We love how mums don't leave our community as their baby grows out of nappies. Joanne is a regular giver of advice on our Hangout. The kind of simple advice that we love at Baba+Boo. We caught up with Joanne to have a chat about her experience with reusables nappies.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself – what years you were using nappies and how old your ‘baby’ is now?
I’m Joanne and I live in a village in Lancashire with my husband, my son Toby and my two rabbits! I work full time as a Procurement Manager for a Facilities Management company. I used cloth nappies from when Toby was 6 weeks old until he was dry at night at age 4 1/2. He’s now 6 1/2! I bought a bundle of 20 baba and boo BTP nappies a couple of weeks after Toby was born in autumn 2015 and they lasted me all the way through to 2020.
Which of our prints holds the most special memories for you and why?
Probably the soldier nappy. I would schedule it’s use for any suitable occasions - Queens birthday, royal wedding, armistice day, trips to London. I liked any occasion to show it off!
What led you to start using cloth nappies?
I used to work with Eve and after we were both made redundant she went on to set up Baba+Boo and I followed along on social media. When I got pregnant several years later I looked into using cloth. I really liked the way they looked and also the different patterns and colours. I was keen to reduce my waste to landfill and this seemed an ideal way to help. Plus our council moved to fortnightly bin collections and I couldn’t imagine 2 weeks worth of poopy nappies in my bin! I contacted Eve and she was really helpful and offered lots of advice and explained how everything worked. I was excited to get started.
What did you find to be the hidden benefits of using cloth?
No poonamis! I never knew about that benefit until we went away once and used disposables and I nearly missed the flight home because of a poonami in a disposable. That never happened with cloth!
They don’t smell. Whenever I used disposables I found they had a really strong smell to them especially when they needed changing.
Toby hardly ever suffered from nappy rash. I had creams at the ready that I bought before he was born. I still had them when he potty trained!
I never had to worry about running out of nappies, there were always some in the drawer ready to go. I was really glad of them when the pandemic hit near the end of our cloth journey and people were struggling to get nappies and the supermarket shelves were empty.
Which misconceptions did you find people shared with you about cloth nappies?
Before I gave birth a lot of people I told that I planned on using them were skeptical, saying they were hard work when also having a baby to look after but I think that’s people thinking back to what terry nappies used to be like.
I did hear a lot of other misconceptions over the time I used them. Comments about putting poo in the washing machine, not having time to use them once I went back to work and the bulkiness delaying him starting walking were the most common!
None of these things were actually an issue! He walked at 14 months, I continued to use them whilst working full time and never had a stinky poopy washing machine, the poo was down the loo where it should be!
What did cloth nappies bring to being a parent?
I think it was something different. It was a bit of an icebreaker sometimes at baby groups when people spotted them and were curious about how they worked. I became a cloth nappy advocate and took any opportunity to tell people all about them! I’m still the same even though it’s 2 years since I used one!
Tell us the story of your favourite nappy print.
I picked out a bundle of 20 Baba+Boo nappies when Toby was born. I had 10 prints and 10 block colours then I added a few extra ones that I couldn’t resist. I loved them all. My favourites were soldiers, camper vans, penguins, humbug and zebras but I did also love the vibrancy of the block colours especially yellow and blue!
Describe cloth nappies in three words
Easy, eco-friendly, funky!
What did you do with your nappies once your little one had potty trained?
I started downsizing my stash as Toby potty trained, I sold most of my stash but I’ve kept a few of my favourites. I was surprised how well they had held their value and the quality of the nappies really helped with that. I was selling them after over 4 years of constant use and they looked as vibrant and colourful as the day I bought them.
Favourite Baba+Boo collection? Why?
There have been so many lovely collections over the years. I sometimes feel like buying some even though I don’t need them anymore! I loved the cosy collection with the minky outers. I bet they would have been lovely and soft. Other ones such as Bees and Elephants I also thought were fabulous designs.
What is your favourite cloth bum photo?
Too many to choose. I love the one of the soldier nappy, the ones from our baby photo shoot and also the one that shows the same nappy on him age 5 weeks and age 4!
