1st attempt at real nappies lasted 36 hrs - advice please

[thewaffler]

Hi there
This is my first ever post to mumsnet, although have been following the forums avidly on mat leave, mainly when have meant to be 'working from home'!

Before i had my DD 6 weeks ago became slightly obessive about using real nappies and in addition to reading reviews on here, sought lots of advice - nappylady and babybots, placed many bids on ebay for resusables and spent much more money than should have on a whole array of real nappies - now realise that this may have been slightly jumping the gun and perhaps should have waited until i had tried some before getting lots. Anyhow, buy and get excited i did, getting 25 size one (mixture of totsbots fluffles, littlelamb microfibre and flexitot) 18 birth to potty (cottontail, blueberry, coolabaies and minkies) and 15 totsbots size 2 organic cotton nappies. Also have an array of wraps too. Read lots about dry pailing v's wet pailing, got nappy buckets, made my own fleece liners and got some washable wipes, was all set and ready to go.

DD however came 4 weeks early following inducement and was only 4lb 9 when i brought her home. I had a uterus infection early on for which was prescribed antibiotics which gave me thrush in boob, and her thrush on bum - i didn't realise you could get thrush in either place and put it down to me having bad technique and her having bad nappy rash, so didn't get help as early as i should have done and then she was allergic to the treatment given which made it much worse - so she has had a poorly bum for weeks (now using metanium) Have been using disposables as she was so small, and her rash has gradually started to improve.

Have been shocked at how quickly our dustbin has been filling up using the disposables and wanted to try the resuables - being impatient and wanting to get cracking, purchased some diddy diapers and some sandy's xs both of which were said to be ok for preterm and from 5lb - dd was 6lb at this point so thought would give it a whirl. Had read that fluffles also could be used on a smaller baby if you turn the flap down - had been prepared for them to be bulky but DD looked hilarious in them, almost her size and her little legs poked out of the bottom but raised her bum so high off the floor that she couldn't lie flat, so abandoned them.

After using them for about 36 hrs noticed that she was getting a rash, my own thrush had cleared at this point and hers was clearing up nicely, so am presuming that this must have been a nappy rash (but not sure) given that we have just had 4 weeks of really bad rashes (bleeding at some points )stopped straight away.

Also stopped because DH is completely obsessed with not wasting money (turning lights off after me in the house and removing the standby button on the remote so have to physically get up and turn it off at the plug . He returned to work to find the nappies had been using on the line and surmised that it can't have been a full load resulting in furrowed brow,

Have therefore abandoned real nappies for the moment - i am now on 3 different types of antibiotics which althought touch wood hasn't seen the return of thrush, have given me and her diarrhoea (sorry if TMI!) which didn't think would be a great time to attempt. I am really committed to making this work, but now realise that shouldn't force it too early as think that too many negative attempts and false starts as will definitely put DH off (thinking about her bum but also money spent on water - probably a drop in the ocean compared to all the paraphernalia i have amassed, but hey ho, won't point that bit out)

Sorry - waffler by name and nature, didn't mean post to be that long. In short have two queries

1. when do you think would be a good point to start using them - what weight, she is now 7lb - i need to do it so have enough nappies in circulation to avoid washing every day.

2. DD has a sensitive bum, will real nappies give her nappy rash? - i had assumed that it would be the opposite way round and rash would be more likely with a chemically disposable and thought that a fleece liner would draw the wee away. However, was shocked at how soaking wet the nappies were when took them off and know that DD is a heavy wetter, was changing them every 3 hours.

Any help or advice for a newbie would be very much appreciated

xxx

Congratulations on the brith of your daughter! It sounds as though you've had a tough time with the thrush and everything.

I can't really help with your questions about rashes as DS never really suffered with them but just wanted to point out that you can wash nappies with other things if you want to make up a full load.

It needn't be all or nothing either, just introduce a reusable when it suits you to do so and use disposables when it suits you to do so and work up from there.

You will probably have to change more frequently than every 3 hours. That's always been the absolute limit for DS (also a heavy wetter).

It sounds like you have been through a lot and I'd second the advice about taking it easy.

Remember that the nappies are going to be in use for a long time - your little one will wear them for 2-3 years and they may get passed on to other babies you may have, or friends, so you will get your use out of them. (Mine have been used continually for nearly seven years, and I have a 9 week old baby...). But I know what you mean about being turned off by your stinky bin of disposables, and itching to get started.

But to answer your questions;

1. Weight of baby really depends on the nappies you are using. I know very little about the nappies you have, so maybe someone else will know better. When mine were little (under 10lbs) I used muslins, with a fleece liner, with a small motherease airflow or rikki wrap. The muslins are very soft on their skin but not that absorbent, and you do need to change nappies at least every three hours. At night I either used a terry or a disposable. From 10lb I used motherease one size nappies on the smallest setting, or terries.

1. Mine have had rash both in disposables and in real nappies. I think how often they are changed, esp with poo is the real factor.

Congratulations on your baby.

Mrs C

I'd say that the delight of washables is that you can whisk a damp one off and put a dry one on and not worry about the fact you'll do a 'proper' change when you go out in say 40mins - rather than trying to make a disposable last...

Ds was generally better off in washables re rashes - but had to be REALLY careful what we used for nappyrash - I'm allergic to lanolin and lots of creams have that in - and I think it adversely affected him too. So if he had the slightest hint of it I'd put on a bit of one with evening primrose oil in it (sorry, now long time ago - can't rememberthe name!) topped up with lashings of zinc and caster oil cream to act as a barrier, and this would normally sort it out quite quickly.

Re washing - we washed every 2 days - dry stored in between - and did a pre-rinse for nappies, then filled up the rest of the wash with whatever needed washing. So nearly always a decent sized load.

Can't help on small sizes, sorry - ds was a 10lb5oz bruiser when he was born

Hope it all improves!

thrush/rash - sorry, no help on thrush rashes as the only times mine have had it clotrimazole cream (ie canestan) cleared it no prob.
I also found fluffles more rashy than anything in cotton as they're synthetic and seemed sweatier.
Once everythign has cleared up a decent barrier cream might be worth using to protect her in future - try Weleda or Waitrose.

nappies feeling soaked - I know they feel soaking after 3h but so long as they are not leaking I wouldn;t worry - remember that disposables hide the wee away in a small area of those gel crystals but washables absorb over their whole area, so they feel wet to your hand in a way sposies never will, without affecting performance, iyswim.

how many - when mine were newborn I had 10 XS Bimbles and washed (half load programme!) about every 36h. Once in size 1s I had 14 and washed a full load every other day.

Congratulations on your little girl!

I would say if you're not quite ready yet, wait a couple of weeks and try again. When we started out, if I had to do a small nappy load, I would put some towels or something in the wash with the nappies - really, with today's washing powders, they get really clean so you can make your load up to full with other stuff and not worry about it getting stinky!

We have found that DD got her worst rash with disposables. We try to use disposables with fewer chemicals in them (naturebabies or moltex) as it was a pack of "ordinary" that we used on holiday which gave her by far the worst sore bottom.

I agree with Mrs Badger about the reusables feeling soaked. You could try a fleece liner although on newborn poo they can sometimes cause leaks.

We had 15 small size fluffles for DD and used to do a wash every other day or so, drypailing with a couple of drops of tea tree oil in the bucket.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everybody for your replies. I think that i will probably wait until she is around the 10 lb mark and try again so that DD is a bit more substantial and we also have some more nappies in circulation

I had been hunting out some other stuff to go in wash - towels in particular in the too, in fact, i don't think our stuff has ever been so clean - there is only me and DH and before she came along, only needed to do a wash once a week. Because DD was so small, none of the clothes i bought/had been given fitted, so am reliant on a very small number of tiny babygrows which do fit as haven't wanted to buy too many thinking that she won't be in for too long - again, this has meant frequent washing as haven't a larger supply, but as we move to the realms of 'average baby weight' this shouldn't be a problem.

Will investigate other means of nappy rash creams too

So will be sitting tight for a couple of weeks and then see how it goes again - like you say, in the big scheme of things, will hopefully be in reusables for many years to come! Am pleased am doing this at this time of year so that at least can dry stuff outside!

Thanks again