We switched to cloth in about Oct.. and have been using them full time until about a month ago when the washing machine blew up and we went back to disposables for 2 weeks while we were getting a new one Our daughter is 2.

I was excited about it and told mum and my friends and sister (who have children), none of them were interested. Only online have I had any support (other than hubby, who is of course great). Mum and Mum-in-law were both surprised, saying disposables were easier. My mum has been doing a lot of looking after my nieces, so she was singing the praises of disposables. None of my friends are even remotely interested. One won't even discuss them.

Mum started with the "ohh I remember the nappy rash! go disposable, so much better" thing, and then after I'd done all the explaining about modern fabrics and washing... and she'd seen our daughter in them... she started on about her walking funny because they were too bulky and could it be causing her to stumble more.... My mother in law comments every time Tahlia sits down in a skirt and you see her nappy (which bulges out more than a trim disposable does) about her having "elephantitis" or some other horrid deformity because of her large nappy... {that really urks me}

My mother has finally given up on the cloth nappy = walking funny thing (the 2 week disposable use and Tahlia's continuing to walk funny helped her see it made no difference, toddlers just walk funny). I finally told her I felt I could do nothing right, and she was making me feel like I was going to make Tahlia into some deformed criple or something, and that other mothers had assured me that toddlers just sometimes walk funky... and she's finally stopped saying anything bad about the cloth nappies, and was saying that she just had our best interests at heart and didn't mean anything by her comments.

Seeing it from her point of view (and possibly other people who aren't as enthusiastic as we are about cloth)..... they only know modern disposables that rarely leak (for most people) versus what they know of cloth nappies, which is generally a boring white square of cloth, nappy pins with plastic pants that leaks, needs soaking and "sanitising" and needs frequent washing. Even when they see modern cloth I think it takes a while to change those images of old fashioned cloth people have. I know mum wanted what was easiest for me... she didn't want me to have to work harder and all that. I think she finally realises its what we want, not that much effort and not harming Tahlia.

We were out at an Xmas party and we had our cloth nappies.... I put a purple tie dyed old fashioned flat nappy on Tahlia and used a purple "snappi" on it. A lady said something like "What? you use that instead of a pin?" So I showed her how the snappi worked and she thought it was great ("No more stabbing the baby" she remarked!), then I explained that we normally don't use those cloth nappies anyway, we use the modern cloth, and pulled one out to show her. Actually she seemed more excited about the snappi than the pocket nappy I showed her, but still... shows that even a snappi is something people haven't seen before.... much less modern cloth.

I'm surprised at how insignificant the change has been for us. Thinking about it before we switched, I assumed it would take a long time to wash the extra nappies and get them ready, and be really gross to deal with.... since before I'd wash maybe once a fortnight.... I obviously do wash more frequently now, I do a load of nappies every 2-3 days now, but its not that time consuming. I actually wash all the pooey nappies until they are clean then but them in the wash too. At first I was squeemish about poo, but a couple of nappies into it, its no problem With the fleece it mostly just falls off into the toilet with a good shake. Tahlia has her preferences (she likes the sheep ones), and when we first switched and had a pack of disposables under the change table too, we'd ask her to get a nappy and she'd come back with the pocket, stuffing and a baby wipe! totally disregarded the disposables.

So while we might not have any support elsewhere, the 3 of us are happy!