A Cloth Odyssey – The Early Days

Were fortunate in our area that the council offers an incentive for parents to use cloth nappies. Yours may well do too, it may be worth checking with them.

I’ve opted for the option of a  30 pound voucher to spend at Babi Pur (as opposed to a nappy trial pack) and as I wait fr my voucher to arrive, I can’t stop thinking about what to buy with it.

I really can’t decide what I want, so I thought I’d pick the brains of you wonderful experienced cloth users and let you decide for me.

But before I throw the question open, I thought I’d share my experiences of cloth so far . This may take a while so I’ve decided to spread the story over a few posts.

THE EARLY DAYS

I knew I wanted to try cloth from the time I got pregnant, and I was lucky enough to be given a stash from various sources such s freecycle/freegle and friends. My stash mainly consisted Mother-ease one size nappies with rikki wraps, tots bots size 1 two parters, and a load of unbranded nappies which I can’t comment on.

MOTHER-EASE

To be fair to these nappies I didn’t really give them a fair trial. I found the nappy to be bulky on a newborn and, could never get a decent fit when DW was young and I abandoned them early in favour of the tots bots.

They are solid, well made nappies though and I know quite a few people who sing their praises. I do regret not going back to them when DW was a couple of months old.

I continued to use the rikki wraps after I stopped with the nappies. I found them roomy, good for containment, but a little bit  tight around the leg for my chunky monkey.

Pro’s

Solid and well made
Birth to potty
Good containment

Con’s

Bulky for a young baby
Wraps tight around the leg.
Difficult to get a good fit

TOTS BOTS TERRY TWO PART NAPPIES

These were my favourite nappies when DW was little.

NW looking cute in a Tots Bots terry nappy.

And looking even cuter when it's covered with this lovely Tots Bots fleece wrap.

 Pro’s 

Easy to use
Easy to get good fit with velcro
Classic cute chunky cloth bottom look
British company and made in EU

Con’s

Bulky to carry around
Bulky under clothes
Hold moisture against the skin and cause (in our case) lots of nappy rash
Elastic not great on wraps (although ours were ancient)
Slow drying.
Can get hard if not tumble dried
Work out quite expensive because
a) You’d need both size 1 & 2
b) You’d need lots of each as they take ages to dry.

TOTS BOTS FLUFFLES 

Very similar to the above but made from microfibre and fleece and mine had a popper fastening..

Pro’s

Dry quicker than terry
Fleece and microfibre keep moisture away from baby’s bottom
Stay soft
Cute big cloth bottom!
British company and made in EU

Con’s

While the gusset is lined with fleece, the microfibre sits against the skin around the waist, which can lead to irritation.
Bulky to carry around
Bulky under clothes

I don’t think tots bots make these nappies anymore, but if you do come across them pre-loved, they are pretty decent workhorse nappies, although cloth technology has come on a long  way and I’ve since found new favourites.

The story has a happy ending though.  Last week we did a car boot sale, where we met a couple who were collecting toys for an orphanage in Romania.  Suffice to say they will be taking a load of cloth nappies with them next time, and they were chuffed to bits.

Don’t you just love the fact that cloth nappies can be put to good use when you’ve finished with them rather than clogging up landfill for centuries like their plastic based counterparts!

Stage 2 in the Cloth Odyssey – Flips, coming soon! xxxx