Posts tagged real nappy week

The Real Nappy Challenge – The Final update

0
14 years ago
by dawniebrown in ,

 

So The Real Nappy Challenge is over and I managed to use a real nappy once a day for 7 days. How did we do? Am I a real nappy convert?

After a disappointing start to the week on Day 1, things started to improve over Days 2 and 3 and I’m happy to report that the rest of the week went well, apart from one more messy nappy incident that is.

So here are my final thoughts:

  • After a bad start initially we did find a solution to the wet nappies which seemed to help with keeping Oscar dry for longer, I am concerned though that I am having to use Miobooster pads with a 3 month old baby and as he gets bigger and wetter would I end up still being able to keep him dry. I wouldn’t dare to use a real nappy overnight as we are just starting to sleep through and if he was waking up wet and uncomfortable after 3/4 hours it would not be appreciated. I think if I were to move to real nappies I would definitely carry on using disposables at night.
  • I still haven’t found a solution to the washing situation that would allow me to not use a fabric conditioner but still allow me to have nice soft clothes without tumble drying them. If I were to switch to real nappies I’d have to do separate loads for them without conditioner and so it would mean extra loads for me to do, and when you’ve already got the washing machine on almost constantly it would mean my life would be spent doing even more laundry.
  • I do like the look of the nappies, they are very cute and I love the idea of using real nappies and being able to make a difference to the environment but I feel that for me they just won’t work right now. When you have 2 children in nappies and are trying to juggle my time between a 3 month old and a 17 month old, I just don’t think I have the time to spare doing extra washing or changing nappies more frequently.

I am glad I got to participate in the Real Nappy Challenge and it has given me food for thought. I haven’t ruled out using real nappies completely yet, I just need to maybe wait until Oscar is a little older and the nappies are less messy. I’m sure with time and practice we could find a solution that would work for us. I will continue to keep using the real nappies I’ve got when I can but I’m not ready to go out and purchase any more just yet, but you never know I could still change my mind at some point :)

The Real Nappy Challenge – Days 2 & 3

2
14 years ago
by dawniebrown in ,

After a disappointing start to the week on day 1, I can happily report that days 2 and 3 were much more successful :)

I decided to try using the miobooster pad inside the nappy to see whether it helped with keeping Oscar dry for longer and this seems to have done the trick. With this in we can last up to 4 hours between feeds which is much better. I have to admit there has only been wet nappies for the last couple of days so I’ve still got to see how it will hold up to newborn baby poop!

I’ve also had the chance to wash the nappies and that was easy enough, just popped them in with a normal clothes wash and put a scoop of the sanitiser in the detergent drawer. I wash everything at 40 in this house but the nappies came out nice, clean and fresh smelling.

My only issue with washing the nappies is that you cannot use fabric softener in the wash with them. I like to use this as I find if I line dry the clothes they tend to get a bit hard without softener and I like nice soft clothes for my children. If I were to use real nappies all the time then I would probably have to buy enough to last me 3-4 days so I could do separate loads of washing for them and that way I could still use conditioner on my normal clothes washes. Though if anyone has any tips on how to make clothes nice and soft without using conditioner, please let me know :)

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The Real Nappy Challenge – Day 1

7
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in ,

So today was day one of the real nappy challenge so how did we get on? All I had to do was use one real nappy today instead of a disposable one, simple! So here are my initial thoughts. I’m going to be completely honest on this one because I think the whole point of this is to show an honest account of how we are getting on warts and all.

Pros

  • It was easy to fold and put on.
  • It felt nice and soft.
  • It looked very cute with the funky nappy cover.
  • It didn’t leak after wearing it so the cover did it’s job and kept everything inside and the outside layers dry.

Cons

  • The nappy looked very bulky when Oscar was wearing it, with it almost reaching down to his knees.
  • After 2 hours of wearing the nappy Oscar became unsettled and so I had to change him again.
  • The nappy inside the cover felt very wet and his skin was damp so his nappy rash looked a little sore.
  • The poo had leaked off the liner and the nappy and had gone into the nappy cover which meant I wouldn’t have just been able to put a new nappy inside it, I will have to wash the nappy cover before I use it again as it was heavily soiled.
  • Because I don’t use real nappies I don’t have a nappy bin, reusable wipes or other accessories needed to make changing the nappy easy and so I ended up still using nappy sacks to dispose of baby wipes and the nappy liner, I also had to find something to put the dirty nappy in until I can get round to washing it. This made the nappy changing process more complicated and time consuming than when using disposables.

Overall I think I will still need some convincing that real nappies are for us. The main issue I had was having to change the nappy after 2 hours and the poo leaking into the nappy cover but I have to bear in mind Oscar still has quite liquid poo so I will be interested to see how the ladies with older babies got on with them. If I’d have gone with real nappies myself I always planned to start using them once the messy newborn stage was over and as we currently have a dirty nappy at pretty much every feed I think I’m still in the messy newborn stage. Of course this was my first ever attempt at using a real nappy so it may just take a bit of getting used to :) Hopefully tomorrow’s nappy adventure will be a bit more successful! I certainly couldn’t cope with having to change nappies every 2 hours so I’m hoping that today’s wet nappy was a one off :)

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