Using washable nappies as well as disposables?

[chloejessmeg]

Hello. I have some washable nappies that I should be using but we used to use them full time but just lost interest in them when DD was at a bad poo stage (too runny to collect in nappy liner but too solid to go straight in wash) and we have now just been using disposables.

I hated having to carry around the washables though as they were so bulky. We have baby no.2 due in April though and DD is only 1 so dreading the cost of 2 babies in disposables.

Was thinking about just using the washable ones sometimes, like when we are at home and know we are not going out, and still using a disposable when out/at night.

So like tomorrow, we will be going to the liberary story time in the morning and then coming home for the rest of the day, so when we get in, I would change her into a washable and use them until after her bath when she would go into a disposable?

I am thinking though that it might become a PITA to wash them when I don't have a full load - can I put in with other washing? The washing side didn't bother me at all last time but we always had enough to put a nappy wash on every 1-2days as DD poo'ed so much!

But then also thinking that for every washable I use, that is one less disposable that I have had to pay for and one less in landfill? And less trips to costco! And might then lead onto getting back into them properly again?

Has anybody done this and did it work out?

No need to soak, no need to sterilise, it is fine to wash them in with your normal clothes at 40, and you definately don't want to put nappisan in those washes as it will knacker your clothes, just wash 'em. I would suggest using fleece liners so the poo is easy to pop down the loo, or even flushable lines if you wish.

There easy.

I use a mix of dispies and washables for both DD's, if we are only out for a few hours I take one washable as it fits both, (although now DD1 is in knickers I have to take more crap anyway!)
DD1 couldn't sleep ion a washable nappy, she hated it so it was dispies overnight, which stank and if we were out for the day we used dispies for ease of transport but yeah, sometimes it's much easier to mix.
I have never soaked, I keep my bucket in a kitchen cupboard as change girls downstairs and it would just be too much if it spilled. I wash at 40 with vinegar if normal, rinse at 90 if very grim/ill.

Hi
I do exactly what you are wanting to do- a mixture of dispo and cloth. I find dispo easier when I am out all day and also at night and use cloth at home. No problem at all. And I find I don't even use that many dispo- e.g. if I am out locally when know will be home soonish leave in cloth but take change of dispo with me.

I wash probably about 2-3 days and dry pail. i did try soaking but did find it smellier and messier. Dry pail works fine. I rinse dirty nappy in toilet to get rid most of poo, so guess they are kind of getting bit of soak.

I have 2 nappy buckets and generally a wash goes on when they are both full (usually every 2nd or 3rd day) - pop nappies into mesh bag, no need to touch them and pop bag in machine, job done. I don't tend to put the nappies into normal wash with other clothes.

hth

I am glad to hear I am not the only one who has always dry pailed - I thought I was going mad for a min!

Have just found out that my council do a free trial thing so hoping to get that going ASAP and also £30 per child re-inbursment of costs of buying ones. Although I can't do the second baby until after she is born which is a but annoying as I wanted to just buy a load of onesize now to get the most use out of them. Can't complain though.

Well I must be the only cloth nappy user who'd never heard of dry-pailing before! Chloe, thumbwitch is right - I wasn't trying to give you a hard time, so I'm sorry if it came across that way. Bearing in mind that I'd never heard of dry-pailing and have always been advised to soak, it seemed to me that every time I'd suggest something you'd find a reason not to do it - as if you were trying to make using cloth nappies harder than it needs to be. Hope you're not upset.

I'm very surprised to see that many of you find soaking to be stinky - though I suspect it's because you're soaking pooey nappies for long periods? It's very rare that DS's poo leaks onto our nappies; it usually stays on the flushable liners (I overlap two at a time so they cover the entire nappy). So our bucket definitely doesn't reek!

I use washables about half the time and disposables the rest of the time. It suits us perfectly.
I dry pail too. I know loads of people who use washables and not one of them soaks. I thought that was a pretty old concept tbh.
Just keep in bucket with air tight lid and wash on 60 wash as needed!

I always dry pailed, did a cold rinse in the washing machine and then washed at 40. When my dds were older (over 1, possibly 2) and got really stinky wee I used to do every other wash with napisan thrown in and on 60 degrees. Also once they did solid poos I would wash them in with other whites (because I had always rinsed first IYSWIM)

Uhhhg I wouldn't dream of soaking nappies, there really is no need, just stick them all in a cold rinse cycle first and then add your clothes if you don't have a full load of nappies. I can't imagine leaving your nappies in water for any length of time is good for the fibres or elastic tbh either.

The Nappy lady actually states that soaking is smellier so I don't think it is just the odd poster on here.

I am def going to go back to using washables at least part time. I am trying to find out how much to offer somebody for a birth to potty set of onelife nappies?

I agree - dry pailing is the best way forward. Cloth nappies get a bad name as people think you have so soak the nappies and sterilise them!

I always dry pailed (with a mesh bag inside the bucket). When it was full, simply popped the full bag into the washing machine, on 40 to 60 degree wash with powder and a few drops of tea tree oil in the fabric conditioner draw to sterilise and freshen.

I always used fleece or flushable liners so poo was easy to dispose of.

Oh deffo dry pail - I think washing poo out at 60deg with nappy soak in wash is more than enough to sterilise tbh - we DO put poo remnants in too as use fleece liners and DS2's poo is only half solid

Pregapuss - yes, I think it's poo that makes soaking smelly. As I said before that's not the case for us - DS poos once a day and if it happens in a cloth nappy the liners pretty much catch it all.

Can I give a childlike 'eeeeewwwwwwww' to soaking. Did it for about 2 weeks . Dry pail all the time, wash a full load on 60 every 2-4 days with one tablet and sometimes a bit of vinegar. Every couple of weeks I give them all a pre-rinse and long cycle with no detergent. Used nappysan type stuff for about a year and wondered why my nappies always smelled a bit funny, friend suggested it was that - now they dont smell!

I have a 2.5 yr old and a 5 mth old. Before the lo was born I used washables full time on ds. I had rather optimistically expected ds to be out of nappies fairly quickly but he still needs them so have had to resort to disposables for some of the time for the lo. The older one wears pants in the house but isnt reliable enough to out out/sleep without nappy. He occasionally wears disposable pull-ups when visting nanny. I have got a variety of different sized nappies and some btp but I just couldn't keep up with the washing and drying and all our other laundry. I use a few cloth nappies a wk on the younger one to make the sposies last longer. When ds is out of nappies, dd can be in cloth full-time. We use washable wipes for both and I dry-pail with tea-tree and then wash with pre-wash @ 60 with some sanitizer.

DS will be 2 next week and has always worn washables at home. DD is 2months and also wears washables at home. Convenience has beaten my morals so always have disposables in the changing bag. I was pleasantly surprised to realise that with 2DC in washables I have a full load at least every other day - I used to hate putting half wash loads on.
Mix and match diffrent nappies to suit your needs - as you say, every time you use a washable its one less to go in landfill.

Thanks guys. I am going to go for it. Just got to get a couple of wraps big enough for DD (or find the ones that are well and truly burried in the loft!) Council are sending me an info pack about how to use their free trial scheme (which I didn't even know about). So hoping to do that before I buy any extra nappies.

i have not heard of any real nappy users now who soak nappies- sounds more unhygenic personally. why do they need to be sterile? hang them out on the line when possible, don't worry the rest of the time. napisan damages nappies anyway. dd only in nappies at night time so bucket sits for quite a few days before i remember to wash and never had any problems!

Another dry-pailer here. One slightly cautionary note - when I was just starting to use washables for DD2 but didn't use them very often, I left a couple in the bucket too long and they went mouldy. So still aim to wash them every 3 days or so which should be fine if you're washing in normal wash.

We also went through a phase of not using our washables after DD had a bad poo stage. We have just gotten back into using them, but I still use disposables at night as DD sleeps through with them on, she wakes every couple of hours if she has a washable on.

Also I take out a couple of washables with me to use while I am out and about and a handful of disposables to use just in case.

It does help, We tend to get through a pack of approx 50 disposables every 2 1/2 weeks ish so cuts down on cost and landfill etc.

I also put my nappies in with the normal washing or with the towels.

Oh and I have never soaked either, my mum begged me to soak and wring my terry squares as it was the only way she knew how. Once I had shown her our Little Lambs nappies, disposable liner and straight in the bucket was every other day she though it was great lol.

yes we use reusables at home and disposables whilst out.
i also never soak them, dry pail and wash most days, i have 2 so they fill the bucket quickly.
to be honest every time you use your reusable nappies you save like 15p on a disposable, so even if you only use them 50% of the time you still are saving a huge amount over a year, particulary if u have more than one child.

My Mum says that she'd soak in Napisan, and then rinse in the washer with no detergent. But as we're putting detergent in the washer, no need for the Napisan.