Real nappies

danilou21

Does anyone use real nappies and can offer some advice?

I really want to start using them as I don't like the waste produced by disposeables and although I thought they would be cheaper to use from the research I have done they look as if they will work our roughly the same.

I would really like to have the simplest nappy as I dont think I could do all the complicated folding etc.

How many would I need to get?

Any other advice would be welcome!

Suzanne_Louise

Hello! I used to use these when my DD was a baby (16 months old now). We used the Bambino Mio's and generally, they were very good. There's a fold for girls, and a fold for boys - the girls version was incredibly easy to fold, but I think the boys is a little more complicated. There are videos available on the internet for how to do them, but they're easy!

You'll probably need at least 12, and you'll have to wash at least every couple of days to ensure you have a ready supply!

We stopped using them when she was 16 weeks though, as I went back to work full time. This is when we changed to eco friendly disposables, which again, we found very good.

Good luck!

noncom_2

HI there

My kids are 8 and 7 now, so it all seems like a long time ago, but my wife and I used Cotton Washables for both our children. We bought the "Birth to Potty" pack from Cotton Bottoms, which wasn't cheap, but did work very well and lasted both our kids with plenty of wear left in them for us to sell them on to someone else when we had no need of them.

A few thoughts:

They were the "cotton prefold" type, so you have an outer waterproof wrap which velcros shut, and you put the cotton inside it, folded appropriately for a boy or a girl, and an optional disposable liner. They were easy to do, and for the most part worked well.

You will end up doing a lot of extra washing this way though, if you have very heavy wetters (we did) or babies which soil them regularly (we did!). The extra cost of washing and wear and tear on the machine also has to be taken into account when considering the environmental impact.

Hopefully things may be different now, but we found it restricted our choice of nurseries. Some said that they would not take children in washables because the staff didn't know how to do them; one even said it was against the law for them to keep the dirty nappies in a bag for us to take home! Luckily we found a great nursery which was happy to teach all the staff what to do with them, but keep this in mind when deciding.

If your child is a heavy wetter at night (our first was) you may find yourself needing some disposables anyway. The cotton ones do not hold as much liquid as Pampers etc, so you will change the child more often. At night times, for the sake of both us and the boy getting a better night's sleep, we eventually compromised and used the "dry core" type disposables.

Also consider that when you go away, it's more paraphenalia to carry with you, and you can't be away from a washing machine for more than a couple of days. Again, we compromised and used disposables on holiday.

The resale value when we'd finished with them was shockingly low, so don't factor in that you'll get money back when you sell (although you may do better than we did!). Count the cost of the equipment and washing and write it all off, then compare it to the equivalent number of disposables of whatever brand you'd be likely to use otherwise. Do consider however that if you have two or three children, you should be able to use the same set for all of them, and then the savings really do add up.

All in all, we are glad we did it, even though we weren't being terribly eco-warrier about it, and did compromise to make life easier in some circumstances.

Hope this helps
Andy

Paperbird

Some local councils offer free reusable nappies as a way of reducing waste. My daughter had ten nappies from her local council, my area offer so much towards the cost of nappies. It worth getting a few just to see if you like them, you dont have to use them all the time.

beenzberry

We use real nappies, and think they are great! We have about 30 (only as I might be a little addicted!)

Lots of online places have info, softbots (dot co dot uk) have a questionnaire you can fill out to help shortlist all the options. They also do payment plans as upfront cost is high, but cheaper in the long run!

Floxxie

I used real nappies - Bum Genius and highly recommend them as they are easy to use and you throw the whole thing into the washing machine!

I sold mine on a site that deals with second hand and new nappies - https://www.usednappies.co.uk

I also got £60 from my council for using them.

Mankysteve

noncom wrote: »

The resale value when we'd finished with them was shockingly low, so don't factor in that you'll get money back when you sell (although you may do better than we did!).

Unless you buy second hand yourself :money:

professoryaffle_3

My main advice would be don't buy a birth to potty pack, what suits newborn pooh explosions doesn't necessarilly suit toddler power wees, also different sorts of nappies suit different babies (and parents) .
I personally hate prefolds (bambino mios /cotton botttoms ) with a passion (although I'd still use one other a disp any day) and really don't understand their popularity and as other posters say the resell on prefolds isn't good ( it's much better on shaped nappies such as tots , say for a £8 new you should get £3-5 per nappy 2nd hand if you sell on parenting forums.

I've used cloth from birth for my last 3 children and tots bots and mother ease wraps are my default /go to combination . I'd say buy a few different types to see what suits you and bubs, have a look at sites such as www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk or thenappylady whihc offers an advice service with no pressure to buy from them.

danilou21

Luckily we don't have to worry about nursery as L will be looked after by family when I go back to work. I have brought a couple of ebay cheapies like this, hopefully they will be ok.
I think that I will try these to start with, unfortunately its not doing much for my carbon footprint!

My council offers 3 different types of nappy for a tenner (one shaped cotton nappy, gingham design (no folding required!), a one-size (birth to potty) shaped bamboo nappy (no folding required!), one bamboo prefold nappy, two PUL waterproof wraps, paper liners,) and a further voucher for a tenner when you buy from this company. The trouble is the one and only company you can order these from o not sell these nappies individually, so if I did like them I wouldn't be ablt to get any more.