Sunday, March 28, 2010

Monday's musings - Addicted to cloth nappies

When L was just a couple of months old, my friend told me she was addicted to cloth nappies. I thought she must be crazy because all my attempts at using them had ended with leakages out the side causing wet clothes and wet bed sheets.


I left it a little while and then eased my way back into using them by trialling a brand of cloth nappies my sister recommends, bumGenius. These are one-size-fits-all pocket nappies that hardly ever seem to leak. 


I only had three bumGenius nappies, but used them every day and started craving more. Paul and I talked it over and agreed it was a good investment, so I trawled TradeMe and bought quite a few. I now have enough to safely get me through two days of nappy changes. 

We've got a nice little routine going where I wash the nappies after L's first feed, hang them on the line after her second one and bring them back in at the end of the day to re-stuff and put away in her nappy stacker. 


I may need to change this a little bit with winter coming on and the days getting shorter. Maybe by washing them and hanging them out at night so they have all night and day to dry.


The nappies look cute on L. There are so  many beautiful colours that I can choose a nappy to go with L's outfit or my mood. 


She's only had one incident of nappy rash since using them, and that was more to do with starting solids than using the nappies. 
When I first started using cloth nappies, I lined them with flushable liners to make dealing with poo a bit nicer. But then Paul and I did the maths and worked out the liners were actually pretty expensive. Now I just use a tissue to scoop any solids into the toilet, and then store the nappy in a lidded bucket until wash time.


I've also bought a few muslin cloths which I run under a warm tap and wipe L's bottom with. This means I don't go through many packet wipes so that brings the cost down and also reduces the number of chemicals L is coming into contact with. 


I wash the nappies and muslins in natural washing powder (eg. Ecostore or Next Generation) for the same reason.
It's a really great feeling getting to bypass the nappy aisle of the supermarket. I highly recommend it. It's been over two months now and we haven't used a single disposable diaper. 

No more stinky rubbish bin. 

No more huge bags of nappies going to the landfill. 


It feels good and I confess, I am addicted to cloth nappies.

5 comments:

  1. Welcome to the club!! I love using cloth nappies too, am so glad I discovered them as I hate to think how many disposables I would have used with all my kids!
    I really like BumGenius too but have a range of bought and home-made pocket nappies which I use.
    I also use cloth wipes (old facecloths work well) with warm water and find they work a lot better than bought wipes.

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  2. Actually Lou, you were a big source of inspiration for me trying cloth nappies in the first place. Your kids always had such cute ones with fun patterns, and you made it seem doable.

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  3. I used cloth for a while. I was always amazed how little poos smelled in them compared to disposable! You would think it would be the other way around...I often would go some time before realising that Keeley had pooed, which definitely would never happen in a disposable.
    Go you guys, save the planet, save your wallets :)

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  4. I am so happy to read that mum's are starting to go back to cloth nappies. My girls (now 22, 18 and 17 years old) all wore them and they were the white square cotton cloth ones (still have them in a cupboard as I cut them up into cleaning rags). I used all natural cotton and wool fibres with their clothes as well as breast feeding them, as cot death was in the headlines alot when I had my girls, so I decided to go back to basics to avoid unnecessary chemicals (plus we had NO money at all). My middle daughter also has ezcema, so cotton nappies helped as well as more natural laundry powders and natural soaps. She is now flatting and her ezcema has flared up, so I had to teach her why mum has always used certain products. I now also make my own soap which is wonderful and luxurious on a cheap budget.

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    1. Thanks for sharing that. What's your soap recipe? I'm a sucker for homemade soaps.

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