Reusable nappies advice please!

[DorindaG]

Hi all, I'm expecting my first DS in early February and have almost got everything prepared. One of my big buys is nappies.

I plan to use disposables when travelling/occassionally, but in the main I'd like to use reusable nappies and reckon I can get set up easily with brand new for £200.

Can you advise on the best ones you've used - I'm not overly concerned with drying time as I have a dryer if needed. My main priorities are cost and leakage!
Any advice you have on the best fit or fastening also appreciated as looking at totsbots alone there are so many different types I don't want to end up buying something that is nightmarish and useless!

Thanks in advance

I truly recommend buying several different kinds to find out what suits your dc.

Babies come in different shapes and what is wonderful on one baby isn't a good fit on another.

Also for breast fed newborns you need something good at containing exploding poo you don't have the same need as they get older. Also some babies are really heavy wetters whereas others aren't.

Motherease air flow wraps are the best wrap ever though.

I dont know where you are but here in Bradford you can get a free starter kit with a selection of nappies from the council.

www.babykind.co.uk do nappy trials and I can recommend them for their helpfulness. It's good to try a few to see what suits your baby and lifestyle.

We use Itti Bittis on our DD because they're so compact. They come in small/medium/large so expect to buy the range of sizes. I got a set of smalls and larges for £240 ([[www.fillyourpants.co.uk]) and bought 6 mediums (using the small inserts with them too) preloved to cut the cost. However, they are brilliant under clothes, especially jeans as they don't have any bulk to them. They need changing every couple of hours though but I've not had any leaks. They are fluffy and so cute that I don't often use disposables because I love showing off her Itti Bittis. On a big plus, they're really easy to use so even DH can manage them

At night I needed something with more absorption so did a trial with babykind to find what I wanted. In the end I went with Tots Bots Bamboozles with a Motherease wrap. They're fab (bamboo is very absorbant) and the wrap is excellent but much more bulky so my poor 3 month old DD is in 6-9 month babygros at night!!

I've gone with popper fastening (Motherease wrap is velcro though) as it's meant to be harder for older DCs to undo themselves. Definitely don't want DD taking a wet (or worse) nappy off

oops... www.fillyourpants.co.uk

I second Cargirl - it depends on your child so don't buy loads of one sort before trying them out first. Our faves were Tots Bots basic cotton type, followed by Motherease One Size (also love Blueberries but they are v. expensive and mine went leaky after a while...) but other people like other sorts.

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is the Motherease Airflow and Rikki wraps are great!! And you can use them with other types of nappies (I mainly use them with the TotsBots).

Tip - Amazon used to have multipacks of SOME types of TotsBots very cheap if you have a good search (think it was packs of 5 plain white cotton with one wrap, you have to hunt for them though amongst all the more expensive sets). That was a few months ago though, so not sure whether they still do...

I use the mothercare own brand ones. Really easy to use and reasonably priced. you will get the odd leaky nappy, but disposables will leak sometimes too, so dont let it put you off. Oh, and one thing about washing, in case you dont know already, you dont need to wash them at 60 degrees if you pre soak them in something like nappysan (i use an environmentally friendly brand but i cant remember the name of it at the mo). I soak mine for at least a couple of hours and then wash them at 30 degrees with any other whites i have.

I use wonderoos from Hip Hip Baby. They are fantastically easy to use and quick to wash and dry, and can be used from newborn to potty training.

I highly recommend them and have used them on both my children :

www.wonderoos.com/

Ring your local council. Lots of them do free trials of different nappies, and a discount if you buy some.

I got a trial of about 8 different types for 2 weeks, then £35 off the ones I chose.

I'd avoid the all-in-ones, I think the ones with a separate outer are better. I use Motherease I think, although the labels have long since faded completely!

Itti Bitti D'Lish are wonderful, lots of people are using them now, they fit brilliantly and are one of (if not the) slimmest nappies, meaning less of a tellytubby bum and more clothes fitting. I'd get one alongside a couple of others and see which you tend towards using. The colours and feel are lovely too, not sure I'd want to use plasticky-feeling wraps like Motherease myself.

I agree use different ones... blueberries expensive but use one throughout 2 years aas has poppers to make small/med/large and wash really well. bum genius are same design but not as plush.. itti bittis and weenotions for treats!

I vote for bumgenius.....I think they are excellent. Also Bamboo nappies from bambinex very good but don't like their covers...airflow very good with them.

I have tots bots (got organic cotton ones and then machine-dyed them funky colours), with little lambs fleece liners (can't bear the paper ones that just mooshed in with BF poo) and Motherease Airflow wraps - I had lots of leaks using the tots wraps (they've improved the design now and they are better, but still not quite as good as ME).

On Amazon there were offers for £70 for the multipacks, so not too expensive.

You may also want to look into laundry services in your area. Its about £30 a month and means you can use reusuables but not have the hassle of washing them. You literally put the poo down the loo (its caught in a flushable liner) and the cloth bit in a bin which is collected weekly and freshly laundered cloth delivered. And its ultimately green as nappies are washed together so using less power/water. I have used these services (in 2 different cities as we moved) for both mine and found them really fab.

Dont make the mistake my sister made - she bought £250 worth of washable nappies but never actually used them as she found it too much hassle...

My main nappies are Bumbles, they are birth to potty and very good at containing poo.Can add extra stuffing for night time. Use with Motherease rikki wraps.

Also have lots of Bumgenius and a couple of blueberries, v simple to use.

Agree - try several kinds as babies are different shapes. I have had a wonderoo - leaked, totsbots pocket, leaked. And some other pocket I didn't like. But trying a few different ones is the best way.

Must own up - I bought 20 Bumbles plus wipes wraps etc before DD was born, I was very lucky I got on with them as I was advised to try a selection but I just thought they were all the same really - they aren't!

It's definitely worth trying out a few to find out what works for you. Having said that we are Bumgenius converts in this house (although use bamboozles with a motherease airflow wrap overnight).

Have found the Bumgenius to be reliable on bf poo (have never had a poo leak in reuseables), easy for DH and the childminder and quick drying. I also like having a birth to potty nappy as now I don't have to think about buying any more. We did have a few wee leaks just before weaning when DS was drinking loads of milk.

Loads of info and a bunch of nappy addicts can be found here.

See what you can borrow or get second hand to start with. Ebay don't allow 'used' nappies but people do list them and just refer to them being washed and don't mention it - size 1s are often dirt cheap which have been hardly used if at all. Clothnappytree is another site.

I think we used Mothercare Smartnappies for the first few weeks, then Bumgenius, then a huge pile of Bumbles I was given from about 6 weeks, as they worked best on my chubby-bottomed baby, whereas Bumgenius leak on him but are great for his skinny cousin. My Bumbles never leaked ONCE in over 9 months! After about 9 months I got more adventurous and bought a variety of second hand ones - Itti Bittis, Blueberry, Lollipop etc. And 6 Kushies all-in-ones so nursery can always use them or stuffed pockets (ie 1 piece to put on so it's like a disposable to them).

You don't need liners until they eat solids. A lidded bucket is much cheaper from your local shop that sells plastic tat (£2 not £10 or more for a 'special' one!). Just put nappies in bucket and chuck in washer when full.

We used motherese nappies and wraps - pre-baby I loved the tots bots, but was given loads of motherese (with poppers, you can get velcro too) and the motherese were so much easier with a wriggly DS who hated nappy changes from 7 mths. Also the motherese have now done four babies in total (two before us, then my second is now 15mths) and they feel they're coming to the end of their life, so I think they've done well. And obviously free, so very cheap. Freecycle sometimes has nappies on for free, or sample packs can cut down price. But if you're having more kids the value increases.

I only ever had motherese (wet) leaks when my mum used fabric conditioner on them, or sometimes with DD when she has juice, which helps me remember to stay away from juice!

You can get boosters if your DC are big wetters (we have friends kids who were), but definitely experiment and you can always buy more.

For newborns you can just use muslins with a fleece liner in a newborn wrap, rather than buying special little nappies. Folding them in shape becomes very easy and automatic after the first few days of many changes.

Some people said they'd start with disposables at first, then do washables when things easier with baby, but I found it easier to start as you meant to go on, I then never new any different to using reusables, and its never really felt like any kind of hassle. Compared to all the other hassles of parenting its never registered.

Good luck with the birth in february, hope the baby is a lovely sleeper!

Thanks for all your advice folks! As a soon-to-be first time mum I love mumsnet; it's given me peace of mind on a lot of issues, and has proved an invaluable source of advice as I only know one person who has recently had a child, and that was two years ago.

As we're finding out, a lot can change in terms of parenting conventions and trends within that short space of time.

I'm hoping my newborn son will be a great sleeper like his dad was, and not an attention seeking terror like his nanna says his mum was!

Ive tried loads and agree have a few diff makes in your stash, We have a big stash but it consists of-
Blueberry's
Bumgenius V3 and Organics
Close pop in's
Itti's
Wonderoo's
Weenotion's
Tots bots AIO
Tots bots fluffle

DS is 8 mth now had more leaks in early days but now v few..

At the moment I am planning to breastfeed, so I wonder if any of you did so?
AI have come across some on kiddcare.com called Onelife - heard of them?

Onelife are the same as Motherease one-sizes, I think. The wraps are very effective, and some people love the nappies, I really hated them. - Rather than one size fits all, I found them one size fits none. And they are very extremely very ugly.

I used two-parters on DS1 and to start with on DS2 six and three years ago. Then I discovered pocket nappies and now we only ever use two-parters at night. DS3 has a lovely nappy stash.

I breastfeed DS - he's just turned 15 months.

I found that onesize nappies looked very bulky - especially on newborns. I planned to use size 2 nippa tots on DS when he was born but they swamped him so I ended up buying size 1 too.

Hiya I bf my cloth bott'ed dd4 who is now 14 months, our stash mainly consists of itti bitti d'lish and weenotions onesized pockets. I use fleece soakers over bamboo baby beehinds at night. Some of the 2 parters I'd recommend are:-
motherease Sandy's
totsbots flexitots
totsbots bamboozles
airflow wraps
onelife wraps
weenotions popper wraps
bamboo or hemp baby beehinds

Pockets I'd recommend:-
weenotions
upsy daisy
tots easyfits (personally I prefer the bamboo over fluffle)
Blueberry
BB Rainbows

Hope this helps a little

I still BF my DS using the ones i mentioned.
Ive not used onelife but heard a few ppl who rec them..