Novice pregnant lady - advice about cloth nappies

[mary33]

I am keen to try cloth nappies, but all my friends with babies say that cloth nappies are too bulky and that clothes made in the shops now only fit over disposables and I won't be able to get nice clothes that will fit...am I being very gulible or should I consider this? Thanks very much for any advice!

Hi Mary

Good for you for wanting to try them - go for it!

They are a little more bulky than disposables but to be honest I've not had any trouble fitting clothes on my son who's nearly 7 months. He's a big lad anyway and so is in older clothes than his age. Some nappies are bulkier than others. Bamboo ones tend to be less bulky and I find some pockets such as Bumgenius to be no more bulky than a wet, bulging disposable.

There are loads of us cloth users on here so I'm sure there will be others along soon who would also advise you to have a go (you'll save a fortune!!).

I haven't actually given birth yet, so can't really advise but (1) this sounds extremely unlikely or everyone who uses cloth would have naked children and (2) you can definitely get vest extender things to make suits a little bit longer to go over cloth nappies - I got some in a bundle of secondhand cloth nappies, but apparently you can usually buy them from people who sell cloth nappies.

I'm currently testing some modern baby pop in nappies on my 13 months old DD and they are no bulkier than a disposable imo. they fasten together before hand and are put on like a disposable as well, but the coming apart is great for washing and drying. There are a few similar ones on the market as well.

some clothes have trouble fitting over them, especially girls trousers from Next, but things like babygros and dungarees and jogging bottoms etc are just fine.

If you can find a local nappy advisor, get her to come over and show you what's available. a lot of nappy sellers do trial kits as well so you can try a few types and see what you like and don;t like. I would advise against going for one type and stocking up before the birth incase you find you don;t get on with them at all.

also, flame and nappyzone, who advertise in the classifieds are very good for advice (they will be along soon no doubt). I've bought nappies from both of them in the past and can highly recommend either, or both, of them

H&M are fab for cloth

u just get used to getting the next size up when u see summit that look tiny but most thing fit imo matalan is a bit small so i always get the next size up in trousers asda and tesco is fab

The trimmest cloth nappies I found were Itti Bitti D'Lish nappies - I use just normal clothes and they fit over fine, perhaps might go up in size in vests and trousers a few weeks before I would otherwise but you can hardly tell he's got a cloth nappy. I was concerned about the bulk of cloth nappies getting in the way of movement, sitting up especially, so I opted for Itti Bitti D'Lish, and my DS was sitting at 5 1/2 months [smug]. They are really soft, economical and come in lush colours. I couldn't recommend them enough.

Never had any problems with ds - indeed, found cloth nappies helped to keep his trousers up at a later stage, so when we went onto pants his trousers kept on falling down.

We had a mixture of shaped and prefolds, all going in the same wraps. Prefolds don't make any real difference from a disposable. Shaped do have a bit extra around the sides, but its not that much extra.

I recommend getting a selection of nappies to try out - you can usually rent a selection - which will mean that you find ones that most suit your baby's shape...