Reusable nappies?

Hi Tigerlily

I bought reusable nappies (terry towelling) before my daughter was born. I was intending to be all "mother earth" - determined I wasn't going to use disposable nappies and littering the planet etc. I changed my mind after 2 days!!! I found it impossible. My daughter's clothes were soaking ALL the time (I had terry nappies with flushable liners and waterproof outers) and it was even worse for poos! The washing machine was constantly on the go, so thats not exactly environmentally friendly. There is no nappy-laundering service in my area and no council grants available. (Depending on where you live you get money off / free nappies if you're going down the reusable route - check with your local council) You can also get a trial so see if you like them before you fork out literally £hundreds on nappies and everything that goes with it. Have a look at: for different choices of reusables.

I applaud you if you manage to go for it and stick to it. I still have all my supplies with only a handful of nappies used (and of course washed afterwards!) - I asked my health visitor if she knew of anyone wanting to use terry towelling cos rather than them forking out all that money they could have just have mine.

If you haven't tried them yet, for disposables I would highly recommend Asda's nappies. I can't afford the high price of Pampers and Huggies and Asda's ones get consistently good reviews in baby awards. I've never had any problems with them.

I got given tots bots reusable nappies off a family friend but never got round to using them so don't feel its fair to comment on them.

Good luck if you do decide to go for it and let us know how you get on.

Donna. x

Thirty years ago when I had my son disposable nappies were in their infancy so to speak, and I just went for terries apart from when we were travelling. Thanks to my Mum's help, I got into a routine with them: yes, soaking and washing every day and I think I had about three dozen on the go. The disposables always leaked so I thought I was better off with terries. That's not to say I enjoyed the experience though!

Hi Tigerlily

I wanted to be eco friendly and decided to buy the Mio Bambino re-usable nappies. Again they have the waterproof outer part with a separate cotton inner bit. I found them easy to use, but couldn't believe how often they leaked, sometimes even if I was changing them like clockwork:confused:. In the end I used them only when we were in the house and used disposable ones when we went out anywhere! We didn't have to buy quite so many disposables but we'd spent so much on re-usables it didn't save us anything!

I still have a load of the bigger size re-usables that haven't even been used and keep wondering whether I should try and sell them. Then my conscience kicks in and makes me wonder if I should try using them again lol!

Lijay
x

It all sounds very ethical using the washable ones but probably if you weigh up heating the water, buying the soaking and washing powder, drying them in the dryer if you can't hang them out the cost to yourself and the environment are not very different.

Like Sunanda my kids had terry ones and as there were 2 years and 4 months between them that flaming nappy bucket sat in the bath for about 5 years. After that my husband made the mistake of using to make some homemade wine in it......which had to be thrown away 😮

One thing we did years ago was try to get them clean asap so we didn't have do nappies. My grandson however is still in nappies now at 2.5 years:mad:

I remember struggling with nappy rash on my babies - I learned to put them on so they didn't leak, but the rashes were terrible to get cleared up. The other thing was having lines of them drying in the garage - no tumble driers then - or even radiators! The modern disposable ones are a godsend. Just a shame no-one has worked out a better method of processing them for disposal.

With the modern reusable nappies there are now many to choose from (almost too many), although they are harder to find in actual shops (that you can see first) - are plenty of websites selling them. All advice I've heard is don't rush out and but lots, you really need to try a few to find a style that fits your baby, so as to not get the leakage problem. There are various 'sample packs' around where you can try a few different brands. There are also quite a few home nappy sellers, where someone who represents a particular brands has a selection and they can visit you at home and let you see and try them, before buying. This may be a good option if there are people doing this in your area.

If you ever come into London, then on Tuesday afternoons (and some other times) there is a cloth nappy shop - Nappy Ever After - a little around the corner from the British Library. They have several different brands and samples their that you can check to see if they fit your little one.