Cloth Nappies: The Options

 

Photo by simplyla

 

I am excited to have Laura Schuerwegen aka Mamapoekie guest posting here today. I’m considering my cloth nappy options for baby goog and this is a fantastic guide. Laura escaped the Western World to go live under the palm trees in Africa to lead a centered and authentic life with her family. She writes about parenting, natural living and many other things at Authentic Parenting. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

So you have made the decision to use cloth! Congratulations! Nature and your baby’s bum will be thankful. But how do you start? What do you buy? Where do you buy? And how much do you need? With all the choices modern cloth offers, it is easy to be puzzled.

There is a vast choice in nappy formats, this post will try to explain what each kind of nappy represents.

AIO

AIO stands for All In One. It is basically the closest CD option to disposables when it comes to learning curve. The name already says it: you’ll have to put on just one nappy and your baby is ready to go. Generally, AIO’s are made of a PUL-outer layer – which is waterproof to prevent leakage, fleece or flannel or jersey inside and padding. It can be a pocket variation or you can use an insert. Some AIO’s are indeed just the one piece nappy, but they are rare, and not very handy.

AIO’s are a great thing to have for when third parties care for your child, when they re not used to cloth nappying, since it is the same action as putting on a disposable (the inserts can already be put in the pocket beforehand, or snapped in), or for outings, since it makes for less stash to bring along.

AIO’s can be fitted with velcro, snaps or used with a nappy closing system (read Nappi Nippa’s and Snappi’s).

If you want to protect the inside of your AIO from discoloring, and make cleaning up after poo easier, you can still use a paper insert, it makes cleaning up after poo a little easier.

I wouldn’t recommend AIO’s as your day-to-day nappy, because the whole thing has to be washed every time, so the PUL-layer will wear rapidly. For small babies the AIO can be a less comfortable option, because – given that they’re just one big thing – they’ll adjust less easily.

As they are made of a big number of layers, they dry rather slowly.

Paper Insert or Liner

Paper inserts are thin sheets of paper (or other material) that you can use to put inside your nappy – no matter the kind you are using – closest to the baby’s skin. These are used to make poo clean up easier, they are not a necessity. When they are soiled with feces, you can just flush them away or compost them, when they are just soaked with urine, they can even go in the wash (some brands several times).

Some babies always poo at the same time, so they an be used selectively too. It’s up to you and your preferences.

Insert

Inserts can be made out of different fabrics, most commonly fleece, flannel or jersey. They are used inside a pocked nappy or on top of a prefold or fitted nappy (on the inside). They can be thick or thin, used single or double. They can come with snaps to keep them in place or just loose. Some babies just pee a couple times a day, large amounts, and others do several tiny pees. Find out your baby’s rhythm and experiment.

Unlike Disposables, cloth nappies do not keep your baby dry. These layers are there to prevent your nappy from leaking and to evacuate some humidity away from their bum, not to have them sitting in their urine for hours.

When you first start nappying, you may have to check your baby very frequently, by touch or looking inside the nappy, after a while, you will get comfortable with using cloth and will be able to see they have soiled their nappy just by sight or weight (and sometimes smell) of the nappy.

Silk Insert

When your baby has a rash or very sensitive skin, you could opt for silk inserts. They are all natural, but a little more expensive then other types of inserts. When you are using silk, you won’t be putting a paper liner on top, as you are using it to protect and heal your babies skin.

Nappy Cover

No matter the nappying option you go for, you will need some covers (except with AIO’s). Now covers come in different shapes and sizes too. The two big options are wool or PUL. Your cover will be washed less frequently then the nappy, as it won’t get soiled very often. If needed it can just be rinsed.

• wool
  They are breathable and natural, whereas PUL covers are synthetic. They hold 30% of their weight in liquid before feeling wet. They need to be treated with lanolin every so often to remain waterproof. The fun part about wool covers is that you can easily knit them yourself and you can go wild with the colors and the designs and you can knit long covers for wintertime (no pants needed). Or you can up-cycle shrunken sweaters for this purpose. Patterns are found for free online. They do have to be hand washed, but are naturally antimicrobial, so this is only when they are soiled.
• PUL
  There are again several options within the PUL-cover. You can have them custom made at several businesses. They can come with snappi’s or nappy nippa’s, snaps or velcro.Velcor wears quickly, but is easily adjustable, whereas snaps only offer you the positions in which they are attached (less adjustable).

Flat

Flat nappies resemble what our grandmothers used. They are just a flat piece of cloth that you fold for size and secure with a safety pin (only use special pins for babies with a security cap)or nappy closing system (read below). You could reuse your family’s old nappies and throw a cover over it. Given the available options, I think this system is a bit dated. You can find some picture on how to do the folding here. Obviously, the learning curve for flat nappies is rather high.

The advantage is that they’re really cheap, you can easily make them yourself out of old sheets and they can serve other purposes when they are no longer needed as nappies (cleaning cloth…) and they dry really fast.

Prefold

A prefold resembles a flat nappy, in that they are just rectangles of fabric, however, here they come in different sizes, and they do not need to be folded and wrapped around the baby. Basically, you could see it as a big liner you put in your cover.

Again, this is a very cheap option and can easily be a DIY thing with materials you already have at home.  By using prefolds or Flat CD’s you don’t need to invest in inserts (you can still use paper liners if you like to) and they take very little time to dry.

See how a prefold works here.

Pocket

A pocket is a nappy that – as the name indicates – consist of a body shaped nappy with a pocket/bag where you can put the inserts. They can be contoured or fitted. With a pocket, inserts don’t need to be attached to the inside (some systems use snaps for this, which can create irritation on the baby’s skin). They are just put inside the pocket, so you can easily adjust the amount or thickness of the insert.

Pockets take the most time to dry out of the nappy options where you need a cover.

Contour

Contour nappies are hourglass shaped nappies. they can come with snaps or velcro or any other nappy closing system. The difference between contour and fitted nappies is minimal, and most sites will mix these terms up. For me, contour nappies are without elastics at the legs and are a little less leakage proof.

Fitted

Fitted nappies come with snaps or velcro, they fit closely to the body and generally consist of two layers of fabric, with some padding in the middle. They generally have elastics around the inner leg. They can be made out of a number of fabrics. Use of fitted nappies is vary easy and similar to disposables.

Both fitted and contour can either be pocket or not pocket and take longer to dry than prefold or flat nappies. Both require a nappy cover.

One size or Grow-nappy

Some brands have one size nappies. This is less expensive if you’re on a budget, as your nappy will go from newborn to potty trained. However, on a small newborn these can be inconvenient. If you tend to have big babies, they can be a good idea.

They generally offer a range of two to four sizes, adjustable by snaps.

Trainer or Pull-Up

Similar to disposable nappies, there are now trainer pants available for potty training your baby. Usually they are in pull up version, a bit like waterproof underwear. I am not particularly fan of trainers, but they can be handy if you have a child that has the occasional accident.

Nappy closing systems: Nappi Nippas & Snappi’s

Nappi Nippa’s and Snappi’s are special nappy devices to close them. The advantage here is that you don’t need snaps (who can be difficult to perfectly adjust) or velcro (that wears pretty quickly). You can use them on old nappies where you took the velcro off. They go on any nappy (except prefolds) and you wouldn’t need many, because you reuse the same one over and over. They don’t get dirty, because they are on the outside, and if they do, you can just rinse them.

Conclusion

When you are making your choice in nappies, keep the fabric in mind too. Depending the climate of where you live, you will need warmer or more breathable fabric. Your kid will be sporting a big package on their bum, so if you live in a tropical climate, like I do, you’ll have to opt for the very airy breathable materials like cotton or hemp, whereas if you live in a cold climate, flannel and fleece are more appropriate. If you live in a region with a big seasonal difference in temperature, you could get a variety of materials.

I hope that this list made things a little clearer for you to make your choice. Remember, you don’t have to buy everything at once. A lot depends on your baby and your lifestyle. You can’t predict your baby’s habits and you can’t know his size in advance. Get a few samplers to start off before your baby is born and go from there once you get into the routine. You can easily order cloth nappies online, so you don’t have to worry about shopping for them during your babymoon.

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