newborns and reusables

[Muppetgal]

Logan wasn't swapped over into reusables until he was a year old, but because we have all the terry towels and liners etc we have decided to do this pretty much right away with bubs # 2

I think the plan of attack is to have disposables for the first two weeks, to get rid of the disgusting black poo's and get ourselves into a routine a bit then switch over.

So, how many MORE nappies am i going to need for the newborn stage? Obviously I've got enough for the 1 year plus stage, and I will have to get medium sized wraps for later on.

Right now I have:
7 x small nappy wraps
15 x terry towels
15 x booster liners
paper liners

I don't mind having a wash on every day, and because they are terry towels they do dry in one night.

what do you think?

[Sazzle]

I think 15 should do you, especially if washing every day. I've got 18 and that is more than enough, and I only wash every other day :smile:

[silverpod]

You could also get some muslins- they can double up or use one as a booster with your terries?

Also, if your council gives grants, check to see if you are entitled to them for a second child- I was. :thumb:

[shamu]

I second the idea of muslins as nappies for the first few weeks. We took cloth in to hospital and I was so glad of the muslins as they dried easily and were a bit less bulky.
If Logan is still in nappies by then, you'll definitely be doing a wash every day (can't remember if he's toilet trained yet :scratch: ). Even in the first few weeks we were only using about 6-7 nappies a day for Bea (but she hardly ever poo'd and often only goes once every couple of days even now). I found that I had far fewer leaks with the reusables even in the first days than when James was a newborn and if I have another I'll use cloth from day 1 again.
7 small wraps should be plenty - Bea was into the mediums by 6 weeks and we now have about 6 which is fine (one overnight, one for the day so even if they haven't dried we've got plenty spare).
I've given up on paper liners completely - hopeless for newborn sloppy poo and fleece is much better for toddler poo :grin:
HTH
Shamu
:wink:

[silverpod]

Shamu- can i ask, how did you find washing out the black poo and nappies. I would love for the baby's first nappy to be cloth and have got either muslins or kissaluvs to use :lurve: but don't want to wreck them- so have packed diposables. I am planning to mix them anyway for a few weeks, until I am sorted.

Also, I use paper liners for dd, would this help with the black poo? Appreciate your point about newborn poo, but I always found the sunlight did the trick anyway.

Off to order some fleece liners! :wink:

SP

[shamu]

I was really upset as the madwives put a (dispo) nappy on her before I could sort DH out with a kissie :sigh: We ripped it off as soon as they left the room :teehee:
My newborn nappies (kissies and diddy diapers) were second hand so even if there had been any stains it wouldn't have mattered. As it happens, I never had any stains anyway, even on the new terry squares and muslins (though they were lined with fleece)
The meconium came off the fleece really easily though we didn't have that many pooey nappies tbh (back to the old saga about my bf'ing difficulties.....)
I don't bother with liners for Bea now as I found that with James the poo went all over the nappy anyway, so I couldn't really scoop it up with the liner and it was a pita to take the liner out and flush it :rolleyes: I haven't had any stains so far :grin:
Does that all make sense????
Shamu
:wink:

[Muppetgal]

I'm surprised they let you use reusables in the hospital...in Edinburgh you aren't allowed to, they only allow disposables due to hygiene reasons (don't want soiled nappies hanging around) so we'll have to at least buy a small pack.

Thanks for reminding me that newborns (especially breastfed ones) only go poo every three days or so...that had slipped my mind. I think Logan fell into a routine of every 4-5 days, so realistically there won't be as much mess as I first thought.

Logan isn't out of nappies yet, but he's outgrown his terry towels, so is using disposables for the time being. :oops: He's always had to wear a disposable at night anyway because he is such a heavy wetter and no matter how much I tried I couldn't get a cloth nappy to last overnight unless he was so bundled up he couldn't move (which obviously he hated!). He is nappy free when we're at home as he will pee in the potty, it's just the poo we need to work on, and we're going to bite the bullet with potty training when I go on mat leave (5 weeks time!) so he should be out of them during the day by the time this wee one comes along.

[shamu]

I'm surprised they let you use reusables in the hospital...in Edinburgh you aren't allowed to, they only allow disposables due to hygiene reasons (don't want soiled nappies hanging around) so we'll have to at least buy a small pack.

Sorry but that's the biggest pile of sh!te ('scuse the pun :teehee:) How often do they change the bins? Once a day if you're lucky. So a poo from 10am will hang around til 10am the following day :rolleyes: DH took the first lot of nappies home with him at 8pm so the longest any of my nappies were hanging around was 16 hours (home the following day). It's all about choice - and until someone rocks the boat they come out with this sort of cr@p (again, 'scuse the pun :teehee: ) as an "excuse". What did our mothers do? There weren't dispos then.... And in some hospitals they actually OFFER the parents free reusables to use whilst there :sigh: Wish everywhere would cotton on. My senior midwife told me I was the first person she'd met who was using cloth in hospital, but no one ever questioned me and I can't see how they could have done anything about it anyway....

Off my soapbox now :grin:

Shamu
:wink:

(though I will have a chat with one of the neonatal consultants at the Infirmary next time I'm up in Edinburgh as I think that if the message came from the paeds the madwives might take it on board....)