Real Nappy Week 2016

In the last year or so we moved Blake onto cloth nappies we chose to do this when he was just over 6 months old. We originally had wanted to do this from birth but he was so small for the nappies that we had that he just peed out of them. 

I've done a few posts before on cloth/real nappies before: 

- Why We Use Cloth Nappies

- Our Cloth Nappy System

- Washing and Drying Cloth Nappies

But today in aid of Real Nappy week 2016 I wanted to share with you some of our favorite nappies and products. If you are new to cloth nappies you may want to read some of the posts above before continuing to read this one.

Above is a selection of our Bambino Miosolo (AIO) nappies we have 10 of these types of nappies in total in different prints and we love them! Not only are they pretty but they are also so good at keeping everything to contained and simple to use. We use these nappies for when we are out and about and also at night. The below ones are my favorite prints from Bambino Mio. 

All in one nappies like Bambino Miosolos are pretty simple to use.These nappies have  an absorbent inner with an attached waterproof outer layer. This means you don't need a separate wrap.  They are a bit slower to dry than other types of nappies however I've never had an issue with this. 

We also use prefolds and a wrap which are the nappies I use when around the house or if we are just nipping somewhere not too far away like to the nearest park which is 5 mins away from home. I love these as they are good at keeping everything contained the only downside I find with them is that as your child gets more older and are wiggly than you have the issue of the nappy moving everywhere. I personally have started to use these less now although I still will use them but the Miosolos are our go to at the moment. 

They will definitely come handy in the future though for when we have another child.  They are the best for drying the fastest which is another reason we love them so much. 

Another type of nappy we have recently tried out is a Hybrid nappy. Admittedly we brought this as an impulse buy as Stuart is a huge sonic the hedgehog fan. However I am glad we have purchased it as it works rather well with a Bambino Mio wrap over the top. 

         

                 

Accessories Needed: 

- Nappy Bucket : We have the Bambino Mio one which has a lockable lid but any will do. 

- Laundry Bags: These are what go in bucket so you don't have to touch the nappies when you put them in the wash. 

- Mioboosts: This is to give cloth nappies more absorbency

- Liners: We use the Bambino Mio ones which go in the nappy to catch poo. 

- Miofresh: Not essential but we like to use this nappy cleanser with our usual non bio. 

- Wet Bag: To put your clean and dirty nappies in when going out and about. We have one which has two compartments to keep clean and dirty ones separate. 

- Vest extenders: A recent purchase for us which we wish we had brought sooner. 

- Cloth wipes: We use cloth wipes as well which are great at cleaning bums and we make our own nappy wipe solution so we know what is going on Blake's bum. 

I hope this post and/or any of my other cloth nappy posts have been helpful to you. 

I'd love to know your thoughts on cloth nappies. 

Do you use them? have you used them? 

If not why you have chosen not to use them?

Aldi special buys baby event

 It's that time of year again when Aldi hold their baby and toddler event. 

The baby and toddler event for 2016 starts tomorrow Thursday 28th January. 

I love the baby and toddler special buys as its a great time to stock up on 

items such as nappies and wipes as you can get jumbo boxes for £5.99. 

Tea time favorites

This Alpha wooden high chair  (£39.99) will keep your child safe with its stable build, integrated safety bar and adjustable panels, meaning that the chair can grow with the child. 

Also available for meal times is a selection of bowls, cups, spoons and cutlery. 

Out and about

The Hauck Sport Buggy (£22.99) is a light weight and agile stroller which is ideal for 

a quick trip to the shops or long walks in the park. 

What I love about this buggy is the extra large basket which is always handy. 

Nursery needs

 For your little ones nursery look no further than Aldi's special buys in this event where

you can find Aldi's Moses Basket (£19.99),  Moses Basket Stand (£10.99),

Fitted Moses Basket Sheets (£3.99), Mamia by Hush Comfort Digital Baby Monitor (£16.99) and many more items for your bundle of joy. 

Toys

Aldi have a fab selection on offer in their event with 

 Teething Toys for £2.99,Bath Toys (£2.89) and Story Books (£0.99 each).

I was sent some of the books that are on offer at the event which I am looking forward to 

reading to Blake as we are big readers and I love reading to Blake everyday.

There are a great range of baby and toddler products in the event and 

I will be heading their myself to see what there is. 

I know that Bambinio Mio are collaborating with Aldi and releasing some new prints 

in their all in one cloth nappies for £7.99 

So I'll be definitely checking them out!

If you go to the event I'd love to know what you get! 

comment below and let me know.

Washing and Drying Nappies

When we started using cloth nappies a few people have asked me about if I find it an inconvenience to wash and dry them.

My answer is no, having a baby meant that we were going to have to get use to having to do more washing 

anyway and I only have to do an extra load every two to three days.

Pre-wash 

One of the things that is recommend is that before you use cloth nappies you pre-wash them. If you don't they may not be absorbent enough and will most likely leak. 

It's recommended that they are pre-washed twice before use, it's not a hassle as there is no need to dry nappies in between the two pre-washes.

Pre-washing is simple all you have to do is add a small amount of detergent and wash at 30/40 degrees. Nappies will reach their full absorbency after five washes but two pre-washes are enough to get you started. 

Washing

We dry pail nappies which means that we don't soak our nappies we just flush away the liner and pop wet or soiled nappies into the nappy bucket. 

When it comes to wash day I pop the nappies into the washing machine and put them on a rinse with no detergent once that is done I then put in a small amount of detergent and a scoop of miofresh and run a 30/40 degree wash. I always put it on an extra rinse as well. 

Drying

We live in a flat but still manage to get our nappies dry quick. 

We have a heated dryer which we use to dry the cotton prefolds but all in ones and wraps I tend to put over a radiator that we don't have turned on. 

Other ways on drying nappies are: 

Line drying this is the best way as the sun is a natural bleaching agent and can get stains out of nappies pretty well. 

Tumbling drying nappies can make nappies feel nice and soft but works out expensive and shortens the life of your nappies. 

You could also use a ceiling drying rack, in your airing cupboard and radiator. 

Another thing to add is that by using a high spin on your washing machine you can reduce the amount of drying time needed. It is recommended however to go less than 1000 revs as higher than this can damage some nappies or at least make some nappies go tatty. 

Our Cloth Nappy System

Having a good cloth nappy system is important to make life a lot easier for you. 

When we first started out using cloth Blake was a few months old and we started out using pocket nappies.

We didn't really get on well with them, although we had only tried one brand we did find Blake leaked from them a lot as he is a heavy wetter. 

We also didn't like them as they were a faff to use when it came to stuffing the pockets.

Nappies

Over the last few months I really got into cloth nappies after purchasing a Bambinio Mio Miosoft set in Aldi. Having had great results we ended up purchasing a set of 20 cotton nappies in one size and eight wraps, four in size one and four in size two. 

For some people its easier to use All In Ones (AIO) over the last week or two we decided to purchase some Bambinio Mio Miosolo's (AIO). We chose to purchase these as Blake has started to leak badly from his disposables that he was wearing at night and it gave us  an opportunity to start using cloth full time. AIO are also easier for when you are out and about and on the go and are just as quick and simple as a disposable nappy. 

Another thing to think of is the fastening system as you can get poppers or velcro. 

We personally like velcro more due to the faff of trying to do poppers up on a wiggly baby

is just too tricky.

Accessories

Buckets:

An essential accessory is a nappy bucket and laundry bags. 

We use the Bambinio Mio ones the bucket is a great size with a lockable lid which means Blake wont be able to get into the bucket (Yet). 

The mesh laundry bags are a great size and are great quality and makes life easier for us as we don't have to touch dirty nappies when loading our machine. 

We dry pail which means that we don't soak our nappies we just pop them all in the machine when it comes to wash day. 

Wipes:

We usually use cloth wipes (not pictured) we purchased some cheap ones from Ebay whilst I pregnant but if you have the money  to spend a bit more a brand I have heard is great is cheeky wipes.

We also have some Bambinio Miowipes which we got in the accessory set that we purchased.They are a natural baby wipes which have been specifically formulated to help prevent the causes of nappy rash by providing baby with a gentle, alcohol free alternative to normal baby wipes. I like these as they can be flushed down the loo with Blake's liners especially when he has done a poo. I won't be purchasing them again as I prefer to use cloth wipes and when I do use disposables I tend to go for Aldi's ones which are cheaper but we only use them when out and about for convenience. 

Liners

Again we use ones from the Bambino  range we have recently purchased some of the softer Mioliners  that have recently come out and we really get on well with them. They can be flushed down the toilet and catch poo very well. 

Mioboost

The Mioboost's are essential to me as Blake can be in nappies a bit longer than usual when having these in his nappies. In the miosoft nappies he can last up to four hours with a mioboost in them and lasts overnight with a mioboost in his miosolo's which with Blake is on average 12 hours.

Miofresh

I use a scoop of miofresh in every wash.

This is a nappy cleanser which  is designed to clean, freshen and deodorize cloth nappies.

So that is our cloth nappy system 

It's a pretty simple system and they are such great products too. 

If you are a lover of cloth I'd love to know your cloth nappy system. 

If not i'd love to know your thoughts on my system.

comment below. 

Why Use Cloth Nappies and Wipes

First of all we are not against the use of disposable nappies and wipes in fact we still use them but are slowly progressing into using cloth full time. I use disposable wipes when out and about with Blake just for the ease of it and also only recently started to use cloth nappies when out and about and overnight. For us we chose to use cloth nappies for a number of reasons which I will share with you below. 

Cloth nappies can be quiet confusing when your a newbie to the whole thing. There are different types, brands, ways they need washing etc. I was lucky in the sense that Stuart's Sister in law  has used cloth on our nephews so she was able to explain things to us in a way that we would understand. We also use reusable swim nappies when we take Blake swimming.

I also did an awful lot of research into it whilst I was pregnant but also I still try to gain more

information and get advice from online sources such as The Nappy Lady. 

There are many reasons that we have chosen to use cloth nappies and wipes and our main reason is: 

Financial

Although cloth nappies can be expensive to buy upfront in my eyes they are a real investment. Think of it this way on average you will change your child six times a day this can sometimes be more or less depending on your baby. 

With disposables the price goes up with each bigger size you need to get and also depending on the brand that you use.It is estimated that on average you can save £700 from newborn to potty training by using cloth nappies. Of course if you add wipes into the mix and change to cloth you will be saving even more £'s. 

Reliability

Once we started using cloth nappies more on Blake and knew more on what works for us we have found them to be more reliable. This is due to having less leaks and poo explosions as every thing is contained in the cloth nappy and this is due to cloth nappies being a more snugger fit.

We have only recently stopped using disposables when out and about and at night as we found that he was starting to leak a lot more often from them and we often found him in the morning in a wet sleep suit and vest. 

When it comes to cloth wipes and there reliability we like them as they are just as quick and easy to use as disposables but I find they clean babies bum better as they don't tend to smear poo around and pick it up much better. 

Comfort

Disposable nappies have dyes,perfumes and absorbency chemicals in them but real nappies do not. When it comes to cloth nappies I have found that when using them Blake is less prone to nappy rash so therefore we hardly have to use nappy rash creams unless he is teething.

Again comfort is key with cloth wipes as you know what your putting on your babies skin by

making up your own wipes solution. 

 Environment

Not a reason I really thought of too much initially but by using cloth nappies and wipes they are better for the environment. Of course there is the land filled issue  but there is also the environmental cost when it comes to production.

 So they are our reasons for using cloth nappies and wipes. 

Do you use cloth nappies and wipes?