Reusable/washable/cloth nappies

Lillibet_2

I think it depends hugely on each child, my son is almost 7 weeks old and we have found by far and away the best are terries as all the all in ones are far too big around the legs for him. I think if you contact the nappy lady in your area she can come and give you advice to suit your needs and budget and will have samples of the various diffrent options to view, no doubt someone wil be along soon to give you the web link.

By the way, check with your local authority, many of them give grants towards the cost of washable nappies to encourage use (sadly mine, Elmbridge, doesn't:rolleyes:)

When you get around to washing them, we have found Nappisan, available in supermarkets at about £1.75 a carton, to be brilliant at shifting stanis etc. Don't rush into using washables as soon as your baby is born, give yourself time to adjust get used to the new demands on your time before you start trying to fit everything in, I didn't start using washables until my son was over 3 weeks old when I felt I could cope with the additional changes & washing. I have also now decided not to use them at night as he doesn't sleep well in them so am still using 1-2 disposables each night but I figure this is better than all the time & we still get a fairly decent nights sleep:D

Good luck & well done for considering the washables route.

HappySad

I am about to try out washable. I have bought a Motherease one size fits all and just need to buy the wrap & liner and off I go.

http://www.kittykins.co.uk/ is a good place to buy what you need as they don't charge a delivery price.

Judi101

Many thanks for that. I will see if I can find a link for the nappy lady and have a look at that website. Thanks for the help.

Judi

black-saturn

I have 2 children who are now 11 and 8. When the first one was born I was determined to use washable nappies. It worked well for a while but when the winter came I found it hard to get them dry with the bad weather and everything. So I decided to use disposable and washable on alternate days which gave me time to dry them and also saved me some money. On the other hand though, you will have to weigh up the costs. Washable nappies need to be soaked in a solution, washed at a high temperate in a detergent, then theres the cost of the tumble dryer if your going to use one. Then each nappy needs a lining and then a pair of plastic pants which need to be regularly replaced. Weigh up all the costs of the solution, washing powder, electric and water (if your on a meter) etc as you might not be saving much money but giving yourself loads more work.

As for using them with the 2nd baby the nappies I used were in no fit state to be used again. As well as that, I was far too busy to find time to wash nappies once the second one came along.

flea72

washable nappies dont need to be soaked, you also dont need to use nappisan, or anything like that

just give them a quick rinse and bung in a lidded bucket, until you have enough for a load

dont bother with the small nappy buckets in places like mothercare, they are a complete waste of money, as they hold about 5 nappies at the most - go to somewhere like wilkinsons, go to the homebrew aisle, and get a fermenting bin

i must admit, the more nappies you have, the easier it is to use cloth, and to that end i went the terry square route - cheap, easy to look after, they dry really quick, stains are easy to treat, and once your child has outgrown them, they make lovely cleaning cloths

flea

bylromarha

Wait until the baby is born before you buy.

I bought my bambino Mios (Birth to potty) when pregnant and regretted it as the fit was bad and the wraps wicked wee onto my boys clothes within an hour of a change, and through normal use, the wraps developed holes in the waterproof lining...you held them up to the window and the sunshine dazzled through. Bambino Mio replaced them, but that shouldn't happen after 6 weeks wear and washing as recommended. However, my friend is using hers on her second baby with no probs at all.

I had a free fuzzi Bunz from council and they leak at the legs as my boy has thin legs.

getting on okay with motherease birth to potty.

So, just as some disposables work better on some babies than others, it's the same for reuseables. You'll be the best judge of which nappy is best for you when you're holding the munchkin!

I can recommend this company.

http://www.smartipantsbaby.co.uk/

We've had a personal fitting from them as they're the nappy agent for our council. After that, we were only allowed to buy 2 nappies in case they leaked! I guess the advice is just as good on the phone if you don't live in the Midlands.

And don't forget to contact your local council as most of them now give cashback to encourage reuseable users.

jellyhead

staffordshire council give a £30 cheque if you use washables, your health visitor has to sign a form. you could get the trial packs, maybe just 2 as that would be all you'd need in the clinic when baby is weighed, the health visitor signs and you get £30 back - nothing to lose.

on advice from this forum i got a selection of different nappies from ebay to find which worked best for us. i'm glad i didn't buy a birth to potty pack, especially those that come in 4 sizes. my baby was too big for newborn size when he left hospital at 3 days old (he weighed under 9lbs but they say they fit up to 11lbs) and was out of small nappies by 4 weeks old. that would have been half the pack useless by only 4 weeks old. but if you have a tiny baby or one that grows slowly it might be nice to have newborn and small sizes so their clothes will fit better.

the prorap wrap i got with my (tiny!) little lamb trial nappy seems very elasticated so would probably suit both a thin baby and a fat one.

leftieM

I'm using totsbots size 1 (ca £7 each and I bought 18) on my baby and dizzy diapers from Nature Babies (I have 6 at £5 each) on my toddler. I use Motherease and Nature Baby wraps. Both are wonderful particularly the totsbots. They rarely leak (none of the 'poo up the back' incidents I hear from disp users!) and are really easy to use. The totsbots lasted for 9 months but I wish I hadn't bought the next size up as they weren't as absorbent and needed to be boosted. We wash at 60 using half the manufacturer's recommended amount of detergent and don't soak. We wash the disposable liners unless they have poo on them or have ripped. We sometimes use the tumble drier depending on time and the weather (but never on the wraps as it knackers them).
As we're using our nappies for a second child we are saving a fortune!

mummytofour

DO NOT BUY A BIRTH TO POTTY PACK.

You may regret it, what nappy is right for one baby is not always right for another.
I would suggest that you give lots of types of nappies a go, maybe try ebay and get some second hand ones, see which you like best, some palces do a hire services where you can hire nappies and see what nappies suit best.

I have also found that I have changed the type of nappies we use, I started with mio, then I changed over to wonderoos, now im using wraps and terries, its just that babies grow and i change my mind over what I like.


This is a very good site http://www.theclothresource.co.uk/

Also check with your local council and see what they offer, I got £100 of free nappies from mine.

jenpoptab

I totally agree with mummytofour.
I bought bambino mio birth to potty pack and was disappointed.

Mio wraps are useless as child gets bigger and have very limited wear. I was under the impression the wraps would last as long as needed, but alas, no. I changed to proraps instead and found them better for me. I still use the bambino mio prefolds though and they are doing fine and were used with both children.