This post all came to light when I was talking with a pregnant friend of yesterday. She was asking for some advise on how to prepare her cloth nappies for the arrival of her babe in a few months. As we were chatting she mentioned how sick and tired she was of peoples negative responses when she told them that she had planned on using cloth. Her favourite one being "good Luck with that one."
Back when I told people in passing conversation that I had ordered a handful of cloth nappies to try, I must say that I received a lot of negative responses as well. I got... "why on earth would you bother, I had to when my kids were babies but in these days, why wouldn't you just buy disposables?" Then there was the "Oh, the leaks, the nappy rashes, the soaking, the folding, the pinning, Steph your already to busy with the two kids." The later one being my favourite ;) To be fair though, there were some positive responses too, and lots of curious ones aswell, just not as many. I brushed all these unwarranted reviews off and happily and excitedly awaited the delivery of my first fluffy mail, and told my friend to do the same.
So I came to the conclusion that a lot of the negative responses were basically founded by the lack of knowledge of new age cloth, or what we know them today as "MCN's"... modern cloth nappies.
Now, I am absolutely no expert on MCN's. I am fairly new to them myself but I thought, why not write a post to show people exactly what is involved in using MCN's, so then they can form their optinion and response knowing exactly what they are talking about. This is only what I do, some people may do their's differently but here we go....
A step by step guide to how I use a MCN on Ace's bum!
1. I have a stash stored under my change table all ready for use.
2. Depending on what Ace will be doing, whether it be a quick change for an hour of playing on the floor or going down for a nap, I pick which nappy is appropriate from my stash. Some are more absorbent than others and some I use for different occasions, anyway moving on because types of MCN's is a wholeeee new post for another day!
3. The MCN gets put on in the same was a disposable does and is fastened by "snaps"or button like clips. Some are also fastened by valcro. See, not a pin in sight!
4. Clothes go on as per usual, and if your lucky enough for it to be warm... no clothes. Fluffy bums on show are too cute! Oh and definitly no sweaty plastic covers to go over the top, which I'm sure that's what my mother envisaged when I told her.
5. Ace get to do as he pleases until its time for a nappy change.
6. MCN comes off in the same way a disposable does.
7. Ace's bum gets wiped down. I use a bunch of cheap face washers that I bought specifically for the job. They are all one color so I know what they are for. For the moisture part, I wet them down with a spray bottle that is also kept on the change table which is a mixture of baby wash, baby oil and water. I started this as I found it was annoying making a trip to the bin just for the dirty wipes, it would be so much easier to chuck them in with the nappies.
8. Nappy gets tossed into a sealable nappy bin. Since Aces poo's are still liquid being a breastfed baby and not really eating much yet, i dont rinse the poo off, they go straight in the bucket. Other options for no. 2's when the 2's get bigger are flushable liners or a squirt attached to your toilet. So in your bucket is just your nappies. No water, no detergents.... Just dirty nappies.
9. Every second day I empty the bucket into the machine, unsnapping them as I go , program the machine for a pre-rinse, this takes care of the no. 2's and press start. After the pre rinse I add my detergent (an enzyme free MCN friendly type, I use Purity Sensitive) and u use less than half of the recommended amount and wait for that annoying beeeepe...beeeeep.
9. Every second day I empty the bucket into the machine, unsnapping them as I go , program the machine for a pre-rinse, this takes care of the no. 2's and press start. After the pre rinse I add my detergent (an enzyme free MCN friendly type, I use Purity Sensitive) and u use less than half of the recommended amount and wait for that annoying beeeepe...beeeeep.
10. Hang them up to dry, then snap them back together and pop them back in their home under the change table!
So that's what I do. It looks a lot listed like that but it's only because I have detailed every step for those that may even be thinking of starting to use cloth.
Please know I'm not one of these people that believes disposables are the devil because I'm not like that at all. I still use them myself, depending what we are doing at the time and if they are convenient.
I hope if you were wondering what exactly MCN's are then you know have a better understanding and if someone tells you that they plan on using them, you can form your response knowing exactly what is involved.
The end.... If you made it this far ;)
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A lot of people are clueless as to how good MCN's are. I know when I was researching there was little to no info on "stripping/prepping" your MCN's to be the most absorbent. I think I will put my version of stripping them in my blog for future reference.
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