I'm sad, I've lost the love for my cloth nappies

thanks guys, I've tried vest extenders which are ok except for the trouser part of the outfit lol. Rowan is 3 months now and I kind of thought I wouldn't need to replace most of his nappies this early on tbh. I think maybe taking a break for a week or two, doing stripping washes and sorting what we have might help me get my head round it. And maybe just get some Bambootys and some other bamboo ones and even if I part time cloth it would still help really.

3 hours is quite a long time for any cloth nappy to hold up, hon - especially if you have a heavyish wetter. Most people generally change cloth nappies every two hours or so.

The nappy lady I saw kind of lead me to believe that changing every 4 hours was the norm tbh

yikes that's not good advice to be honest! I usually advise people about 2.5 hours.

thanks guys, I've tried vest extenders which are ok except for the trouser part of the outfit lol. Rowan is 3 months now and I kind of thought I wouldn't need to replace most of his nappies this early on tbh. I think maybe taking a break for a week or two, doing stripping washes and sorting what we have might help me get my head round it. And maybe just get some Bambootys and some other bamboo ones and even if I part time cloth it would still help really.

3 hours is quite a long time for any cloth nappy to hold up, hon - especially if you have a heavyish wetter. Most people generally change cloth nappies every two hours or so.

The nappy lady I saw kind of lead me to believe that changing every 4 hours was the norm tbh

I don't think 4 hours is that unusual at all. With my first child he was in disposables all the time and I changed him after every feed roughly which worked out to be about every 4 hours (he was formula fed though so probably went longer between feeds than other babies particularly breastfed babies).

Daughter was in cloth from about 5 months and again changed about every 4 hours or so, after feeding usually - again formula. She wasn't a very heavy wetter at all though - we used pocket nappies back then usually Nappies by Minki fleece pockets. I only stuffed them with a couple of tri-folded microfibre cloths as there wasn't the variety of inserts around back then.

Second son was in cloth from about 3 months and went straight into pockets stuffed with a lot more stuffing. Usually a tri-fold bamboo inserts (so about 9 layers all told) plus a three layer microfibre insert on top. His nappies would easily last about 4 hours - the longest he ever went was about 7 hours when he zonked out for a huge long sleep.

As long as you put enough inserts in I think you should be able to make them last longer. OK they won't be super-slim nappies but they will work for longer than one with only a small amount of stuffing.

As for clothes, we found going up a size and getting Tesco jeans always worked well. Smaller cut clothes such as Next or Ladybird were not cut big enough for cloth bums.

It is a case of trial and error as said before but if it were me I'd want to be getting longer than 2 hours out of one nappy!!

Try to get some different things on classifieds and see what suits you. We always loved Blueberry side snap nappies (not sure they do the side snap ones now). Also Upsy Daisy side snaps - no longer made but you might pick some up secondhand.

Don't feel bad if you give up on cloth though or go part-time. I intended to go all the way to potty-training with cloth with DS2 but my health got bad so something had to give so he's been in disposables now for about a year. Still not in pants yet as he's not ready yet at all. Going to be a late one I think.

Crikey, 4 hours is a long time for a nappy change, like most have said I'd change about 2.5 - 3hr. Also when you use pockets, make sure you use a bamboo insert and maybe a hemp booster and these are far more absorbant than microfibre ones.

As for clothing, supermarket one's def come up bigger.

A lot of the problem with the clothes is he's long and thin so things that fit his length are big every where else, add the nappy and he drowns in stuff lol.

Sleepsuits? I never use anything but sleepsuits until they are about 6 months.

A lot of the problem with the clothes is he's long and thin so things that fit his length are big every where else, add the nappy and he drowns in stuff lol.

Go for the adjustable elasticated waists so you can pull them in but still get the room for the nappy. DS2 is another long skinny one. He was in 3-6 months babygros from about 10 days old just for the body and leg length!

Also those elastic snake-belts you can buy can be made really small. They work really well even on babies.

Crikey, 4 hours is a long time for a nappy change, like most have said I'd change about 2.5 - 3hr. Also when you use pockets, make sure you use a bamboo insert and maybe a hemp booster and these are far more absorbant than microfibre ones.

As for clothing, supermarket one's def come up bigger.

I must have been lucky in getting the right combination. C isn't a heavy wetter but not light either. I used bamboo terry inserts from Weenotions which always worked a treat.

Sleepsuits? I never use anything but sleepsuits until they are about 6 months.

Problem is we have loads of clothes that my friend gave us and also that people bought us all under 6 months. I don't think I could bear to never use any of it. It would also mean that I would then have to go and buy more sleepsuits as well as more nappies lol

I understand the need to have all the lovely outfits get worn--I felt the same way, but even with trying, some things only got worn once before getting too small (or just forgotten under a pile). I really did just like sleepsuits best anyway at that age, I found.

But the next 3 months will whizz by, and you've still got 2.5 years or so left of potential cloth nappying, if you want to. If you don't want to, then don't worry about it, but if you want to, then just choose the clothes that fit over the nappies and try not to worry about the others. My mother gave me LOADS of outfits that I never used, but I was able to pass them on to someone who really needed them, so that felt ok. YOu can always pop a sposie on for a certain special outfit when you go visiting (I've done that...)

When I started with cloth I had no idea how long they were to last so I would change as soon as it was wet! I never even thought about it, just figured that was what I was supposed to do. Even when I used disposables, I wouldn't leave them for more than 2 hours. At 3 months I was probably changing my son a few times a night as well, can't fully remember, but I am sure even at 2 years old I changed him in the night. He is 3.5 now and finally a nappy will last him the night!

It is only since joining CNT that I am learning that it is possible to have a nappy last more than 2 hours! But still, when my next one finally arrives, I'll probably change every 2 hours anyway as that's what I am like! Otherwise, I'll never use all the nappies in my stash.

Hope it all works out for you, though.