Dealing with the poo

Something that puts a lot of people off cloth nappies, is the thought of dealing with the poo. There are though, lots of products on the market that can help make the cleaning up of solid waste from nappies a bit more pleasant, and will mean that dealing with the poo shouldn’t be such a big issue. Newborn poo is a little different from toddler poo, and can be washed out in the machine, you don’t really need to worry about removing it first.

Before I go into any of the different things that you can use, I should perhaps say that if you really really don’t want to be dealing with the poo, you might want to rethink having a baby. Whether you use cloth nappies or disposables, all babies do poo. The solid waste in disposables should actually by flushed down the toilet, not wrapped in the nappy and discarded. It’s also worth mentioning that cloth nappies keep everything in the nappy much better than disposables do, most parents who use disposables have a least one up the back and in the socks poo story to share. The only real difference with cloth, is that you’re going to be washing the nappies.

Cloth nappy liners

Cloth nappy liners are designed to allow liquid to pass through them and to catch any solids. They generally come in two varieties, flushable liners and washable liners. Flushable liners (if they are truly flushable, watch out for those which are more papery and can be washed and reused once or twice, these tend not to break down properly when flushed) make dealing with the poo really easy, as you simply drop the soiled liner into the toilet and flush it away. Washable liners also make cleaning up a little bit easier. They tend to be made from a polyester fabric, (you can make your own by cutting up rectangles of microfleece) which allows liquid to pass through, but creates a stay dry feeling against the skin. Obviously you can’t flush these liners, but they are generally easier to clean and remove any solid waste from, than simply using the inner layer of a cloth nappy.

Rinsing cloth nappies

Water is a good way to remove any solid waste, and giving a nappy a rinse can help. Sometimes it’s suggested that you should flush the toilet and hold the soiled nappy in the water to help remove anything. There are a few problems with this method, mostly that it often takes a number of flushes to get the nappy clean, and there is always the danger that you will drop it and possibly even flush it away.

Another option is to use a cloth nappy sprayer, this is a small spray head with a push button that attaches, via a flexible hose to the cold water supply by your toilet and allows you to spray the cloth nappy dealing with the poo and rinsing it into the toilet. They are easy to attach to your toilet and water supply. We sell them here.

Dealing with the poo

If you don’t want to use liners or a cloth nappy sprayer, then there are other ways of dealing with the poo. Some parents find that stretching the dirty nappy over the toilet bowl will make most of the poo drop off. It really does depend on your baby and what their motions are like though. Alternatively you could use a scraper, in the form of an old knife or dough scraper to remove the worst of it. If all else fails the old pick it off with a bit of toilet paper is quite effective, if a little unhygienic.

What’s your prefered method of dealing with the poo.