reusable nappies - and no tumble drier

[KatyN]

Hello,
I'm committed to using reusable nappies but keep having the same conversation with my mum about not having a tumble drier and how stiff the fabric might be on my LO's bottom!

We realise we'll need more nappies than if we had a tumble.. just because they won't dry as fast.. but I wondered if anyone had any experience of 'stiff towel' syndrome on babies bottoms.. did you put an extra liner into the nappy to make it softer??

thanks
katy

My boy is 4.5 months and we started with reusables when he was about 5 weeks. I have mostly cotton ones- Tots Bots and Sandys- and I line or airer dry them. They can get quite hard esp as I live in a very hard water area and the nappies were secondhand and well-used to begin with. I put a spoon of white vinegar in the fabric conditioner drawer when I remember and use fleece liners so there's something softer next to his skin. You could always take a load to a friend or relatives house or a launderette for an hours tumble every so often too. Obviously I'm fairly new to.it all and haven't been through a winter yet but hope this helps.

pocket nappies such as the Bumgenius dry fast and are soft against little bums. You can stuff them with allsorts too. I've been through this twice from birth (actually from birth!) to potty, feel free to PM me if I can be of help?

My mate used to brush the inside of hers with a soft brush, took a few seconds to do each one just before putting them on.

Seemed to work very well

We run a dehumidifier in the bathroom most of the time - and prefolds would dry overnight and totsbots (cotton) in not much more than that.

I'm callous. We've used onelife cotton nappies from about 3 weeks and have always line dried them (except in the dead of winter). They seem soft enough and DD doesn't get nappy rash. She reacted very badly to fleece liners though so I steer clear of those and just use disposable ones.

I used reusables on my first DS from birth to potty and had no dryer. depending on make and type they were mostly fine. My little lamb bamboo nappies took longest to dry and id rub them together so soften. my stash was mainly itti's and these dried fairly quickly alongside my bumgenius and weenotions.
I used fleece liners until weaned then used nothing after.

I used close parent microfiber, very soft and quick drying. But started leaking when DD got to about 11 months. Now using a mix of close parent bamboo and tots bots bamboozled. Bamboozled lot softer but still gets a bit stiff, tbh DD doesn't seem to mind either way.

Air drying seems fast enough to me, inside drying though can take ages. Think it's worse inside in summer as there's no central heating warming and drying out the air.

If you give them a bit of a bash or a scrunch that takes the worst of the stiffness out, but mostly I'm like VeronicaCakeand am callous. Line dry in summer and radiator dry in winter.

However, don't write off fleece liners till you've tried them - worked fine for our 2 DSs. But I used no liner till weaned then fleece liners. Each to their own.

Its really not a problem to not have a tumble dryer, I managed without one with no problems. I only got one in the end because I now have 2 in cloth nappies and just don't have enough room to dry them all so now use the dryer every so often just to clear the backlog now and again.

Use a fleece liner and baby's bum will always be nice and soft, or choose a pocket nappy like Bumgenius or a Close Pop-In Dream Dri and the whole nappy stays nice and soft anyway.

We don't have a tumble drier and used reusables with my son (he was a December baby) until he was toilet trained at 3 and a bit.

We tried lots of different types. Cotton ones were 'crunchy' unless steam ironed, especially as we're in a hard water area, bamboo were fine as were fleece. Line drying helped but obv. in the winter this wasn't always possible.

Because we're in a hard water area, every once in a while I would run a nappy wash with clean nappies to 'strip' them of the detergent biuld up. You do a hot wash without detergent but with a vinegar rinse and then rinse as many times as necessary until there are no more bubbles.

In the end my favourite types are the stuffable/pocket styles for a couple of reasons:

1. because the nappy can be separated into two, it dries more quickly
2. the absorbant inner can be anything (prefold cotton, microfibre fleece inserts, cotton towelling inserts, even a muslin etc etc) and as it isn't next to the skin it doesn't irritate.

I found that microfibre inserts were the quickest to dry - they were almost dry coming out of the washing machine after a high spin. Cotton inserts and prefolds could always be ironed dry is necessary.

Liners: I started by using paper liners but moved to using fleece liners and found those easy and softer on his skin.

also if you google the nappy lady she has a questionnaire you can complete and based on your answers she will tell you which ones are best for your needs. One of the questions was about your laundary/drying facilities as well as possible skin type etc etc

we've used old skool terry squares with a nippa and wrap. Bit more faff to put on (we got used to it v v quickly) but dry super quick and flap on the line to soften quite well. Maybe worth getting a few for back up even if you go for a prefab. Great for general baby spills/accidents during nappy free time etc anyway

We have no dryer and a tiny flat with not much drying space. We use microfibre nappies and they dry very quickly and also stay soft. Bambinex teddies are my favourite, very fluffy and no problems with leaks. Use with a Motherease wrap, they are the best wraps.

I used flexitots on my DS and line dried them - they didn't go stiff and crunchy at all. In fact, iirc, you weren't supposed to tumble dry them. I also used fleece liners from the start right through to when he was potty trained.

Hiya. Stiffness is caused by limescale (from hard water) and soap build up so I always use the "extra rinse" button on my machine to make sure all the soap is washed out and use a calgon-type anti-limescale tablet in each wash too. I also finds it help to give each nappy a sharp shake before you peg it on the line, and another sharp shake before folding. Seven months in and so far all my nappies are still very soft.

Line drying is the best thing for nappies anyway as the sunlight bleaches out any stains and kills lingering bacteria.

Have fun with your cuddly bottomed little angel!

no drier here and totsbots fluffles are working wonders - previously used the bamboozles which were great but tended to be a bit rock-like and took several days to dry. The fluffles dry overnight and are very... fluffy!

I did resuables with no tumble drier with DS, and will be doing so again for DC2 due in October. Add some white vinegar to the washing water and give them a shake when you hang them out. Have never had a stiff nappy prob, but we also have very, very soft water.

You could use microfibre nappies. Our Close Parent Dream Dri dry overnight without being tumbled. That means you need fewer because they're only out of circulation for one night.