Are reusable cloth nappies practical, affordable and manageable day to day?

[DChesh34]

Question for parents who have used “Terry towels”/reusable cloth nappies please.

1. are they are difficult as they seem?
2. are they feasible for being out and about?
3. how do they compare money-wise?
4. does your washing machine end up always on (as though it isn’t already with a family of 4)?

Trying to be a bit environmentally friendly (used Pura nappies with my first to avoid plastic) but is having a washing machine on constantly that friendly??

Feedback/guidance appreciated!
TIA

I've used them for two kids and for most of the time it was routine and easy (I worked full time for a good chunk of the 4 years we used them).

We had a routine of putting them in the wash after the child was in bed then putting them in the airer or clothes line first thing which was much quicker than putting out a load of clothes; took 2 minutes. I liked that our bin wasn't full of nappies.

The times it was difficult was in the beginning for our first as we couldn't work out washing and getting the correct absorbency. Advice from the nappy lady sorted it (the wash needed a longer cycle and we had a heavy wetter who needed an absorbent nappy of something like bamboo not just microfiber). Then with the second she just stopped fitting them well once she turned two and leaked out the sides so after realising our pocket nappies weren't working well for her and knowing we were only a couple of months from potty training so needed a cheap solution we switched to terries and they were amazing. We folded them on mass for the next day at bedtime and it only took a minute (toddlers don't need as many nappies). We wished we'd just started with terries!

I liked them on days out as I didn't have to use smelly public nappy bins; we just took pre wetted cloth wipes out of one wet bag (or wet dry ones with the tap) and put the wet nappy in another wet bag; if your washing routine is good they don't smell much.

For overnight trips or holidays we'd take disposables even if there was a washing machine available.

Our childminders were happy to use cloth nappies. We used a nursery for a bit and they wouldn't use them so we put her in disposables on nursery days.

I used them for my 3. You just get into a routine. Non of mine ever had nappy rash so theres that. God only knows how many disposible nappies didn’t go to landfill x 3 children. When they were no
longer needed they were used as cleaning cloths for years.

Also means come summer your bin doesn’t stink to high heaven for a fortnight

1. what do you think is difficult about them? I mean it’s just a nappy as used by previous generations. Do you mean inconvenient?
2. yes, the only difference being that you bring the nappy home with you rather than binning it.
3. cheaper of course, even more so if you have more than one child and reuse them. You can also buy pre-loved.
4. I washed them every third day. Stored in 2 buckets with lids after use.

We used them for daytimes only and a disposable overnight.

I think they look so much nicer than disposables. We had Motherease Sandy’s with pretty patterned outer wraps for up to 6 months and then moved on to Fuzzi Bunz in all different colours after we’d got past the squirty poo stage.

I work for an environmental charity. Nothing that says "flushable" on the label is flushable. This is why you see all the sewage litter festooned on riverside trees after a flood.

@Glidinglikeaswan. I know that now but when mine were in reusables they said they were flushable, sorry, we didn’t know better

This is exactly the reason I'm 100% convinced on reusable nappies. I've used cloth pads for my period (and daily pantiliners) since I was about 13. On the very rare occasion we've been away and I've forgotten my supplies and I have to use disposable sanitary towels/pantiliners, I've been absolutely miserable! Sweaty, nasty, uncomfortable, always shifting around and bunching up. I would never even dream of having my baby sitting 24/7 in something even remotely similar. And, of course, I think the environmental factor is impossible to ignore - it's not so much about the resources used, though I would remind people that it does take water to manufacture disposables as well as to wash reusables. The idea that laziness is compelling people to use hundreds of nappies a month that will still exist on the planet when their little baby's great-grandchildren are having babies is shocking and disgusting to me.

i don’t think it’s one or the other - you can use a mixture as it suits you.

i had three usable nappies for DD2, which id use when we were at home, but i preferred using disposables when we were out. Three weren’t enough to use all the time, but i washed and dried them as quickly as i could and 3 was all i could afford at the time.

one of the things i liked about reusables was that i didn’t have to worry about running out of disposables as i knew i had reusables ones to hand.