Cloth Nappies 101 Series: Part IV :How many Cloth Nappies does one need?
We are up to speed on cloth nappies, you are keen to use them but you realise...... "how many should I get?" "How many does one need?"
Do you want to start from birth and how often you intend to do stress free nappy laundry. Those are the essential questions that will guide you.
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Mini stash of nappies |
12 nappies is ideal for a newborn over 24 hours. If we count from day break and changing every 2 hours, by evening you have used 6 nappies and you wash those and hang them out to dry before you sleep, you still have 12 clean nappies to use the next 24hrs.
By the next evening when you wash however many of those 12 that has been used, you will have at least 6 clean dry ones to use, even if the ones washed the previous night are not completely dry.
Therefore, to use cloth nappies fulltime for a newborn - 3 month old:
- Washing everyday - 12 + 6 nappies= 18 minimum
- Washing every 2nd day - 24 +6 = 30 minimum
- Washing every 3rd day - 36 +6 = 42minimum.
For a two part system. washing daily may translate as 18 nappies = 18 prefolds or inserts and 4 - 9 covers. The reason you have more inserts than covers is because your can reuse the covers if it is only pee. when your baby poos then you add the covers to your dirty pile. Therefore you only need 1 cover to every 2 or 4 inserts.
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Cover and insert - each insert equates to a nappy change - covers can be re-used more than once before washing. |
As your baby grows they will use less per day and then you will find out that your initial stash may cover a longer period between laundry if you buy a One-Size system.
If you are starting cloth nappy from birth, you may have to buy a smaller size of prefolds infant size, so as not to have too much bulk on a newborn, this you can use till baby is about 9kg. when baby out grows this size for wraping round his/her bum, you do not need to stop using it, it still functions as a simple pad folded nappy. this will be covered in detail in a separate post.
If you are starting at about the 6 month mark, assuming you change nappies every 3 - 4 hours during day time period and perhaps once at night, then this would translate to:
- Washing daily - 8 + 4 nappies - 12 nappies
- Washing every 2nd day - 16 + 4 = 20 minimum
- Washing every 3rd day - 24 + 4 = 28 minimum.
- 2 no wetbags / nappy bags - one for use when the other is in the wash.
- 10 or so cloth wipes - you can extend the use of these by rinsing and hanging out to dry if only used to wipe pee, then you wash at the end of the day with your cloth nappies so if your baby only poos once in 2 days, you can reuse the the same wipe for a whole day.
- Nappy liners if required: A pack of 100 flushable liners will last while before you need to re-stock especially if you reuse them if they have only been urinated on. depending on your washing machine, you may be able to wash these without it turning into a ball of fluff, however you can also keep the wet liners seperately and hand wash them with a little soap, hang them out to dry and reuse them about 3 or so times before you need to discard them. If they have been poo'd on, they will need to be flushed with the poo down the toilet.
- If considering the re-usable nappy liners, then you should idealy have the same number of liners as your nappies, however a pack of 10 or so is good for starters.
- Nappy fasterners if required: You need no more than 3 of the Snappi fasterners even if you are cloth diapering full time, if you are using cloth nappies only some of the time, 1 fastener is more than sufficient. Just make sure do not misplace them, alternatively having a spare one will be a good idea
- Extra pieces of inserts for boosting absorbency. This comes in handy when you need longer periods between changes, nap or night times or as baby's wetting becomes heavier.
If you have never used cloth diapers before and are unsure about which styles to get here are a few suggestion:
- Do not buy a complete stash of only one style until you have tried the various styles and are happy with a particular one. Then you can go ahead and get a larger quantity of that style. For example: get at least 1 of each style and you will find out which works best for you in terms of convenience, budget and fit on baby.
- Factor in rainy season especially if you live in the south of Nigeria, as they will take longer to dry so a few extra pieces or nappy styles that dry quicker may be a good idea.
- Factor in your child care, If you want to use cloth and your baby attends nursery or you have your parents helping out, it would be beneficial to have enough pieces that you can prep completely at the start of each day. Flats and prefolds that are wrapped around baby may not be the best solution. A seperate post on using cloth nappies for creche or day care will be done to cover this.
- Take into consideration that you will need better absorption as your baby grows. Therefore if you only used 1 insert at 6 weeks, by 6 months your baby will probably start out-peeing their nappies. If using disposables these are sized with increases absorbency for each increased weight range, therefore make allowance for boosting your cloth nappies as your child grows. . So where 1 insert may have been ok previously, 2 will be required now. We shall be discussing boosting techniques in a separate post.
If you however not using cloth nappies full time, you can simply get a few to last you a full day, and then wash and alternate with disposables as you wish. some people use cloth nappies during the day and use disposables at night time. Some other used disposables for nursery only and used cloth nappies when they are at home in the evenings, overnight and weekends, some use cloth nappies at home and use disposables only for outings and days out, others use cloth as a back-up nappy option, so there is a cloth nappy scenerio for almost everyone.
If you have any comments or questions please get in touch. Do not forget to subscribe to our mailing list below so you get regular updates and blog posts alerts.
If you have any comments or questions please get in touch. Do not forget to subscribe to our mailing list below so you get regular updates and blog posts alerts.
Thanks for reading.
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