AS OTHER MOTHERS DO – JUST NATURAL PLEASE

Today, I’m sharing @justnaturalplease ‘s experience in this “How Other Mothers Do” series, a mum who often hits the nail on the head and talks about subjects that at the onset would be considered taboo. And I’m indeed pleased she does!
I began this series on my Instagram @asdicasdafafa.ecomommy to show just how easy cloth can be, all within the #clothmadesimple concept.
Shall we then meet another amazing mum? Full answers below:

1. How did you first learn about cloth nappies?
Even before I’d decided to become a mum, I saw on blogs of other mums I followed at the time, whose values were much in line with mine regarding the environment, that they all used cloth. I remember that at the time my curiosity was piqued but I was hesitant as I felt it would be very hard to manage in my everyday life. But once I realised how they work, even before I was pregnant, I decided it was a choice I’d like to make once I had a baby.

2. Did you use cloth since NB? If not, why?
Not much. The main reason is I wasn’t able to invest in many newborn nappies. (we had eight – two all in ones that took forever to dry and six prefolds, which at the time were hard for me to use properly). With my first born, the shock of a new routine with a newborn was so huge that I quickly decided to remove the burden of a new learning curve and washing the nappies, as the days were chaotic enough as it was. I started using them about a month later, when everything was a bit calmer. With my second child, I was much more confident and started using our newborn nappies right from the start, but even then I didn’t have enough to be able to use them every day.

3. What are your favourite types of nappy and why?
I prefer pocket nappies with Velcro fastening because they’re easier to fit on the child, they’re easier to adapt the number of inserts needed for the baby and the time of day and also because they dry faster. My favourite nappies are Bambino Mio and Close Parent Pop-ins. For a rundown of the different types of nappy, click here.

4. What is your wash routine?
I generally wash every other day or every three days. I pre-wash them cold with only water for around 50 minutes. Then I run a hot cycle at 60 ºC for 3 hours with detergent and finish with an extra rinse, only water, for 15 minutes. I generally line dry them and very rarely use a tumble dryer. I use Skip active because eco detergents only used for us until we introduced solids.

5. What is for you the greatest advantage of using cloth?
Knowing that we are reducing our carbon footprint. The number of disposables used by babies is scary, the time they’ll be in landfill and the impact this has on our planet.

6. What is the greatest disadvantage/challenge?
Maybe the leaks that can happen when the nappies are clogged because of a poor wash routine and they stop being so absorbent. I’m too lazy to strip the nappies… and when babies don’t like having their nappy change (as is the case with mine) and these need to be changed more often because they’re not as absorbent, sometimes that may cause leaks.

7. What was your partner’s attitude?
He went along with it when I told him about cloth nappies and that I’d like to use them on our children. However, he’s very lazy when it comes to changing nappies. And with poppers – forget about it! He says he doesn’t know which setting to use not matter how often I explain it to him. Funny. That’s why Velcro is a firm favourite in our household. As they’re easier for him to put on.