Feel like I'm losing the cloth love a bit at the mo

[Elphaba]

Does anyone have 'phases' where they just don't seem to love cloth as much as they did?

Just wondering as I'm really not feeling the love this week and hoping it's a phase and not something I've gone off permanently.

Guess at the moment I just feel like it's a lot of effort. I mean we all say it's no more effort than disposables but it kind of is. Well not so much for wees but for poos definitely. Other than wiping LO's bum (obviously!), a pooey disposable is no more effort than a wet one. Whereas with cloth, there's wiping and rinsing to be done which I have to confess to hating. Even though I use both fleece and paper liners together, some always still gets on the nappy and the fleece has to be rinsed anyway. And since we've started weaning a few weeks a go, the poos are more frequent and more smelly (not much more solid though).

He's now nearly always doing a poo in his night nappy as well - in the morning though I think not in the middle of the night - and so I'm reluctant to switch over to cloth at night now. I bought some bamboozles and, boosted, they were working great at night. Only tried two nights though and then needed to wash what I had and haven't gone back due to him starting the morning pooing.

I love how cute cloth is and that it's better environmentally but at the moment it feels a bit of a chore. I have to change him more often as we have more leaks with cloth than disposables (except flips which are fab for no leaks - except somehow the poo on a flip wrap grosses me out even more than on any lother nappy!). The only time we tend to have a sposie (wee) leak is if he has outpeed it overnight which happens maybe once a week now he's started sleeping on his tummy.

I'm also getting really irritated with having to stuff pockets after nappies have been washed/dried - I used to quite enjoy doing this!

Is this likely to just be a phase that they are annoying me? It's not that the individual brands of nappy are suddenly no good are anything - the only thing that has really changed is the extra poos and I don't know if it's the poos that are the problem or just that I'm feeling a bit 'down' generally at the moment and the nappies are one more thing that just seems like a big effort.

Anyway, I'm not really sure of the point of this post . Just feeling a bit for some reason. Think for now my plan might be:
- stick to sposies overnight while he's still doing a poo first thing
- stick to using my flips and easyfits most of the time (most reliable and least 'stuffing' required)
- allow myself to use sposies a couple of times a day if I'm having a bad day and reckon I won't be able to 'handle' a poo nappy.

 

[Rachel_C]

I definitely have phases like this. I had a particularly bad phase when LO was about 4 months old. I had a huge stash of all different types of nappies and it was just so faffy to get them all ready after washing, and they weren't all great for LO so we were having a lot of leaks. At that point, Flips came out and I sold most of my stash of bits and bobs and bought a full set of Flips - best decision I ever made, cloth wise! They're so straight forward and easy and work so well for LO. It instantly renewed my dedication to the world of fluff!

I'd say your plan sounds good. This will pass, I'm sure! If certain nappies aren't as good as others for you and they're stressing you out, just get rid of them. It's nice to have a big variety to choose from but when it's making life harder, it's time to say goodbye! I realised that a lot of the stress I was finding it to be was because I wanted to be able to take a good stash photo and look at all the pretties on my fluff shelves, but when I sold them it was such a huge relief, I wish I'd done it sooner.

With the poos, I bet you'll suddenly find that poos become a whole lot easier and it won't be long now. They'll still be stinky but one day you'll find a nice log in the nappy that just rolls into the loo

 

[lynnikins]

i go through phases of loving and not loving cloth
i found actually leaving the poo nappies to the side and dealing with them all in one go in the evening is easier for me and not had an increase in stains or anything.,

can i ask what food you are giving with weaning if its mainly fruit and vege then his poo wont get much more solid for a while till you add in starchy foods or rice and pasta and stuff

 

[2Princesses]

Rachel im the opposite to you lol, i prefer pockets to flips cos with pockets i can just put them on dd like a sposie but with flips i find it too faffy to prepare the insert at the time of nappy changing!

Elphaba, i think maybe your just going through a phase hun? although to be honest im worried about poo as my baby gets older lol cos i know how much it stinks when they get older! Im of course going to stick to reuseables but im thinking of buying a hand held biddet so i can rinse poo into the toilet easier lol! unless i just use disposable liners?!

Im currently breastfeeding but am having many problems so i want to introduce formula part time-is formula poo much thicker than breastmilk poo does anyone know? cos breastmilk poo is so runny that i just need to put nappies in the machine without rinsing- will i have to rinse formula poo?

 

[Elphaba]

Thanks - good to know I'm not the only one it's happened to!

Rachel - not a bad idea re getting rid of some of the nappies. My stash is pretty much one third Flips, one third Easyfits and one third ebay cheapies. The cheapies have been great stash fillers but they do leak on us so I don't tend to put him in them for more than two hours at a time. They are also quite a bit bulkier than the others so are problematic under certain items of clothing.

Lynnikins, Xavi is mostly on fruit and veg at the moment. He's had some rice, pasta and bread but to be honest he hasn't swallowed massive quantities of anything. He's getting a combination of purees and finger foods - the rice and pasta have all been in purees but he's had various bready things as finger foods. He's also had porridge and yoghurt.

Oh, and since he's been having food, his poo seems to not only be smelleir but to stain more easily. It virtually all used to wash out bar tricky bits around the elastic but now quite a few of the nappies are coming out stained.

2princesses - we definitely get on better with Flips but can see what you mean about the faff factor! Another annoying thing at the mo is that now Xavi has mastered rolling, he has become a real wriggle bum when I'm trying to change him and keeps rolling onto his tummy - I flip him back but he just thinks it's a game . So flips are slightly more awkward in this scenario as the insert does tend to move around a bit if he's not keeping still - but they are pretty bomb proof once they are on.

With regard to FF versus BF poo - I hear FF poo is thicker/less runny, but as Xavier has been FF since birth, I can't compare. His poo is certainly not solid but it's not runny enough I'd be happy to put it through the washing machine.

 

[Rachel_C]

Im currently breastfeeding but am having many problems so i want to introduce formula part time-is formula poo much thicker than breastmilk poo does anyone know? cos breastmilk poo is so runny that i just need to put nappies in the machine without rinsing- will i have to rinse formula poo?

Umm well for us, on formula, think warm peanut butter, yuk! You will probably want to rinse if you introduce formula, and it's a sticky job!

 

[Elphaba]

Yup - Rachel's right! Peanut butter is about the consistency of it. And kind of the colour too. Am so glad I don't like peanut butter, else that would have put me right off!

 

[Jetters]

I went through this when K was a similar age! I did a post about wanting to give up. To get through it... I sold all of my pockets! And switched to AIOs full time... BG organics and recently, easyfits. MUCH less stuffing which i'd grown to hate, too.

I also use paper and fleece and his poos are still not entirely solid but much better than they were. The paper catches most, the fleece catches the rest. I do up the nappy and leave it in a wetbag till the evening and wash it out then with big rubber gloves on. It's easier when harder.

Definite more stains now he's eating. No suggestions here though cos I don't care... although the blueberry stains have made me wonder if i'll ever be able to resell the nappy!! Stick them in the sun??

Do what you need to- one nappy a day better than none, remember? Have you seen the bumgenius campaign '3 changes' or whatever it's called? people using one cloth a day are making a huuuuuuuuuge difference.

Keep at it, this too shall pass xx and don't feel bad if you don't!

 

[Elphaba]

Thanks jetters! I remember your poo thread! We actually had our first solid poo today which was weird - but guess it means he's actually eating a bit. It was in a sposie though.

I have stuck most of our pockets in a cupboard for now and may sell them. And like you say even one or two cloth nappies a day are better than none.

 

[Elphaba]

Thanks jetters! I remember your poo thread! We actually had our first solid poo today which was weird - but guess it means he's actually eating a bit. It was in a sposie though.

I have stuck most of our pockets in a cupboard for now and may sell them. And like you say even one or two cloth nappies a day are better than none.

 

[Jetters]

Like! hug X

 

[Elphaba]

Make that four solid poos now!

Feeling a bit happier with cloth again at the moment now I've moved the pockets out of the way and now I've given myself permission to use sposies if I want/need to. He leaked again in a sposie last night - since he has started sleeping on his tummy they leak a bit at the front even though he's in a size 4 which is meant to be 15-40lb (he's about 16lb ish) for the extra absorbancy. So might risk a cloth one again at night some time again as, whilst the morning poo was gross, it didn't leak.