In August this year I gave birth to my lovely little baby girl (I will refer to her as DD – darling daughter). With babies also comes the business of nappies. We started off with regular disposable nappies and for whatever reason my husband insists on buying the most expensive brand in supermarkets. As I do most of the nappy changes, I decided to investigate washable ones mostly for the sake of saving money.

Thanks to the lovely Harriet from GECCO Charity, I was given the opportunity to try out washable nappies before purchasing a set. Without this opportunity I don’t think I would have gone the washable nappy route due to the high initial cost of purchase. I decided to log my experience as I go along a) to give feedback to the charity and b) to share the experience with any other mums (to be) who might be interested in using washable nappies.

My experience with disposable nappies includes nappy rash and leakages (especially explosive poos up the back) so I was hoping to avoid at least one if not both situations. In addition, buying disposable nappies is expensive in the long run and washable nappies are more sustainable, especially if they are passed on when one family has no more need for them.

The hamper I received to borrow (which looks lovely and is nice and light weight) contains 20 bamboo nappies, 20 bamboo liners, 20 microfiber liners, 3 wraps, a pack of 100 flushable paper liners and 3 small wetbags.

Here are some thoughts from the first 24 hours:

• Read the instructions! I was surprised to find you need to wash your new nappies 3-4 times before use to ensure absorbency (thank you Harriet for doing this for me).
• I think the bamboo material is lovely. It is very soft and feels comfy.
• The nappies are much easier to assemble than I originally thought. This particular design allows quite a bit of growth as well before needing to go up a size. I would suggest folding in any Velcro before you start, otherwise it can get caught on clothes etc and make nappy changes a bit fiddly.
• Bigger poos come out the side of the nappy but are contained by the wrap. However, due to the wrap being quite big, the pooh was all over DD’s thighs instead of up her back. Also, 3 wraps may not be enough if your baby does multiple poos a day.
• The flushable liners are an odd size for the nappies. I’m not sure whether you are supposed to wrap them round the nappy, fold them double or if there is a penny that still needs to drop for me to use them effectively. If your baby is still doing rather watery poos, the flushable liner isn’t much use as the poo spreads out.
• It may just be that DD does big wees but I need to change the washable nappies more often than disposable ones. The washable nappies quickly feel wet and cold. In comparison, I was using an average of 8 disposable nappies a day whereas I needed 11 washable ones on that day. Also, DD becomes fussy when the washable nappy is wet, which only happened with disposable ones if they became very full. I have only used the bamboo liners so far and just one liner each time. I’ll try the microfiber ones next and doubling/tripling up after that to see how much of a difference it makes. Due to needing to change the nappies more frequently I decided to put a disposable nappy on her for the night as she does sleep 5-6 hours and I didn’t particularly want to start getting up extra in the night.
• If your baby’s clothes just fit them with a regular nappy, you will need bigger clothes for a washable nappy. They do take up more room.

• You will need some sort of closable waterproof bag or box for the used nappies. The wetbags that came with the hamper are for when you are out and about, not for storing wet nappies at home before a wash.
• 10 nappies are about half a wash load so you would need more than 20 nappies to use washable nappies all the time and not waste energy and water on half full wash loads.
• I purposefully decided to not use any nappy rash creams to see how DD’s skin reacts in washable nappies. So far, so good and no nappy rash to be seen.
• I was initially worried that poo stains wouldn’t come out, but I used a pre-wash and regular wash with a well-known stain remover added to the wash (no soaking beforehand) which took the poo out nicely.

In conclusion, although washable nappies have their pros and cons, so do disposable ones. I will continue using washable ones as they seem to be kinder on the skin but due to needing more frequent changes I will keep using disposable ones at night. Washable nappies will definitely be a go-to when I want to potty train DD, as it should convince her to go on the potty rather than be lazy and go in the nappy. You will probably need more than 20 nappies to use them all the time. I would rather hire hampers than purchase them due to the high initial cost of purchasing washable nappies and the potential to reuse which would save even more energy and resources.

I will post updates as I go along.

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