She sows seeds

A Modern Cloth Nappy

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I’ve started a few discussions over on Instagram (@emmasteendam) about this subject, and have been meaning to write a more comprehensive blog post on it for some time… cloth nappies. Thrilling stuff for those who aren’t pregnant, parents or at all interested, but it’s what’s bouncing around my head at the moment, so here it is…

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We would like to use cloth nappies, or rather ‘modern cloth nappies’ (MCN’s) for our baby, for a few reasons: one being environmental impact and another being cost effectiveness. I have several friends (and Matt’s sister) who have used cloth for their babes, all with varied experiences. I definitely don’t want to lock ourselves in to any particular mindset or ‘rules’ – I say we ‘would like to use cloth nappies’, not ‘we will be using cloth nappies’. Honestly, if it doesn’t work for us, our baby or our lifestyle we will look at alternatives. That said, most people using cloth have all told me that there is a cloth nappy solution to suit every baby and parent, it’s just a matter of wading through the minefield that has become MCN’s.

Oh the minefield! The information! The giant ocean of blogs, forums, Facebook groups…it’s overwhelming to say the least. So many different types, brands, fibres, acronyms – to begin with it is like learning a different language, and I’m only semi-coherent in it all as yet, and the thing is it’s constantly changing. Some of my friends who used MCN’s a mere year ago are out of the loop by now. Who knew?!

So far, I’ve been looking mainly at pocket styles of MCN’s, or with snap in inserts. I went to my handful of friends who have used cloth, and came back with just as many varied opinions as the blogs and forums! Some used AIO (all-in-one) systems, some pockets, some pre-folds from birth, some sized, some OSFM (one size fits most). Bewildering.

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Here’s the general low-down so far on the very genesis of our cloth nappying journey…

– We probably will use disposable nappies for newborn until the baby fits into some MCN’s, depending on baby’s weight and build.

– I would prefer to use a pocket system or snap inserts as I’ve been lead to believe the AIO’s take a long time to dry and can be harsher on wear and tear. Correct me if I’m wrong. I also like the idea of being able to remove separate parts of the nappy, but this obviously means more time involved folding/stuffing nappies, again correct me if I’m talking crazy-talk.

– Although snaps might be more fiddly than Velcro on a wiggly baby, in the long run they will last the distance of multiple children whereas Velcro will wear out.

–  I would like to use OSFM as it seems the easiest and most cost effective option, but realise this is totally dependent on our baby’s build/length/weight and what does/doesn’t work for us. Some friends only used OSFM, others only used sized especially for that weight/age baby.

–   Must resist urge to buy pretty pink or funky boy colours and prints once baby gender is determined! Unless I want our future son in pink butterflies cloth nappies…unisex is aim of game (especially for re-sale too.)

– Open to the fact that we may have a heavy night wetter in which case a lot of people in that boat use disposables at night – although have also been researching some great and highly recommended nighttime MCN’s. The whole boys versus girls issue also dependent on how we use cloth/how many inserts or boosters we may need.

– Definitely want to get a sprayer attachment for our toilet, which Matt has assured me is super easy for him to just do himself. A lot of people have told me this has been the make or break as to whether they used cloth or not.

As for brands…so far I’ve bought a handful of Issy Bear AI2 nappies in both a newborn size and OSFM – purely because they had a sale on and I thought I’d begin my stash with some bargains. I also got some Pikapu’s on Catch of the Day last week. Other brands which I have been researching and keen to try due to recommendations: Baby Beehinds, Itti Bitti Tutto, Rumparooz, BumGenius, Grovia and Greenkids. All of which I’ve had varied opinions on, so I really do think it depends on your baby (obviously). Some swear by Baby Beehinds, another friend said they never fit her girls properly. Trial and error, error and trial.

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a handful of each of these brands in my shopping cart and then not checked out! Basically, the one common thread through all of the advice being thrown my way is that you need to find exactly what suits your baby and his/her needs, which is obviously something you can’t do for awhile! You also hear horror stories of people spending ridiculous amounts of money on MCN’s and then it being a total disaster. No thanks. The best solution I think will be for us to use something like the Apikali Library system which gives you a range of different brands and styles of MCN’s to use for a few weeks, in order to determine what does and doesn’t work for you. Then I can go forth and check out of my shopping cart on all those websites. In the meantime I might just build up a stash of one brand/style here, another there, if they are on sale I think.

Now – people of the Internet, tell me…

Did you cloth nappy?
What do you know now that you wish someone had told you at the start?
Tell me if all the above thoughts are utter hogwash or point me in a direction of enlightenment!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. It has been a pleasure to come across your blog, Emma and to see our little biz pop up. Your initial thoughts and reactions are very common to majority of parents. It is overwhelming. I hope you have found success in a style of cloth nappy and a system that works for you. I am honoured to have helped a little in that journey.
    Tennille

    • Hi Tennille, here is the follow up post of our cloth nappy journey so far: https://www.shesowsseeds.com/2015/05/15/our-modern-cloth-nappy-story/ We are using majority of BumGenius (Freetimes as the AIO’s are the best for us, I do have 3 of the pocket ones too but husband hates them!) and Baby Bare’s but they don’t seem to fit Eleanor as well, we have issues with gaping at the front, and even leaking in the legs and they just generally don’t seem to be as well made as the BumGenius.

  3. I love the range of MCN’s available these days. They are more robust and easier ever to use. You need the dedication but it is well worth it. Marion 🙂

  5. I bought a brand we saw at a market (lil puddins) (pocket, snaps not velcro) and was happy with them until we brought some night nappies when our daughter got older…. this new brand (sweet pea) has openings at both ends of the pocket, so the inserts just agitate out in the wash & you have minimal handling of dirty nappies. I so wish I knew these existed when I first bought the nappies! I kick myself nearly every day! lol ;).
    I also wish that I had bought these new nappies several months earlier as it took us a while to realise that our daughter was a heavy wetter (we have always had to use both the boosters in her nappies, not just at night, disposables are practically useless to us). And so we were changing the sheets every time she slept for a while, because her bladder got bigger lol and she was otherwise sleeping through the night, until we bought nappies that fit extra inserts (4 in her night nappies). Thought we were doing something wrong!
    We never had to use disposable liners until she went onto solids (she was breastfed), as her poohs just washed off easily until then. But definitely sticking to the disposable, flushable liners now. Briefly tried the washable liners (like a blue chux cloth?), but nope, not going there again!
    The disposable nappies were mostly useless at containing that ‘breastfeeeding pooh’, also.
    And don’t be afraid to use your clothes dryer now & then in winter. Ours has a gentle/warm cycle & it doesn’t seem to hurt the nappies. Probably hurts more in the 40 degree hot sunlight in summer!

  6. Hi Emma, I tried the traditional cloth nappies and the MCN’s with my first baby and used that method for 2 months but it ended up being too much. I had to wait for my hubby to get home at the end of the day to empty out the nappy buckets as they were too heavy for me to lift. I found you go through a lot of nappy changing in the first few months, so I changed to disposable nappies. For me using disposable nappies was much better and easier. I found with the cloth nappies that I was doing a lot of washing and always changing bubs clothing as the cloth nappies leaked. When my second bub came along I did try MCN’s again but only used them for a few months. I say give the MCN’s a try and work out what works best for you. It doesn’t hurt in giving them a go, there is always some trial and error. If the cloth nappies don’t suit you and bub then at least you can say you have tried them.

  7. If I had my cloth-nappying time again I would just use prefolds with wool soakers the whole way through and not bother moving on to MCNs. That said, researching and buying a full complement of MCNs was part of my nesting, so I don’t think I would have listened to my own advice! Our son turned out to be really skinny, so we used muslin flats when he was first born, then prefolds; he didn’t fit into his one-size-fits-all bamboo fitteds until six months! We’re still using them at almost three and they’ve been great, but I loved using prefolds and would have happily stuck with them if I hadn’t spent $400 on the others.

    Cloth nappying was fantastic for us and has never seemed like a drama. Our son never wore a disposable or had a baby wipe anywhere near him until he started childcare. It makes a huge difference if both parents are equally into cloth nappying, and if the non-birthing parent can do the nappy washing for the first six or twelve weeks while you’re establishing breastfeeding (if you BF) – it’s one of the few easily delegate-able tasks and makes a huge difference.

    Bambooty night nappies are supposed to be amazing for overnight, although I haven’t tried them myself. Wool soakers are good at preventing overnight leaks because they’re really absorbent.

  8. I’ll just let you know from the outset that I have nothing useful to add! My babies are 18 and 15 so my nappy days are a long way behind me. I am AMAZED at what is around now, no wonder you are confused! We just had plain white cloth nappies, I bought 2 dozen when my first baby was coming and then another 2 dozen for the next babe because Babe 1 was still in nappies. I’ve probably got a dozen left that are still in rotation as cleaning cloths so they have lasted well. A Farmer’s Wife above is spot on as cloth nappies are useful for so many things. Good luck with it all.

  10. Water was our biggest issue – hence disposable as extra washing meant more pressure on our water supply. Apparently local hospitals have done some studies and by the time water, detergent and power from washing nappies plus impact of manufacturing cotton is factored in there is very little difference in environmental impact. This was in the info when I booked into our maternity hospital but I have never seen the figures/data behind it so couldn’t swear it was gospel.

    I would aim for combination of both! Many people I know did well with disposables at night/when out and about and cloth during the day. I am sure you will be fine regardless.

    I did have 12 old fashioned cloth nappies and they were brilliant for all sorts of other purposes like wiping up baby vomit, putting over shoulders etc etc.

    Good luck!

    • Yes I’m going to get some good old fashioned ones for the convenience factor of other uses too!

      • I would love to link you on that particular myth (the cloth and disposable nappies having similar environmental impact) but I am on my iPad.
        Take a look at the Australian Nappy Association Facebook page. They are a wealth of information on how much better cloth nappies are for the environment. They have many fact sheets.
        Did you know for instance that each disposable nappy ever used will take around 500 years to break down?
        That’s right. Every single disposable nappy ever used is still sitting in landfill!

        • Thank-you, yes I am aware of how long disposables take to break down. We are using cloth nappies with Eleanor, love them, and plan on doing a follow up blog post to this one soon!

  11. The brand we use is Grovia and I have no problems recommending them. They have multiple styles, but we used the all in one newborn style until our little babe was big enough for the shell and insert style. We chose the velcro instead of the snaps, because I thought they would be easier to put on. The Velcro is just starting to get a little less sticky after one year of use, but we have a lot of pet hair in our house for it to stick to! They have adorable prints for the shells. We chose the organic cotton inserts and rarely have a leak. We do use a chlorine free, non-bleached disposable diaper at night (here in the US, we use Earth’s Best brand). If you hang the inserts in the sun (or we hang the right by the woodstove) they dry in a day, with a quick 10 minute spin in the dryer just to finish them off. What sold us on the Grovia brand is that they make these biodegradable liners – kind of like dryer sheets – that go on top of the shell, right next to the baby’s bum. That way most of the poop stays right on there and you can just lift it off and trash it. (Major blow-outs will get on the diaper too, but the liner really helps. Since we used these, we didn’t feel the need for some special sprayer attachment on the toilet.

  12. I use mcns loosely. In that I use them at home and use disposable to keep in nappy bag and at night. I didn’t want to put myself under the pressure of trying to adhere too strictly to one or the other as I had no idea what it would be like. Bought a few on sale and got some as gifts. I definitely agree with Lisa about the night time disposables. Anything to keep bub sleeping longer which means more sleep for me! Invaluable especially in first few months. I also didn’t attempt trying mcns until bub was able to fit into osfm. That gave me time at the start to get used having a baby before I attempted to give myself extra work with the washing and then I only needed to buy one size instead of newborn and then osfm. I would agree with you that my friends also liked different brands for different reasons. I have found it is the same as everything else with a new born – every baby and family is different so do what works for you. 🙂

    • I’m the same with not wanting to box myself into using cloth 100% of the time, maybe we will, maybe we won’t (when out/away). I will be using disposable at night if cloth is waking baby!

  13. Hi Emma. You sound so totally on track…and much more together than I was before bub came along! But we got it together in the end and bub (who’s now 10 months) went into osfm pocket mcns at around 3 months. We still use disposables when away just for the convenience factor but honestly the mcns are fantastic. Sure there is work involved but once you get into a bit if a rhythm with the washing, drying and stuffing it’s all fine. Strongly recommend Apakali – great advice and if you join their email mailing list you get special deals and advanced notice on sales. And you right..you won’t really know until you’re there! Best wishes!

  14. I love using cloth too. I’ve used them for both my girls since they were born and will do it all again for my third due in Spring. I use a combination of brands: prefolds (Sustainable Hemp Products) for 0-6 months with a couple of cute newborn AIOs and then we move on to Grovia Hybrids which are like snap ins (I use the velcros and they’ve lasted the distance no problem…but they are a different material to other velcros I’ve seen around. ie. bumbgenius), Babybeehinds OSFM fitted nappies (which I personally think are awesome) with a Bumboo cover or wool cover and a few Bambooty AIOs (cause the covers are cute!). I find that the AIOs dry just as well as the snap ins/pockets. I did use a couple of Rumparooz at the very beginning…but really didn’t like the microfibre insert and I had a problem with leaking. But I still have the covers and use them over the Grovia inserts…and that works fine too.

    YES…get a squirt! I would recommend this for parents who use disposables too…cause surely they’d want to squirt off the poo before chucking them in the bin…? Using liners helps with poos 🙂

    I have two nappy buckets…one for wees that I keep in the bedroom next to the change table and one for poos in the toilet. I never find that it gets stinky. But if it does, you can always pop a couple of drops of tea tree oil in the bottom of the bucket.

    I would also recommend buying a heap of cloth baby wipes…it’ll save you thousands. Baby wipes are so expensive and goodness knows what ingredients are in them. Mine get chucked into the nappy buckets with the dirty nappies and they’re washed all together every second day.

    Gosh, long answer! Sorry!!

    It sounds like you know SO much more than what I did when I was pregnant with my first…so I’m sure you’re on the right track 😀

  15. Disposables here. My sis however did the whole cloth nappy gig for her three and put the hose thing on her toilet. Said it was well worth it. Looks funny now that all three are out of nappies though…… good luck

  16. I use and love cloth nappies. I love bumgenius and rumparooz which are now the only brands I use. I prefer to still use disposables at night because bubs tends to soak through if I use cloth. I wish people had told me not to waste my time buying cheaper options off eBay as ALL the ones I purchased leak and this means multiple outfit changes per day! I also purchased some bamboo flush able liners to ensure bubs poop doesn’t stain the nappies. I’ve been using them for a couple of months now and have never had a problem. They dry really quick too after washing them!

  17. I have popped up a couple of times on Instagram with my two cents worth – but just wanted to say that it sounds to me as though you are right on track and that your approach sounds perfectly sound. Except that I would also add two nice looking lidded soaking buckets to your shopping list. These buckets will be hanging around your house for a while, so best if you like them.
    Only other thing is that the issue of overnight wetting etc isn’t just about leaking necessarily – at some point a bit down the track we moved our little lady to Huggies overnight because we came to realise that the feeling of being wet was waking her up (even the more eco-friendly single-use nappies would result in her waking up earlier/more often than if she was wearing Huggies). So of course we our environmental scruples aside and went with the Huggies overnight!! And continued with our MCNs during the day.
    Using MCNs really is super easy and no where near the chore some people think it might be.

    • Thanks for advice on overnight wetting! Will be using disposable if the cloth is an issue at night. Putting nice looking lidded buckets on the shopping list!

  18. I suppose it depends a lot on what sort of lifestyle you lead. I never even contemplated them as my children were born and our priorities were more with them than the environment (sorry – it’s true). I also remember my mum ‘hosing’ down nappies on the front lawn and just didn’t want a bar of that. Disposable nappies were kind to me and my babies…………..having said that though, old cloth nappies make great dusters!!!!! Whatever you choose, you’ve obviously researched it enough to know it’s going to be right for you.

  19. I used the old fashion cloth nappies with my first ( 14 years ago). I used the for 18 months & had no problems what so ever. They were easy to use, fit from birth all the way through & were really cost effective. When bub number 2 came I started out with cloth but a few weeks in I switched to disposable. I felt so guilty but it was fine after a while. With the third I contemplated using cloth but had to be realistic about time/effort that cloth nappies need so we’ve used disposable. With number 4 due in 8 weeks as much as having 2 bubs in nappies will put a strain on our budget I know it’s the only way to go 🙂

  20. Hi Emma. I had grand plans to use these before we had our two children. I purchased all the necessary bits and pieces although I cannot remember the brand name now. I never used them! They just sat in the cupboard…we used disposables in those first few days with our first born and just never looked back. I packed all the cloth nappy stuff up in a bundle and donated it to Lifeline. What a waste…but that is my story 🙂