real nappies- thinking about making a move & need advice

[spongecake]

hi there- anyone use "proper nappies" my mum is horrified but she remembers them from years ago. Any tips welcome... thanks!!

Yes, there's lots of us!

How old is your lo? Do you have a tumble drier or will you be line drying?

there are lots of us.

you can either use the nappies that your mum rememebers (which are really cheap), or modern, shaped nappies which are nothing like the ones she's horrified by! they leak less and are much easier. also they can simply be bunged in the washing machine - no soaking or boiling in sight.

i have a tumble dryer, but will line dry if weather ok. where do i buy the stuff, and what do i need? i have called and emailed the real nappy project but no response

my baby is 7 months and very chubby the disposables bite into his tummy. i buy the biggest i can find but they are too big round the crutch poor love. bit like me trying to find perfect jeans.

Flame (www.bumfluffnappies.com) and CurlyWurly (www.snugglebumnappies.co.uk) are both fab.

Basically you can get pockets (which you stuff and they go on a bit like a disposable (so just one bit to put on iyswim) or you can get 2-part nappies (so you put the nappy on then a wrap.

Personally I find 2-parters more reliable. Would recommend Motherease rikki wraps, tho they're not the most fancy colours/patterns.

Bamboo nappies are lovely but take a while to dry. Microfibre ones dry really quickly - love the Bambinex Teddy.

I love the Berry Plush for a night nappy (it's an all-in-one where the absorbancy bit snaps in with a couple of poppers) and they look fab too.

hello if you look inthe classified business ads there are a few mumsnetter businesses that give nappy advice me included (nappyzone) and were all more than happy to give tailor made advice to newbies and sort out goooooooood deals and generally help you through the fog. Two parters are good but having an older baby you should also be able to get away quite nicely with the easier pocket nappies which i have an obsession with lol! . Come have a browse round my webby. Were a friendly bunch

am so confused tbh.. its all helpful though. do they come in one size or what? colours sound fab though. am going to look at those websites, thanks!

Some nappies come in different sizes, others are birth-to-potty (those ones usually have poppers to adjust the size).

I swear by my real nappies, well actually not my nappies, but for two DS's. I have tots bots fluffles. Wonderful! They are absorbant, easy to use, very quick to dry (2 hours ish on a line) and stay soft without a tumble dryer. Use a fleece liner with any nappy you choose to keep moisure away from baby's skin. I like fleece wraps too - come in several colours - but they can be bulky in the daytime.
It is not that much more work anyway, lets face it, there's already a lot of washing so a bit more won't make much difference!

Hi, my favourite websites are www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk and www.treehuggermums.co.uk Both these sites carry pretty much every brand of nappy out there and also have really good advice and 'how to' sections

My favourite everyday nappies are motherease one size used with motherease poppered wraps. I also have some bamboo nappies (my favourite ones are bambinex also used with a motherease wrap) which have great absorbency but take a while to dry.

Some nappies come in one size (called birth to potty) and some are sized - size one usually cover 0 to about 8 months and size 2 from then on.

My main advice would be not to buy a complete set of nappies immediately but to try a few different types before settling on your favourite brand. You may find you want a mixture - i.e. I use my motherease one size most of the time, but put on a bamboo nappy in the afternoon when I'm out and about and want lots of absorbency and I also have specific, quite bulky but utterly fantastic night time nappies (ella's house bumhuggers).

Good luck, once you cut through the confusion and get into the swing of things you simply cannot imagine using disposables again (I used disposables for DD1 but decided to switch to real nappies for DD2 and haven't looked back)

i LOVE washable nappies

use prefolds, but have recently discovered shaped nappies and wish i'd bought them instead (so trying a few samples is a great idea), although my prefolds have been used on two children. have a few shaped nappies and will buy more.

all the benefits you will have read about are true, plus my DS's botty smells of washing powder and fresh air (most of the time!) which is very endearing.

I think you'll be pleased you've made the change once you find the right nappies for you.

I would agree that the best ones to start out with are two part, shaped nappies i.e those which you just put on like a disposable and then put a waterprof wrap over the top. They tend to be the most reliable. Yes - Motherease wraps are excellent (rikki = velcro fastened, airflow = poppers).

The nappies come in different shapes (unlike disposables) so you are very likely to be able to find some which fit your LO far better than what you currently use.

Bamboo nappies are lovely and soft and tend to be slim fitting. In my experience the slimmer fit tends to appeal to mums who have used disposables previously. They take a bit longer to dry than cotton or microfibre but if you have the option of tumble drying that shouldn't be an issue for you too much.

If you want to try a few cheaply and you don't mind using second hand nappies (many people buy them used so the market is good for resale)just google used nappies.

Can I hijack slightly as I'm having similar thoughts to spongecake.

What's the best way to avoid the nappies smelling between being used and being washed? How is it best to store them?

TIA

I have a nappy pail (basically a lidded bucket).

You can either dry pail (so just chuck them in) and if you drop a few drops of essential oil on a paper liner and keep that on top of the nappies it stops the smell escaping when you take the lid off. Think you need to do a rinse wash before the load tho iyswim.

I personally wet pail. I use a little bit of Nappisan. Tried using essential oils but found it didn't seem as good.

Thanks. I suppose if you wash/dry a load per day then the smell doesn't really get a chance to build up.

I use a bucket with lid, with a drawstring net inside that I take the whole thing out and stick it in the wash. I have found that dry pailing is easier, smells less and is cleaner.

I wash every other day. I find that the only smell is when you open the bucket, and the urine smells the most.

I used disposables with DD1 and cloth with DD2 and one of the good things about cloth was that there is no smell. With disposables I had a smelly bin either in the kitchen or waiting to be collected in the wheelie bin outside - the smell was sometimes pretty bad in the summer (poor binmen).

In the main, I dry pail my nappies and never have any smell (even though I wash only every 4 days - large nappy collection ) but when I do soak them I have a lovely smell of tea tree or lavender oil in the bathroom

They do smell much less, though. That disposable chemical smell is gross [sickface]

ooh are berry plush good for night?!?

I find the berry plush is good at night (I stick an extra couple of cotton boosters in). dd isn't really a heavy wetter though.

thanks everyone- just bought a pack to see how we go

Ooooohhh, what did you get?

well, rang twinkle twinkle and they were vv helpful, so some tots bots. my mum sent me a motherease and a wrap etc as a surprise in the post! she was quite sad as i think she wishes she had had all this stuff when we were little-and the internet, and equality, and the guts plus social acceptance not to put up with any crap from the blokes... but i digress

also- how come no one sells nappy liners/ real nappies? i know waitrose do, but i live about an hour from them and my local tesco/ co-op/ budgen don't. or chemist.