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General care information
Following these simple instructions will help you get the best performance and lifespan from your nappies and covers.
Before you use your nappies. This is essential, you must wash the nappies at least three times before use.You do not need to dry between these washes, although tumble drying can help to open up the fibres and speed the absorbency process, especially with prefolds. This will remove the natural resins and other treatments that may have been added in manufacturing to allow them to absorb properly. Do not use conditioner, this will reduce absorbency and can cause skin reactions. Use only half the manufacturer's recommended detergent dose, and make sure the nappies are thoroughly rinsed. If necessary, be prepared to rest the washing machine for an extra rinse cycle if you see bubbles on the surface of the water during the last rinse. The older the machine, the more likely that this is necessary. After drying, you are now ready to use the nappies. Unbleached and organic nappies may take a little more washing than white nappies to bring them up to full absorbency, and will benefit from at least one 90 degree wash (no matter what the label says, one 90 degree wash will not harm the nappies long term). Daisy Diapers should also be washed once at 90/95 degrees to tighten the backcloth and prevent snagging of the loops in the terry.
The first time you use the nappies. If you have been used to disposable nappies up to now, you may find using cloth nappies a little different. The first thing you will notice is that the nappy feels a lot wetter than the disposable. This is not a bad thing, it allows you to tell easily that your baby has wee'd and needs to be changed. It also means that your baby will learn to associate the feeling of needing a wee, with passing urine and feeling the wetness afterwards. They may potty train earlier because of this fact. If the wetness bothers you or your baby, try polyester fleece liners, these keep the skin very much dryer although most babies are not at all upset by wetness.
How often to change. You will need to change cloth nappies a little more often than disposables. This is because the super absorbers in disposables can absorb many times their weight in fluid. You should aim to keep an eye on when your baby is wet or dirty and change them as soon as possible after a poo, and fairly soon after a wee. This also applies to disposable nappies. You will probably find you change about every 2-4 hours. Over night you should change your baby if they are very young and wake for a feed, but do not become too obsessed with this, if you have added enough booster padding, your baby will make it quite happily through the night in a cloth nappy. If baby seems sleepy, then just put them back down to sleep, they won't come to any harm with a wet nappy, although if it is dirty, you should change it, as faeces can cause a rash fairly quickly if left unchanged.
Night nappies.You will need to use boosters at night most of the time after the first few months, and a cover that fits well and is waterproof. Personally I always used a wool wrap overnight. Our daughter sleeps in our bed and we never had a wet bed since I started using the wool wraps. If these are kept lanolised, they are very effective at keeping the wetness where it should be, as well as being breathable. Another surprisingly effective overnight wrap is fleece. These are easy care, throw in the machine with the nappies if you wash in soap. Otherwise, a good waterproof wrap is called for. My recommendation would be Pro wraps, Air-rika or Popo wraps. Make sure all the cloth is tucked in around the legs and waist or you will get leaks and do not tuck the vest into the wrap.
Liners.There are several types of liners that you may wish to use. Flushable are useful for catching poo and flushing down the toilet. Just peel off the dirty liner and flush away. Remember to tuck the liner in around the inner flap or pad in most nappies to keep it in place. You can cut flushable liners in half for newborns, but newborn poo is very runny, and easily washed out, so experiment with and without liners at this stage. You may find you don't need the flushable liners in the early months until baby goes onto solids. There are also one way stay-dry washable liners. These are polyester knit or fleece and allow the urine through to the absorbent cloth and keep it there away from baby's skin. Rinse any poo off into the toilet and wash along with the nappies. Silk liners are excellent for nappy rash or sensitive skins. The final type of liners are booster liners. These can be bought with or without stay dry liners built in, or you can use anything you like as a booster. Muslin nappies are very versatile are mop up cloths with a young baby around, but also make really good boosters. Old towels cut to size and zigzag stitched, old flannelette sheets cut to size, these both make good boosters for night time. If you do this, cut the fabric to 3 or 4 times the size you need, this will allow you to fold over several layers thick, but it will open out for easier drying.
If you have bought a trial pack, you will have a free standard flushable liner per nappy, plus one ultra, thick liner/wipe for comparison.
Changing time with all in ones is as easy as with disposables, just remove the wet/dirty nappy, clean and put a clean one on. If you are organised with the other types, they are just as easy, but you may need to fold the prefold and lay in a wrap or do a two part change with shaped nappies and wraps. It's easy to lay the clean fitted nappy on top of a clean wrap, and just slide the whole thing under baby's bottom after you have removed the wet/dirty nappy. A little tip to help make dirty nappy changes easier, is to lay either a few pieces of toilet tissue or a clean washable wipe under babies bottom to cover the dirty nappy while you clean baby well. All types of nappy are easy once you are used to them. Try and fold the nappies ready for use as soon as they are dry, this will save time at the point of changing. You can easily use washable wipes. These are easily bought or made, again old flannelette sheets make nice soft wipes. There are various recipes for wetting the wipes, see Washable Wipes overleaf.
To soak or not to soak.Well I didn't most of the time, nor do many cloth using parents, but you can if you wish. I recommend about 4 or 5 drops of tea tree oil in a half filled bucket of water. The nappies must be well rinsed after the wash though, without tea tree oil in the final rinse as this can cause some sensitivity in a few rare cases. You will need 1 or 2 buckets for storage, you can use this to soak, or to store wet/dirty nappies until you are ready to wash them. If not washing them that day I put them in the machine and set a quick rinse cycle, adding three or four drops of tea tree oil to the conditioner dispenser (No conditioner). Once finished I put them back in the bucket ready for washing next day or so. Do not leave the nappies more than three daysbefore washing, this will encourage mildew stains. If you must go longer than three days, then you must soak them. By all means use branded soaking products if you like them, but please be careful to ensure these are very well rinsed out of the nappies, as they can cause skin irritation, even the greener brands. Do not soak wraps of any kind in any way or the breathable waterproof layer may fail.
Washing Nappies.This is the bit that gets everyone in a tizzy before they have tried it. The most common reason put forward for not using cloth is "I can't be bothered to wash them". Well, you don't have to. If you have an automatic washing machine, then the machine does it for you! All you have to do is put them in the machine, turn it on and go and have a rest while it does the job for you. Many Parents wash nappies overnight. What could be easier than that, you sleep while the machine does the work for you? Next morning just put on an extra rinse cycle (if needed), have breakfast, then put the nappies on the line or in the dryer.
Line drying in the summer is good because it sanitizes the nappies and bleaches them too. You can wash at 60 degrees all the time, with non-bio detergent, No conditioner, or you can boil occasionally, but be aware that this reduces the life of any nappy. Do not use too much detergent, halve the amount the manufacturer recommends, and be sure the nappies are very well rinsed. Reset a second rinse cycle if need be, but cutting down the amount of detergent is usually sufficient. Detergent residues are responsible for more nappy rash than any other cause. Nappy sanitizers are not necessary. 60 Degrees kills most germs and if your baby has a touch of thrush (very common in all types of nappies and to be expected from time to time), you can sterilize the nappies in a boil wash or throw them in the microwave still wet, but clean, for 1 minute per nappy. Not as daft as it sounds, they do this in hospitals. Avoid boiling All-In-Ones or microwaving them too often, it can damage the waterproof lining. Dry in the tumble dryer, or on the line. Any nappy without waterproof coating included can be dried on the radiator. Never use conditioner on nappies, it reduces the absorbency.
To recap, wash at 60 degrees, reduce the amount of detergent as much as possible, only use non-bio detergent, never use conditioner, and ensure the nappies are very well rinsed. Line, radiator or tumble dry. Alternatively, tumble for 10 minutes to fluff them up, then continue to line or radiator dry.
If you find the nappies get a bit smelly with long term use, even when dry, do a one off biological wash, rinse well, then a normal non bio wash. This usually clears the problem., and shouldn't need to be done more often than about once a month at most.
Washing wraps. Do not soak wraps. Most wraps need to be treated more gently than the nappies. Most will wash at 60 degrees, though 40 degrees is better. You can easily rinse them through by hand too. Fleece wraps should be washed in soap only to retain the waterproof properties, and the same goes for wool. Most wraps (not wool or Diaperaps) can be tumble dried, but do not dry on a radiator. 40 degrees washing with little or no tumble drying will result in the longest lasting wraps.
Wool wrapsare actually very easy to care for. They do need to be washed with care, preferably by hand and will need occasional re lanolising, but you only need to wash them every two weeks or so, or if soiled. Very easy care. You need to have at least two as they should be aired after each use over a nappy. Use soap to wash them by hand. If used in this way they will remain waterproof and odour free up to 6 weeks. When there is an odour or they leak slightly, time to re-lanolise. With a bottle of wool cure solution, this is easy. Add 1 teaspoon of wool cure per 1 litre of luke warm water, soak the wool wraps for 10 minutes to several hours (overnight is good), you don't need to rinse, roll up in a dry towel to remove excess moisture or spin in the machine on a low spin speed. Leave to dry away from direct heat. That should last another 6 weeks or more. The wraps are now completely water resistant (drop a few drops of water on them and see what happens) and are wonderful overnight. If the clothing feels damp in the morning, lanolise again. Excellent for babies with sensitive skin as they allow air exchange. Many wool wraps work better after the first 3 lanolin treatments. You may like to do three treatments spread across the first week or two of use, make sure you dry the wrap fully between treatments.
Washable wipes.You don't need to use expensive disposable, non flushable, non biodgradeable wipes. These are great for occasional use when out and about, but at home you can use washable wipes. You can buy these ready made or make them from any absorbent soft cloth you have at home. Wash them with the nappies. Run them under the tap to dampen, use with soap, or a washing solution to use with the wipes, I put a cup of camomile tea in an old disposable wipes box, add a little grapeseed oil or olive oil (vegetable oils are easier to wash out than baby oil, made of mineral oil), then just one or two drops of lavender oil. This is antibacterial, slightly anti fungal (not as much as tea tree oil) and very safe on baby skin. Tea tree oil is too strong for use directly on babies skin as it can cause sensitivity in a few rare cases. We do also have some dual purpose wipes/liners available that are flushable and biodegradeable, called ultra liners. They are soft for use as flushable liners, but strong and thick enough to use as wipes. You can just run them under the tap to dampen them when you need to. Great for keeping a roll in the changing bag when travelling out and about.
Cloth nappies are a bit more bulky than disposables (but all the more cute for it in my opinion.), so you may need to bear that in mind when buying clothing for your baby. You will probably find that just buying the next size up, especially for body suit vests, is all you need to do.
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