Reuseable nappies

[PutTheBassInYourWalk]

Hi all,

Inspired by the other nappy thread, I thought I'd ask your advice on reuseable nappies and cloths. As a first time mum I am totally clueless, but want to use them for environmental and financial reasons.

My specific questions are:

1. What should I buy before the baby is born? How do I choose?
2. Is there anything I need to do/get ready before baby is here re nappies?
3. What's should I wait to buy until after baby is here?
4. Any other hints and tips.

As far as I can tell, where I live there isn't a local nappy library (I'm in North Herts). I have completed the nappy lady questionnaire just now and my council will give you a small trial pack of reuseables if you apply (which I will do when I have the right forms).

Thank you!

Rogue 's in there. Apologies!

The nappy lady do hire kits so you can get a feel for what you like, I used motherease sandys with airflow wraps as my main nappy, never had a single leak

We've bought a stash of little and blooms of amazon and love the patterns. Not tried them yet as I'm 30 weeks, first time mum, but looking forward to having a go!

We've got lots of Muslins and terry towels for the newborn stage, just need to buy a couple of wraps to go over the top of them.

I know you're supposed to do 2-3 washes before putting on baby to build up the absorbency, but other than that I think they're good to go!

There's a group on Facebook called cloth bum mums where there's loads of advice!

I'm not in the UK so I can't recommend a specific brand because I use one that's local to me, but I would say the best thing to do is just read, watch YouTube videos, ask around and get as much info as you can. It seems really daunting at first because there's so much info, but once you've gotten the hang of it all they are fantastic. I would never go back to disposables.

Take a look at cheeky wipes as well (there may be other brands) - they are washable/reusable wipes instead of the disposable ones and if you are washing nappies anyway, you can just pop these in to wash at the same time. I find they are so much better than disposable wipes for cleaning up poo!

If there's no local nappy library you could do what we did and buy one each from a few brands, maybe from a site like babi pur to combine postage. Our favourite brands were bambino mio and close pop in, with little lambs for night time. Maybe buy 3 or 4 different ones then see what works for you when baby arrives. You could also try the cloth bum mums facebook group and associated sales group if buying secondhand appeals.

I've just bought a 4 pack of close pop ins from Babi Pur to use on our 4 week old, they were £59.95 with £20 off. I did a fair bit of research and settled for these to try, they only arrived yesterday and I'm waiting for them to dry so we can start them.

Definitely take a look on the various nappy websites and Babi Pur, there are video tutorials that show you how they work, much easier to get your head around them that way. Close pop ins can do from birth to potty, they have poppers that extend the size of the nappy and come with 2 inserts to pop in inside the nappy, they also do boosters for night time to increase absorbancy. You can also get nappy liners that are biodegradable to make things slightly easier and cleaner, that convinced my husband to try them and poops can be flushed rather than scraped off. The close website recommended having 20 nappies if you were doing it full time, 10 if you were doing it part time and 5 if you were doing occasional cloth nappies.

I'll come back and let you know how we get on!

It is worth trying a few different brands if you can, to see what you get on with best. I like Bumgenius Freetime nappies as they are easy to use/clean and don’t leak with dd.
The nappylady website is useful, as is a fb group I’m on called ‘cloth nappy sales and advice’.
I also highly recommended Cheeky Wipes.
With ds I liked Charlie Banana nappies but find they leak a bit more with dd.
All I’d really say is it’s worth persevering, I honestly don’t find it any harder work than using disposables (and actually disposable wipes make dd sore so reusable are much better!).

If you’re on Facebook the groups ‘Cloth Nappies UK’ and ‘The Nappy Lady’ are hugely helpful

OP so glad you started this! I too will be a first time mum and looking and the masses of reusables out there trying to navigate which ones will be best. We dont have a nappy library nor does our council offet any incentives either. We have bought a whole load of cheeky wipes already, but are now looking at the nappies. We decided to go with Beaming Baby nappies in the hospital (disposable) but then reusables at home. Watching very closely at recommendations here. We were looking at velcro ones as poppers are difficult for DH due to his arthritis but was advised that as baby gets older they find a way to undo these.

There are loads of cloth nappy selling groups on Facebook. I bought pre owned motherease sandys off these sites and couldn't fault them. Cloth nappies are expensive to start out with and not all cloth nappies suit every baby that's why I would recommend buying a few different ones pre owned to try out tlfirst (there is no nappy library near me so hiring wasn't an option). Pre owned is also better for the environment as well.

@Chista we only used Velcro nappies as DH preferred them and had no undoing incidents, I just used vests a bit longer than most of my friends who moved on to t-shirts! And used sleepsuits at night rather than pyjamas for longer. Good luck.

I’ve been using cloth nappies on my 12 week old DD since we came home from hospital and haven’t looked back.
Just as a recommendation we love Little Lambs for night time (I was also recommended these by a friend and they are a good price for kits!) and around the house, and Bambino MioSolos for out and about. Both are great and (touch wood) have never leaked.
If you wanted to test which ones worked best for your baby you could buy a couple of different brands second hand ones off eBay. If they’re no good they usually have a good resale price so you won’t be at much of a loss.
Others have mentioned it already but I found YouTube very handy to get my head around it all too.
We use cloth nappies full time and we have 18 Little Lambs and 7 Bambino’s, I tend to do a wash every day or every other day but that’s because I don’t want to run out and my baby poos a lot!!

If you join BabiPur Hangout on Facebook you can search for that month's code for 10% off although I believe "Buddy" always works.

I second little lambs. As pp they are excellent for night time. We currently use little lambs full time for my 21 month old

Thanks everyone. That's all been super helpful :)

Do one size nappies fit on newborns? Ie the tots bots easyfits? or is it worth buying 'newborn' size as well?

Birth to potty (BTP) generally don't fit until babies are a few weeks old and have chunked out a bit, so if you want to do from birth you will most likely need to buy newborn size (or muslins and wraps more cost effective). We gave ourselves a break for the first weeks and just started when DD fit in to the btp stash we had from DS. Would never use disposable wipes again though, they just don't work once you're used to reusables!

I wouldn't bother with liners for poo before you begin weaning as you will just make more work for yourself and their poo is water soluble so cat go straight in the machine anyway.

My favourite brand is Motherease, also really like Baba + Boo, used to mainly use Bumgenius freetimes. Be careful not to get suckered in by pretty patterns, they're usually covered anyway so not the most important feature, function much more important! When you're trialling a few I would get solid colours so that you're not swayed (easier than you think!). Buying secondhand is a great idea as they are usually up to full absorbance too so you only have to stripwash. I don't know many who have had much success with Tots Bots easyfit stars or Bambino Mio, despite them being widely available!!

Do persevere, lots of help on Facebook group regarding getting fit right, boosting options, and washing routine nailed. Once you get the swing of things the wash routine is easy enough and the nappies themselves work much better than disposables. Good luck!

Love motherease Sandy's and airflow wraps! They are our main nappies. Bought preloved. Also second the reusable wipes. Cheeky wipes, or basics flannels in a sandwich tub!

Hi, also in N Herts and a committed cloth user. Do you know that the council will either give you a mixed trial pack or £50 cashback on cloth nappies you buy? (I think this is still the case).