So there it is. Day 1 in cloth nappies is over, and I’m sorry to say, was an absolute success. Yes, I admit. There was a part of me, the lazy part of me, that really hoped it wouldn’t ‘work’ for us. But this was not the case.
My first observation about cloth nappies has to be how cute and comfy they look. These aren’t strictly speaking cloth, as they are actually bamboo, but they are just so cute and fluffy that you wont notice the difference.
The second thing I noticed was that they do not smell. With disposable nappies, I would start smelling them within half an hour to an hour, and by two to three hours would have to change it even if it didn’t look particularly wet or wasn’t dirty, because the urine and chemical smell was becoming overwhelming.
After two hours in the Bambinex nappies, however, I was actually slightly concerned that she had not weed and opened the nappy up to check. It was soaked, although nothing had leaked through the wrap, and there was absolutely no scent.
At the end of the day I had all three bamboo nappies in the washing basket, and left them over night. I did suspect that by morning, the kitchen would have a bit of a wet nappy smell, due to the dry-pailing, but there was no smell at all.
In addition, although the nappy was quite wet, Ameli’s bum was a lot less red by the end of the day than it normally is. I attribute that to the lack of chemicals against her very delicate skin.
A big concern people tend to have about cloth nappies is that they make the bum seem much bigger, so the baby no longer fits into age-appropriate clothes. I think that’s less of a problem than it once was, as nappies have progressed so far that they are hardly bigger than disposables nowadays.
My favourite thing about these particular nappies is that they are made with the taller baby in mind, meaning they fit my little one perfectly, with a high cut leg not compromising anything in the waist.
I think we’ll stick to disposables for the night time for a while longer, but I am very excited about my new set of reusables, even though it’s going to take me a couple of month to build up to the recommended 15 – 18 nappies.
Today was a resounding success, and I am now off to order another batch of Bambinex Bamboo Nappies.
Further Reading:
there’s plenty of great night time nappies out there you know. http://www.weenotions.co.uk do a great one called a super soaker for the seriously heavy wetter. then there’s also the night notions that they do.
while fill your pants is agreat site, there’s a wide variety out there of others that are equally as good. tiny nippers is great for people on a budget. then there’s the whole wahm community (work at home mums) who also create some exceptionally amazing nappies.
while wraps are great for most, some people can struggle to get a good fit with them. for those people I recommend woolies and flongies (fleece longies)
there’s a great world of cloth out there waiting to be discovered and its not just fitteds and wraps.
just dont discover ruffle bums, or you’ll start an addiction 😀
I also highly recommend searching on social networking sites for groups such as cloth bum mums on facebook,pre loved selling boards and cloth nappy tree
Thanks Nat, two years on and onto our second child, we’ve definitely learned a whole lot more about cloth than we knew when I wrote this. My youngest has never been in a disposable and my oldest is now potty training, so it’s been a massive transformation for us! Thanks for sharing the info!
thats excellent to hear 🙂
Im currently toying with the idea of reusable wipes too. i know plenty of ladies doing this already but im still not 100% swayed. maybe for hands and faces but not quite sure about for bums too. nappies is one thing but wipes too? lol
We’ve been using Cheeky Wipes (there’s a post about them here somewhere) and they are fab. We use them for hands and faces and wet nappies and just that alone has massively reduced our wet wipe usage – and since we use the Jackson Reece wipes which are a little more expensive, that’s been a great cost cutting effort too!
I’m thrilled that you had such a positive first experience of cloth! I found the fill-your-pants website just last week and spend an eternity looking around.
I think we’re going to go with the Tots Bots Bamboozle stretchies – they sound quite similar to the Bambinex shaped nappies that you trialled as they’re also bamboo and use aplix fastening. Which wraps are you using currently?
Do you think you’ll try any pocket nappies or all-in-ones? We’ve also been looking at the BumGenius pockets as another alternative, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on other nappies if you try them out!
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@kimmy, Sorry for the delay in replying to you! I don’t know if I’ll use any other nappies – we really love these, but I think we have enough to suit our needs now. I would LOVE to be able to go out and buy more, but to be honest, I don’t have the money. So we’ll probably stick with what we have, because it really works for us.
As for the wraps, I’ve never really understood the whole this wrap is better than that one thing – I’ve bought whichever ones look cute/pretty and I love, so I have some from four different places, and only one ‘for’ Bambinex. We’ve had no leaks or problems. Maybe someone else can explain why they have other recommendations?
The only other nappies we’ve tried are the Bambinex Teddy, which are identical to the normal Bambinex, but made from something synthetic – not bamboo- and dry within a few hours (essential for us as I don’t have outdoor drying or a tumble drier and the bamboo sometimes takes 2 – 3 days to dry indoors)
I have thought about getting some terry squares (also in bamboo) to use as night time boosters – we’re still in disposables over night – but I might wait until we can start potty training for poos on that one… not sure.
Hope that was at least a little helpful!
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I use bamboo, too (blend w/ organic cotton), and I LOVE how silky they are… I learned to sew so I could afford them ;). I am now addicted to sewing and organic bamboo velour nappies. What type of covers do you use?
Love them! The smell is way better. The size, can be big, but its not that big of a deal, now, really, is it?
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HOORAY!!!! You might not be overwhelmingly happy about your success, but I sure am! 🙂 Those are so much better for so many reasons.
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@Katie L., No, to be honest, I am happy. I was just thinking of the extra hanging of washing involved (not my favourite winter activity!) but truth is, I’m elated.
That looks like the very same mat that adorns our floor…
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@Vic, Lol. Not surprisingly! There seems to be so few options, really! I visited a friend yesterday and they had it too!
We used cloth during the day and disposables over night. It worked really well for us. I thought it was a big benefit right at first when it’s really important to make sure the baby is wetting diapers. So hard to tell in disposables. Hope you have continued success!
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@Joey, Thank you! We received another five yesterday and I just love them. They look lovely, they feel lovely, and I am more conscious of changing her more regularly, even though I don’t smell anything yet! It just FEELS like I’m doing the right thing. And that makes a nice change 🙂