Tips for toddler nappies

Using cloth nappies for older babies is a little different to using them on a newborn baby, when it comes to toddler nappies, there are a few hints and tricks that you can use to get the most out of them. Having had three babies in cloth myself, I thought I’d share some of the things that worked really well for us when they were toddlers.

Top tips for toddler nappies

• Toddlers often go longer between wees and produce lots of liquid when they go. Extra inserts help, changing nappies as soon as they are wet help to stop things becoming too sodden.
• Hemp, bamboo and cotton are less likely to cause compression leaking than microfibre, so work better for active toddlers.
• Toddlers are good at opening things, snaps are much harder for them to remove than velcro closures on nappies.
• Setting the nappy on a larger setting leaves more room for extra inserts.
• Toddler nappies can become a bit smelly, teething, bacteria from poo and the bigger volumes all lead to bad odours. Rinsing inserts as soon as they are removed can help stop smells from building up.
• Night nappies can be even stinkier, I used to soak the inserts just in cold water for an hour as soon as they were removed. This stopped the build up of ammonia.
• Old cloth nappies, with loose elastic, make a good alternative to training pants, as they are usually fairly easy to pull up and down.
• If you have more than one baby in nappies, OSFM can be used on both babies, if you prefer to not share nappies (although it really doesn’t matter) set them up in the child’s size ready for use.
• Often babies will be in the same size for a long time, as toddlers become more active and grow taller, they tend to stretch out and become longer, but the waist and thigh size doesn’t increase too much. Don’t panic if your little one is in the largest size early, they are likely to be in it for a long period, probably even until toilet training.

Starting with toddler nappies

Plenty of people don’t start using cloth nappies until their baby is a little older. If you go straight into toddler size nappies, then you will probably not need as many nappies. As children get closer to toilet training age, they tend to go longer between going to the toilet, so they don’t need changing as often. They will need an absorbent nappy, but you won’t be changing as often as you will with a newborn, so 10-15 cloth nappies is usually enough for this age.

Our dinky nappies are ideal for toddlers, as well as for smaller babies. You can buy them here.