We are enjoying our reusable nappy journey, and it’s not just about the very cool designs.
During pregnancy we looked at and talked about nappies and what we would like to do. Very quickly we started discussing reusable. We liked the idea of limiting our waste and environmental impact; since then we have also learnt how many nappies you really can go through in just one day!
For us the benefits that came with reusables also included hearing from other parents about the easier route to potty training, less nappy rashes and hopefully over time there will be a financial saving too.
When we looked online, there was almost too much information. With different types of reusables: all in ones, all in twos, pockets, night time, day time, newborn, baby, swim!? Then there’s the extra liners, soakers, boosters and pads. Which are sometimes the same thing, sometimes something different, depending on the brand. It all got a bit confusing. And very quickly can become very expensive at the start, because you need a lot of nappies.
Eventually, we decided to buy two small bundles; test two different brands and two different sizes, one newborn and one baby (baby size is around 10-11lbs and baby is hopefully through to potty training).
However, after a traumatic birth experience, we didn’t have the headspace to start with the reusables straight away. So for the first three to four weeks Henry had disposable nappies. Then when we were ready, we tried the newborn reusables. We had a couple of issues with these and a lack of confidence, so went back to the disposables. We knew there would only be a short period with the newborn size so I think that limited our ‘buy-in’ with this size and brand. We opted to wait until Henry was big enough for the baby ‘one size’ nappies, which was only another 7-10 days.
We have now been using the baby size for just over two months and they are great. I think we were more ready and more confident with what we were doing this time round. Plus knowing we’d opted to stick to one brand for now meant less confusion with each brand using different names for things, and having slightly different ways of use. We could just look at what this one brand called things and watch their user guide videos to see how to use this brand specifically.
The brand we went with was Bambino Mio. They had a good starter bundle, we liked the designs and, importantly, they were one of the brands linked to a Smart Living discount accessible throughly Hampshire County Council. This proved us with 15% off which massively helps at the start, when there is a high initial upfront cost for reuse nappies.
After an initial couple of weeks we worked out reusables system (for us/ Henry), we've found he needs changing around every 2-3 hours. Which for us means using around 8 reusables a day and 2 disposals over night.
Using the disposables over night is super helpful too, as they are generally able to absorb more and last longer. While you can get boosters for the reusables, for now we’ve opted to use disposable over night as it’s just easier for us.
If you are considering reusables, I'd recommend seeing if you know some parents already using them or just buy one nappy so you see it, practice using it on a soft toy or something and build up that confidence and knowledge.
And, yes. Sometimes you have to deal with the poo. But, that comes with having a baby. The nappy isn't going to change that that much, it just means sometimes there's remains in the change bag. But you can clean that.
We are only at the start of this journey, but we are really happy with how it’s going so far. This was definitely the right decision for us and our baby. And yes, we do really enjoy the aesthetic of all the lovely nappy designs.
