Cloth nappies from day 1

[MrsV78]

Hi Ladies
All suggestions welcome. I really want to use cloth from day 1 but have heard many of the 1 sized nappies are too big for new borns. I don't really want to spend too much money on a solution if it's only too big for the first few weeks. Am I best to just use muslin or terry squares or is there a better idea?

 

[Lliena]

Tots bots Teenyfits or bumgenius newborns are perfect for the first few weeks And you can get them quite chepaly preloved, then you could move on to the one size/birth to potty nappies.

 

[mumeee]

I plan to use muslins for my second. We didn't do cloth initially with my now toddler and I regret it. The Jo fold (demonstrated by the nappy lady on you tube) looks straight forward and effective and definitely doesn't take long to do (tried already!).

My reasoning for muslins is the expense of newborn nappies for the short period of time and the fact that muslins are useful for just about EVERYTHING after they're no longer needed as nappies.

 

[jen1604]

Tots bots Teenyfits or bumgenius newborns are perfect for the first few weeks And you can get them quite chepaly preloved, then you could move on to the one size/birth to potty nappies.

I was thinking for about a minute 'hmmm,what does chepaly mean'? I am such an idiot

We will be doing this and then selling them on pre-loved afterwards

 

[Tacey]

We used muslins and nappy nippas quite successfully last time. This time I think I might use prefolds though to save time with a toddler to look after too.

Alternatively, as others have said, getting preloved small size nappies is a good option.

 

[MrsV78]

Thanks for the replies ladies. I'm not sure I really want to use preloved, I'm sure they are perfectly fine, but I'm not sure. Can be bothered trying to source them and make sure they're coming from a good home. Momeee thanks for the folding tip. I think muslin seems like the easiest/cheapest solution for the first few weeks. What wraps will you be using? I also like the idea of 1001 uses for a muslin when it's no longer needed for a bum 

 

[mumeee]

I have a stash of wraps I got preloved which are mostly motherease airflow and Rikki so those. I already use airflows with my toddler and they're really reliable but think rikkis over muslins are the best idea because of the gussets

Folding is dead simple really, I often use a folded muslin nappy under my son's night nappy as a slimline booster, works great!

 

[Lliena]

Tots bots Teenyfits or bumgenius newborns are perfect for the first few weeks And you can get them quite chepaly preloved, then you could move on to the one size/birth to potty nappies.

I was thinking for about a minute 'hmmm,what does chepaly mean'? I am such an idiot

We will be doing this and then selling them on pre-loved afterwards

My spelling is getting worse these days!

 

[Rachel_C]

I think lots of us probably had some reservations about buying preloved nappies at the beginning but you soon start to realise that it really makes good sense Most mums (as you can see on here) are very particular about looking after their fluff so you really don't need to worry about it. If you are bothered/don't know the mum, you can always give them a good hot wash and a strip wash before using them.

For my LO, I had a good selection of newborn size nappies to use and I would say I used them for around the first 10 weeks, so that's a good length of time really. I definitely wouldn't say it was a waste and I've just sold them all and made my money back. Some were preloved when I bought them but others are ones I found in sales - I don't think I paid full price for any of them. You have time to look out for bargains, so even if you don't buy any preloved you could still end up making your money back if you resell them.

I would go for a good selection - something from each of the main types if you can, so you can see what you like using the best.

 

[hot tea]

We bought Bummis newborn covers and prefolds. Cheap and easy. But honestly we are using mostly our one size pockets - they fit him well despite him only being six days old. We are exclusively doing cloth diapering!

 

[Blah11]

I also have some bambootys that are really tiny, bout the same size as BG newborn and teenyfits !

 

[Snuffy]

I'm planning on using muslins at first. Although if this one is anything like his big sister, nappies being too big won't be an issue lol.

 

[Bumpontherun]

We use totsbots easyfits and the size 1 has been fine for both our girls from day one and lasted Helen until around 9 months. Sally also fits our BG onesizes fine but she was 9lb 2oz so quite a big girl.

 

[Green Lady]

We didn't really start our baby in cloth till she was about a month old, but I think one factor to consider is economy. We breastfeed and Caroline pooed after every feed, which meant a lot of changes! Muslins can make a good nappy that are easy to wash and quick to dry. I also found that bamboo terry squares are less bulky than cotton ones which can fit a little baby better. We used Little Lambs wraps and I can't fault them.

 

[MrsV78]

Thanks for the info ladies. Looks like I've got a bit more research to do. My husband already thinks I'm crazy with the amount if time I spend looking at nappies and reviews...but it really is more difficult than buying a new car

 

[Rachel_C]

If you're wanting to save money but worry that you will need newborn size nappies, you could try t-shirt nappies. You fold them out of old t-shirts so there is no money to spend. When I was pregnant, I saved old t-shirts that OH was going to throw away, but never had to use them (kind of wish I had now). https://www.cloth-diapers-made-easy.com/the-no-sew-tshirt-diaper.html You can just fold them as needed, or I guess you could pre-fold them and sew them in place, but then they wouldn't be as adjustable.

 

[princess_bump]

i've gone for teenyfits, bambooty's and tb's strechy's for when she's newborn, but tbh we haven't gone over board as we're expecting her to be as big as her sister (9lb3.5) so she'll probably be able to go into her smalls/OS's more quickly. i thought we'd see how she goes/how much she weighs when here and then decide if we need more NB nappies

Although i love the teenyfits, i think fitted+wraps might work even better for nb containment lol!

I've been going on the great advice from the girls here, try a selection to see what works for baby

 

[17thy]

I make a lot of our cloth diapers, and we've been clothing since 2 months. Next time we plan on doing it from birth, and plan on using fitteds, making them myself just makes it easier to have a really good fit.

 

[MrsV78]

If you're wanting to save money but worry that you will need newborn size nappies, you could try t-shirt nappies. You fold them out of old t-shirts so there is no money to spend. When I was pregnant, I saved old t-shirts that OH was going to throw away, but never had to use them (kind of wish I had now). https://www.cloth-diapers-made-easy.com/the-no-sew-tshirt-diaper.html You can just fold them as needed, or I guess you could pre-fold them and sew them in place, but then they wouldn't be as adjustable.

Very crafty!
Another quick question - do you need to boost muslin or t-shirt nappies? I'm a first time mum and have no idea what to expect

 

[Rachel_C]

It depends how long you want to use them for. I don't think unboosted muslins would have lasted more than an hour for us after the first couple of days, so if you wanted to use them for longer than a few days and didn't want to change every hour, yes you'd probably have to boost them. Two muslins folded together would double the absorbency or you could use an insert/booster from a bigger nappy, folded into the muslin. T-shirt nappies would probably last a bit longer as there's more material, probably at least twice as much in an adult t-shirt so they would last longer. But for a young baby, they can poo loads so you'd have to change them anyway. You won't really know until LO arrives. For the first week I was probably changing every 2 hours on average, sometimes after 10 minutes and sometimes after 3 hours. After that, the pooing settled down and I now change about every 3 hours during the day.

I wouldn't want to use muslins for very long personally, because you would need to boost them quite a bit after a couple of weeks. I would only use them if you found sized nappies too small. Bear in mind that sometimes babies don't fit into OS nappies well until they're a couple of months old, so muslins may not be the cheap stop gap you hope they will be.