How expensive is it really to have 'REAL' nappies? Experts needed :)

[DisenchantedPlusBump]

Have always used disposables.

I know people say 'it saves you money in the long run' but in our situation getting together that lump sum is alot harder than just spending £6 on nappies as and when you need them.

How do they work? Do you buy 1 set and they grow with baby?

How many parts to the nappys?

Is there a good starter pack available somewhere?

Thanks

Disenchanted, I've got half a dozen CottonBottoms size small wraps, & a dozen CB nappies you can have if you like - I was just about to freecycle them!

(Our youngest has now grown out of the small wraps, & we've got far too many nappies).

They're second hand obviously, but would get you started.

OMG Raven that would be fantastic! Thankyou so much!

My email is pug_d @hotmail.com

I haven't had time to read the whole thread as DD2 arrived on Wednesday so I'm watching the totsbots drying as we speak. It's nice to see them out again, perversely. Just to say that I bought mine new from ebay from sellers who had bought them and then decided to use disposables after all. This meant they were about half the cost they would have been and it's a cheap way to get the shaped ones ...

if you're in london, you can get up to £50 from www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk/

from your borough council.

might worth checking with your council if your outside london too, they might run a similar scheme.

I'm still PG so can't say anything about using real nappies vs disposable. But ive got my voucher and im going to order a beginner pack!

we came out about the same as TheAuthor when we did a cost comparison last year before dd was born:

Reusables
Buying 3 sizes of nippa Bimbles & Popolino Airflow-a-likes from EayPeasy, including bucket, meshes, nippas and wet bags, would be £400
Taking advantage of their bulk pack discounts, offers etc brings it down to £272*

Disposables
Allowing 8 a day for the first 6m and 4 a day thereafter, taking into account change of size as they grow and assuming they are in nappies till 30months
Pampers £629.23
Nature Babies from Waitrose £836.17
Moltex from The Nappy Lady £1,151.22

Obv the you could save on reusables by buying secondhand, and on disposables by buying 3 for 2, special offers, own brands etc, and it doesn't take into account clothies needing dispos for holidays or splashing out on cutesy wraps etc.

And reusable wipes would add a huge cost saving too.

Hi All, can anyone recommend any cloth nappies that they have used? I am totally confused over the whole idea but really want to ensure I use them rather than disposables. Some look allot bulkier than others but which ones work best and leak the least? Any advice will be much appreciated. :-)

Terries - mega cheap (pack of 6 for £5), dry fast, easy to clean, and with the right fold we love this on will last from birth to toilet training. Wraps can range from cheap plastic pants to GORGEOUS wraps (we love nature babies with poppers) that are easy to find on ebay for wround £4. Sometimes when we are out it is a little tricky to find somewhere to fold them but popping dirty nappies in a carrier and getting it home is easy.

Washing - personally I pop wet nappies in 2 lidded bins with a laundry bag in so it can all be scooped up and popped in the washer. I have a nother lidded bin in the bathroom where a rinse and soak the pooey nappies. I find a good long handled wooden spoon helps with this....These 3 bins make a full load and this is about every 3 days. We find a flannel used as abooster at nights means she doesn;t leak after 12 hours.

So about 3 extra loads a week. People seem to think this is an extra couple of quid a week. But man it saves on rubbish and buying nappies. So relieved I don't have to spend more money on nappies each week and thant hopefully any other offring can use the same nappies.

Think the person above who said build it up gradually is wise - buy a few a make sure you like them. Even if you use 2 real nappies a day you save 14 disposables a week and would only have one extra load. You could maybe buy pack of terries/complete nappy every few weeks. Ebay have some good wraps and liners.

I love using terries. Small amount of poo scraping is easliy out weighed by a satisfying 'real nappy' feelin when putting away 20 fresh, white, clean nappies I didn;t just have to buy.

Also. I have just been cutting up an old top to make lovely soft washable wipes. I have a little teeny bucket (49p from Tesco but it goes so well with her room....) and the wipes just get flung in the wash.

CAAAccchiing!!! £££££££££££££££££££

I love real nappies. I started out with some little lambs which were loaned to me by a friend. I then moved on to babybeehinds bamboo; DS seems to to wee constantly and they are mega absorbent. I get them from babyoaks. The woman that runs is fab and will give you plenty of advice. I really wouldn't recommend the BBeehind wraps though, they leak at the legs. I like Motherease or the popolino ones.

Sorry, I haven't read all the posts, so I apologise if this has been said already.

The first thing to do is to ring your local council. Most councils now have a system whereby they recommend a local "nappy lady". She then brings you a selection of nappies to try for a fortnight. You can test them out, see what you think. Then, if you buy any, the council give you money towards it. My council (Leics) gave me £35.

I used Motherease I think. They had little poppers on the side, so they could be expanded as DS grew bigger. I had to buy a bigger set after a while, but 2 sets (of 10 nappies) lasted him till potty-training.

I'll be honest - I found that by the time he was nearly 2, the real nappies weren't good enough for night-time wear, so I've used disposables for the nights. But then again, my DS drinks a huge amount of milk at bedtime, so probably wees more than most!

I used BumGenius. I think they're brilliant.

They have an insert that you put into the nappy so there's no risk of sausaging it up. Then a paper liner on top. If the baby does a poop, then I just throw it with the liner into the toilet and away it goes.

Washing them is no bother, they dry really easily and saves me an awful lot of money. I never run out of nappies or have to carry heavy packs of nappies home.

I can't bear the thought of all those horrible chemicals in disposables against my child's skin.

Plus poo is clinical waste and shouldn't go to landfill. It's rank.

I found the Motherease One size system to be great, the nappies are a good quality and have lasted 2 children very well.

My best advice is test, test, test before spending much money! There are so many lovely cute nappies out there but cuteness is no use if they leak, and that varies by baby. So if you can, find somewhere that does free nappy trials, and/or borrow from friends so you can try several brands. We found EVERYTHING leaked on DS except prefolds (but I found them a pain on a wriggly boy) and the ones we are using now - a mixture of Tots Bots cotton (my favourites) and Motherease One Size, used with Motherease Rikki or Airflow wraps. These do seem to work for a lot of other people too, so definitely worth trying. The nappies go on quickly and easily as they are shaped like a disposable, then you can put the wrap on afterwards without worrying about them weeing everywhere while you faff about, which I found a problem with the prefolds where you have to keep everything together until it's in place. That said, we are still using disposables overnight as nothing worked as well for the long stretch.
As for cost, if you can't afford to spend all the money at once it is perfectly OK to buy a few cloth nappies when you can, and use disposables in between until you have enough; I reckon it would still save you cash in the long run. And as others have said, try Ebay, Freecycle or borrowing from friends/family - we got most of our Tots Bots handed down from my SIL for free, wahey! Hope some of that is helpful.

I use Tots Bots and Easy Peasy Nappies Bumbles.
I love both and can't imagine going back to disposables.
I cover them with Motherease Airflow wraps.

Both nappies can be used from birth to potty so I only have to buy wraps in different sizes and I fully intend to use the set on DC2 when it's born at the end of this year.

Many of the posts I have read have said that they use disposables at night because the cottons no longer cope with this increased volume of wee.
I found the same thing, but I simply add an extra booster (actually, a foldable cotton nappy in my case) inside the main nappy.
This increases the absorbancy and like that there are no problems lasting until the morning.

Good luck with your search.
There are so many good advice sites on the net and so many people using them these days, I'm sure you'll find some that suit you and your baby.

PlusBump (can't possibly call you Disenchanted!) - if you work on the principle you will need to find a few quid each week when you become MinusBump, could you start now? Pretend each week you are buying your pack of dispies, but stick the money in a bank account and just before the Bump turns up, go and buy your nappies (or just after - a lot of people use dispies for the first couple of weeks while they get into the baby swing of things).

I bought 4 Kushies wraps - £18 (total) and 4 packs of Boots terry squares (about £10 for 6). Plus about £3 for some nappy nippas and then £1.65 per 100 liners (but you can get washable liners). This has lasted me until dd was about 18 months. The wraps are getting a bit small now (I can do them but DH and MIL struggle!) and the terries don't hold enough wee (she's a prolific pisser!) I'm just adding more wraps and nappies to my collection now. I need to find something that will do her for nighttime cos we're having to put her in disps at night at the minute - although they quite often burst [urgh]

When I go shopping I often think 'Yay, I don't have to spend £7 on nappies'!

Hi I just wanted to show you the research that the women's environmental network did comparing the cost of reusables vs disposables. It makes for really interesting reading. It also includes the cost of your washing machine energy usage, laundry powder, washing machine depreciation.

www.wen.org.uk/nappies/cost_comparison.htm

They've also done a comparison on the carbon usage in washing vs manufacture of disposables.

Hopefully it will help some mums out there!

www.wen.org.uk/nappies/env_calculations.htm

Its also good to remember that with reusables you can sell them on once your DC are potty trained. Don't see anyone giving you cashback for used disposables...