Really Pants

Stash in the Attic

Stash in the attic
When I told my friends that I was going to try my 11month old daughter with a cloth nappy trial kit, four of them said that they had btp (birth to potty) nappy kits in their attics/garages. All four use disposables now. It made me realise that I know more cloth nappy buyers than cloth nappy users. After all, it’s slightly at odds with the whole ethos of cloth nappies to have them sitting around unused. What’s going wrong?

In the crazy nesting period, a birth to potty set found on the highstreet looks great and makes sense financially. Everything that you need for at least 2 and a half years, you’ll never have to buy another nappy, they’re kind to your baby and generate far less land-fill. Sorted. For one friend, there was never any question of not using cloth nappies. She took a freecycled a bag of nappies and wraps, and planned to use them after the hectic first few weeks.

Except things never did quieten down that much, and the pre-folds became less and less attractive to a stressed and tired mum compared to the simplicity of disposables. As another friend said - you want to do the right thing, but you have no idea of the frequency and extent of nappy changing with a first baby, nor the general overwhelming exhaustion.


Are our expectations too high? Not only do we expect a birth in line with our birth plan, and a baby who’ll feed and sleep; but we also assume that partners and family will be supportive of our choices, and that we’ll find the time to stay on top of the laundry. We believe that life will settle down soon after the birth, whereas it can take months to find our new rhythm. It’s not surprising that good intentions are discarded early on. What does seem a shame is that cloth nappying is written off for good at that point, based on what can be a relatively uninformed choice of nappy, often made before we’re aware of quite what the early weeks will involve.


There are some lucky mums who can take cloth-nappying in their stride from the beginning. I wasn’t one of them. Yet switching to cloth with an older baby has been a happy and straight-forward experience. My sicky newborn now keeps her food down, her dirty nappies are less frequent and easily managed, and she sleeps for long stretches every night so the laundry routine has fitted in well. If your baby doesn’t give you time to do the nappy laundry from day one, consider trying cloth again a bit later. You can always pick up one or two cloth nappies to try when you’re ready, find out about nappy trials and laundering schemes, or talk to local real nappy agents. The choice is amazing and a little time spent choosing the best fabrics and types of nappies will pay dividends in terms of a set of nappies that completely suit your baby and your lifestyle.


Whatever your choice though, be it terries, a btp set or a mix of styles and colours, having your child in nappies that you like and trust can only make the thousands of changes over the coming years more enjoyable. So if you have a bag of unused nappies in the attic, perhaps it’s time to revisit those good intentions?

By Kate Aston