Tuesday 15 July 2014

Modern Cloth Nappies: General Tips and FAQ's answered.


When you type “Modern Cloth Nappies” into Google you will most likely be extremely overwhelmed by the mere number of results relating to those key words. 

Mum's or Mum's to be who visit The Nappy Shop tell us they are interested in finding out how cloth nappies work and what their options are.  They also tell us they had been online but really needed to come in and have a look at how they work and to get some expert advice.   

 If you can make it to our shop at 1341 Burke Rd, Kew Melbourne, I encourage you to do so to get the full “low down” on everything about Modern Cloth Nappies as well as have a look and touch at the display nappies of all the different brands and concepts we stock.  However for those of you who are not able to visit us in person I thought I would go through and give you the same information and advice I would if you came into see us.


Most of the Mum’s that I have spoken to use a combination of cloth and eco friendly disposable nappies,  cloth during the day when they are at home and eco disposables such as Bambo Nature Nappies or Moltex Eco Nappies for use overnight and when out and about. 

Why overnight?  Because cloth nappies should be changed every 4-5 hours to avoid higher risk of nappy rash occurring however a good eco disposable nappy can remain on the baby for up to 12 hours due to technology that wicks the moisture away from the skin.  This will also prevent your baby waking up every few hours because they feel wet and uncomfortable and need to be changed.

You will use approximately 50 nappies per week for the first 6 months or so and then over time the number per week decreases. If you plan to use cloth nappies part time we recommend a start up stash of about 12-15 and for full time use you would want to have at least 24. 

Although most Modern Cloth Nappies are marketed from Newborn to toilet training we actually recommend not to use cloth for the first few weeks say until the baby is 3-4 weeks old until their systems settle down. Using a disposable nappy in this initial period will protect the nappies from being soiled so badly that they will be stained for life.  It will also prevent many leaks as a result of the nappies being too big.  As babies grow so much in the first three weeks from birth, you will find they fit much better after baby is at least three weeks old.   We found that parents who started using cloth nappies on their baby after the first three weeks generally have a  more positive opinion of using cloth nappies!

Generally most of our customers purchase two or three modern cloth nappies to try out that way they can make sure their comfortable and confident that modern cloth is suitable before stocking up and breaking the bank with the start up outlay which can be substantial at the start however in the long run there will be some savings.

So to wrap up Modern Cloth Nappies I hope this blog post has answered some of the general concerns and questions you may have about Modern Cloth Nappies on a whole.