What age to start cloth nappies

Deciding what age to start cloth nappies can be difficult, what works for one family, might not be the best choice for another. I recently asked parents on our facebook page when they started using cloth nappies and why. We had so many responses that I’m going to split them over a number of posts. Here’s what some of them had to say.

When to start

• First, around 4mo, would’ve liked to full time but only had a few and waited till then coz he had such a little booty lol. Second, from birth till toilet trained. Jessica
• 6 months old. I was feeling better after going through health complications after the birth. The weather was also better for drying. Clare.
•  #2 was 6 weeks old. I needed to recover from a traumatic c-section enough to be able to handle the mind shift from disposables to reusable. I’d always wanted to use cloth for environmental reasons as well as economic reasons. Sarah.
• about 3 weeks old with my first – mostly cos I hadn’t bought any yet so had to use disposables until I’d bought the cloth ones! Used from about day 2 or 3 with my second. Adele.
• First, I tried some but couldn’t get the hang of it and no one I knew had kids let alone used cloth nappies so gave up. Second only at age 2/3 for nights but had reactions to something. By the time third came along my sister had had her kids and figured most of the workings out when using cloth so showed me a thing or 2. We used disposables in hospital for 2 days then cloth at home, till he slept longer at nights around 4 months then used disposables at nights and cloth rest of time Tina.
• 1 week or so? We didn’t want the continuous cost of nappies in our grocery budget (or budget in general) a few one-off large spends here and there (and a couple of gifts) and we were set. Most of our nappies have done 2 kids, and some of those were second hand. We waited a week or so until all of the meconium was clear as I’d heard that that can be one of the worst things to get out. It was a totally my husband the second time around who kept pushing to get the baby into the cloth nappies! Toni
• 4 months, size and getting my head around it 3 years for my first. Think it will be early with this one. Narelle.
• Birth for all 4! (Eldest is 17) cost, hate unnecessary waste… Natalie
• Part-time from birth full time from around 3 months. Sharon.
•  From 11 months with my first as we moved out of our house bus into a house and had access to a washing machine. From around 3 weeks with my 2 boys when they fit my osfm nappies and from birth, with my 4th because I know better, for environmental, skin health and financial reasons. Also, 100% cloth wipes for her and started E.C. at 6 months. Esty.

Choosing what age to start cloth nappies

There are lots of factors to consider when thinking about choosing what age to start cloth nappies. It all comes down to your situation and circumstances. If you want to try cloth, consider looking at our trial packs. I’ll share some more parents experiences soon.