Cloth nappy guidance please!

[mountaingoat83]

Hi all,
Currently 15w pregnant with first baby and starting to try to get a bit organised (but not being too keen!). Definitely looking to use cloth nappies as I always was a bit of a treehugger anyway but also because I've seen lots of people using them and saying the modern ones are great and it's easier than they thought to use them and they have some really cute patterns etc

Trouble is my DH is horrified by the idea of the washing machine being constantly 'full of poo' even when we're washing our clothes, or things like tea towels which would be used near food, and I don't know enough about the subject to reassure him on this point!

Also my mother has told me she tried going full 'earth mother' when I was born in the 80s but just didn't get on with the cloth nappies at all (said it was like trying to wrestle a wriggly baby seal into towel origami ), so is vehement that we shouldn't go down that route. Obviously the modern cloth nappies are not really like the old terry towelling squares at all but she's still made me doubt my thoughts on the matter.

I'd be looking to try to find preloved cloth nappies so I'd quite like to start building a stash now as I know this can take time (compared to just buying a load of new ones)... how can I persuade them?

Thoughts/pros/cons/advice very much appreciated!

B

When the baby is a bit bigger, their poo becomes a bit more solid and it shakes off down the toilet. So the machine is washing something not unlike your pants!

Dry pail- put the wet/soiled nappies in a lidded bucket, no soaking in stinky water. Wash every two of three days.

Shaped nappies are good. I preferred those without Velcro, it just snags on everything. Use a nappy nippa to hold everything together. It's a three armed stretchy prong that grabs the fabric.

I liked pocket nappies. They are basically a nappy shaped layer of fleece stitched to a nappy shaped layer of towelling. There's a hole in the top and you put in extra absorbancy according to the age of the child.

Then a wrap over the top to keep moisture in.

Go to The Nappy Lady website - you fill out s form and they'll come back to you with suggestions of what to buy, three different packages of varying expense. This includes everything - nappy buckets, liners etc

We knew was wanted to try but felt daunted. Bit honestly, it's so easy. I'm amazed and horrified at how many disposable nappies we would have used if we hadn't been using these. Also I so rarely get any leaks with reusables - we went on holiday recently and switched to disposables for ease and had several.

We use Blueberry Simplex and they are light-years away from what your mum would have used. They have poppers so super easy to fit. It's an all in one so no faffing around with inserts. They aren't cheap but 100% worth it.

For poo concerns - get some Napisan or similar which kills all bacteria in your wash/machine. We've never had any issues with the nappy wash affecting our other washes.

If you're keen on reusable nappies definitely check out Cheeky Wipes too - cloth wipes. SO much better than the disposable kind, clean so much better and so easy to use. We love them

Nappy lady and nappy Gurus Facebook groups For research! Breastfed poo can go straight in wash, after weaning you can use liners to Chuck poo down the loo.

Do their recommendation questionnaires but I wouldn’t buy all of one type. Look into each system and the pros and cons. I’ve got a selection of pockets, all in one, and 2 parters. Look for offers and slowly build a stash 😀 I’ve read sooo many reviews on the websites too.
Tots bots do a trial pack for £28, check their website it’s a good deal. I also picked up some little lamb, baba and boo sale items, and some close pop-ins too.

Things to think about, when you are checking what to get.

Velcro goes mental in the wash, attacking other items.

All in ones take longer to dry so you need more.

Stuffables, pockets, separate wraps are a bit more more faff, but very flexible and fast to wash and dry.

I gave up on cloth but I know lots of people love them. So do give it a go but maybe buy a pack of disposables too .

If you're looking for preloved try facebook.

www.facebook.com/groups/107605443250799/?ref=share

They also have a sister group that has lots of info and are great at giving advice. The nappy lady is good too.

Good luck!

The shaped ones didn't exist (90s if they had I hadn't heard of them) when I had my children so I used the Terry squares. They were lovely and not difficult at all. They were also much, much cheaper too. Can you still buy them? As an aside my DC never ever had nappy rash so cloth nappies are great in my opinion.

I've just recently started using reusables on my 5 month old. I'd recommend Little Lambs pocket nappies, although they aren't suitable from birth as baby needs to be a bit bulkier for them to fit.

I ordered a few different, preloved ones on Ebay to try on my little one and crucially, to get DP on board. No way was I going to spend £200 on a cloth nappy set if he was going to refuse to use them. We agreed on which one we liked/which one was easiest to use, and then bought a bundle online.

I soak the pooey naps before putting them in for a wash, they don't go in with other clothes or sheets etc.

Honestly, I'm still getting my head around it and there is a lotttt of washing, but so far, so good 😊 good luck OP!

Also I'd really recommend having a scour of ebay for baby clothes too, loads of barely worn ones on there that will save your pennies and reduce the amount of new stuff you buy!

The Nappy Lady is excellent for advice, there's a questionnaire you can do plus there is a Facebook chat page that is really supportive for all aspects of parenting, not just cloth nappies.

In terms of poo in the machine, pre weaning baby poo is water soluble so just washes away (no different to poo explosions on clothes which then get washed), post weaning you flick solids down the toilet before washing (or use disposable liners). There's also always a handy reminder on the cloth nappy groups to run a maintenance wash at 90 degrees on your machine every month, I think my washing machine is cleaner now than it ever has been

I started off with little lamb two parters at 5 weeks old (our little one was small and didn't fit her size ones until then - birth to potty rarely fits from birth unless you have a bigger baby so bear that in mind if you want to cloth from birth) and then moved on to mainly all in ones for ease. I thought it would be hard to get my husband on board but he really noticed the difference in smell between disposables and reusables straight away (I think the chemicals in disposables stink as soon as baby wees) and now we use Terry towels at night and as long as I do the folds before they go in the drawer he's better at putting them on than I am . For reference we have a wriggly 7 month old!

In terms of the environmental aspect the best advice I can think is that's it's not all or nothing, even one reusable saves a lot of disposables from landfill so you can always cloth part time until you get into a rhythm or build a stash once baby is here. We didn't start clothing at night time until about 12 weeks (mainly because her newborn sleepsuits didn't fit over the chunky cloth bum and we were in lockdown at the time so couldn't get hold of enough 0-3 months ). On that note - vest extenders are worth buying as well to get longer out of vests (although my baby is quite small and we don't rarely have an issue with clothes fitting now, she's only just going into 3-6 month clothes so it's not a prerequisite that clothes won't fit over cloth, it depends on the size and shape of your baby).

I have definitely fallen down the rabbit hole and my "we'll have just enough nappies for full time use" has definitely gone out of the window as I wait for yet another nappy delivery . On the plus side, a lot of the brands keep a decent value to sell on after if something isn't working for you!

Good luck!

I found that there are so many different types of nappies I really appreciated waiting until baby was born and then trialing some different types.

Most all in one type nappies are from 9lb so we used disposables for the first 8weeks then got a trial from fill your pants.com.
You can get a trial kit from local nappy library or nappy lady but waiting must was quite long when I was pregnant - so get your name on the list now if that something you want to do!

Also check with your local council as some give vouchers to start you off. Mine gives about £50 which I used to buy the Little Lamb trial kit. I've bought few brands (totsbots and Bambino mio too) and use a mix of pockets all in ones and inserts, I like all of them and rarely have leaks. Some are better for night time and you can add extra boosters. I use a liner to catch the poo. I wash them every other day, so easy but some take a while to dry.

I have a 10 week old and we have been using muslin cloth nappies since day 3 when we came home from the hospital.

We wanted a cheap introduction into cloth nappies. I was surprised by how easy I have found the muslin to use. I prefold them when they have dried, I do gibe them a quick iron as they fold neater that way but that's a personal preference thing.
It took about 2 days to feel comfortable with the folding. We switched to a different fold when she started doing fewer bigger poos for containment.

We are now looking at what nappies to move on to. For drying times I think we will be looking at 2.parters I have a shaped nappy and a Terry square to try.

The washing routine involves a rinse step this washes off our bf poos (30-60 min depending on which cycle I use) then a longer wash (~3h) with clothing etc to bulk out the wash.

I have pnd so we have used more disposables than I was originally planning as some days it gets too much. We get more leakage of nappy contents when we are in disposables (so you will be getting poo in your washing machine either way) and the disposables smell much worse than the cloth!

Don’t fall into the trap that it has to be all or nothing. 100% cloth nappies all the time can be hard work especially during winter when they take so long to dry.

But a combination of washable and reusable is still better than 100% throwaway. Every nappy washed is one less in landfill. Get a small selection and see how you get on with them before committing to more.

Also - the poo goes in the toilet, not the machine. But a regular empty boil wash cycle for the machine is a good idea.

When I was pregnant I really wanted to use cloth nappies, but I gave up on them as I couldnt find any that fit well enough and my OH wasnt keen on them AT ALL. My compromise was using Cheeky Wipes instead of disposable wipes.

I know people who use them and like them though. I would really advise waiting until your baby is here, then trialling a few different types before making a commitment and spending money.

We use tots bots range with our almost 6 month old.
The easy fits daytime and bamboozles overnight. I’m happy with them. Milk only pop is liquid so whole nappy straight in wash. Liners added when on solids

We bought all white ones as I didn’t want to go down the buying extra due to fancy pattern route, plus they are cheaper and I find easier to wash as all one colour.

We wash it all on a simple 10 mins rinse, then regular cotton 60 wash. I add any other baby stuff that’s white into wash like muslins/ sheets/ etc after the rinse. Hang anything white outside if there is any stain and the sun bleaches. It’s very rare there’s any stain. 6 months on and the nappies still look at new.

I’m very glad we have used them so far, as would have created a lot of nappy landfill waste otherwise

I didn't start from newborn but from about 6 months old just because this was Ds2 and he is now 14 years old so I had a toddler to deal with when Ds2 was a newborn.

Your Mum talking about terry nappies is funny. My Mum thought I meant the same thing and thought I was crazy. You can still do that but I used the very similar ones to the Blueberry Simplex mentioned above. There are so many videos on YouTube about nappies and the different systems and you can work out which is best for you.

I just ordered one of a few varieties to see which worked best in terms of fit and ease of use. I used disposable liners when Ds got older for the solid poos. I used Dettol laundry to remove bacteria. I also use Dettol laundry now for kitchen stuff, bedding and bathroom towels.

My baby was so dinky, he was far too small for the ‘birth to potty’ nappies I had bought, so I had to wait until around 8 weeks before I could use them regularly. I went for a two parter (Bubblebub BIG nappies and blueberry Capri wraps). I now use cloth by day and switch to disposable overnight because he wees so much - if I added in all of the boosters etc he’ll be tilted upside down by the bulk of the nappy! I’ll have to wait for him to get a bit bigger first.

It took me a while to get the hang of them, but once you’ve got your technique down then they’re easy. The washing Is fine when you get into a routine too. My husband is a germaphobe and was really grossed out by the idea of them too, but he’s come around now.

Would also recommend the nappy lady site and FB group - very helpful in getting your head around it all when you’re first starting out and a great source of advice

We’ve used cloth nappies from birth with DS (now 2) and will do the same when DD is born (in the next few weeks!).

We used muslins and terries with covers initially which was fairly straightforward and easy enough on a non-mobile baby. We moved over to birth to potty pocket nappies (Little Lamb) once he was a few weeks old and big enough (he was pretty big at birth, some babies don’t fit BTP for much longer) and used two part fitted nappies and wraps (Motherease Sandys and Totsbots Bamboozles) for overnight. I bought the occasional All in One or All in Two nappy as we went along so have a few of those in rotation too.

With DD I have lots more fitted nappies and wraps as although they are bulkier, they are much more reliable IMO. I’ve found some amazing secondhand deals on Facebook marketplace! She’s also predicted to be a fair bit smaller than DS so I’ve invested in some ‘newborn’ size nappies as we’ll likely get some proper use out of them.

We’ve never found washing them particularly bothersome. We wash daily or every other day depending on how quickly we fill the basket (I tend to throw all of DS’ clothes in to bulk out the nappy washes as he’s potty trained in the day now. I’ll have to stop doing that once DD is here!) and do a long cold rinse, followed by a long cottons cycle with a full dose of Ariel powder. We used to use Fairy Non Bio but once we stopped washing at 60 (recommended for newborns) I found that it didn’t do as good a job and we got a bit of an ammonia build up (you could tell as they smelled like a farmyard as soon as DS did a wee)! Ariel works well at 40 for us. Lots of people make washing nappies some insanely complicated issue but I can’t say I’ve ever had massive problems. We do a combination of occasional tumble dries (keeps fabrics soft), heated airer and line drying.

Regarding newborn, we bought the Tots bits teenyfit as they were tiny and cute! And everything online said birth to potty wouldn’t fit. He only wore them around 5 weeks as was almost 9lb, so easily could have gone straight into the others if we hadn’t bought.

I don’t regret buying the newborn size though as it meant we started using them from day 2, so got used to washing routine etc. And they fitted easy and small under clothing. Now boxed up incase we ever have a second

@MaidenMotherCrone

The shaped ones didn't exist (90s if they had I hadn't heard of them) when I had my children so I used the Terry squares. They were lovely and not difficult at all. They were also much, much cheaper too. Can you still buy them? As an aside my DC never ever had nappy rash so cloth nappies are great in my opinion.

I still use terry squares, I bought mine online.

I must be the only mum still using them though judging by the looks I get changing them when we are out ;-)

We use bambino mio nappies and put a flushable/compostable bamboo liner in the nappy. It catches the poo so you literally just take it out and flush when you change the nappy There definitely won’t be poo floating about in the washing machine, and you can buy washing machine cleaner if your DH is really funny about it! As others have said, I definitely recommend checking out the nappy lady website! We bought one reusable nappy to begin with so we could just try it out then bought more once we’d got our heads round them. We don’t use them at night though because they just don’t hold enough wetness for DD.

Think it was mentioned by a previous poster, I also recommend cheeky wipes for reusable wipes. Really good for getting baby clean after a poo, and we chuck them in the wash with the nappies!

@Woodentopper so nice to hear you can still buy them. It's a pity they're not more popular.

@attillathenun - those flushable liners really shouldn’t be flushed. If you try putting one in washing machine you can see they don’t dissolve so would easily clog waste pipes. I would either bag up and throw the disposable flushable ones or use washable fleece

We used terries from birth for all 5 of ours. They were the standard 24inch/60cm ones (they shrink by 3 or 4 cm after a hot wash or two) although later we bought some 70cm and 75 cm ones for night for children who were not dry at night. My tips would be
buy the best quality nappies you can afford - the difference in thickness and so absorbency and softness and so, I assume, comfort, is surprising. (Our best ones were some second hand Harringtons ones my mother had used for us);
look at the Nappy Lady's videos for folds for different ages;
when the nappies are dry fold ready for use;
buy next size up shorts, knickers, trousers, pyjamas etc, as terries are undoubtedly bulkier;
on a tiny baby, use muslins at first;
use nappy liners to reduce coping with poo - after all you are already being environmentally friendly;
keep soiled and wet nappies separate if you have more than one child in nappies at a time - wet ones can be washed with other things but I wouldn't do that with dirty ones myself;
wet nappies wash perfectly well at 40 or even 30;
sunshine works wonders but don't leave them out on the line too long or you may get cardboard; if you do leave them out too long put them out again in the rain which softens wonderfully;
do not use Comfort or other softeners as it reduces absorbency.

I've found the terries work well but can be a challenge to put on a wriggler ;-)