Reusable Nappy Week

[Seb9]

For all mums and mums to be, if anyone is interested in using reusable cloth nappies. It's reusable nappy week. Lots of suppliers are offering 20% off across their ranges and there's lots of competitions running too across Facebook and Instagram, where you can win some lovely prizes. We've used reusable nappies for nearly 2 years now and I love them so I thought I'd share incase anyone was interested in using them. I've attached a photo of some of my favourites, just to show how beautiful modern day cloth nappies can be xx

[Magicteacher]

Love to know more about how these work? Best way to set up? Cheapest way to go about it?

[Seb9 in reply to Magicteacher]

There's so many options out there, but I'll try and give you an overview.

There's three main types of nappy system.

Two Part systems - This is like the traditional terries of old. You have an absorbant nappy that you can fold or get a fitted type and you put a waterproof wrap or waterproof or wool shorts over the top. They can be really absorbant depending on what material you use but can take ages to dry if you choose something really absorbant so you need quite a few of them, they're also quite bulky. I use them for night nappies and they are very reliable. I will also be using two parts for our newborn, using muslins and a wrap, the muslins are just the normal shop bought ones and I've just got some wraps to put over the top, so a cheap and quick drying option.

All in ones - these are the closest to disposable nappies, the waterproof part and absorbant part are sewed together, they're really easy to use but because you can't separate them, they can take a while to dry and they're not the most absorbant nappies because you can be restricted to how much absorbancy it has. You can't tumble dry these often because you'll degrade the waterproof part.

My favourite all in one nappies are from a company called Little lovebum which are the ones in the photo I attached.

Pockets- these nappies are a waterproof shell with a pocket sewn into them with you shove absorbant inserts and into them. So you can adjust them to what you need. They're really great because the nappy outer dries really quickly and inserts can be quite cheap, so you can have lots of those so you don't run out of nappies. My favourite pockets are the Baba and Boo brand.

Inserts - that you put into pockets. The natural fibres are the most absorbant but take ages to dry they're usually hemp, bamboo etc. Man made material like Microfiber absorbs fast but doesn't hold a lot, but used with a natural fibre can work really well.

Washing routine - it's recommended to wash every other day to avoid ammonia build up. You do a short wash to get rid of any wee and poo and then do a long wash to get them really clean. After the short wash you can add baby clothes and towels to make sure you have at least 3/4 full machine so the nappies agitate well and get really clean.

You can use liners to catch poop not we never bothered as they were to much of a faff, we just got a spatula and scraped the poo directly into the toilet. Newborn poo is totally water soluble so you can put it straight in the machine and the first wash will get rid of it all.

There's so many types out there, my best advice would be to get a few different types and see what works for you, all babies are so different sizes, shapes and what works for 1 won't work for another. So I wouldn't suggest getting one of the kits for hundreds of pounds as you might find they don't suit your baby.

One of the cheapest options is to look on Facebook at some of the selling pages and get some second hand, that way you can try several different brands and see what works for you. If you look for ones that are EUC (excellent used condition) people often sell bundles of nappies if their child has potty trained.

The nappy lady website this week has 20% off across their whole range so that's another way you could try several brands and save money, they also have a questionnaire about your baby, lifestyle etc and will email you their recommendations for you. You don't have to get everything they suggest but they may give you a few options you hadn't thought of.

There's also some budget brands that work fine on Amazon, Ebay etc, they're aren't the greatest quality and you might need to boost as baby gets older, but they do the job, but they don't hold their value to resale.

Hope this all helps 😁

[Magicteacher in reply to Seb9]

Thank you so much for taking the time for this reply. It was sooo helpful and I spent thr day yesterday looking at reusable ones. I am now putting a basket together to order. Ended up really good deal with reusable week discount and new customer. How many do you think one would need??

[Seb9 in reply to Magicteacher]

If you plan to do a wash every other day we found that about 20 day nappies and 5 night nappies worked for us from when we started using cloth at about 8 weeks. However now I've probably got way more than 25, because I'm a complete addict 🙈 You'd probably need more than 25 if you're starting from newborn, because they go a lot more. First time round I bought mainly birth to potty nappies and our little one wasn't big enough for them to start off with, they got from about 8lb and she was only 6lb 1.

This time round I've got a few newborn nappies all in ones and I plan to mostly use muslins and wraps till our birth to potty fits. So I'd say we've probably got around 20 muslins with 5 wraps (you can use the wraps a few times before washing) and 10 all ones plus I might pick up a few more during nappy week because I've seen some new ones I love.

The thing I find is that it doesn't have to be all our nothing with using reusables and disposables, if you want to use disposables at first or while you build up your collection then you can. Any reusable you use saves about 700 disposables from landfill if you use it from birth to potty. So even if you only used them during the day or at night, you'd be still be making a huge difference.

I'm so happy that you've got some good deals, you'll have to show us what you've ordered when they arrive, love seeing everyone's choices of prints. Xx

[Magicteacher in reply to Seb9]

So excited to start. I’ve gone for these (picture) giving us 14 and then we are going to ask friends and family to get us extras so that we have enough. Hopefully get to about 20 with their gifts. Ideally want to try this from birth but think first week might do combination of the two. So many people I know love them.

Nappies

[Magicteacher in reply to Magicteacher]

I have a code for £10 off of anyone wants to use and believe this can be used with offers closeparent.refr.cc/sarahpitt

[GiKT]

We are also using it with our 7 weeks son! Very practical and sustainable helping the environment. We opted by BambooMio brand. They are amazing!

[Seb9 in reply to GiKT]

My mum likes the bambino mios, she finds the velcro much easier to use. My little girl is nearly two now though and she finds the velcro easy to take off now 😂😂 so most of my collection is poppers now as she hasn't managed to undo them yet 😁 we only clothed from about 8 weeks, so amazing that you're already using them, I'm slowly building up our newborn stash. My little girl was only 6lb one so our mios were huge on her at first so I've gone for some smaller ones this time to hopefully cloth from birth this time round 😁

[MissSaoPaulo]

I looooove my reusable nappies. People always think it'll be extra work, but it's one load of washing every 2 days and you do so much washing with a baby anyway it doesn't make much difference. It's a bit of an expense upfront, but then you never need to buy nappies again and if we're lucky enough to have another baby we can keep using the same set of nappies. The prints are super cute too!!

[CornflowerMoon]

I just want to say thank you so much for all the info in this post! I'd just started to look into reusable nappies and this is by far the most helpful thing I've read!

[Seb9 in reply to CornflowerMoon]

Wow that's lovely to hear. We've just now potty trained our 2 year old in day, so my beautiful nappies will soon be being sold and I will miss them a lot! If you do want any more information about them I still love talking all things nappy related. Xx

[CornflowerMoon in reply to Seb9]

Aww thank you! The nappies are indeed gorgeous!