Asking Daycare to Use Cloth Nappies

The first two childcares I looked at weren't the best. The first one gave me an uncomfortable vibe, mainly because of the manager who showed me around. I feel terrible to admit it since I'm sure she is a lovely person but she gave me the creeps. I noticed that the educators seemed to be nervous around her too, which I didn't think would create a positive environment for Turtle. They said they were unable to use cloth nappies when I asked. They also required a $50 deposit just to put Turtle's name on a waiting list.

The second centre (which is across the street from the first one) gave a much better impression. The administrator showed me around and was lovely. The staff all seemed nice. The problem was, unfortunately, that the site had no natural light. The baby area particularly was dark and gloomy. I knew I wouldn't like being confined in such a dark space so how could I let my daughter go there? They said they were happy to use cloth nappies if that's what I would like. No deposit was required to go on a waiting list.

The third centre I visited (a couple of months after recovering from the first two) was so much better. The owners were professional and the educators were really lovely and confident when interacting with them. The space was well set up, with lots of natural light and great outdoor spaces overlooking a park. I didn't even ask if they did cloth nappies, I was so relieved to find a place that I really liked. There was no fee to go on their waiting list either.

Turtle has been going to centre number 3 one day a week since mid-March. There were quite a few times when I thought about broaching the topic of cloth nappies but I found it difficult to remember in the chaos of drop off or pick up time. Frankly, just settling her in was pretty intense even though she was pretty happy from the start. It took awhile to get used to someone other than Mr Fix It or I taking care of Turtle. Since the family are all in South Australia she was always with one of us.

MCN packed and ready to use, complete with instruction sheet

I found Plastic Free July to be the perfect reason to finally broach the topic of cloth. I asked the senior educator if she would be happy to trial them for a day. She was completely happy to give them a go even though she had never used them before. I explained that they were modern cloth nappies, not the old terry towel kind, so much easier to use.

The next week Turtle had Hand, Foot and Mouth so our trial day got pushed back by a week. I spent the day before making sure I had enough nappies and boosters clean and dry. It's trickier when you can't use things straight from the line, which we sometimes need to do in winter.

The Cloth Nappy Kit for Childcare

I felt so organised when I went into childcare. I really wanted to make it easy for them so that the trial would be a success. I folded the nappies with the booster inserted and disposable liner in place. The I stacked 5 into a cloth bag (enough for the day) so that the educators could use them straight from the bag. I also packed a couple of additional pairs of pants in case of any problems (it's not unusual to have leaks at home). I took in one of our buckets with a lid for dirty nappies to go into. Then I wrote out a quick page of care instructions to help the educators use the nappies.

The instructions included information such as not to use nappy cream, what buttons to do the nappies up on (since they are one size or multi-fit) and how regularly to change Turtle (every 2-3hrs). The instructions were stuck up in the changing area when I dropped Turtle off. I also demonstrated how to change her nappy before I left.

When I picked up Turtle at the end of the day all had gone well. There had been one leak but otherwise no problems at all.

They are happy to keep using cloth now! I was really pleased that they were so open to trying it out.

Although it's a bit of extra work for me each week I am glad things are more consistent for Turtle at daycare and home now. She will be starting an extra day at the end of the month so it's great to have this worked out already.

I coincidentally came across a promotion by the Australian Cloth Nappy Association trying to encourage childcare centres to use cloth with Childcare Ambassador Packs. Unfortunately I found out about these just after I had done our trial day. If you are considering bringing it up at your daycare it could be a useful way to broach the topic.

Modern Cloth Nappies - Washing and Care

Over the 18 months that I have been using modern cloth nappies (MCN) I have continued to improve my washing methods through a bit of trial and error, as well as some online research. As a result I feel like I spend much less time on physically standing at the sink now. I think either myself, or Mr Fix It, would spend roughly 5mins rinsing nappies daily and 10mins to load the wash every second day. I can't say for sure but I think we used to spend roughly 30mins diddling around doing stuff or fussing over rewashing loads every day at first. What follows is a summary of the main lessons I have learnt.

Turtle rocking cloth at the Great Cloth Diaper Change in 2014

1. Use environmentally friendly laundry powder at half strength or soap nuts. I have used both and they both clean the nappies well. I did find, however, the nappies seemed to be stiffer when I used the soap nuts. The soap nuts are great because they are a natural chemical-free product with barely any packaging. They also last for a few washes each time so they are great value for money.

2. Sunlight helps to remove all the stains from the nappies so dry them with the top layer facing the sun. This seems rather obvious but I (of course!) didn't figure it out for a few months and hung them with the top booster facing away from the sun, or out of direct sunlight.

3. Don't use any barrier creams if you are not using disposable liners between babies skin and the nappy. If you do use a cream then make sure it is water soluble (Brauer paw paw, curash or coconut oil). I learned this the hard way (of course!) by firstly using a petrochemical based paw paw cream (Lucas) which is a big no no. Then I used the water-based barriers but still found that they were building up in the nappy. This was probably due to both using a barrier cream without a liner and my washing methods weren't up to scratch either (note that I stopped using barrier creams a few months ago with no problems. On the odd occasion Turtle has a slightly red bottom I might put a small amount of moisturiser or paw paw on before she goes to bed in a disposable). These mistakes lead on to points 4 and 5.

4. The washing process for nappies will vary slightly depending on your machine. Here is a link to the official advice from Australian Nappy Association. If I had seen that prior to my journey I'm sure I wouldn't have messed around so much.

Storing Used Nappies

We use a bucket with a lid to store used nappies. Wees go straight into the bucket. Poos are scraped into toilet. The liner (and remaining poo on it) is removed and put into the outside bin. Then the nappy goes into the bucket (with the lid firmly in place!). The liners are supposed to be flushable but I want to do a bit of research on this before we decide if we will flush them or not. We use 2 buckets to store used nappies over 2 days. Having 2 buckets helps when rinsing nappies too. Our buckets cost about $4 each from the local hardware store.

At the end of each day we rinse and scrub (using a nail brush for stubborn bits!) used nappies in running water.

Washing MCN Nappies

Every 2 days we do a load of nappies as follows:

• rinse in cold water (no detergent but I add a sprinkle of bicarbonate soda) for 23mins (my washing machines rinse cycle) with 2 pre-soaked towels,
• wash with detergent at 40 degrees for 1hr and 40mins, leaving towels in,
• rinse again for 23mins in cold water (no detergent), leaving towels in, &
• hang out to dry in the sun (weather permitting, which is most of the time in Perth).

The towels add weight to the load, which is necessary to trick my front loader machine into using enough water to cover the nappies. I wasn't doing this at first and I wasn't getting very good results. Quite a few nappies had stains that wouldn't move and the washing machine itself became dirty (gross I know!). Front loaders are great for saving water but if you need nappies cleaned then you need enough water to do it properly. I used the advice from The Healthy Honey's blog (follow this link) about front loaders and experimented a little to find out what worked best for us.

5. You might need to strip wash your nappies if you are concerned that they have become hydro-phobic or they are repelling water. This might be because you have used too much detergent and it has built up in the nappy. Or it might be because you have been using a petrochemical based cream (like me!) and it has not been washed out of the nappy. 

Strip Washing

Use 10-20ml of dish washing liquid in a hot wash. Make sure it's a long cycle (I use 40 degrees for 1hr and 40mins). Then I usually do the shortest wash cycle afterward (cold for 30mins in my machine) with no detergent to make sure the soap is removed before hanging them out to dry. 

6. Using disposable liners in the nappies helps to stop the poo from sticking to it and thus you don't have to scrub them so much! I started using disposable liners recently and I wish I had started earlier. I was given some when I bought my first lot of secondhand nappies but they were really rigid and crinkly so it turned me off using them. The ones I am using are soft against babies skin so I'm not worried at all about them being uncomfortable. They have really reduced the amount of time I spend scrubbing nappies at the end of the day. 

I think that covers all of the important things that might go wrong when learning to care for your MCN. I would love to hear any other tips that you might have come across too.

Does this all sound too hard or are you feeling more confident about tackling the cloth?

Our journey to find the right modern cloth nappy (MCN) style

I found trying to figure out what style of modern cloth nappy (MCN) to use on Turtle a bit of a nightmare. There were so many choices and so few places to see, touch and try options that I stressed a lot about where to start. As mentioned in why I like to use cloth nappies I was pretty committed to using cloth or else I might have just given up. Since MCN are not cheap to buy upfront it feels like a big commitment. I was also very sleep deprived when I was looking to buy them, which made the experience so much more fun.

Photo Source: Owl Baby

Sixteen months on and I guess I am pretty much a veteran MCN mum now. I have tried quite a few different styles of nappy, figured out pretty much all of the jargon associated with them (that was possibly the hardest part!), joined "buy and sell MCN" Facebook groups and bought and sold nappies through them, and through Gumtree.

Here are some of the things that I struggled with and learned. I hope it helps anyone who is in the same boat that I was in. Remember, however, that every baby is different and you might really like a style that another parent doesn't find works for them ("working" of course meaning, "contains pee and excrement" and fits nicely). So in the end it is a bit of trial and error until you find what works for you.  

As soon as I started looking in the stores for reusable nappies I realised that my original expectation of using white terry towel cloth nappies was a bit outdated. I remember my mum using cloth nappies with my younger sister, 12 years my junior.  Mum used a stork nappy service that took all the dirty ones away each week and left clean new ones ready to go. I could find no reference to nappy services when I researched it online in Perth.  

I could only find disposable nappies in the baby stores and struggled to find pilchers or plastic pants to cover the folded terry towel style of nappy. There were also no nappy pins in stores. I felt like I kept coming across barriers to using the basic white terry towel option that I thought was the only option available. Little did I know.

After doing some research I realised a whole new world of modern cloth nappies or MCN was available.  The problem was that barely any baby stores sold them and I couldn't understand what the differences in styles were. I didn't know whether the nappy needed a pitcher style cover or if it was designed to contain the "business" itself.

I went to the Perth Baby Expo specifically to look at a few different styles of MCN. I fully expected the Expo to be the most awful experience of my life - I make a point of never going to those kinds of events. I'm not the best shopper at any time and I was way out of my comfort zone looking at nappies at the Expo. I struggled to tell the styles apart except for the outer covers and whether they had a million snap buttons on the front or velcro. I honestly had no idea where to start with choosing a style and how to be confident if it would last. I also didn't know how to tell if the nappy needed an outer cover or not.

In the end I decided to just jump in and buy some nappies online through Gumtree and see how it went.  I was just starting to buy the odd nappy style to try (which, with a 6 week old baby was quite difficult to do - driving to various places across the metro area) when one of the mums in my mums group told me she was selling some MCN.  She offered to lend me some to try (bless her heart!). I tried a few styles and immediately decided that having a separate outer layer and nappy was way too bulky for Turtle.  I also started to see that each brand offered various different styles (separate nappy and pitcher, an all in one, different designs). This didn't simplify things but it made me more confident about what was available.

I saw a bulk lot of cheap pouch nappies on Gumtree at around this time. I had tried one of the same brand that was bought secondhand but it was practically brand new and worked well for Turtle. I decided to buy the bulk lot and hoped that they might last for all of Turtle's nappy wearing days. My friend from mums group was also using them at night because they were quite absorbent. I was sure I was onto a winner. They lasted pretty well for about 3 months and then Turtle outgrew the small size and was into the mediums. I'm still not sure if it was because the medium size was more worn or if Turtle started wetting more at this age (6 months old) but the nappies just weren't coping. I cut my losses and started looking for other styles.

We stuck with the all in one design (rather than a separate nappy with a pilcher) and tried a few styles before deciding what fitted Turtles frame. She is long and varies between being thin and filling out as most babies do. We bought some sized nappies (mediums and large) to see if the fit was good for her. We also tried some one size nappies with press studs to change the fit as Turtle grew.  We decided that the one size nappies are the way to go for us - they can accommodate in-between sizes and we don't need to keep buying and selling as Turtle grows. Another bonus is that if we have another baby we can use this set from birth until potty training.

The style we chose was mainly selected because it was compact (not too bulky), easy to use, simple and reasonably priced. We have a full set of the one size nappy (24 of them) and we use them all of the time that we are at home except for at nights.  We have been using disposables at nighttime since Turtle was 6 months old. I am still in the process of selling the sized nappies (mental note: I must get that done!). 

Buying secondhand has made our MCN much cheaper. This has also allowed us to try a lot of different styles too. If you are buying secondhand make sure you go to the website of the nappy company you're interested in and check out the specifications for size and design. 

I am not sure that we have saved money in comparison to using disposables. There are some really cheap disposable nappies and they do tend to last longer than cloth, which you have to change every 2-4 hours.

The purpose of using cloth for us wasn't to spend less. It was to waste less. On that front I think that we have been successful. I also like that Turtle is starting to notice us cleaning out her nappies since we are taking responsibility for them. I believe cloth is meant to help with potty training too, so that is a bonus.

What was your MCN journey like? How did you decide what style of nappy to use?

When is the right time to start using modern cloth nappies (MCN)?

A couple of my sustainability minded friends gave me some good advice when I was pregnant with Turtle.  They recommended that I wait until she was 3 months old before I started to use cloth nappies. For us, because she was our first, I think that it was sound advice.  However, it is a very interesting thought.

Photo source

When is the right time to start using modern cloth nappies or MCN?

Straight away?
If you use MCN straight away then you should definitely consider buying the specialised newborn style of cloth nappies. One of my friends had the one size multifit nappies all ready to go and then her darling boy was born and they didn't fit him for a couple of months.

You will also need to be organised enough to keep up with the laundry. Most newborns poo frequently. At least every time that they feed. Turtle did not do this. In fact she didn't poo for a week after she was born. We were so worried because it's not what is "supposed" to happen. Clearly every baby is different but consider yourself warned that it is likely your baby will poo a lot for the first few weeks or even first few months.

3 months in?
If you are keen to use cloth but want to wait for the madness of the first 2-3 months to be over then 3 months is probably a good goal to work towards. The benefit of waiting a little while is that you can try different styles on your little one and see what works best for your family.

Waiting until Turtle was 10 weeks old definitely helped me to be more confident about styles and what we liked before we bought lots of nappies that we didn't like.  But it was a lot to take on after she was born.  Trekking around with a newborn baby to research and buy secondhand nappies is not easy. It was from this experience that I learned to limit my driving radius to within 10-20km of our home unless it was a really amazing buy.

Whenever you're ready?
This seems like the most logical answer... Yes, whenever you are ready! Some people choose cloth for their baby later since they have the time and space to try it out.  There are also some really nice designs of MCN that draw people in too.

If you are trying to minimise your waste then the sooner the better but don't stress if you're not ready because there is always something else that you can be doing in the meantime.

What do you think? Is there a perfect time to start using MCN?

Why I like to use cloth nappies

Before I had Turtle I was determined to put her into reusable or cloth nappies.  Mainly because I wanted to make less waste that would end up landfill.

Newborns can use up to 12 nappies each day and when babies are a bit older they might go through 6-8.  Most babies wear nappies until they are two or three years of age.  Each child is therefore likely to go through at least 4,000 - 5,000 nappies.  That is a lot of waste.  I would love to see a pile of 4,000 - 5,000 nappies on display somewhere to fully comprehend how much waste is going into landfill for each baby.

The pouch style of nappy that we used for Turtle from 3 - 6 months

Interestingly, however, if you read up on the benefits of using cloth nappies you will see that this is a hot topic in the sustainability/environmental area.  The jury seems to be out on whether disposable or cloth nappies are better (or worse!) for the environment. Here is a Choice Magazine review on the topic.  When disposable and cloth nappies have been compared for their environmental performance - the resources used to make them, care and maintenance, and requirements for disposal and eventual degradation - there has been no clear winner.  The environmental costs of the different nappies are summarised well in this link. 

Despite this debate I cannot believe that using disposables could ever be more environmentally friendly than using cloth.  Not that I'm judging anyone who chooses (or needs!) to use disposables.  Having a baby is hard work and you have to do what works for you.  There are some biodegradable disposable options available as an alternative too.   We use these when we go out for long periods, and also for night time sleeps since Turtle was 6 months old and was wetting through the cloth.  I choose to use mainly cloth because it is a much better fit with my values and, with the support of Mr Fix It, we have managed to make it work for us.

We used the sized style of nappy for a few months (6-10 months) before moving to a one size style that grows with Turtle

Cloth nappies are washed every day or two while in use.  For the sake of comparing their performance to disposables it is presumed that cloth nappies are washed in hot water and then dried in a clothes dryer.   Since we live in Perth it is warm for most of they year so nappies dry quickly on the line and there is no need to use a clothes dryer.  This reduces the energy needed to wash our nappies, which improves their environmental performance.

Another way to improve the environmental performance of cloth is to use them on more than one baby.  Each time that you use the nappies for a new baby it doubles the environmental performance.  I have bought almost all of my nappies secondhand so even if we don't end up having a second baby I know that this has reduced the environmental impact from Turtle's nappies.  It has also saved us money since the nappies are cheaper secondhand.  I resell the nappies that we don't need (when Turtle has grown out of them or when we find another style that we prefer) so they can be used again by other families. 

I am really glad that we have made the effort to use cloth nappies (we use modern cloth nappies or MCN) on Turtle.  Don't get me wrong, it's added to our daily tasks since we tend to wash a load of nappies most days but I feel good that we have been able to do it.

Do you feel strongly about the kind of nappies you use on your little one(s)? Are you also concerned about the waste nappies cause?