Using flat cotton nappies

At one time, nearly all parents were using flat cotton nappies on their babies. These days, parents tend to choose disposable nappies or the more complicated fitted reusable nappies. Lots of people still ask though, can I use flat nappies? Are flat nappies any good? How do I go about using flat nappies on my baby? Flat nappies are actually a great choice, either old fashioned ones that you pick up second hand or our new birdseye nappies. Here are our top tips for using flat nappies.

Using flat cotton nappies

• Flat nappies are really flexible. There are lots of ways to use them.
• Folded they can be fastened around your baby with pins or a snappi.
• If you pad fold them, they can just be placed in your cover.
• Flat nappies make great inserts for pocket nappies.
• Flat nappies are quick drying and pretty much bomb proof.
• Newer fabrics have taken over as nappy fabrics, but cotton is still great; absorbent, hard wearing and quick drying.
• Flat nappies can be doubled or even trebled to make them last longer, or overnight.

Choosing flat nappies

Flat nappies can be great as your full time reusable nappy stash, or as a back up for when you run low on other nappies. You can often pick up second had flat nappies fairly cheaply. The older style red stripe nappies are sometimes difficult to use a snappi on, but are great pad folded. Alternatively our birdseye nappies are lighter weight, but the snappi works well on them. They are still very absorbent and dry very quickly.

Keeping it covered

Choosing the right cover for over the top of flat nappies is really important if you want them to work well. Although there are lots of covers on the market. Choosing one with leg gussets really helps. These not only keep everything from escaping, it also holds the pad in place if you are just placing them in the cover. Our nappy covers are great at holding a pad folded flat nappy (or pre-fold) in place. You can find them here.