from the bulk around the legs, when the baby gets active there was no way I could pin either of them down enough to get a folded nappy under him, keep it folded ANd do it up.
Thats why I made my own shaped ones, they are each cut from a flat nappy.
The place I bought the wool from to knit my soakers does organic fluffy flat nappies which look devine, his website is under construction at the mo www.naturalclothing.co.uk
His wool soaker pattern and wool give you a shape that suits flat nappies and their 'legs' perfectly.
(sorry flame but you don't stock his lines so no competition sort of thing?)

I started out with prefolds, pretty much exclusively for the first four or five months and then started to add fitted nappies one at a time. I did also have four terry squares, which I loved, but I was so rubbish at folding them and at about 7 months my son would boot all my folded nappies and destroy them. It was most frustrating. I did find nippa'd prefolds a bit easier than folded terries, they were more kind of rigid and less likely to flop out of shape.
You can get bigger prefolds, up to toddler size, which can also be nippa'd.
Have you found much on the second hand forums so far?

tbh getting ds1 into his night nappy requires all four of my limbs most evenings...and that's a disposable. Plus he is very good at removing them and has been for about two years. Toddlers are not helpful little people at all. Wonder how my mum managed? note: she tried to change a disposable (first time) the other day and it ended up on backwards and leaked big time . Baby thought it was hilarious. Was very grateful anyway as house move made much nicer by parents' visit.
So far most of the second hand stuff has been for small babies so will keep an eye on it and buy a few nappies to try when ds2 is a bit bigger.

also try www.mumsonline.com they have a nappy section.

i've never bought a brand new nappy (although ds was bought one for xmas)

thanks all for advice...will definitely try a few styles out once ds a bit bigger and will do some second-hand hunting too

bamboo terry squares here. They also sell the material if anyone makes their own shaped nappies.