Washable/Reusable Nappies

KT1985

I bought them individually when they were on bogof- they are versitile in that you can use them to cover muslins, terries and shaped nappies too.

Gingham_Ribbon

Like disposables, it seems to depend to some extent on the size and shape of baby.

I loved kushies ultra - no faff at all. But I also loved my terries and couldn't believe how easy they were once I got some motherease rikki wraps. The newborn fold is easy, but once they're a bit bigger, it's easy to fold the nappy into a pad shape and the wrap holds it in place perfectly.

Might be worth trying a few with the nappy lady before deciding.

SugarSpun

We like the bumgenius ones too - they recommend buying 20-24 but we've got 15 and manage fine with laundry every two days.

The only potential downside is that they're supposed to only last for one baby, so if you plan to have more then another brand might be better.

Also - in the US you can get Econobums from the same company, which apparently are also pretty good but you'd need a drop shipping company, I think.

katglasgow

Hi my daughter is now potty trained but I used on her from 3 months old.
I started with 8 birth to potty bum genius pocket nappies. They are excellent value as fitted well from this age right up till she potty trained at 2. My hubby was quite resitant to cloth and this was the only nappy he was willing to use as he found the velcro manageable but struggled to get his head round poppers! I continued at this point to use disposables until she slept thru at c. 5 months. By this point I could almost get away with putting her in a medium fuzzi bunz, so I bought 6 of those (I just loved the colours and they are slightly cheaper than the bum genius). The medium fuzzis are good value IMO as you can use them until age 2 (often older) so you do get value for money whereas for the smaller sizes I doubt you do really and I resale value on 2nd hand is very low. These were all the nappies I had, and that was enough to do me washing every 2nd day - they dry very quickly. The only other esssential items I would suggest are:
- wet bag for carrying dirties in
- facecloths or reusable wipes (I used with water in house and saved a lot on baby wipes)
- nappy bucket (do not soak pocket nappies its very bad for them just store in dry pail with tight fitting lid).
- hemp boosters which I found I needed to add at about 18 months to boost the absorbancy of the nappy.
- a roll of flushable, buidegradeable liners. Not essential with pocket nappies, but they do keep the nappies lovely and white and make messy changes much easier. (MSE tip is to cut each liner in half!)
I found both bum genius and fuzzi also suitable for overnight use, although I did not attempt this until baby was sleeping thru.
I have just finished selling off all my nappies and would reccommend going onto usednappies.co.uk to have a look at the second hands. If you are interested in small sized fuzzis for example you will probably pay £3/4 per nappy whereas they are perhaps £12 each new.
Good luck, once you are into a washing routine it is very easy and you will love showing off your little one's cloth bum! x

PS. If you are buying second hand, some of the other pocket nappies that are more expensive which people talk highly of are: blueberry and minki.

Bunny

thank you for your replies and suggestions and I'll have a look at the pages now. It's sounds ok, how do you go on with going out and about, do you use disposables then or use the reusable ones mainly and what about holidays?

fernliebee

I used re-usables from birth with DD. We went with the flat nappies that you fold (pre-folds) as they are cheap, (also got £40 cashback from local council which covered our outlay pretty much) to see how we got on, we used the tommee tippee wraps and some bambino mio ones that we were handed down. The prefolds were fine when she was tiny and fairly immobile but as she got bigger we had a fair few leaks and eventually decided to actually buy some better ones. The tommee tippee wraps were next to useless for us, though I passed them on to a friend with a warning and she likes them, so we had scrapped them and used the bambino mio ones.

My DD was very tall but slim so we found we did need the newborn wraps but then used size 3 wraps for ages and she still fits in them now (though she is potty training atm)

The nappies we got were from a scheme local to us where they were 'loaning' (basically giving them, as they never want them back due to lack of interest in the scheme, and it has now finished so we were very, very lucky!!) low-income families a complete set of popolini 2 size nappies. We got 15 of these. They are excellent (they are exactly the same as the mother ease sandies i believe) we don't have a tumble dryer and they dry very quickly, yet are very absorbant, they also came with booster pads for very heavy wetters. We only got 2 popolini wraps in the set so we bought some more wraps (mother ease airflow) and have never had a leak since. I would highly reccomend these nappies and wraps to anyone as they are easy to use, quick to dry (we don't have a tumble dryer), simple to put on and are really adjustable. At first we would not do poppers up just pull tabs right across the front as DD was so slim, then secure with wrap (but you could use a nippa) then there is 3 different popper settings on the front.

ETA: We used the washables out and about too, just took carrier bags, put dirties in there and took them home for washing. If baby change area had a bin/ toilet I would empty the nappy first but if not then just wrap it up poo and all and it wasn't the end of the world. We did go away for 2 weeks though and there were no laundry facilities except an expensive launderette so we used sainsburys eco nappies and the nature baby disposables while we were on holiday.

katglasgow

I would second that - your holiday is a holiday - leave the cloth nappies behind!
Travelling on a day to day basis is easy though, just take a few pockets with you and a bag to put the dirties in. As you take dirty nappy up fold it is half to one side, clean bum and fit new one. Do not deal with dirty nappy until clean nappy safely secured! I have to say I love using cloth nappys when I was out and about and even my cloth resitant mother in law found that lots of strangers were comment on how nice they are in communal changing rooms ( I think secretly I have change her lol).

pigpen

I took terry squares on holiday... in a caravan.. hand washed each days nappies during the morning nap while dad got showered.. took about 30 minutes washing and rinsing.. and hung them up to dry.. took about 20 minutes before being foldable and able to put away.!!

I took fuzzis and boosters on another holiday and I had so many boosters as I made my own.. plus microfibre cloths make fabulous boosters I just drypailed and binbagged and brought them home, the really nasty ones I soaked overnight and washed in the morning.. had we gone for 2 weeks I'd have found a laundrette and washed them. The fuzzis I washed every day and dried.. At this point we were only using 3-4 a day

OrkneyStar

I recommend Tots Bots- the cotton bots are great all rounders- good absorbancy, fairly quick to dry on line/in airing cupboard, last well. The bamboo ones are good too, although take longer to dry, Fluffles were good too although synthetic- not sure they still make them. For an all in one bumgenius are superb- expensive but last birth to potty!
We used them almost 99% of the time on DS from about 1 week to 23 months, in sposies for a short time then toilet trained.

Scenic_Route

Help!

Cue thread hijack of sorts.

We are using Bumgenius 3.0 velcro tabby things. DD is 8 months old and we've been using them since 2 weeks old. I love them to bit they are great BUT they have begun to stink like crazy when wet. Apparently according to the BG website I can use "Dawn" once a month to cleanse them in addition to the washing I do (60 degrees with ecover and pure and then two rinses). Unfortunately this "Dawn" liquid dish soap seems to be a US thing so aside from flying across the pond (not very money saving) does anyone know where I can obtain "Dawn" in the UK or have they had similar problems and found alternative solutions?

Bunny best of luck with your little flump, I didn't have a clue what I was doing after I gave birth and found the baby whisperer book which came free with a baby magazine very very helpful, it involves an E.A.S.Y routine which I found helpful as I worked out how to get a shower and do laundry when twinkletoes the terrorist was asleep. Many times people told me when the baby naps you take a nap, never worked like that for me!

If I was doing this all over again I would still use reusables as I spent one week on holiday at my Dad's using Eco disposables and the bin was so full and smelly I don't know how the council cope with the landfill. We got some (45 in total I made hubby biy more) cotton liners which resemble facecloths but are thinner and I use those with water from the tap instead of wipes when in the house and save wipes for the nappy bag when we're out and about. Have you seen the price of wipes? Daylight robbery! I'd also get shares in Boots quick cos I ended up spending a fortune in there on "stuff".

SR