Im a sposie girl....ive lashed out and spent a good $200 on cloth nappies....tried them for about a week on my then 12 month old...but they just werent for me....or her. I love the idea of money saving and environmental factors to do with cloth, but the whole washing thing and doing the extra loads just didnt suit me......im glad i tried it though....
I started on Baby Beehinds - as they sold them at my local Eco Store Outlet. They have various types of nappies and pilchers/covers.
I hope to try the Natures Child one too - you can order them from their website.
Yes - they are pricey upfront, but you do save in the long term.
You will find plenty of support on bb during your cloth journey! You may wish to check out the section/forum dedicated especially to them!
I'm a part time cloth user. Use cloth through the day and disposables at night (or when on long trips till I reach destination).
As i don't have a huge stash (enough to last about 2 days), I have to wash every night, and if I am getting low and they aren't going to dry in the day before I need them, I just chuck the absorbent parts in the dryer. I also use terry towelling ones if I know DD is only going to be in them for a short time (e.g, does a poo about an hour before bathtime) so I don't waste an MCN for such a short time..
I am waiting on the baby bonus and am going to get a few more when this bub is born, but I can't convince DH to go full time, so doing the p/t thing works for us. I even resisted buying 2 packs of dispoables for DD when they were on sale the other day, so it forces me to use the cloth.
When I had DS I did the traditional cloth squares - yes everyone rolled their eyes and said oh yeah we will see how long that last. after 6mths I gave up - he was a super wee-er and I was going through up to 20 nappies a day - using doubles etc.
When we fell pregnant with DD I went out each week and bought a packet of disposables knowing how expensive they were and wanting to stock up before I went on maternity leave.
Just before she was born I stumbled into the MCN thread, looked a round and found them very interesting. I really did love using cloth with DS put it wasn't practical yet here was a system that had improved on the traditional - better absorbancy, better fit, better air circulation, better poo-tainment.
We bought 5 to start with, a bumgenius, a peapod, a BBB(babybeehind bamboo), a baby kanga and a haute pocket. After my little parcels of fluffyness arrived I was hooked. Initially I used only these five and terry squares and the disposables I had at night. I used to wash each afternoon and they would be ready by morning. For every packet of disposables I didn't buy (about $25 every wekk and a half) I bought a new MCN.
As for washing - I am very slack. We had two nappy buckets, a poo one and a wee one. When they were full or I was rnning low on nappies in they would go - hollas bollas, no rinsing, no washing off poo - into the washing machine. Breastmilk poos are water soluble so they breakdown completely in the water. I would do a rinse cycle, then throw her baby clothes in and wa-la. Honestly no more washing then I would be doing with her clothes anyway. As she got olderthe poo bucket remained but we had tongs to fish them out and then flush the bucket water down the toilet. Then of course came the rollers - they just roll right off - love them! Now we wash her nappies with the towels, clothes, whatever as I use the same washing procedure with everything now - half detergent or just bi carb and no softner.
I admit - I use the dryer! When I am busy or having a bad day - yep in they go. I figure I have bought myself some carbon credits by using cloth
How many - really no-one can answer this but you. As I said I started off with 5, at the peak of my stash I had well over 60 now I'm down to maybe 20-25 and we are toilet training so they don't get used all that much. The general rule is 12-15 for a part-time stash up to 36 for a full time stash.
What types - ditto to what Maz said, don't go buying too many before you find what works for you. I have always been a onesize fan as my kids chunk up so quickly but sized nappies come into their own in the medium (5-11kg) and large sizes (9-16kg) as bub generally gets heaps of use out of these. From memory DD was in larges by 9mths and still fits them now - but my heart still belongs to the one size :-)
types - When we started I went with pockets - they were cheaper and basically once you stuff them they go one just like and AIO - I would stuff as I took them off the line or while watching TV and they were already to go the next day. After 1 1/2 years I was over stuffing pockets and converted most of my stash over to AIO - especially as now most are snap in AIO so they dry faster then sewn in AIO. But every person is different as to what suits them or bub, side snaps, velcro vrs snaps, high rise, low rise, bamboo or microfibre. The best bit is getting to try them all out and find out what is your favourite.
if you can get to see a fellow BB members stash, see a demonstrator or get along to an expo and see some IRl it's a great advantage and join in on the cloth nappy thread there is heaps going on about what suits some babies and not others etc!
have fun - oh and ignore those people that roll their eyes at you - as soon as they see your cute babies bottom they will be sooooo jealous!!!
We are going to be using a combo of MCN and traditional cloth nappies. We just couldn't afford to use disposables all the time. However we have a trip to Brisbane planned for when Peanut is approx 3w old and have decided to use disposables for the trip as we didn't want to be filling the car up with stinky nappies while we're driving there.
Good luck with the nappies and as the others said I think as long as you don't mind the extra washing they are by far the best way to go.
Having said that though, we were suprised in our antenatal classes that out of 7 couples, Jeremy and I were the only ones planning on using cloth. Everyone else was using disposables!
x20 Bamboo (Fits from Newborn to Approx 3yrs old)
x6 AIO's - Minkee
x6 PUL Covers with Velcro
x4 Wool PUL Covers (Night time use)
Additional x5 Bamboo Fold Ups.
I plan to purchase more a few weeks afte baby arrives, however, I figure as I will be regularly washing anyway this was a good starter pack
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