Can I tumble-dry ANY cloth nappies?

[blackcurrants]

Hello!
I'm expecting a baby in July - live in a flat with a shared washer and tumble-dryer in our basement (we're in the USA). We have an airer for drying clothes but very little space.

We both want to use cloth nappies, but we're worried about how to get them dry. I hear Bamboo and shaped ones take longest to dry, but I also hear they're the best at catching and holding all wee and poo.

The Nappy Lady suggested Bambinex Teddies for the day and Bambinex Bamboo for night time - I wanted to know what Mumsnetters think. Can I tumble dry ANY cloth nappies? Prefolds or terry squares, maybe? If so, are they any good or is the Nappy Lady right?

We're on a restricted budget, so I dread either needing to use disposables or buying cloth nappies and struggling to find a dry one after days...

Can you tell I'm preg and worrying how we'll cope?

Thanks so much in advance!

I tumble dry all my nappies when i have to! I use bamboo babybeehinds, itti bitti d'lish, weenotions etc. I obviously don't put them in for an excesssive period of time incase i melted the pu inners but i have't had any problems. Wraps dry overnight on an airer so i never tumble dry those

I tumble most stuff except close parent nappies. I would suggest getting fleece nappies like Lollipop Micro for most of the time and then a couple of more absorbent ones for overnight - or some quick drying pocket nappies like bumgenius. I wouldn't suggest bamboo really - you can tumble it though and it is good overnight.

Thank you all so much!

I'm looking into fleece nappies and feel reassured that I'll have a way to dry them.

I was told by a lady in a nappy shop that you shouldn't tumble dry any with aplix or velcro type fastenings as it will wreck them but nappies with poppers are fine (I used to use a nappy service and they used fuzzi bunz - I didn't find them very good once DS got into crawling though)

The Teddies should come out of the wash almost dry because of the material they are made out of. They should be alright with a quick blast in the tumbler if needs be too. As for the Bambinex bamboos, I've tumbled these when I needed them urgently and they've been fine (and softer!) but if you're only using them at night then you won't have many drying at one time so they shouldn't take up that much room really

HTH
Z x

Don't worry.

I use a mixture of bamboo cloth nappies and cotton ones, plus a few odds and sods of others. We don't use a tumble dryer and dry on an airer/washing line/radiators. Spring and autumn are the most difficult times as there isn't much sun but you don't have the heating on lots. Anyway, I reckon that the cotton ones (I use bumbles) take about 12 - 15 hours to air dry, and the bamboo ones about 5 hours longer, in the spring/autumn. With sun or radiators that can speed up a lot. So I have enough nappies to last for 3 days, and wash every 2 days, and it works out fine. I have about 20 or so nappies.

The bambinex teddies should dry very very quickly - and if you get about 4-5 night nappies (which you can also obviously use in the day time)and wash every 2-3 days you should be fine for them as well.

Especially as you are on a budget I would recommend that you buy second hand (I paid around £5 per nappy as opposed to £8-10 new) and buy slightly less than you think you will need, so that you can see if that brand works for you and if not buy a few more of a different type. For the first 3-4 weeks I alternated disposables and cloth while I got used to the washing/drying 'rhythm'.

TotsBots flexi tots can be tumble dried just fine