Give me the reality of cloth

[spooky]

I use both at home with 2 in nappies. I use sposies for creche, long car trips (hoping that it will last the trip with no poo), overnight, and if I am too far behind in the washing.

I don't like the smell of the cloth, but I keep them in a sealed bucket and put them on to wash when the kids are in their bedtime sposie then hang them out later that night or the next morning.

I slack off a little in the middle of winter as I'm not too keen on using the dryer.

It's definitely cheaper to use cloth even though I use Aldi disposables which work out to less than 30 cents each.

The scraping poo seems a small price to pay when I take out the wheelie bin on a slack week and it's full of pooey nappies. A bin full of poo and wee is much more disgusting than scraping a poo and putting a nappy into a bucket. Looking at the amount of nappies in the bin always brings me back into line to using more cloth.

When I first started on the cloth, I bought a couple and kept track of how many changes I did using them - it didn't take very long before they had paid for themselves. This was also a good incentive for me if I felt a bit slack - I wanted to get my value out of them, and once I did, I bought a few more and did the same thing.

HTH

[DaintreeDream]

I have two in cloth full time and it is really easy.

My older daughter wears AIO's and AI2's with night nappies overnight and my younger daughter wears prefolds with covers.

Now that I have two girls I have to wash everyday but when it was just the one I washed every second day along with her clothes and any bedding. I always pre rinsed any poey nappies which only took a minute and then when it came washing time it only took a minute to chuck it all in the machine and turn it on. I also keep a clothes horse inside so it I cannot make it to the clothes line I can at least put them on there and chick it outside the door, once again when I had just one I would put them out on the line while she was napping.

I too had the comments and looks of disagreement, my oldest has been in full time cloth since she came home, I still have all the disposable that were lovingly bought for her when she was born, the when my second was born people bought me more , they are still sitting there as she to has been in cloth since she came home.

Good luck, I know you won't regret it.

[~Kim~]

I agree, with Raven.

Nappies out and about are no different to sposies. The only difference is othat one goes in a bag (I just use nappie sacks - as you would of you had sposies) and your nappy bag, and the other goes in the bin.

I only wash every second day. I think sposies smell just as much as cloth.

I have to admit though, my mum and my ILs were very resistant to cloth - but who the hell cares? It's my baby. They didn't really approve of BFing either...but I do that too.

Heck babe, it's your little bottom that needs to be changed and your wallet that has to buy the nappies.

[Doing my best]

I normally use cloth, but in the last week have been using sposies cause my darling DH broke my washing machine..

And I have noticed a difference, and much prefer cloth. I can smell the chemicals in the sposies each time they do a wee, but then you do also have the smell of amonia when the nappies are stored in the bucket before washing..

Like Bath, I get really frustrated (not with my child, but the circumstance) of changing, then to find a poop a few mins later in a sposie. There goes another 50 c into landfill..

I have a mix of MCN and flats, and wash every day. I could probably easily go 2 days before washing, but leave that for emergencies.. It probably adds about 10 mins to my day of hanging out, and then I sort them out when the kids are in bed.

My parents are a bit skeptical, but if I don't have any sposies, then they either have to buy them or use cloth. When I had DS, my MIL really embraced the cloth, on the days she was watching DD.

You might be a rarity when you go out, but none of my friends give me a hard time. I respect that they are happy to buy and use disposables, and they respect that I am happy to wash and use cloth.

All in all, it is a lot cheaper in the long run to use cloth, and in our current circumstances, buying dispoasbles for every day use is not doable.

[DaintreeDream]

I think sposies smell just as much as cloth.

I can smell the chemicals in the sposies each time they do a wee.

That chemical smell is HORRIBLE and to think it is so close to babies bottoms.

[UntoldAngel]

Thanks for all the replies, really helps knowing there are people out there that can make it work, especially with more than one child. This is our first and I want to give it a go, it is just disheartening when people are so 'you won't be able to do it', but i'm also getting that response with planning a wedding 2months after bub's due, a honeymoon with bub and breastfeeding.... grrr can I please make my own decisions and find out what will and won't work for me myself!!
I'd look at washing every two days, but if I have to, I'm sure the washing machine will handle washing everyday. I'm sure bub will start going through clothes pretty quickly too that will need washing, so I may as well be doing a load of nappies as well as a load of clothes
My mum had 3 of us in cloth under the age of 3, and she managed, I think it just takes the right mindset and unfortunately some people aren't supportive of it if they can't make it work
Sorry... think I needed to vent a little in there...

[DaintreeDream]

... it is just disheartening when people are so 'you won't be able to do it', but i'm also getting that response with planning a wedding 2months after bub's due, a honeymoon with bub and breastfeeding.... grrr can I please make my own decisions and find out what will and won't work for me myself!!

You can do it! My DD1 has special needs which were high when she was younger and when she was 6 months old I started planning our wedding which was 2 months later and I was also expressing breastmilk full time as she was/is fed through a naso-gastric tube, you can do anything you set your heart on, trust me. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[Heaven]

I thought I would never keep up with the washing but it's easy!! I find I want to wash them bc I don't want her to wear sposies bc cloth looks so much cuter!! LOL. So that keep me washing so I always have the cute ones ready for when we go out

[spooky]

If you are worried about when you are out and about BBH make a great wetbag (I'm sure there are other brands too) that is great. You can fit a couple of dirties in there and it zips completely shut. When you get home just turn it inside out and wash with the nappies.

I get a bit of grief from some of the family when they see the cloth nappies. The most popular is "what is he wearing?" from people who know exactly what they are as they have been seeing them for a few years. I also get them same passive agressive queries about the HAB (isn't he a bit old to be carried?) and the amber neclace (that's a bit girly isn't it?) everytime I see them....

I no longer try to explain, but my current response if I can be bothered responding at all is "if I see something new or different I like to do some research before I pass judgement" you should see the look on their faces

[Heaven]

LOL, good one spooky.

I get the 'looks' about stuff like that too, I am just embracing my inner hippy. Now I feel like doing more 'alternative' things just to annoy people

[Bathsheba]

I really agree with Spookies comments... especially the guilt at wheeling out a bin full of dirty sposie nappies yucko!!!... that really got to me and motivated me to keep up with using cloth. I mainly used flat cloth nappies with pins and pilchers BTW only had a few pre-folds. The least arduous part was folding them and stacking them into my hanging nappy stacker! I found that really relaxing actually... and I quite miss it!

[Beautitude]

Im the laziest person in the world and i find cloth easy!! We used sposies till ds was 12 months old when the cost of sposies became incredible seeing as ds would do a poo about 5 times a day. We have changed over to cloth (not quite full time yet but hoping to be there soon) and i find it helps me keep on top of my washing as i have to wash them every 2 days so the rest of my washing gets done too. Otherwise i used to do 3 or 4 loads on a weekend which is much harder. We are going to use cloth for our next bub too.

[Roryrory]

We moved from disposables to cloth just before DS2 was born (our boys are 17 months apart, so both were in nappies at that stage). I was very vervous at first and couldn't imagine handling a newborn in cloth as well as a toddler, so I bought a pack of newborn disposables. But very quickly I got into the swing of it and it wasn't as nearly as bad as I imagined.

I found it a bit scary at first, and was quite apprehensive about the first poo in a clothie, but once you get over the inital shock its seriously fine. Really, once you have kids and you have been spewed on, pooed on and weed on a few times, cloth nappies are nothing to fear LOL!