Thinking of going fluffy - advice?

[MandaAnda]

Jack is nearly 6 months old. I'd considered doing cloth but didn't in the end - I figured I'd be just as bad to the environment with the washing and electricity used and that it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, I'm thinking of making the change now.

He doesn't poo as frequently, so that's a plus for not washing so much, I guess. But I imagine he'll start weaning soonish (doing BLW, so it's up to him) - will that make it tough as far as nappy contents go?

I've looked through nappy types and think I'd want AIOs for the day and fleece for the night. Any suggestions as to what brand and starter packs of these types? Any idea on the cost? I know where I'd get my wipes and wet packs. Not sure about pails, disinfectant, out and about with it all. Any tips greatly appreciated.

 

[LittlePants]

Jack is nearly 6 months old. I'd considered doing cloth but didn't in the end - I figured I'd be just as bad to the environment with the washing and electricity used and that it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, I'm thinking of making the change now.

He doesn't poo as frequently, so that's a plus for not washing so much, I guess. But I imagine he'll start weaning soonish (doing BLW, so it's up to him) - will that make it tough as far as nappy contents go?

I've looked through nappy types and think I'd want AIOs for the day and fleece for the night. Any suggestions as to what brand and starter packs of these types? Any idea on the cost? I know where I'd get my wipes and wet packs. Not sure about pails, disinfectant, out and about with it all. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Washables are definitely better for the environment - consider the amount of electricity and washing done in manufacturing disposables - they go through about 300 different processes 9n the making, most of which use water, and some of which use oil! You'll have 2-3 extra wash loads a week, and the a wash load costs around 29p, and that cost includes wear and tear on the machine. What's more, good washable nappies don't leak, so you'll have less outer garments to wash!

I'd advise you to do a trial before buying anything. Most advisors offer that - I certainly do! I wouldn't buy a designed nappy pail. They are usually very expensive, not big enough and don't have a good sealing lid. The best thing I've found is a beer brewing barrel, from somewhere like Williamsons - 1/2 the price of a nappy bucket, well big enough to take a full wash load of nappies, and a really tight, childproof sealing lid.

Your local council may help with the cost, but it depends what nappies you use. If you go for good old fashioned terry squares (which are actually still the most efficient, and contrary to popular belief, not difficult to use) you can do it for around £150, and still have nappies left to use on your next babies, or sell second hand when you've finished with them.

Here's an excellent information site. Try the 'Personal Q&A session" if you want specific help

 

[MandaAnda]

Thank you very much. Will have a look on that site. My council don't offer the incentive I've checked. And, do you mean Wilkinson's?

 

[lynnikins]

you might be able to pick up a few pre-loved ones to try out from the nappy buy sell here,
Im currently using prefolds but need better wraps for them lol and im buying one or 2 of the types i want when i can grab them quick of one of the ladies on here and gonna try them out , if they dont work i'll just resell them so no loss really and if i find one i love then i can go buy more either new /ebay /direct from nappy shop or buy preloved

 

[Rebaby]

Hey hun. I am in no way an expert but we use cloth so i thought i'd tell you a bit about our experience...

We bought 10 x BumGenius V3's at the Baby Show when i was pregnant as we liked the look/idea of them and got a pretty good deal on them. They are Birth to Potty/Onesize nappies though so when Tobias arrived much smaller than expected they were far FAR too big, so he was in disposables full time for a month. Then we started using them and we got on well with them for a few weeks but with only 10 nappies we were very part-time and still very reliant on sposies. When my Dad died at Christmas everything that wasn't absolutely essential went out of the window and we stopped using cloth for a few weeks. When we came back to them Tobias' shape had changed somehow and we kept having loads of leaks out of the legs I really didn't feel like we'd got off to a good start with cloth and began to wonder if we'd done the right thing buying 10 of one type of nappy if the shape wasn't going to suit him. But with some tweaking and boosters we managed to keep going and have been steadily adding to our stash ever since. We only started using cloth at night quite recently and got off to a rocky start with that too as he's a heavy wetter and although he doesn't sleep through i don't like to change him during the night as it REALLY wakes him up!

We're almost 100% cloth now though (just need a couple more night nappies) and i am so so glad we persevered. I no longer regret buying the BG's in bulk to begin with as they've actually proved to be a very good staple for us but i would still recommend anyone starting out in cloth to try a few different types before going mad buying one particular style/brand.

Also i thought we would only ever buy BTP/OS nappies as sized nappies didn't seem to make financial sense but in actual fact you can normally get a decent resale price on them so can sell off your smalls/mediums to buy larges if you see what i mean? And i personally feel it's worthwhile having a few sized nappies and they tend to be less bulky than the one size nappies so aren't as bulky under clothing such as jeans.

It's definitely worth considering how you'll dry your nappies, we don't have a tumble drier and the weather here is so unpredictable so although we have a few AIO's, pockets tend to be our nappy of choice as they dry fast enough, which when you've got a (relatively) small stash is important.

As for the bits and bobs like nappy buckets, i bought one from boots but it was teeny and only fit about 4 pockets in! I ended up buying one from fill your pants along with some mesh bags which works well for us

I tried to use the disposable liners right from the start but the runny breastfed poos just seemed to slide off the liner and up his back so we gave up, and i would just put the pooey nappies straight in the machine poo and all, but put an extra rinse on. Unless they were really REALLY bad in which case i'd rinse off over the shower tray with the shower head. Since he started on solids and his poos firmed up (lovely! ) we find the disposable liners great as we can literally pick the liner out and flush the poo down the loo.

Ummm...what else?! Oh, out and about. I take as many nappies as i think i'll need in my changing bag and we have a wet bag and when i change him we just stuff the wet/dirty ones in there and put them in the nappy bucket/washing machine when we get home.

HTH and good luck! To start out with i didn't really get excited by cloth we were using it purely because of the environmental and financial factors but it is a VERY addictive business (you have been warned! )

 

[MandaAnda]

Thanks, R. Very helpful! I think I'm going to post on here in the wanted section to see if anyone would like to put a sampler of preloved nappies together for me, and I'm going to shop around on some of the preloved sites as well to try to get some and see what we get on with.

 

[MandaAnda]

Ok, so I'm thinking of doing a Plush Pants trial. Anyone used them?

And what do I need laundry wise? A bucket....what else? I'd read somewhere that you don't actually need to soak the nappies while they're waiting to be washed. Is that the case?

 

[Rachel_C]

You definitely don't need to soak nappies, in fact lots of brands recommend that you don't because it can eventually ruin the PUL or elastic (terries never had that problem!).

I have two nappy pails - one in the bathroom where I put dirty nappies, and one in the bedroom where the wet ones go. I like to keep them separate because if we have a bad couple of dirty nappies I put the dirty ones in the washing machine first, rinse them and then put the rest in to wash together. Most people just have one though. Lots of people like to use nappy meshes so you can just pick up the contents of the bucket and put it all in the wash. That's personal preference though, it doesn't make any difference to the actual washing or using of them.

For detergent, I'd just use whatever you use on baby clothes. I find that non-bio works fine (Persil) but some people like to use bio. I'd only change if you have a problem though. A Vanish stick is handy to have for stain removing if you get any stains, but not essential - you can often sun stains out... or just leave them!

How/where will you be drying the nappies? If you want to air dry them inside at any point, I'd recommend a couple of airing racks that you can dot around the house. I used to use the same rack as I dried clothes on but I always ran out of space so ended up buying more racks.

 

[lynnikins]

i think most of us here just dry pail our nappys i know i do, if they come out of the wash still a bit stained i'll do an extra rinse on them rather than using stain remover and pop them in the sun ( hard to do in a flat but we manage lol ) and they normally are nice and white when i want them again

 

[lynnikins]

oh yeah i use fairy non bio tablets with about the same amount of Nappisan chucked in in the prewash drawer

 

[MandaAnda]

Thanks to you both! I have a line out back I can dry the nappies on and a tumble drier if it's raining. No space in our tiny house for airers really. My DH is starting to fight me a bit, saying to just stay with sposies, since we've had no trouble. But I want to at least try. I really think it will save us money, especially if we get on with BTPs.

 

[Rach28]

Christine the lady that runs Plush Pants is lovely!!!!

I'm going to her Nappuccino tomorrow - Id def recommend her

If you join her on facebook she has a list of all her preloved ones from nappy trials that she sells for £2.50 each - I got some sandy's and tots bots ones - some are hardly even used!

Nice to see you in here Manda - I remember you from 3rd Tri as our LO's were due the same day but were both fashionably late LOL

 

[MandaAnda]

Thanks for the Facebook tip! I'll look her up on there. Add me once you see me on her list if you like! I'd definitely come to the Nappuccino if only I still lived up that way - we moved in May.

And from our tickers, it looks like our LOs were born one day apart in the end!

 

[Rach28]

Yeah, labour started at 40+3 and he eventually came out at 40+5!!!

Looks like neither of us got our homebirths either but still, gorgeous baby boys!!

I'll look out for you on plushpants, she's got 2 on there at the mo for some reason Plush Pants and then Plush Pants Cloth Nappies