Cloth Nappies (Diapers)

When I first told people we were going to use cloth nappies, we got some funny reactions. Here is a few…

“Ew! You’ll have to deal with baby poo” – Newsflash! I’m going to be dealing with poo anyway; someone has to wipe their little butt!

“That’s a lot more work” – From the research I had done I knew this was not the case. More work, sure, but not a lot more.

“Oh good, we used those back in our day” – Not the same ones, they’re called MODERN cloth nappies for a reason”

“Why?” – Well, better for the environment, better for babies bottoms (nobody likes nappy rash), no harmful chemicals, cheaper and the list goes on. So really, why not?

I knew that I wanted to stay home with my baby for a few years. While my husband earns a good income, I knew it also meant tightening our belts any way we could to make this possible. Cloth nappies seemed like a natural choice to me as I would be home to wash anyway. Then I looked in to the added benefits. They were really obvious, less landfill, less chemicals, all round just better.

We used disposables for the first 11 weeks. First they were a little too big around the legs until he got some chunk. Probably could have used them, but didn’t want any number 3’s heading out the  sides. Then J had his vaccinations and one contains the live virus and can be transferred through feces. So we had to delay again. By then I had gotten so used to the ease of disposables, I actually questioned our choice of cloth before we had even used them. My husband coaxed me in to starting one day and I have not looked back. Sure it’s only been 2 weeks. But, it’s all I needed to know it was the right decision for our family.  At the moment we are still using disposable when we go out but I hope in the future that will change too. Just need to order a few more wet bags.

We have 12 Grovia shells with 24 inserts and 6 soakers. I purchased a package from www.piggytails.com.au that contained all of this. I believe it was the Grovia Live package. The shells are adorable! I was aiming for unisex, but I subconsciously bought for a boy with some of them. We have paper planes, planes, pandas, green, red and yellow ones. We also have 6 cheaper ones which are Bumcheeks. We haven’t used those yet, so I will review them once we have. The Grovia are fantastic though as you can just replace the insert sometimes and not the whole shell.

Washing is a breeze. With the 12 shells and 24 inserts, I’ve been washing every second day. One wash and that’s it. I use Earth washing powder and only use half a scoop and that is plenty. They also dry really quick. I’ve been drying them inside as the weather has not been the best. Lots of people worry that it is heaps of extra washing. But what is one extra wash every second day? It’s not hard and hanging them up is easy, it’s not like you have to iron too – blergh ironing!

Leakage wise, we have had none outside the nappy. Just one incident where it was right on the rim. Considering that happened every other day with disposables, cannot complain at all!

J also had really bad nappy rash. It was stubborn and would not clear up with anything. Switch to cloth and voila, it’s healed. Cloth nappies just seem to be friendlier on his sensitive little bottom.

The Grovia nappies are designed to last from birth to toilet training as a one size fits most (OSFM). I just think of all the savings, money and environment wise, that will occur in these couple of years. I read that once you start with cloth, you get hooked. Totally the case! I want to constantly talk about what holds my child’s poo, weird I know!!! Cloth nappies are NOT just for hippies!