Reusable/washable/cloth nappies

youngwilly

birth to potty packs are a lot of expense as pointed out in previous posts. If you dont have a council run nappy club then try the local Lollipop agent - they will give you great advice and can give you a flexible pack of nappies, liners and wraps for about half the price of Cotton Bottoms, which are greatly overpriced.

if you need help finding a Lollipop agent I can ask ours to help.

paul_h

youngwilly wrote:

birth to potty packs are a lot of expense as pointed out in previous posts. If you dont have a council run nappy club then try the local Lollipop agent - they will give you great advice and can give you a flexible pack of nappies, liners and wraps for about half the price of Cotton Bottoms, which are greatly overpriced.

I would agree that the Cotton Bottoms are not quite the cheapest, but they do work very well - read the reviews here. We found that if you compared like packages, the prices were broadly similar from brand to brand - I wouldn't say the CBs were overpriced at all.

The lollipop agent is a good idea, you can get to try some of the different brands available, but they didn't sell anything really interesting when we bought ours. I suppose it depends which brands your local lollipop sells.

If you could find a complete prefold birth to potty system for half the cost of the Cotton Bottoms, I would be amazed... the illustration on the lollipop site here lists a package at well over £300 with only half as many wraps as the Cotton Bottoms pack.

zippybungle

Hi,

Like some of the others have said, I wouldn't recommend that you go and buy a birth to potty kit as I think you need to try a nappy first to make sure you like them and they are a good fit.

I use Tots Bots reusable nappies and I think they are fantastic! I would never ever go back to using disposeable nappies. Tots Bots are shaped like a disposeable nappy and just as easy to put on. I have made my own liners out of fleece material - really easy to do, just cut the fleece into hourglass shapes. The fleece liners keep babies bum nice and dry and much cheaper than buying disposeable liners.

I have bought all my Tots Bots nappies from e-bay (new) I found that they were cheaper on there than anywhere else. 10 Nappies, 2 wraps and 3 booster pads cost me £84 - with free delivery. The e-bay seller was 'smileybums'

Hth

Iffy'swifey

Firstly zippybungle, congratulations on a fantasticola name!

Thanks for all your responses, some varied replies there...now I have even more to consider! Including finding out what a lollipop agent is!

bylromarha

A lollipop agent is someone who hangs around outside nurserys trying to give parents lollipops for free.

Alternatively, you may find them masquerading as cloth nappy agents in your area that are recommended by the local council.

paul_h

I don't think the lollipop agents were any cheaper than buying direct, just that you can get to try a few different brands out for fit.

Zippybungle mentioned the booster pads, I forgot about those - very good for the night time nappy especially if you have a little lad...

bylromarha

Our nappy agent is cheaper than direct purchases and a wealth of info too. She also does discounts if you buy the nappies at NHS organised events.

She also refuses to stock Bambino Mio and Kushies as she only ever hears complaints about them...and having tried all her brands of stock on her own kids, I feel it's a great service you get. I have nothing but praise for my gal who persuaded me back onto reuseables after I struggled through with leaking Bambinos for a year.

jap200

I am amazed having read this thread that no one has mentioned Motherease nappies so far. They are shaped terry nappies with lots of adjustable poppas that fit from newborn to toddler - i.e. one size nappy fits all. You do need to buy different size wraps though.

They are available from Little Green Earthlets (where other brands are stocked too)
http://www.earthlets.co.uk/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=94&strPageHistory=cat If you say you are an NCT member, they may give you a discount (they do not ask for proof).

Exactly the same nappy is also now available under the brand name Popolino, which may be slightly cheaper.

I cannot praise these highly enough as I tried all sorts of different cloth nappies and all of them leaked (Bambino Mio being particularly bad) - except the Motherease ones, which only leak occassionally if you have forgotten to change it within 3 hours or with a very runny poo (such as you get when breastfeeding).

I used one set of 16 Motherease nappies (around £9 each at the time = £144) for all three of my boys and 3 each of 3 different size covers (also about £9 each = £81). My original outlay was therefore about £225 + about another £25 for bucket and some extra booster pads. I also used my own home-made wipes (except when out and about). So after having spent about £250 and used the nappies continuously for 6 years, they were still in good condition and I sold them all to a friend for £70!!

All in all I would consider them a good investment - but as they are very well made, I would also look for them second-hand at NCT sales etc.

Lyndsay_21

Ihave just converted my 1yr old from disposable into reuseables and i got mine free..i put a wanted add on my local freecycle website and got offered loads, they were secondhand but hey for free i cant complain. Although they are kushies (2 part not AIO) i have found them fine. Also some websites do a nappy trial where for £30 you can have a few different types of nappies the best i've seen was on the website www.kittykins.co.uk
Be warned it is very addictive being a clothie and i have now after only a week spent many hours on ebay drooling at all the nappy stuff.

mows

just a quick note to say thanks for a great thread - i've just used terries since my daughter was born as i was too scared by all the complicated nappy systems to give them a go and i found terries nice and simple - it's really helpful to hear other people's experiences. Many thanks.