Cloth Nappy Veterans

We’ve loved seeing our community grow over the last few weeks, with many new members joining our community! We are loving the fact that reusable nappies are the new convenience, but more than that, we’re loving meeting new parents and babies and being able to help in any way we can. 

 We are all about simplicity and kindness at Baba+Boo. Especially during this time when we are seeing parents struggle with anxiety. Using reusables should not add to these stresses or anxieties and we want to do everything we can to make this transition as simple as possible. We’re receiving lots of emails from parents worried about doing the wrong thing with the nappies, especially when it comes to washing. 

The first thing you need to know when you join our community is that we have got your back. 

We have been in the world of reusables for over ten years and there are not many questions we don’t have answers to, or what we’ve been asked. 

Eve and Sue are the cloth nappy veterans here at Baba+Boo and have used nappies for nine years collectively. They’ve got a wealth of experience in using them and also in supporting parents using them. 

Eve says:

“When I was using reusables, I had two insomniacs under two and I had just started Baba+Boo, so they had to fit in with me and not the other way around. I mixed and matched with single-use nappies while my confidence grew and I grabbed whatever was closest at change time. I went full time as soon as the single-use nappies ran out and I just loved not having to buy them but more than that, I loved not having to put them in the bin. 

I went for the simple approach, I had to. I was living on zero sleep. I put them in the bucket and shoved them in the wash with whatever powder or liquid we had at the time. I washed them on 40 or 60 dependent on how messy they were, I was always utterly amazed at how clean they came out. I dried them on a maiden or the line and stuffed as I went usually. 

I loved plains over the prints. However my favourite look was a leopard skin popping out above her skinny jeans, she looked so chic! I am eight years on from nappy days and I still miss washing my nappies. That’s why I love shoot days, it means I can wash a load of nappies at the end of it! Sad aren’t I?!"

Sue is our resident director of happiness and is always on hand to share her wealth of experience with our community. She says:  

“Well, you can guess who introduced me to reusable nappies! I couldn’t wait to get my new bundle of joy into them and we didn’t do the newborn size at the time (gutted!). I’d be sending photos to Eve every week saying - do you think they fit yet?!  Eve was the only person I could turn to help on these types of questions as we didn’t have our community hangout then. That time passes all too quickly as we all know and it wasn’t long before they did fit her.

I am also that person who loved putting my nappies on the washing line, hoping the neighbours would see them and ask me about them so I could show them off. I loved the warmer weather so that I could play matchy matchy putting them under dresses and showing them off, they do look so much nicer under dresses than single-use nappies don’t they?!

My two were both heavy wetters, which was great for Eve as it helped her to develop our nappies to become the bomb-proof product you can see today. I tried all sorts of varying inserts and fabrics to try and find the best combination to keep my babies and their clothes dry. If you guys have ever asked me a question on what is the best thing to use for a heavy wetter or night time use, believe me, my answer comes from my own experience. Babies leaking through nappies was quite a big deal in my life at that time and these things stay with you don’t they?!

So when washing enquiries come through to us, I can most definitely draw on this experience. I definitely have those memories too but they aren’t as ingrained as the leaky issues because quite simply, there weren’t really any stand out washing moments that I felt I needed to hang onto the memory of.  

The things that really stick with me are how I used to hang my heavily stained inserts on the washing line and take pictures of them hour by hour, amazed at how quickly the sun got rid of the stains. How when my daughters were teething, taking the lid off the bucket nearly burned my eyes out but then how fresh they were again after a 60 wash. And that one that I do sometimes admit to, forgetting about a storage bag I’d left in the back of my car for over a week and they were still OK (although we definitely wouldn’t recommend this).

Washing ‘problems’ as such don’t stick in my mind because there really weren’t any. If anybody asks me now about washing nappies, the answer is simply to use the detergent that you are happy to use on your baby’s clothes, with no additives and these are fine for your nappies."

Having a new baby whether you’re a first-time mum or not, is already a lot to handle in life, and we want to help make things as easy as possible. We don’t really care whether you’re using own brand or the most expensive brand of washing powder, and we would never ask. What we care about is whether the nappies you bought from us are working for you and if not, we want to help ensure they do. 

We cannot stress this point enough, nappies should not be a cause of worry or anxiety. We are here for you. You only to need to ask. And we love it when you do. We love nothing more than helping.