changing from disposable to reusable nappies

[gattina]

What do you think about changing from disposable to reusable nappies with a 6-months-old baby?
Which brand would you advise to use?
Is it really leak-proof?
Would you recomend using a washable or a disposable liner?
Is it better to use a all-in-one nappy, or a nappy+wrap?
I need a lot of informations before I start spending a lot of money on those "real nappies", so please tell me anything you experienced or know about them - positive or negative! Thank you!

I did it at about 6 months.

I used tots bots with a motherease wrap, and disposable liners (will be using reusable next time though). We had leaks on a handful of occasions, rather than the regular ones with disposables.

What kind of place do you live in? Will you be drying on a line outside, radiators, tumble dryer etc? How much time/space do you have for drying inside (tots take a long time to dry inside)...?

So many different types of nappies and they all suit different needs. The main thing seems to be working out what you need most (cost/drying time etc), and going from there.

xxxx

I didn't actually do it, but did get as far as getting advice from thenappylady.co.uk think that's the right address they do sell the nappies but its not a hard sell and they have a network of advisors basically you fill in a questionnaire online about your priorities and then they phone you to talk over your options. their website also has secondhand listings and they usually recommend a trial purchase of a couple of different types first. do you have a nappy laundry service near you? Only even if you don't really want to have them washed you could probably do their one month trial and most of them will let you hire the nappies from them before you decide which ones to buy. i think its a really good thing to do and would be very supportive. what stopped me was probably mainly bad timing (early second pregnancy and didn't need the extra worries of sorting this out) but the only other big negative for us was the bulk of the nappies underneath dd's clothes - we often buy bulk bundles off ebay to save money and none of the trousers would fit over the nappies and wraps we had - some wraps are probably better than others for this and also you can plan ahead for buying clothes if you anticipate this problem. Good luck x

dd 15mths we just transferred over the last month. No probs with clothes as that was one of the 'priority' items and use pocket nappies which dry quickly as you stuff a pocket with say microfibre cloth and they tend to be quite slim fitting. We have had a few leaks.
When you are looking at them also look at sizes if you are really close to maybe the next size up in some nappies and not others we timed it almost perfectly in that she was the lower end of the L for all the brands we liked if that makes sense it seems pointless buying a whole bunch of nappies for say 2mths then having to buy another whole set.
It is so much easier than I thought it would be -look through the archives in this section and you'll find tons of information. That's what I did first of all to find the nappies most people talked about and recommended.

tots bots fan here, with motherease wraps..... jess has been in them about 3-4 weeks now and is 1 today!

used kushies all-in-ones for quite a while, and still use them as an occasional day nappy, but tots are fantastic for night. 12 hours no leaks!

As chuffed says, definitely only buy the large size at 6 months, nothing small or medium.

Hello flamesparrow! I live in the countryside (in Tuscany, by the way... ) and have no tumble dryer: I dry on a line outside in spring/summer, and indoor in winter, near the fireplace or radiators - but I haven't got much space inside..
Thanks to you all for your advices!

If you want a budget option then nippa'd toddler or large prefolds work well at that age, they dry very quickly and are very simple to fold.
Or second hand tots. There is a birth to potty peewees now, which looks lovely, but might be too bulky, great for nights though.
Please buy one somebody, so you can tell me what they are like!! I'm off to start a thread actually.
I hate to say this but I find poppers difficult at this age, as they are difficult to do up properly on a moving baby: nippas or velcro are easier for me when ds flips over.
Or do up poppers loosely and adjust later.