Nappy help

[NaeNae]

Hi ladies,

I am currently preggers with bubba #1. Dh really is keen for me to use cloth nappies I would prefer disposable but willing to try cloth to see how it all goes.

of course I am in split minds - disposables clog up landfills etc - cloth require soaking and lots of washing and we live on limited water ( one well to be precise)

can anyone offer pros and cons that first time parents just would not be aware of for both types of nappies. The AIO that I have seen seem to be very expensive for the initial outlay and there is liners and piltchers etc and I clearly have no idea

All your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Nae x

[NaeNae]

Just bumping up the list as I really do need some advice

Nae x

[visitor1]

MCN dont need soaking.. the are dry pailed.

Washing every 2 days. Some people do a rinse cycle then had bubs clothes/bedding in with the nappies, so you save on water and have a full load rather then just a small one.

AIO nappies dont need covers.

I prefer MCN during the day but i use sposies at night.

Pockets and AIO are my favs.

If you going to be using MCN for a while you might want to get one size nappies, that way if you have another bub (or more) then you wont need to buy all different sizes.

You dont have to use liners...but if u do you can buy flushables....or i also use liners that look like chux wipes!

[~Raven~]

MCN don't require soaking! Pre rinsing in the machine is all you really need to do. I give the pooe ones a quick rinse though. If you wash every 2 - 3 days it's not much extra washing at all All of my wash water goes on the garden.

I agree with the outlay being a bit of a hurdle. I was using flanny flats and sposies when Caleb was a baby and when I decided to go with MCN I decided to use Baby Beehinds fitteds as they are one size fits most. The same ones still fit him and he is almost 20 months old. We have had to upsize covers though which I have sold off and put the money toward new ones. If you are planning more bubs then just put the covers away and that will be one less thing you have to buy next time Now we are expecting his nappies will get a second run and it will be both terrific and sad that I won't really need to buy many more nappies

When I got serious I decided to spend $200 odd which got me enough to do one full day in cloth and I used the flats or sposies on the alternate days. Then instead of buying a box of nappies I'd put the money toward buying more.
I also bought fabric and have been creating my own for quite a while now, but I still buy and sell off nappies as Caleb grows out of them.

I prefer AIO's and pockets now (escept for night when I use fitteds and covers) but in the early days it was mostly fitteds and covers as we had more leaks with AIO's. Once the poo gets a bit solid then leaking is a rare problem in my experience.

Also there is a great site called buyforbaby which is an ebay style auction site just for buying and selling nappies. I've got some great nappies from there in the past and sold mine there too.
Ebay also have nappies for sale too but be careful because some really aren't that good quality, and sometimes nappies sell for more than what the WAHM sells them for so do some research before you bid

I see you are in Poowong! My folks are in Wonthaggi so if you like next time I down there we could get together and I can show you a few things. I understand the apprehension and it wasn't till I saw a few things IRL that I got into it properly

[KatieRabbit]

I use terry flats on DD during the day and a Huggie at night (only cos I haven't got to buying a coth night nappy). I paid $25 for a pack of 12 in Big W and bought 2 covers at $11.50 each from Baby Beehinds, and a pack of snappies (that hold them on) for about $8. And that is my cost outlay! I put them in a bucket with a lid and nothing else (no water) and rinse the poo ones and put them in the bucket too. And every 2nd to 3rd day they get washed on half a machine of water. Easy!
If you want the MCNs, even paying $25 each, it is still a LOT cheaper than buying disposables. I will find a website with the calculations, but I think well worth it for baby's bum and the envn. I don't wear throwaway knickers and I don't want DD to either!

[KatieRabbit]

Have sent you a PM.

[Nai]

I found that the MCN's were great and the pocket ones we use are generally thick enough for nights. We use sposies only when we go away on holidays. I also found that our water usage has decreased since having DD (go figure??). The MCN's are dry bucketed and we have a little squirt on the toilet to get rid of big messes.

The outlay for them is fairly high but I got my girlfriends to get me gift vouchers for them for my baby shower which made a HUGE difference and I got things that I actually wanted. So if you have a baby shower word up the organiser to get them as gifts or for vouchers. Oh and they don't take long to pay for themselves and become way cheaper than sposies.

[~Saram~]

Hi NaeNae,

It is so confusing when you are starting out especially if you haven't seen mcn in real life.

When we had DS I used terry flats (the ones at kmart/target) and disposables. He was a super wee-er and we were changing him every hour of so and ended up giving up on cloth. When DD was born I had discovered mcn and so pleased I did.

Here are just a few things we learnt a long the road.

Disposables cost about $25 a week depending on what brand you use so if you use mcn and have a full time stash of 24 nappies you have paid off your stash by the time your bub is 6-7mths old and you never have to buy another nappy again! (Assuming you use a onesize)
Pockets and AIO do not require any extra covers or pilchers, fitted and flats do but they are cheaper. One size means they fit from 3kg - 16kg (approx)

Washing - I'm very naughty I wet pail so I soak my nappies in cold water for 1-2 days (approx 5-10litres) I then pour this water into the washing machine, rinse then pop DD clothes on top and finish a normal wash - no stains, no scrubbing, no chemicals in the water. We use half a cap of washing liquid (purity) for a whole load so I spend about $4.00 on washing liquid a month. Modern cloth nappy org state it is 1 litre of water used for every cloth nappy compared to 3.5 litre for every disposable

Hassle - Our routine is so simply change the nappy, throw it over the baby gate into the bucket in the laundry tab on my way back to the lounge room, every 2 days wash, dry - I stuff my pockets while Ari is playing outside and when she was younger I would do it while she played on the floor or while I was changing her. AIO are more convenient as you don't have to stuff them however they are more pricey. I think on average I would spend maybe an extra 4-5 min a day mucking around with nappies which is worth the many benefits like no nappy rash, cooler bum (live in tropical nth QLD), cheaper, no leaks or poo blow outs (had at least 4-5 a WEEK with DS) looks so much better and most of all Ari loves them! She gets the giggles when we put them on her :-)

HTH

[NaeNae]

Wow thanks so much ladies all of your responses are fabulous and have been a huge help. I am going to print off the info and give it to hubby to have a look through as well.

He'll be happy with the cloth nappies and if we do get the onesize ones then it will do for future bubs as well, I didn't even think of that so thanks heaps for bring that to my attention as well.

Best part is, I am still working so that if I start getting stuff now a little each pay then by the time bub comes we should be set.

Looks like I have some researching to do

Deirdre, thanks so much for the pm

Raven - would love to catch up and be shown some stuff, I am all for gaining as much knowledge as I can before bub comes, even though I know all babies are different if I have some idea then I probably won't freak out as much as I would if all of a sudden I have a baby and no idea