First time mum - how soon will I be ready for reusables?

[ToastAddict]

Hi,

OK, so my first baby is due in 6 weeks
I am really keen to use reusables as I cannot bear the thought of landfill sites getting filled up with nappies

Friends have told me that I won't want to use reusables straight away - firstly because meconium will destroy them (fair enough) and secondly because "I will have enough to do without wanting to wash and dry loads of nappies"

I have bought 2 packs of Nature Babycare disposables, trying to convince myself that they are vaguely better than your normal disposables.
But now I am eying up Bamboozles and Fluffles on UsedNappy.com. Thing is, I don't want to buy the small size and then find that by the time I get round to using them, I should have gone for size 2

I realise that the people who are going to respond to this post are likely to be advocates of reusables, so I won't get a completely unbiased answer, but basically my question is - in your experience when will I be ready to use them?

Thanks in advance

Use them straight away. The sooner you get into the routine of washing the less of a hassle it seems. Plus I know several mums that spent 200 quid on reusables and then never used them coz they put it off and became convinced it would be really hard work(it's not)

My ds is 16m and its harder to use them now that ever coz he trys to escape constantly!

Motherease sandys are great in xsmall for first 6 months and I had a 10lb baby! Even now at 30lb he easily fits into the small. They're amazing! I got 6 of each, small and xsmall, and 10 fluffles birth to potty and found that was plenty.

agree with trebuchet the soner u get used to using them the better and easier it is

I think in hospital you may have to use disposables? But definitely as soon as you get home you can get going with reuseables. If you are lucky like me you will be able to spend the first week or so in bed and someone else will do the washing etc. - best they get used to reuseables at the beginning .

I'd be tempted to go with the disposables you've got for the first week or so (just until they run out really) and then go for it with the reusables.

If you are skint you can "borrow" my xsmalls. I won't need them for a while as not pregnant yet.

CAT me if you want to.

Don't leave it too long before trying to use them, as it becomes a more daunting prospect as time goes on. I didn't manage to breastfeed, so was more determined to use cloth nappies as a result. However loads of my friends didn't get around to it as they stuck on disposibles for too long, then thought it all looked like too much work.

Meconium is wicked stuff, so maybe best to wait 1-2 weeks and then bring the washables in after that. TBH, there will be lots of washing that you are not used to anyway, so best to get that in the mix as early as pos so that it becomes normal.

Oh, and getting pooey vests and sleepsuits of a DC when the disposable leaked was a bit incentive to me to stick with the cloth full time - as once you get the hang of that, they don't tend to leak as much (2 layers to catch the poo - and it stays low down)

In response to your questions - yes, you will be ready to do it - just transition slowly but early.

Good luck (beware - you are likely to end up knowing far too much about cloth nappies once you get started - it's addictive!)

I used a laundry service to start with, think DS was in real nappies between 4-6 weeks. Basically when I'd recovered a bit, and when he wasn't pooing after every single feed (and there were a lot of them).

Just go for it when things calm down a little, you can always stop using them for a day or so if it gets too much. Every cloth nappy you use will divert one disposable from landfill, so don't beat yourself up about having to use them all the time from day one .

Good luck with the birth

Thanks everyone for your quick replies

And thanks for the offer Trebuchet, but I have an offer of a loan from a friend - I just can't stop myself from looking at UsedNappy!

Figuring on getting a few nappies of different types and seeing how we get on

Thanks again

I would certainly not use them for a couple of weeks, then build it into your routine. In my opinion it is no more hassle than using disposables but everything is a hassle in the first weeks and often reusables get dismissed as too hard during this time.

You'll know when the time is right

I used disposable for 2/3 weeks I think...as others have said. I always used them at night, as dd was a good sleeper and I was a bit paranoid about nappy rash after sleeping in a wet reusable for a long time. I had Kushies all in ones that were given to us by friends, having done their 2 boys already. They were FAB!! We had 20 of them, and I used a nappy bucket filled with water and vinegar (natural disinfectant and smell killer.). Used biodegrable liners and would chuck them in the loo, and sluice worst off nappy using the flush and then stick them to soak in bucket. When 2 buckets were full (generally every 3/4 days), I would do a wash and stick them on the radiators to dry. Not much work at all. I am not a martyr and would have given up if it was a nightmare, but it really wasn't.

Use then asap! Agree with everyone else that the longer you wait the more work they will seem.
Ds was in them from birth, meconium didn't stain at all.

If you only have one baby and have enough nappies you'll only need to do two loads of washing a week-hardly a lot of extra work! In addition to that the one day ds was in a disposable his poo went right up his back and neccessitated a full outfit change (I also remember that being a frequent occurence with dd who was in disposables for the first 3 months)-I have never had poo escape a 2 part washable nappy.

There is no need to faff around with soaking the nappies, just take them off the baby, chuck them in a bucket and then empty the bucket into the machine when you have a full load. I find not soaking far easier and less hassle but it is down to personal preference really.

Also I don't bother with liners for pre weaned baby (or use fleece ones)-their poo is liquid so just washes out.

I used washables in hosp. with DD and they worked fine, I bought/borrowed 2nd hand bimbles and diddy diapers and they were both excellent (the diddy's lasted abit longer). Bamboozles were too big at first - DD was 7lb 15 but got into them after a couple of weeks and into motherease onesize at about 9-10 lbs in weight.

Meconium does not destroy nappies, it washes out the same as any other poo and if you can get your stained nappies on a washing line they will clean up beautifully.

DD had a troublesome ubilicous which went abit manky and the best wraps for her were nature babies multiwrap, followed by motherease airflow (velcro was too rough).

Good luck with the birth BTW!!

Thanks ladies for all your responses

I dare say I'll be back here in a couple of months with more questions!

With both of mine, I used disposables for the first 3 months and then switched, because:

1. with any luck the worst of the tiredness will be over by then and you'll have more energy to do things like wash nappies
2. i felt I was getting to grips with things by then, and could cope with the extra work of washables, therefore there was more likelihood I'd stick to it
3. my babies are small and the first set of nappies I got were from 8lbs

I used disposables for the first couple of weeks as we'd been given a stack of bambino mio stuff and didn't want the velcro near the poor little stump. Bought a couple of packs of newborn disposables and just switched when they were gone. Not too bad with only one baby

we used disposables for the first 4 days but when the meconium was gone and the korma set in we switched. I think we found them easy to use as we had no experience of anything else.

Good luck.

Well I used them pretty soon after dd was born. We had a couple of packs of disposables (mainly cos mum bought us a pack and we had an offer from Boots early on in my pgcy and hadn't decided which way to go)

We used disposables in hospital purely because I didn't want dh to feel he had to do any washing after being all day at the hospital with me.

When I got home we used up the disposables and then started with cloth. I actually found cloth easier to use than the disposables and I enjoyed nappy changes much more.

I have to admit tho when dd was small I just used cheap terries then moved onto prettier nappies when she fit into size 2s (or size 2s with the top folded over to make it a bit smaller and nippa'd iyswim).

No worries x

I used them from about 1 mth. Before then i was in no fit state, what with struggling to bf, no sleep and sore, um, fanjo, etc. If someone else can wash for you, start sooner, but even then, they need changing more often. All the best.

Used them from about 2 weeks iirc. Only because I hadn't actually bought them. Dh was really into the idea of them and was more than happy to bung 'em in the w/m as the nappy bin reached full-overflowing, though, so maybe it's a job you could delegate for the first few months at least.

Do remember that it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. My 2 both had about 6/7 nappies in a 24 hour period to start off with so even if some of these were cloth that'd be fine. With ds we didn't start until he was about 16 months, dd was a few weeks old but we just did 3/4 a day to start off with depending where we changed her etc etc.

We used disposables at the beginning, but DD needed to be changed almost every time she filled her nappy with poo because of leakage, so I am not convinced that reusables would have been much more work.