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

I came home from hospital at about 9.30pm when DD was 12 hours old. The following morning we started with the cloth. She had cloth in the day and disposables at night until the packet ran out, now she has cloth all the time except when we go away. I have found disposables leak far more.

In the early days we used size 1 fluffles and bamboozles (5 of each) and bat folded muslins. We used tommee tippee/cotton bottom/bummis (call them what you will - all the same) new born wraps as the tots size 1 was too big for a while. After about 3 weeks I think it was we were able to use the size 2 popper bamboozles as a birth to potty, she was 8lb 5.5oz at birth and we found them too big to use straight away. Then we ditched teh muslins and eventually the small wraps. She is jsut over 11 lb now (at 12 weeks) and I have given up on the small bamboozles, they are too short in the rise, I think she must be tall as they are supposed to go to 18lb. The small fluffles are still good though. We have nippa fluffles and they are sooooo easy. DH loves them and hates the poppers.

It is really no hassle washing etc, just shove the mesh bag in the machine, put what can in the tumble and the rest on the airer. We don't like to tumble bamboozles as we heard they get damged this way but everything else we tumble. Sometimes put bamboozles in for 10 mins on cool to fluff them up.

I have just found this thread and it is very useful thank you

I am also due in April and have got washables at the ready but have also got some packs of disposables (free/ freeby offers) and was in unsure when to switch/ whether i needed to get more disposables to get us started. But i think with all the encouragement i think i will wait and see how it goes. Some of the washable look too big but wont know until LO arrives

If we go with dry buckets do you have to wash them sooner to stop staining? It's just we have a large machine and not sure about putting anything else in with the nappies, but don't want to run the machine 1/2 full.

I also used disposables in the beginning. Same reasons as the other mums (too exhausted with newborn, getting to grips with motherhood etc).

A few months down the line, once things were more established, I then switched to cloth nappies.

Personally, I'd buy just a few initially to try them out. I wasted money on buying quite few of the same brand, which I didnt like, despite reading lots of excellent reviews. You really need to try them on your baby first.

My favourites are Diddy Diapers & Motherease.

Need to take into account that you will need roomy clothes, to accommodate the bulk of a cloth nappy.

I put towels in with my nappies if the load's not full - they're the only thing that I'm hapy to wash at 60. I have a 7kg machine so it's pretty large & 2 days of nappies fills it fine most of the time (although I also use washable wipes).

In answer to the OP, I think if you really WANT to use reusables and you've done your research before hand and know where to buy them, what will suit your needs etc, then waiting a few weeks or months is fine - there's no point killing yourself! I really was determined with ds2 as I never got round to it with ds1 so I genned up on everything before he was born, bought a few nappies and started when he was 8 weeks. Then I bought a few more and went full-time during the day after 2 weeks, then at night a few more weeks after that. And still going, hoping to use them on dc3 in October! Other people (including dp) put me off and I was just determined that I would do it so I did.

If there's a local nappy advisor near you, I'd get them round as they can help you avoid making the wrong decisions. I didn't do this and regret it.

velbels, didn't answer all of your qu - staining will happen anyway IMO, I've never rushed to wash mine to avoid it. Every 2 days is enough for me!

I meant to use cloth from the start but we used disposables for the first three weeks or so. One problem I had with using them early on was that they irritated the umbilical stump. I know there are nice fancy fitted nappies that avoid that problem, but I used prefolds for their lower cost and greater versatility, and wasn't expert enough at wrapping them early on.

We continued to use disposables when traveling or out of the house for the next three months, but lately (at a bit more than 3 months) I've been using cloth for short excursions, too.

So, yeah, 2-3 weeks in disposables is what we did.

sorry, haven't read all thread but would say do it straight away - I fully intended to use reusables with DD1 but intended to bu them after she was born - fatal mistake...never did it

used them from the off with DD2 and am delighted we did so...she was much easier to potty train too!

(I have lots to get rid of so let me know if you are stuck)

We started off on disposables as I hadn't bought any re-usables, but then I got some second hand of mixed types, and some new ones from the lovely Flame to see which I preferred (IME Little Lambs are second to none for containment of BF baby poo). WE were on holiday when she was about six weeks old so started using cloth full time after that (for the first few weeks she was getting through 16 nappies a day and the washing would have killed me). We had to go back to disposables when she was 18 weeks as she started having a nasty reaction to the binding in the wraps, but have recently (at 7.5mo) started using pockets during the day and dispos at night. Boy do the dispos stink horribly in the morning. I'm now trying to pluck up the courage to try the pocket nappies at night as well!

Just wanted to say another thank you for everyone's replies - very helpful

I used cloth nappies from birth,but for the first eight months I used a nappy service (pre-folds) which was fantastic.

Once a week they picked up the dirty nappies and dropped off the clean ones.They provided a sealed outside bin for the dirty ones.I just bought my own raps,although you could hire them.

However since we moved in November I have had great fun trying out different types of nappies and wraps.

We started using them at 5weeks. We tried them after a week but DS's tummy button kept bleeding after the cord had fallen off and the cloth nappies were making it worse.

I have bamboozles, fluffles and motherease onesize. Think the fluffles are my favourite, they look really soft and cute and they dry very fast.