Reusable nappies?

[lockdownbabyx]

What are peoples thoughts? I'm almost 13 weeks and just been looking into them. Mainly as a way to keep costs down and of course they're better for the environment!

I personally don't know anyone that uses them so really curious to hear people's opinions, plus maybe recommendations on what brand to use?

Thanks all x

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MNHQ

I tried them out as our council were giving out free trial packs when we had our 3rd. I didn't like them, her skin was always sore with them so I went back to disposables.

Best thing to do is get some trial packs and see how you get on before committing to a large batch of one brand. May be worth looking at professional cleaning services too as they can get pretty grim.

I use reuseabelles - find them brilliant - with a good wash routine and nappies that suit her we get no issues with rashes or leaks. It can be a bit of finding what suits baby so would recommend a trial kit first from a nappy Library or getting one or two of different brands/types initially rather than a starter kit of one brand.
Check if your council do funding too

I'm planning on using them for my first baby, but he isn't here yet.

Birth to potty nappies often have a starting weight of 9/10lbs, and look giant on a tiny baby! So we're starting with muslins and Rumparooz newborn wraps for the first few months, with some boosters in for overnights. It's cost effective as we've bought 24 muslins which will be used for other things later on, some nappy nippas and 4 wraps as they can mostly be wiped down a few times rather than changed every nappy change.

You may have a local nappy library, ours does newborn hire kits or older hire kits, so once we're a little further on we'll go there to try different styles and get some advice as to what works best for us.

For us, the reasons are environmental but the financial side does appeal. While it isn't a huge saving for baby 1, by the time it gets to baby 2 then there is a really good saving. It's currently reusable nappy week so there's lots of offers on at the moment too!

How does it work, do you literally put baby shit in the washing machine?

What happens when you move to solids? 😬

@FTEngineerM - Use a paper liner - optional, but you get rid of poo down the toilet, and store in a bucket with a mesh lining, at least that's what I did until there are enough to run a load in the washing machine. Newborns tend to be changed more often.

I’m planning on using them (first baby due in 4 weeks). We are going to use disposables for the first couple of weeks and then get into a routine with using and washing little lamb two piece cloth nappies.
As far as we can see, the pluses far outweigh the negatives so long as you have space and machines for washing and drying. My sister used cloth nappies for her three and so we are following her lead and are not coming from a place of complete novice-dom.
Pluses:

• Disposables contain a lot of chemicals,
• Cloth are much kinder on the environment and on babies skin,
• You can resell them (we have bought some new and some second hand in good condition,
• Babies tend to potty train months sooner in cloth nappies, (my sister’s three - both girls and a boy - were all potty trained before they were two. (18 months and 16 months for the girls and 22 months for the boy)
• Babies in cloth nappies don’t tend to have ‘poo explosions’ as solids (& semi-solids) are contained much more effectively. bamboo nappies used at night are super absorbent, cotton used during the day are soft and dry quickly.

Negatives:

• Financial outlay for nappies and wash powder.
• time and space washing and drying nappies.
• carrying Pooy nappies home in a waterproof bag when you’re out for the day rather than sticking it in the bin. (Considering occasional use of biodegradable disposables!)
• Plus - babies bottom is bigger in cloth and clothes are designed these days for slimline disposables ... so you may need to go a size bigger on clothes or use a popper extender. I love a big round baby bottom wrapped in a soft nappy though and it softens their fall as they plop to the ground when learning to walk!

I've used them for 8 years with 4 kids and they have been brilliant. No rashes. If you have a good general washing routine then it's not much extra bother - I seem to do far less washing than people who have smaller families and no children in cloth. Really rate cloth wipes as well.

Recommend the nappy lady website/ Instagram - has all the info you could possibly need.

We use reusable nappies:

Pros

• works out cheaper

• better for environment
• have never had poo explosions
• have never had nappy rash

Cons

• there are lots of different types and it's a bit trial and error finding what works best for you and baby - once you've worked this out though it's so straightforward and we don't have leaks etc
• takes a bit of practice to get in a good wash routine - but again once you've done this it's easy

@FTEngineerM

How does it work, do you literally put baby shit in the washing machine?

What happens when you move to solids? 😬

The inner lining is either disposable (put in a nappy sack and bin it) or you take the liner to the loo, let go of one end whilst holding the other end firmly and flush... let the water wash off the worst. Then put into a bucket with nappy bag lining the bucket... the entire bag then goes into the wash at the end of the day.

I used prefolds and wraps. The prefolds fit from 4-6 weeks until potty training so good value, you just need to buy 4-5 wraps in each size. Did two kids then sold on for more than my outlay 5 years later!

@FTEngineerM

Use toilet paper to wipe down into the toilet, I used flushable liners once more solid.

Ps I used disposables until they fitted into the one size nappies, 6 weeks for us

Lots of people buy a big pack with the best intentions, try them when the baby is tiny, can't be arsed then sell them cheap. So you can buy them cheap second hand!

Personally I'd use disposables for the first few weeks at least because you get through a lot of nappies and they won't fit the birth to potty ones (despite the name!) Mine fitted birth to potty from about 3 months.

We use fleece liners, they're rectangles of thin fleece that sit on the nappy. They wick wee away from the baby's skin to prevent nappy rash and you can plop poo off into the loo. Sticky poos you might need to hold the liner so the toilet water can blast the poo off. Sounds a bit grim but you get used to it quickly!

When poo is just milk poo, it can go in the washing machine as it all rinses off. When it gets solid it goes in the loo. This is supposed to be what you do with poo from disposables as well but people don't bother!

I also use washable wipes, one colour for bums and one colour for hands and face. They save you lots of money.

All of it is easy once you have a system going.

Thank you all, lots of great info 😁. Think I will see if I have a local nappy library and go from there. Sounds like disposables maybe better for the first few weeks though so I will make sure to stock up! Xx

This week is reusable nappy week! I think some of the companies are doing deals, so it is worth buying this week if you decide to go for it :)

Honestly, I detested them with every fibre of my being, but used them part time with my first until he potty trained at 2. The only time he ever got nappy rash was in cloth, and one time was so bad he’s still got the scars on his bum (it was a teething poo tbf). (I’m lucky enough that a friend runs our local cloth library, so yes, I was using and washing them perfectly!)

I hated the constant washing, I don’t think they look cute at all, I hate how massive they make their bums so clothes don’t fit and you have to size up or buy “cut for cloth” clothes. I hate the expense of paying out for them. Hated how much he leaked (and yes, they were fitted properly and tried every type going, with thanks to afore mentioned friend!)

They really were not for us. Used cloth wipes with him though with no issues.

Just had second DS, and not using cloth at all this time. I have noticed that we are constantly buying nappies, and it makes me feel a bit sick with how many are being used and ending up in landfill 😳 I’m not organised enough to be using cloth wipes full time yet so on disposable wipes too, I hope to change that soon though. I do still have some cloth nappies in the loft, so when I’ve got my act together, I may try a few when my newborn is a few months old and see how we get on this time.

There’s no harm buying a few and seeing how you get on with them - some people really love them! So if you like the few you buy, then you can get more. It also doesn’t have to be all or nothing, you can part time cloth bum too 😊

It’s cloth nappy week too so some good deals on! Even though I dislike cloth so strongly, the best I felt were close pop ins and grovia nappies.

I was just about to mention reusable nappy week too. Have a look on The Nappy Lady site, loads of great advice and it’ll have some deals on this week. Don’t buy one large pack, it’s better just to buy a few of different brands first to see what you like. My favourite are the Little Lamb BTP pockets. They’re reasonably priced and the boosters are fab.

I bought some newborn ones but tried them once at around 2 weeks and decided I couldn’t cope. I picked it up again at 4mths and found it really easy. It’s also not an all or nothing situation, we did just daytime when I was on maternity leave. All of mine are pocket or all in ones which aren’t ideal for nighttime and I decided that this was still making enough of an environmental difference. Now he’s at nursery and they provide nappies we just use them 3 days per week when he’s at home. I have about 15 which is enough to just wash once a the end of the 3 days (they are consecutive days).

My top tips:

• Don't get a gross bucket or something to keep them in that will accumulate stink, get two XXXL wet bags. When it's time for a wash, invert the wet bag into the machine and push it in after the nappies. Then start the new wet bag. We did disposables with our first and daytime cloth with our second and the bin bag of disposables was FAR stinkier than the zippered wet bag of cloth nappies.
• Speaking of which, it's totally OK to do a bit of both! Day time cloth and nighttime disposable, at-home cloth and out-and-about disposable, mostly cloth and oh-crap-I-forgot-to-do-a-wash disposable. One of the reasons we wanted to keep some disposables around is because you can use sudocrem with them. Neither of our children were hugely rashy but sometimes it just happened and sudocrem is magic. We're going on holiday later this year (we hope!) and will be fully disposable for that.
• Birth to potty is a lie at both ends.
• Don't overcomplicate your washing routine with soaking and multiple washes and so on unless you have to. We tried out 60 degree intensive on our machine and found it was actually fine to just do that. You can always re-wash and upgrade if you find it's not working, but don't commit to years of extra wash cycles if you don't need to.

Also, don't blame yourself if it doesn't work out. I really wanted to do them with our first but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Having now done them with our second living in a different house, the biggest factor has been the layout of our washing area and ease of drying. Doing the washing is so much physically easier.

We use little lambs 2-parter bamboo nappies and love them. Disposable liners and Earth Conscious Eco Baby Balm for bum cream. We use the tots bots nappy bucket too. All of this stuff is online. A bit of a faff while finding your feet but once you're in a good routine it's a breeze. I absolutely love cloth nappies and feel so sad that we didn't discover them until our ds was 18 months. Will deffo start from the little baby stage next time!

P.s cheeky wipes are also brilliant and mummy of 4 uk on YouTube does some helpful cloth nappy videos.

Ds has never had nappy rash in cloth nappies

Another vote here for cheeky wipes- far superior to disposables or cotton wool.

If you're organised washing isn't a big deal.

We started using a few reusables from around 9 weeks old. You can mix and match for a while with disposables and different brands. And decide whether all in one or two partners suit you best. Then stock up once you've found your favourite.

*two parters

Used them for 2 children and highly recommend. Saved us a fortune and much kinder to the environment. I started off by getting lots when discounted but eventually found one of the more expensive ones worked best for us as we wanted something that was super slim, went on similar to a disposable and was low maintenance. They were good value given they went through both my children and now being used by SIL

I obviously didn't have the same experience as other posters! First baby in reusables, second in disposables as the cloth nappies had started wearing out so we were going to have to replace many of them.

Disposables are soooo much easier! You can get them to fit much more snugly, you don't have the issue of the nappy looking enormous on your baby (affecting what clothes you can put them in) and you don't have to have buckets of dirty nappies sitting around and extra loads of washing to be done.

On a quick comparison of costs, if you use Lidl or Aldi nappies (which are fine) then I think it actually works out cheaper, certainly no more expensive, than reusables. It's very expensive to buy everything up front and you have to factor in the cost of washing and tumble drying them, which gets expensive. I know people will claim they never tumble dried theirs and always managed to get them out on the line, but whenever I tried that (partly in a bid to bleach them when they became discoloured, as recommended by the manufacturer), they ended up hard and difficult to fold/put onto the baby - and the sun never got rid of the discolouration!

Honestly, I was so relieved when we changed to disposables for our second baby.