not so smooth transition to reusable

[shopgirl771]

ive just made the swap from disposable nappies to re usable. we made the decision to use re usable ages ago and got a good deal on the bum genious cloth nappies (the one size fits all style) at the baby show.
we chose to use disposable for the first week to ease us into things as Jake is our first but when we put him in the cloth nappies they were huge so we decided to wait until he was abit bigger. they did fit him - he was a healthy 7.4lbs at birth - they just swamped him. so hes now 5 weeks an is a hefty 10.5lbs so ive decided nows a good time to try them again.
they still look massive on him and all his new born clothes that were starting to get too small for him anyway are definatly too small to accomodate these new nappies. i cant make up my mind if he looks uncomfortable in them or if its just the transition from the tiny disposables we were using.

he woke this morning for his feed and the flippin nappy had leaked at the back and his clothes and mattress were soaked - not impressed. are these nappies not suitable for all night wear? does this mean im going to have to resume changing him after every night feed?

he later did his first poo in one. hes a one poo a day baby but its always a big runny one as hes on comfort formula. because the nappy is so big it was all over his legs and back so i used about a whole bag of cotton wool cleaning him up! how is this eco friendly???

tbh i find the whole set up quite difficult and un enviromentally friendly. before i could change Jake anywhere with so much ease but now as ive got cotton wool balls and liners to throw down the toilet (whats the point of using plastic nappy sacks - thats why i bought eco friendly re usabes!!!) so i have to change him in the bathroom. I was also told when i bought the nappies i wouldnt have to soak them which is good cos i didnt want buckets all over the place but im gonna have to soak the poo-ie nappies. so now my little bathroom is clogged up with dry pales - or i have to move the dry pale where ever i go to change him.

its just ridiculous and hard work. how does everyone else cope?
maybe i just need time to get into a new routine with these nappies or im not using them right.

 

[littlestar]

which inserts are you using? and which rise setting are you using honey?

in terms of changing i have a dry pail upstairs, and one down stairs and wet bags for out and about. if i use disposable wipes when out i just pop them in with the nappy and sort them out when i get home, if i'm using reusable wipes they just go in anyway.

unfortunately its not uncommon for people to have issues with btp nappies being too big on their LO's. i started out on sized nappies and progressed to one size(btp) ones at about 14lbs.

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

I must say that so far I prefer sized too, although I only have 3 nappies so far

 

[DueMarch2nd]

You should try out different kinds hun. Maybe those are just not suitable for LO.

My starter nappy was mothercare smart nappy. It is fab actually. Really easy to use, i dont use liners either. But if your LO is 10 1/2 lbs then the small size will be useless as the medium start at 12lbs. My LO is about 11 1/2 lbs and the poo does leak a little but never past the outer cover. When he gets a bit bigger i doubt it will even get that far. It has saved so many outfits and we have only been in cloth 1 day! lol

The fact is, cloth nappies are bulkier than disposables. Some are slim fitting but wont be as slim as a disposable. My LO is in the same position, we just started cloth and many vests he had that were nearly too small have now been retired. Just a fact of cloth nappies i am afraid.

As for changing when out, i have been wondering the same, I suppose just be as organised as possible. But maybe carry on with disposables when out until you are comfortable

 

[anothersquish]

Have you prewashed the nappies at all? I would also look at the rise setting you have them on. Also at his age there is no need for cotton wool anymore, have a look at reusable wipes, even for very explosive poos we only ever use two reusable wipes and of course they just go in the pail with the nappy.
Soaking isnt advised for modern nappies as it can degrade the PUL and elastic, you are better rinsing them in the toilet/sink/shower/outside tap if you dont want to put them in a dry pail pooey.
Also why dont you look at fleece liners instead of disposable? Most nappies you dont NEED to use liners at all, BGV3s dont need liners in unless you really wish to use them.
Personally I wouldnt use BGV3s for nighttime, some people do but I dont think they are reliable enough. Two part nappies are better, especially if used with Wool or fleece covers instead of PUL.

 

[Jetters]

Hi, sorry to hear you're having a tough time adjusting to cloth

I think it's definitely all about the routine. From reading your post i'd suggest (like anothersquish) reusable wipes... you can get them cheaply from ebay or nappy websites, just soak them in a tupperwear box and chuck in your nappy pail. The same goes for reusable fleece liners too- a big plus to using them instead of disposable is that 99% of the time you wont need to rinse or soak your nappies, just the liner. Most people on here dry pail with no problems at all.

Which nappies are you using? You can also get eco friendly nappy sacks for those times when you want to use them.

 

[shopgirl771]

thanks everyone. food for thought.
I feel like abit of a cloth nappy virgin now. ive got him on the smallest rise. maybe hes still abit small for these ones.
i was given some free reusable wipes but at the time i couldnt understand the benefit so stashed them at the bottom of a drawer somewhere, but now its all coming together LOL. Ill have to dig them out.

p.s littlestar, i love your nappies on the line picture : )

 

[littlestar]

it does take a little while to adjust to them once your in a routine you don't notice at all.

the picture does seem to get the required effect, there's some useful articles in my siggy which might help with any other q's you might have.

 

[thelilbump]

I'd say a lot of the same as the others. Stick with it, try different ones out and once you get into a routine with them as with anything, and you'll get tha hang of it.

 

[indieknits]

I tried BGs at night by stuffing in 2 extra bamboo inserts, but the nappy was so bulky that it left red marks on Emma's legs by morning. They looked pretty sore. So...back to disposables at night time. I don't beat myself up about it though, it's only one a day, and I only have to buy one pack a month, which means I splash out on eco friendly ones like Moltex. I try to change her in the mornings before she does a poo so I'm not throwing poo in the bin! Although lately she has been pooing directly on the changing mat - NICE!

You should still be able to dry pail the poopy nappies - I do a wash every 3 days and they come out pretty stain free (I use flushable liners to catch the worst of it!). Any remaining stains soon disappear after being left in the sun on the washing line. How do you wash your nappies? Maybe try a rinse cycle before you put them on a wash cycle. That's what works for me. I do a rinse cycle, then wash at 40 degrees with 20ml of Ecover non bio and a scoop of Mio Fresh.

Definitely give the washable wipes a go, they should make life a bit easier for you. No extra work as you bung them in the wash with the nappies, and they scoop up quite a lot of poo in one sweep!

 

[thelilbump]

I use my bg v3 overnight with both boosters in and a microfibre cloth (you know the dusters, you can buy like 4 for a £1) and that works a treat!

 

[OmiOmen]

I have had similar problems, I have a few different sorts of brands and all are so bulky and non seem to keep wee and poop (he is bf and poops a lot) in. I was so disappointed but we got them so I use them in the day while I have the most time and used disposables on a night and when out and about but DH (who was keen on them before using them) will not use them at all. I do a load of nappies everyday and they seem to stay stained but that may be because my liners seem a little thin. The nappies that do the best job at keeping things in make him far too warm in this weather so he has being in disposables the past two days too. I have no advice but I feel like the reality of re-usable nappies is not living up to the obsession running up to using them!

 

[shopgirl771]

ive since realised i was only using one insert at night so its understandable it leaked.
ill experiment with fleece liners/no liner and see what works better and ive dug out my reuseable wipes now too.

 

[Bayleaf]

What the others have said.
It is easier when they get bigger as the BTP ones will fit better.

@Omi Omen
This clinical study here posits that sposies are hotter than reusables

https://adc.bmj.com/content/83/4/364.abstract

Good luck persevering it really does live up to the hype

 

[littlestar]

OmiOmen, you'll get there your LO is still only 3 weeks old. I remember nappies looking humongous on Q then, in some cases the BTP nappy was about the same length as him.

as he gets bigger the nappies won't seem so huge.

 

[Lisa1302]

I used BG too when Izzy was born - unfortunately thye were unable to cope with her wee at 8 weeks because she slept for 8 hours, even stuffed as much as they could be. So we used spoises for night time.

Now believe it or not she sleeps 12+ hours but we use washable Flip with the normal insert plus a bamboo insert and it copes fine! I do think if we tried this back then it would easily have coped!

I agree with the ladies who suggest washable wipes, fleece liners etc - there is no need these days to throw anything away if you don't want to and once you have been doing it a bit you wont think anything too it!

So if you try with the extra insert at night the BG may well be up to the job. If you are happy with the BG in the day you could alwasy have a special nappy for the night that is more capable of holding thr wee, and chances are will be more bulky - Izzys butt is absolutely huge now when her nappy is stuffed ready for night!

 

[kiwimama]

I've got no new advice but definately keep trying with some different types of nappies as all babies have different shapes and what works for one may not work for another. I'd recommend you try some sized ones as BTP generally don't work well on little babies.
Good luck and hope it all works out for you!

 

[OmiOmen]

What the others have said.
It is easier when they get bigger as the BTP ones will fit better.

@Omi Omen
This clinical study here posits that sposies are hotter than reusables

https://adc.bmj.com/content/83/4/364.abstract

Good luck persevering it really does live up to the hype

I have to admit that the bamboo nappies seem cooler but my birth-to-potty pockets which need two inserts to keep everything in don't. Unfortunately my two piece nappies don't keep everything in and most of my wraps are size 1 which are too big for my LO. I am really hating all nappies right now, disposables leak less but still leak and the reusables don't fit my son right and explode everywhere. What is most annoyingly is that I change him as soon as he does something and on a night he has to go 3-5 hours in the same nappy (and I have heard people say they go 12 hours which seems so unbelievable to me right now). I can't wait until we never have to use a nappy again!

 

[Lisa1302]

What the others have said.
It is easier when they get bigger as the BTP ones will fit better.

@Omi Omen
This clinical study here posits that sposies are hotter than reusables

https://adc.bmj.com/content/83/4/364.abstract

Good luck persevering it really does live up to the hype

I have to admit that the bamboo nappies seem cooler but my birth-to-potty pockets which need two inserts to keep everything in don't. Unfortunately my two piece nappies don't keep everything in and most of my wraps are size 1 which are too big for my LO. I am really hating all nappies right now, disposables leak less but still leak and the reusables don't fit my son right and explode everywhere. What is most annoyingly is that I change him as soon as he does something and on a night he has to go 3-5 hours in the same nappy (and I have heard people say they go 12 hours which seems so unbelievable to me right now). I can't wait until we never have to use a nappy again!

I still used sposies at 3 weeks old, the BG were too big as she was small.

If the sposies are still leaking have you tried going up a size as the absorbency increases with the next size up.

 

[OmiOmen]

If the sposies are still leaking have you tried going up a size as the absorbency increases with the next size up.

I didn't realise that, I almost bought the size 2 mini's earlier but didn't however I will defiantly try that. It feels hard to believe I loved buying nappies up until 3 weeks ago and now they make me want to rip my hair out!