Cloth nappies

[LondonRoo]

I'm debating whether to try cloth nappies.

Baby is due early next week and I have a good supply of disposables to get us through the first week or two. After that, I'd quite like to try cloth nappies.

Anything I should be aware of?

I like the look of the little lamb ones and was wondering if anyone had thoughts on getting the one size fits all versus the size 1 and then having to buy new ones later. Also poppers or Velcro?

Anything else I should be aware of?

FTM and clueless so advice welcome!

Roo

Liners only ended up wedged up both of mines' bum cracks, but I know they work well for some. Not here, though. They also both go/went through stages of lactose intolerance so poos can be quite spectacular at times and there's no avoiding scraping.

Counting down the days until DS2 makes friends with his potty and poo nappies become a thing of the past...

Using a half-quantity of powder is one of those nappy myths. I use a full dose of bio on every nappy wash, because they are by far and away the dirtiest things I wash. It doesn't make sense to reduce the powder on your most contaminated load. You don't get build-up. You don't need to strip wash clothes to get rid of build-up because it doesn't happen. Same with nappies. Fabric softener DOES create a water-impermeable layer so it is true that you shouldn't use that, but definitely don't hold back on washing powder. It's poo, for heaven's sake!

Get them if you like them but you should know they are only better for the environment if you don't tumble dry them and reuse them on your second child.

Under most scenarios, disposables are actually as environmentally friendly and in many scenarios, better for the environment than tumble dried cloth nappies because of the embedded energy use in laundering and water treatment.

Good luck finding something that works for you and your family.

London girl can you link to that evidence? The average baby produces so many tonnes of nappies that go on landfill sites, I find it hard to believe that 20 reusable nappies washed on a modern eco friendly machine is worse for the environment.

Even if tumble-dried, if your power source is nuclear (which ours is) I cannot believe that the environmental impact is anywhere near the landfill and methane release of disposables.

Didn't they find that that particular 'evidence' was generated and funded by Pampers or Huggies?

Disposables can't be environmentally friendly if they end up in landfill IMO, and even the 'compostable' ones don't break down as they aren't in the correct environment to do so in landfill.
I might add we almost never tumble dried ours as it's bad for the nappy too.

Ethical consumer's line on the topic: www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/babychild/disposablenappies.aspx

The Miosolos dry very quickly even in winter so don't need to be tumble dried.

I wash mine with a full fuse of detergent (agree the half dose advice is bollocks!) and usually wash at 60 degrees.

Thanks for the link, savagehk. I suspect London is quoting the discredited 'research' mentioned in the article, which I'm pretty sure is the same one that was heavily funded by Proctor and Gamble or similar.

www.ethicalconsumer.org/mobile/babychild/reusablenappies.aspx

There's a government report that looks at the embedded energy in the use of disposables (manufacture) vs cloth (washing, tumbling etc). Which concludes as said above that if you tumble dry and only use on one child you don't use any less energy BUT it specifically excludes the landfill issues. Not wanting to send nappies to landfill was my entire reason for using cloth.

I've been using Totsbots peenuts from 6 weeks during the day & disposable at night as I didn't want to wake her to change a wet nappy. They're brilliant at containing poonamis- far better than disposable but I have never managed to totally eliminate the slightly damp around the leg holes issue. I've been really surprised at how easy it's been to settle into a routine with them.

PostTruth and Elphaba it is 100% the case.

Google
An updated lifecycle assessment study for disposable and reusable nappies

This was produced by the UK Environmental Agency / Defra.

If you want to ensure that you are making a positive impact when using cloth nappies you need to follow their laundering and other guidelines pretty rigidly.

I say this as someone who care deeply about the environment which is why I think its important people are aware of this as often times they are doing more harm than good...

Also, the report does not ignore landfill as part of the equation at all. It runs two baseline scenarios which is landfill or incineration.

However, each person needs to look into what the waste management facility is in their area.

I personally live in Southwark which has one of the most sophisticated systems in the country. Nappies along with other non-recyclables go through a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) process which allows waste to be turned into biofuel and construction aggregate. This facility processes waste for a number of areas in London and other such arrangements exist throughout the country so its wrong to automatically assume that nappies go to landfill unless you've done your research.

This isn't one of those simplistic situations were disposables are bad and cloth is good. It really depends heavily on how you use and launder cloth nappies and what the waste management facilities are like in your area.

If you really care, before attacking me, do some homework...

I started with Totsbots all-in-ones in the daytime, lots of lovely patterns and a great price. However, the V4s had an issue with leaking through the stitching, so I moved on. The new easyfit stars seem to have solved that, although I only have one. We use the totsbots bamboozles with separate wrap at night, and its always been fine.

Now we use Bambino Miosolos (I still like an all-in-one), these are bigger for my ginormochild, so a better fit. Their issue is that the waterproof lining can crack, although its only happened to two of mine in 10 months. Be careful if buying second hand though.

In short, cloth contains poo much better than disposables, but not so much wee, so need to be changed more often, but you dont get poo in their hair. Cloth wipes are the best thing since sliced bread and an absolute must. Enjoy the pretty patterns in the cloth nappies!

I think you need to review your definition of 'attacking' LondonGirl...

But thanks for the information, it is useful. I use nappies on two children, so I guess that puts me in the clear.

Maybe I overreacted. I'm 36 weeks pregnant at the moment! I'm glad you've found it helpful.

90% of my stash is second hand and no tumble drying here. It will do multiple other children (not mine) afterwards.
It would be landfill here and even 'eco' disposables take 200years to rot and that's if they haven't been put into a nappy sack.
It's good we can all make our own choices.

I used tots bots with my dd, but had to change her every hour - 2 hours at the most, as she just we'd straight through them, we've got v4s & v2s, we also got some Charlie bananas closer to her being potty trained & they seemed to hold the wee better.

I'm now 18 weeks pregnant, so looking at cloth nappies again, so what other nappies would people recommend?

I use Grovia Hybrids - they're a birth-to-potty 2-part nappy (see here) that we've found very good. DS1 wore them for 3 years (and still does at night at 3.5) and DS2 is wearing them now at 3 months old. We used Little Lamb 3-layer boosters inside as DS1 got bigger and have also started using them on DS2's night nappies (they fit him fine even with the booster). Childminder and grandparents have also found them easy to use when looking after DC.

We wash at 60 deg in a A++ washing machine (an efficiency level that didn't exist in 2006 when the report linked to earlier was written). We don't own a tumble drier and haven't found drying them to be a problem. They dry on a radiator within a few hours when the heating is on (a means of drying not covered in the report linked to earlier). In summer, they line dry when possible within a few hours. Any any time of year, they'll dry in under a day if we just hang them up indoors.

YY to suggestions to get a nappy trial to see which type suits best. For instance, DS1 had quite slim legs as a newborn so a few types didn't fit him well at the leg and leaked, whereas the Grovias suited perfectly. We also experimented with drying and found the hemp/bamboo ones are a lot faster to dry than the cotton ones. Fill Your Pants run a trial rental scheme for £10 and the Nappy Lady does similar.

Btw, I strongly recommend poppers over velcro. We bought mostly velcro closures for ease of use but they lost their stickiness after ~2 years (despite taking good care of them) and I ended up converting them all to popper fastening using a snap gun!

Teeny we never had leak issues with our fitted little lambs but they are two parters so slightly different from what you're used to (wouldn't say more hassle though-later on we got a few pretty aio's). The bamboo ones especially are absorbent and you can boost with extra boosters if needed. Conversely they take longer to dry.

We did use little lamb two part bamboo ones for night time with 2/3 extra bamboo boosters for night, she was always soaked by morning though