Worth having reusable nappies for one child only

[ShopoholicIn]

Hi,
I want to go for reusable nappies for my 7 week old DD but i wont be having any more kids. Looking at the economies, is it wpeth going for it. I do want to do it for the environment impact of it, but want to understand if it will save any money as the initial cost of it is very high. I don't want to go for used nappies and the people selling on ebay all mark it as new and mention it is stained n bought preloved etc.. I have joined the nappy lady fb group .. but would prefer to buy new.
From the blogs n videos i have seen I will need 25-30 nappies. So approximately 300£+.

Also with the liners do they get very heavy and huge for the baby? I have got the tester pack from tots bots and even with smallest fitting it will be big for my LO as she has a thin waist. Any advise..

Also i use pampers atmo and with every poo there is a leakage. I wonder if this is happening with disposables what will be the case with reusable.. more leakage..

And washing the dirty nappy with other clothes, even after removing the poo seems , seems strange... does the smell not go into other clothes?

I wouldn't normally bother until about 12 weeks or so then the birth to potty nappies will fit a slim baby much better than now.

I had fewer leaks with reusable during the day, but have stuck to disposables at night.

My usual recommendation (the nappy lady) is now shut for purchases but I'd try Little Lambs BTP. Having reusables is really useful at the moment as our area has a massive shortage of nappies bigger than newborn sizes - so I'm glad I've got them.

I tend to do a nappy wash on its own every other day. Do a wash that uses lots of water (not auto or economy sensor), non bio powder and a sanitiser like miofresh. Capsules and liquids aren't great with absorbent natural fabrics - absolutely no softeners - if you have hard water a quick tumble dry for 5 minutes before air drying softens things up well.

Economically no, it's not worth it for one child if you're buying brand new nappies. You can do disposables for cheaper. But money doesn't have to be the only consideration. There is some value in paying it all out upfront so that you don't have an ongoing cost. You can also recoup some of the cost at the end by selling the nappies on. And as you say, there is an ecological benefit, you may prefer the experience to dealing with disposables, they are cute, better for the skin, etc.

But be aware you might not love them as much as you want to. I always like the idea of washable nappies and then in reality they are too bulky, need to be changed much more often, seem to leak more, can build up nasty smells if you aren't careful about how you wash and store them and tbh I end up going back to disposable every time.

I don't love reusables - but I'm seriously glad I did them. First DC was actually less fussy about wet nappies in them. Second DC I barely used them until now.

If you go traditional and use folded terry squares with covers then it can definitely be worth it, even for 1 child. If you follow a few websites where they sell them, keep an eye out for the sales and don't be picky about the patterns.

If you are doing birth to potty, make sure you go for popper fasteners and not velcro as they don't last as well.

The covers can be sold when you have finished with them and the terry squares are really useful. We put ours through a hot wash, cut them into quarters and now use them as dishcloths. They go on forever, are really absorbent and mean that we don't need to buy dishcloths either.

I also found that so many people have an odd washable or two which was a gift or they thought they would try out but never did, we ended up with a load of different types of nappies.

Littlez and bloom on. Amazon I found to be a good brand and reasonably priced. I mainly use bum genius flips and you generally change the pad inside unless a poo.

For small baby you can just use prefolds or Terry squares with wraps..these are not overly expensive..
When your baby is big enough you can start with btp size..you said you want all new, with a good wash routine and care you will be able to sell them on once you done with them, some nappies are keeping the value very well..so even if you spend more than £300 you can get some money back when you sell them and the cost of disposables will be much more overall until potty training..

Some systems like 'all in two' can be more cost effective as you can reuse the wrap few times and just change inserts..

We use cloth nappies full time for my 11m old, I wash nappies and wipes separate, not with my clothes. Cold rinse first followed by long hot wash and extra rinse, washing every other day, never had problem with stains or smells, nappies are coming out clean.

I am using these since my lo was 4 months and I never had a leak, overnight the night system we using lasts easily 12+ hours with no issue.

Finally feel of cloth is much more nicer then the feel of plastic nappy. The feeling that I am not sending any to rot in landfill for next 450 years is also great.

Seconding Littlez & Bloom, I've got 18 (i think) with lots and lots of extra inners, i think my total spend was around £150 and i absolutely love them.

RE washing, i put ours on a 15min rinse and spin first, and then put them in with the rest of our clothes after.

Thake everyone for your response and i am very sorry for not replying so far.
@randomsabreuse- yes I am planning to use disposable for night but reusable during the day. Sad that The Nappy Lady sales have stopped till the govt gives a too ahead for businesses to resume operation. I am looking at Ebay.
@BertieBotts hi thanks yes i am wary of the fact that it will be too many changes n it will be a bulky nappy and maybe DD will have to be put in a bigger size clothes .. hence i think i am going to go with a few from littlez and bloom and see how I get along.

@Crackerofdoom, @onedream- hi Thanks for the suggestion of try squares. i had not looked at it will do so.

@Nix2020, @SomeoneElseEntirelyNow- I am going to order some from littlez and bloom.. I am just trying out the all in one today. I think they only sell pocket nappies.

I only used reusables with my youngest...15 years on and some of my terry squares are still used for general mopping up spills etc

I think disposables will be way more expensive than £300 - I had to buy my neighbour some emergency nappies the other day - Pampers size 6 were £9 a pack!

If you get about 8 then use them every few days (washing between) it won't cost heaps but will still save you money on disposables after a couple of goes.

@ShopoholicIn
The nappy lady will be open to orders on Wednesday from around 6pm but will take only around 80 new orders..if they manage to process them all on Thursday, website reopens again at around 6pm for another lot of orders..hope this helps in case you wanted to order something from there x

I’d try a couple of cheapies in different styles first. Ds1 can’t wear reusables because of his skin, the warmth flares up his eczema and no matter the style they seem to rub.

Hopefully ds2 will fit into them soon enough and not run into the same issues.

We got a birth to potty mio kit on eBay for £80 ish if I remember rightly, The nappy lady seems expensive and her “recommendation consultation form” that claims to be personalised pretty much blanked my question about ds’s skin and just sent 3 nappy kits of highish price ranges including one similar to the one we have.

They are bulky and will make some outfits not fit the same, vest extenders are handy but obviously they don’t make the bum of dungarees etc any bigger.

I use reusables full time and have done since dd was 3 months. I don’t find them overly bulky or needing to be changed that often but even when I used disposable ones I didn’t change excessively. I would go for Alva over little and bloomz just because the l&b come each individually packaged in plastic from China which defeats the point of trying to reduce waste. I like baba and boo for day time but these are expensive. My best advice is go for cheap outlets e.g Alva then mix and match inserts until you find what suits you. I really like little lambs two parters for overnight, they are bombproof as are bamboozles. I highly recommend a nappy library if you have one, then you can try lots of different styles and brands before you commit to buying.
Also look on Facebook for secondhand ones, lots of mine are preloaded and then they can still be sold on afterwards. Don’t buy into the motherease hype or the more obsessive mums on Facebook with their collections. It’s a scary world out there!!

I'm surprised by the number of people saying they
use reusable during the day but disposables at night. Although I haven't used them myself yet as I'm not due until July my friend has used them with both her babies exclusively and she says they actually perform better at night than disposables. In addition, you can purchase boost liners that means they stay drier at night and so often you don't even need to change throughout the night if they are just wet.

In terms of economics if you look at the Whatprice website nappy cost calculator it shows that using disposables from birth through to 2 years is a total cost of nearly £800 so that is far more expensive in the long run than reusables even if you do buy new. Of course it's the upfront costs with the reusables but if you can afford that then the cost is far less than disposables.

My friend also said that you don't really get the poonamis that you get with disposables because the reusables are a lot more secure with either velcro or the poppers and most of them are adjustable to fit if you find one that is for smaller babies that adjust as they grow.

I would also be aware that you don't actually need to change as much as the disposables companies claim that you do - remember they make money off you using more of their product :-)

It is worth doing.
You can sell them on and you very soon get less precious about faint stains when a nappy has been sterilised and boil washed, its nothing but discolouration. It helps to be relaxed about these things.

I had 24 nappies for two children at the same time. I'd allow for 3 days worth of nappies and get birth to potty ones.
Regarding nights, it's different for everyone but once ours got over 2 years old the sheer volume of night wet was just too much. It's no big deal to use one disposable a day.

Also regardless of economics you are keeping a massive volume of waste out of landfill.

For me its worth it as saves bin getting filled with dirty nappies (not frequently collected here), saves me remembering to buy more, is effectively a one off cost (and can resell if i like in future) and with current issues of not easily getting stock or out and about its a reasurance.

Yes. Look after them and sell them in after to get some money back.

A lot of the manufacturers are still selling such as tots bots and baba boo. Try their own websites in the absence of the nappy lady.

From around 3 months, birth to potty ones fit well (obviously they look large on the young babies and you'll need bigger clothes to go over - after a few more months you don't notice the difference).

But if you're interested in helping the environment, why not get some used ones - specify excellent condition if you prefer. It makes it easier to try different brands and see what you like.

I calculated that thanks to a £40 voucher for dc2, which I spent on a couple new wraps and more first-size nappies, I spent approx £20 on nappies for two children. Mostly on paper liners and detergent. Not to be sniffed at!

My baby is 4 weeks old and we've been using a combination of both disposables and reusables. We had a voucher from the council for £30 which we put towards a Bambino mio pack and then bought a totsbots trial pack for half price which means we've spent £50 on 8 resuables (we were supposed to be getting a council loan kit as well but that's stopped due to Covid-19).

At home I use the reusables first and then disposables when I've run out and then disposables if we're going out for the day (obviously not at the moment!). I then use disposables at night as the reusables are a bit bulky whilst he's still little and mean he doesn't lie completely flat - fine during the day as he's not spending much time on his back but not ideal say night.

Totally worth doing and I would strongly recommend doing reusables at night- they’re more absorbent and more comfortable, my baby’s been in them since 8 weeks and I swear they’re the reason he’s slept so well compared to all the other babies in my mum group.
He has also never had nappy rash, not once, and is now 9 months.

We got a bundle of tots bots bamboozle stretchies off eBay for nighttime and built up a collection of all in ones for daytime from eBay too.
Also strongly recommend reusable wipes- you’ll save loads and again, so much kinder on the skin.

The virtuous feeling you get from using washable nappies is priceless.

I'm so confused about people saying it's not worth it?!

They reccomend if using them all the time you have 15-20. Tots bots all in ones are £18 each. Even if you got 20 that is £360.

Our baby is 8 weeks and I am pretty sure we must have spent 60 odd on disposable nappies already!!

Am I missing something? I know you have to pay to wash them but it doesnt add on THAT much!

I use a mix of disposables and reusables - I got a Totsbots sample back and than bought more wraps and liners on eBay. DS is 8 weeks and has just started to outgrow the newborn Peenut size but I find the reusables v useful for days in the house (remember when we used to go out...?) and eg if there is a dirty nappy an hour before bath time, it’s easier to stick on a reusable one. I’d feel like I’d wasted a disposable nappy if it was only a bit wet and wasn’t my on for long.

I find reusables leak a bit more but because I didn’t use them when out and about, it doesn’t really matter.

If you've got a skinny baby then you might have to wait a while before the birth to potty ones fit. I get 6 months out of the newborn/prem l&b nappies (healthy term babies, just skinny) but wouldn't bother for one who's already 8 weeks. I would guess you need to size 3 disposables before they really fit.