Advice for choosing cloth nappies

Although I bought cloth nappies for DD, I gave up on them. They're the terry towelling ones that you have to fold and they ended up being used for burp rags and all sorts instead of for nappies!

For #2, I want to do it this time! I live in a block of units, upstairs, with no lift and the washing room is downstairs. So I need to make this as easy as possible for myself with a newborn and 2.5 year old! I was thinking AOIs or those similar ones, AO2s or something? I don't have much money at all to spend on buying a whole bunch so I'll be buying a few every so often until I get a whole bunch. For a newborn I was thinking I'd need about 30? Aurelia was 9lb 55cm when she was born and went straight into 000 so I wouldn't bother with newborn sizes at all for this one. I was hoping to buy nappies that will last a while and I won't have to replace after a few months.

Help?

edit: I'd like to avoid Australian wool if possible due to the inhumane treatment the sheep receive. I also like the idea of bamboo or hemp.

Neenee..I'm sure all the girls will jump on in and give you heaps more advice but if you google modern cloth nappies alot of useful sites will pop up with heaps of information..We aren't allowed to name links here so just google, google, google!

The modern cloth nappies these days that we use will enable you to just throw in the machine every second day so it will suit your life style!!

All in two's are great, especially for convenience washing and drying!! I personally think a few great snap in's work when you don't have much time cos you just snap out the wet boosters and snap in the new dry ones!!

Hopefully I am not out of line in mentioning a useful site called clothiebumz.....you will receive heaps of help from a wonderful lady!! Ittibitti and baby beehinds are great nappies too!!!

So you can get nappies that have inserts that you can remove and change without needing to wash the whole nappy?

Also, is there a way to do this sort of cheaply? I just looked on the net and it costs 110 bucks for 4 cloth nappies! And that's meant to be on special!

What are the one size nappies like? Is a pocket nappy suitable for every day wear and do I need to put a water proof cover over it? If so, is a wool cover suitable? Sorry for all the questions everyone. What's a good one size nappy to get?

Try stuffable nappy covers - that way you can use the terry nappies, but you may need to cut them in half and/or just fold them ONCE in half (or into thirds, as I do with my flats) and stuff them in. That way you're just buying a cover/fleece liner that's sewn together and not a whole new nappy system. I have twice as many flats as covers and that's GREAT for the drying: the stuffables dry really quickly but the nappies don't so there's no panic over drying.

Not sure about sizes, sorry, the ones I have come in 2 sizes and DS has been in size 2 since about 8m I think. They adjust well for his tiny waist and tiny legs - he's still on the second popper in age two-and-quite-a-bit! So my skinny boy is well in them and there's loads of room to "grow". But just buying covers should be cheaper than buying a whole new system so two sizes shouldn't be so bad.

HTH.

Nee - I will answer the question regarding pockets. If you were wanting to do it on the "cheap" pockets are a good way to go. You can get pockets from anywhere from $23 up to around $36, depending on brand, what material is on the outside etc. They are good because you can stock up on more inserts than shells since the inserts take longer to dry. Inserts are usually microfibre that come with the pockets as well, which usually do a light wetter during the day (for example, DS is fine in a Bumg for a few hours, and so is Miss M, and they come with two microfibre inserts, but DS needs a bamboo insert in something like a green kids because I only use one microfibre insert per time with him.)

My inserts take two days to dry inside - but pocket shells are literally overnight. Some people reuse the shell too, if the bub has only just done a wee, reuse the shell, restuff with inserts, and away you go. I have enough though to put the whole thing in the washing machine :redface:

Ai2's are good too - something like ittis can work in the same way, buy more booster sets than shells, and you can reuse the shell in the same way as pockets - and they dry really quick too.

Ittis are sized though - but you should be ok to go into the medium ittis which might last you a while, I think I put Miss M in a medium around 4 months-ish, but she had skinny chicken legs, so got leg gape before that. DS is 2.5 years now and can still fit into a medium itti!! haha! Totally depends on the shape of your child though, I get a longer time out of my medium sizes because my kids are pretty skinny, I think if they were more solid I wouldn't get as long.
HTH!

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Also, is there a way to do this sort of cheaply? I just looked on the net and it costs 110 bucks for 4 cloth nappies! And that's meant to be on special!

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What ones were they? Seeing as you have a bit of time up your sleeve before bub comes then don't rush into buying anything yet. Do your research and know how much things cost so when the time comes you know you're getting a good buy. You can't get much cheaper than flats in the early days and if you already have them then that's great. You don't need to soak them either if you're worried about lugging buckets full of water down the stairs. If you can wash in hot and set the washing machine to a pre rinse then all you need to do is dry pail. Any staining will sun out.

eg itti bitti quite often have seconds up or have sales and you can save 20%. The initial outlay can be a shock but it evens out in the end, especially when you work out what you would have spent on sposies in that time. Ruby is still wearing her small itti bittis which have fitted her since she was 6 weeks old.
The snap out AI2's are great for when bub has done a little wee and not wet the cover. Extra booster sets are about $12 so as long as the cover is fine the replace them.

I'd also advise you to watch the 2nd hand sales sites like buyforbaby and nappychic and get some good second hand ones.

And look at what some stores have on offer for bulk purchases (ie discount or free postage offers) and our own MPM's have discounts too.

What I did was buy a few things during my PG to get me started and then use the baby bonus to buy more when I needed them. Some stores layby too don't forget to ask!

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Some people reuse the shell too, if the bub has only just done a wee, reuse the shell, restuff with inserts, and away you go. I have enough though to put the whole thing in the washing machine :redface:

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is that OK to do ... thats grose .... im mean they WEED in it ... :sick:

BUT and AI2 is ok to change the inserts and keep usuing the shell , its like a posh prefold and cover combo ..

personally i tend not to go for the OSFA option as my DD is a small bub and has a short and narrow rise . and osfa tend to be big and bulky no matter what , but if you have bigger babes straight off the bat , then it might be worth it to you .

if you want a whole stash and want it cheap, then there are bulk discounts that some places offer. its beetter to get the whole lot up front and in bulk .


but alot of ppl will say its trial and error, and sadly thats true ..

a good idea for a NB is pre folds and good covers untill you figure out what style you like .

the Australian nappy network has advocacy packages where you can look at them before you buy .

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is that OK to do ... thats grose .... im mean they WEED in it ... :sick:

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PMSL.... well these are the ones with the stay dry material (suedecloth) so its not like they are sitting in their pee residue.. ROFL

but wee went through it ...:dunno: seems a did dodgy to me... like putting a pad on the outside of your knickers ......dont make sense

soory to hijack

Hi NeeNee,

Does your babies have sensitive skin and is DD1 toilet trained?

You can get the OSFM (one size fits most) like bumgenius, hautes, baby beehinds (bamboo) so both our kids can use them to save money.

The bumgenuis and hautes come in pockets as well.

If your babies have sensitive skin you will need to consider that when purchasing as well.

When I started on cloth what i did was subscribe to newsletters MCN websites and when tehy have specials Id buy it then.

The best discounts i found was when they had the great down under nappy hunt (I am not sure when the next one is, september)?

But you go to diapers decision and they list all the sellers in australia and most have good discounts and it was heaps fun too!

I think i saved heaps of money shopping around.

Have you also tried the second hand website (buy for baby). This is good for trial and error before taking the plunge i guess.

Good luck =)

This is all so confusing! What's a shell? I am such a n00b at this >.<

Sadly I don't have aurelias flat nappies any more but I have a stack of towells that I could cut up and use, and I'm sure there are lots of other fabrics that one could use? My mother tried using inserts on me (as a baby XD) and found it problematic as she needed dozens of covers as well as inserts. I figure maybe that's just the way it is?

DD isn't toilet trained yet, we're at the stage where she has potty training readiness signs and likes sitting on her potty but doesn't actually do anything on it. DD doesn't have sensitive skin but I do so #2 might.

Hey NeeNee,

Nelle wrote a massive thread on all these jargons (http://forums.bellybelly.com.au/foru...new-users.html) which helped me heaps as I had NO IDEA wat MCNs even were!!!

A shell is just the outer cover of the nappy which u can stuff absorbable stuff in (boosters)

Also i forgot to mention, if you are looking and comparing prices make sure you take into account the postage costs of each website.

With sensitive skin, you may have to see if your DDs react to synthetic fibres and which ones. DD reacted to different types.

She didnt react to the bamboo ones from baby beehinds as it was natural but that requires another layer (the price is pretty good though)

I think a OSFM might be good for you since it will save you some money as both bubs can use it.

Thanks :)

So thinking of the layby idea, I was thinking maybe a package of Happy Babes OSFA? For a 24 pack it costs 518, which is 20 odd dollars a nappy and each one comes with two inserts. I'll need to talk to them about the layby conditions though because I can't afford to pay 518 dollars over 8 weeks. I could always get two 12 packs, it's only 10 dollars more to do that way.

Has anyone used this brand before? Are they any good? How long does it take for the inserts to dry?

Also, are AOIs very bulky? DDs flats were SO bulky she couldn't wear them under her clothes. I don't expect a cloth nappy to fit like a disposable but I'd like to be able to dress my bub XD Also, will I need liners?

Hi Neenee

I'm brand new at this MCN thing as well. I have started to keep an eye on the cloth nappies thread as everyone is really helpful and have great suggestions. I'm not very good at linking but if you go into the cloth nappy section, the thread is there.

Since my bubs hasn't arrived yet I've got so far a heap of cotton prefolds, 5 newborn and 5 small covers for the first few weeks. I have also got 2 or 3 cushie tushies, baby bee hind hemps, and pumkins and parents pockets to try them out. I'm also making some cloth wipes and bought some bamboo fleece to make my own boosters to keep the price down.

Definately check out the used nappy sites as there are some great bargins on there as well. Good luck!

Nee - I would be reluctant to get a whole pile of nappies of the one brand - simply because they may not suit your child. And the resale on them wouldn't be that great because they aren't one of the well known, and well respected ones you know? I bought heaps of different types and brands because I didn't know what would suit my child. Even when they are here you don't know what will suit them, cos inevitably they change their shape throughout babyhood into toddlerhood!

But in answer to your question - I think the happy babes ones are microfibre, I remember looking at them once and thinking that they were remarkably like a Bumg - so I would assume the inserts would be quite like them too. If they are microfibre, they will dry overnight if you hang them inside - maybe a couple of hours outside in the sun. You wouldn't be able to use just microfibre at night though, unless you had an extremely light wetter.

Oh - and most AIO's are pretty trim. I've never had a problem with any of mine wearing clothes over their fluffy butts.

Cushie Tushies are a good AIO (or are they AI2?). They are a one size fits most and aren't too bulky.

I know some of the bigger sites like nurture nappies and darlings downunder, and maybe even the nappy bucket will do a package of different brands, just email them to see what they have and what they can do in terms of layby ect. Arimeh or LimeSlice might also be able to do a package on their sites, and then you are supporting BB MPM's and getting discount (I think they both do 10% discount for BB members).

Pockets are great for the drying and quick washing ability, but putting them together takes a little while because they need to be stuffed perfectly to get the coverage needed. You will also need a little squirt type thing (NN have the LS brand, Mel has the Happy Heiny brand) to make it easier with washing, and can easily be put on the toilet and taken off again when you move.

Buy for Baby and NappyChic are the best places if you aren't worried about second hand.

I would be getting some NB size, because you really need the pootainment, Mel had her Miss M in NB for quite some time and she was a heavier bub.

The only clothes we ever have trouble with are Bonds for fit, but we dont have that many of them.

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Mel had her Miss M in NB for quite some time and she was a heavier bub.

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Yup Miss M was nearly 9 pound born - but she was long and skinny - and stayed that way. I went straight from the mother-ease newborn cover into the medium with her - but a chubbier bub might be fine in the smalls for ages. You never know unless they are here really!

Oh - and cushie tushies promote themselves as an AIO, but are technically an AI2 because of the snap in layer :)

On the cost issue, just wanted to point out that yes, MCNs are expensive (scarily so, some of them), but they win hands down over disposables really fast. So if you can manage to save the money for a small stash of them, you'll be saving a lot of money inside a few months (that you can then spend on more fun baby things! :) )

We are using bumgenius and baby beehinds, plus washable wipes.

The wipes (which I spend some $75 on, in a kind of hormonally-induced state of "must buy stuff for the baby - in retropsect getting a length of fabric from Spotlight and cutting it up would have done fine) will have paid for themselves compared with using your average disposable wipes in two months.

The nappies, which we've spent a few hundred dollars on (we have 18 nappies currently), will have paid for themselves compared to disposables by the end of September (that's 5 months of baby). That's washing daily, mind you.

I just throw the nappies in with all the other baby stuff (that has been spewed on or whatever) and wash it all together. Everything comes out clean at the end, and I don't think there's any problem with doing this (with a breastfed baby, anyway, not sure about if your baby is formula fed) as long as everything is dried properly after each wash. It's a long wash because you have to wash and rinse and rinse again, but the nappies only make up an extra say 1/4 of the load, so the extra work isn't much more than I'd have to do daily anyway, with this baby (she's quite spewy).

I'm very pleased with how it's all working out, especially the saving in landfill and cost.

Wow thanks for all the info.

I wanted to have all the nappies ready for when bub is born as money is going to be very tight afterwards. Is this unrealistic? Should I just get a few AOIs and use disposables? Or should I get some fitted nappies and covers to use when bub is little and get AOIs gradually as bub gets bigger?

I'd start putting aside a bit of money each week now so you do have cash when the time comes and have more of an idea what will suit ;)

Neenee - the others all suggested to me to get fitted nappies / prefolds and covers while bubs is newborn and then slowly build up my stash of other AIO, pockets and AI2. Financially it is working for me at the moment as my mum is helping a bit with the costs. :-)

It's more expensive to get fitted nappies though isn't it? Because you need to buy all the bits seperate? That's what it looked like when I searched for them online. I really don't want to get the ones you fold yourself, I hated those!! When I had DD in those they leaked constantly even when I changed her every few minutes. Those were the terry towelling ones, I don't know if the other folding ones are better?

The only seperate bits of a fitted is that you need to buy a cover as well. If you get something like the baby beehinds bamboo it works out pretty cheap as they are a OSFM. I use them on both kids :D

What I decided to do was to buy several nappies to start with, of a couple of different kinds, and then see what worked best and buy more of those.

I used a prefold+cover exactly twice. I didn't like the way they got so soaked and seemed to me to be going to rub DD's legs raw any minute. Though it's clear that prefolds work for lots of people with small babies, and they are certainly cheap. We're now getting good use of the prefolds as change table liners to catch spills, so not wasting them, but I'm glad I didn't actually buy them myself (they are loaned from my sister), as they wouldn't have worked for me as actual nappies.

I bought a "trial package" of baby beehinds that included a couple of their bamboo fitteds and a minkee magic all-in-one. And I bought a handful of bumgenius AI2 to try too. I've ended up buying more of all of those nappies, as they all work well for me, for different situations (night nappies need more absorbancy, nappies to take out in the daytime need to be easy, clean, and fast to handle in strange change situations like public loos or the park, etc).

Some of the things I did right (for me, YMMV) were:

- have a couple of different kinds (we actually have 3, counting the two different BBHs), but not more than that, because it's too confusing, especially for DH

- buy nappies in large enough amounts to get a discount, small enough to have not committed enough money to be really upset if they don't work out

- buy nappies that have excellent reviews, rather than trying to save money on something that might not work as well

- wait to see how many I really needed before buying lots more. For a newborn, washing daily, 18 is enough nappies for me. I didn't need to buy as many as 30, which was suggested somewhere I read about them.

- use disposables at first (because you'll probably be in a state of shock about the whole baby thing, at first, and whatever saves you time is worth it for the first couple of weeks). I was particularly glad of this as I had an emergency caesarian that I totally didn't expect, so a more difficult recovery than if the birth had gone better.

- Disposables are also a great idea to have to hand if you run out of nappies in the first few weeks because the newborn just pooed that many times that day (which they can). They get a lot more regular, and need fewer changes, after a few weeks. We only used 7 nappies yesterday (that's a record low, so far, at 7 weeks).

I reckon that buying some nappies to use as trials at first, and also putting aside whatever you can each week so you have money to hand to increase your stash when you know what works best for you, is a great idea, if you can manage that. Also the prefolds + cover are worth a try, especially if you can borrow some from someone, or buy a small number not a huge bunch. Both my sister and my best friend swore by them (I'm actually puzzled by how they don't seem to work well for me).