Drying nappies in winter

I woke up this morning to snow, which was a little unexpected (but very exciting for the children of course) but it reminded me; winter is here. As beautiful as a crisp, cold day is, it’s not always the best for getting your cloth nappies dry, so how do you deal with drying nappies in winter?

Drying nappies in winter

Extra inserts

One of the most simple ways of dealing with drying nappies in winter, is to get extra inserts. As a rule your nappy outers will dry quickly, but the inserts are the ones that can take a while to dry. Natural fabric work really well as cloth nappies, as they absorb lots and then hold onto the liquid well. The down side to this is that they hold onto liquid well, which means that drying takes longer. Having a few extra inserts around means that you don’t have to wait for everything to dry before you use the nappy again. I know that the idea of this might feel wrong to some of you, I know, I like to have the right insert for the right nappy, but you can always match them up again when they come out of the wash again.

 Cloth nappies in winter

Pre-fold nappies make great back up inserts, cotton tends to dry quicker, but bamboo is lovely and absorbent. If you’re looking for something really quick drying though, you can’t go far wrong with our bamboo flat nappies. They make lovely trim, absorbent nappies, but as they unfold flat they will dry fairly quickly.

Drying nappies in winter

When it comes to drying nappies in winter, you need to find what works for you.

  • There’s nothing wrong with using a tumble drier, although I would keep it to a minimum for outers or covers, but they don’t really need it in any case.
  • If you have a heat pump, then you might need to experiment with the best position to put your clothes airer in to get things dry, and I always found turning things over often seemed to help.
  • Ceiling airers or anything that gets things up high works well with lots of heat sources like wood burners, as that’s where lots of the heat goes.
  • Whatever you use, always remember to keep it a metre from the heater (I’m married to a volunteer fireman, so I’d be in trouble if I didn’t remind you about that one).

Getting creative

If all else fails and your having difficult drying nappies in winter, then get creative. I once (very foolishly) packed all of the clean nappies when we were moving house. Luckily I had a spare cover to hand and managed to fashion a pad out of an old towel. It did the job and got us through until I could unpack again later on. A water proof cover is a handy back up for emergency “I’ve got no dry nappies” situations, and you can use any absorbent fabric as a nappy in a push.

How do you cope with drying your nappies in winter? What are your top tips?

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