Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Cloth Nappy Adventures: First Impressions


Hello everyone!

So this week my cloth nappies arrived! I really can't explain how excited I was for their arrival and to start using them! Today I am sharing with you my thoughts and first impressions on these nappies and why I was so excited to start!
















One of the things that has started to bother me more and more as I grew up is the amount of rubbish a single human being produces. I remember at university reading that on average a human produces over 2kg of rubbish a day! Sounds crazy doesn't it?

When I became pregnant I was well aware of the impact nappies and wipes would make on the environment. After all my job is partly informing people of how their rubbish affects our oceans. So I started looking into cloth nappies as a way to lessen the amount of rubbish produced while raising my baby.















My cloth nappy started pack
Research, research, research. I spent about four or five months in total researching cloth nappies. To begin with my biggest concern was if the increase in use of the washing machine would outweigh the rubbish decrease. It seems to me that for the environment you are indeed better off using your machine more and reducing the waste of non biodegradable nappies and wipes.

For my research I mainly used mummy forums, amazon reviews and chatted to a few people I know that use cloth nappies. I was immediately pointed to the nappy library where you could borrow different nappies and see which ones you prefer.

I, however am crazy, or an idiot, and didn't avail of the nappy service. That's because I fell in love with the prettiness of the Bambino Mio Miosolo nappy range. All the websites, including Amazon stocked these nappies and they were just gorgeous!

I know, I know, you shouldn't judge a cloth nappy by it's cover but I did. I looked a bit further into them and all I found was amazing reviews. Not only are they super soft and durable but they are also fully adjustable. The company says they are from "birth to potty" but after reading some reviews lots of mums said that they were too big for babies under three months.

So as soon as Ema turned three months old I took the plunge and started to change our nappy routine.

Contents of my started pack
I order my Bambino Mio Miosolo starter pack, girl edition on Amazon

It arrived within one week all nicely packaged. I got six nappies, a small pack of miofresh which is a powdered nappy freshener to use in the washing machine or for soaking and some biodegradable liners as well as a sample biodegradable,flush-able wet wipe.

Six nappies is not quite enough to go full time cloth but I decided to spread the costs and from now on will be buying a couple more nappies a month from amazon to build up a nice stock.















The day I bought the nappies I also worked out what my routine and set up were going to be like and how I was going to avoid stinking up the house with dirty nappies waiting to be washed.

I decided on having a bucket of saltwater in the bathroom to put the used nappies and dirty cloths in while waiting for the wash. I thought saltwater would be a good idea as it disinfects and keeps smells at bay. However any dirty nappies would be rinsed through the bath to wash the solids down the drain.

Finally, so that I wouldn't have to root around for nappies in the bucket, I bought a laundry net to put in the bucket to contain the nappies.

The net came from ebay you can find it here.

Small white bin from Ikea to store used nappies. Find it here.
Inside the nappy bin
So far this system has worked well.














Wash cloths from Ikea. Find them here.
I couldn't really use cloth nappies and still throw away tonnes of wet wipes so I headed into Ikea again and bought a few packs of wash cloths. I now always have a damp one and a dry one. The damp one can be used a few times if it's just to clean a wee and the dry one is to dry her bottom afterwards to prevent nappy rash.
















Modelling her pretty nappy
So far I don't have any major complaints about the nappies and about the new routine. The inside is super soft and the absorbent core flips out for quicker drying and easier cleaning of poo stains.



I have adjusted the nappy with the poppers on the front to be on the smallest size and it fits well. The large Velcro bands mean you can adjust the waist size and the leg hole size too.

We've had a couple of incidents where it leaked because I hadn't tightened it enough and I have now purchased some boosters for the night because 11 hours straight sleep is a bit of a push and she has woken up wet a couple of times.

I will be updating you guys on how it's going when I've been using them for a little longer and have enough to not have to use disposables. In the mean time would love to know your thoughts on cloth nappies! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!

Until next time!