Ok I Promised a blog on cloth nappys and here it is
Cloth Bums, the why,how and wherefore's of it.
Ok to start at the very begining,
My first introduction to Cloth nappies was through my Mother she choose to use Terry Cloth Flat Nappies as pictured below and PINS
Above is a selection of my "Stash" as we term it in the mysterious world of cloth Mama's who make, buy and sell, New and used nappies through internet forums and online shops.
This isnt a complete picture of my stash by any means its not even a very current picture of what I own as to get a complete stash picture they all have to be clean which means the baby needs to be wearing a "sposie" or disposible nappy otherwise you are missing at least the one the baby is wearing unless you include him/her in the picture too lol.
Cloth Nappies are a world away from what our Mothers ( if your over 25 like me you probably wore cloth nappies at some point ) and Grandmothers used on us, Gone are the days of soaking the nappies in big buckets or tubs and scrubbing to get stains out, stabbing yourself with the pins you fasten them with etc... its really very different, im going to chart how a normal day goes for me with EJ in Cloth Nappies so you can see what I mean.
Get up and change nappy putting clean nappy on, If night nappy is dirty ( poo ) rinse dirty part either using shower head into bucket or toilet ( we have a shower head you can take off the wall on a hose ) or hold in toilet and flush ( the flush does remove most of it ) wring out most of the water ( if clean skip to here ) and put in the lidded nappy pail under the sink,
Go about the day breakfast etc... playtime
3-4 hrs on and its Naptime so we head upstairs collecting a clean nappy from the storage box in the hallway where i keep the clean ones and Change Ej's bum again, repeating the steps from the first nappy change to deal with nappy after ive tucked him into bed.
after Naptime its Lunchtime then post lunch we get another nappy change following the same routine as before.
another change 3-4hrs later post dinner into a night time nappy and we are done for the day.
If its wash day then i would then bring the nappy pail down from the bathroom and put the nappies into the machine, set a rinse cycle and leave it to do its thing, after the rinse i add 1/4 the normal amount of powder to the drawer and wash at 40degrees on the standard cycle and then as it finishes i stick it on another rinse cycle to make sure all the detergant is out of the nappies then they get hung up to dry overnight.
All my pocket nappies will dry overnight as will the cotton prefolds that I use to boost them , Night time nappies and any bamboo or hemp inserts take a day and a night normally to dry hung on my airer in the living room an on a nice morning i'll put anything not quite dry outside on the patio for a nice bit of sun bleaching.
To make things easier on myself i use fleece liners in all my nappies so when EJ does poo then i only normally have to rinse the liner , overall I get 65% less leaks from cloth than i do from disposables and about 85% less instances of bum rash ( which EJ is prone to get when teething ) I vary rarely get stains on the nappies and when i do the sun is normally enough to bleach the stains out , even in cloudy old England. and it saves us about £30 a month on disposable nappies for EJ which is well worth it for us.
Not convinced, just google image search cloth nappies and have a look at the bright colors and cute prints, find out the facts about cloth nappies like they are 1 degree cooler for a baby than a disposable, and if ive still not convinced you then try wearing plastic or paper pants for the day and see how much you enjoy it then go back to your normal pants and see how much more you enjoy wearing something soft and breathable.
Ladies theres more to come im going to review CSP's and diva/mooncups soon so keep tuned
in the meantime I must go and put my wee EJ into another one of his funky Cute soft cloth nappies
