Terry nappies

I used terry nappies for my three but I never washed or boiled them! I just used the napisan, as it said in the instructions, then rinsed them 4 times using a spin drier (are they still around?) then hung outside on the line. They came out perfectly clean. Think it took me about half an hour each morning. I don't like today's idea of "dry paling" the nappies in a bucket for a day or even two, then dealing with them. yuck!
On a similar theme (if you are a lateral thinker) - my cat had an abscess this week so had to be kept indoors - and wow, the amount of cat litter I am going to have to put in the rubbish bin! And its really heavy too, so glad I don't have to pay by weight!

I think there is a place for disposables - great for travelling or shopping all day, and no nappy rash is a real plus. Would be good if more mums tried using both as the occasion suits.

Great Alea- and thanks for being gracious about it. I am glad it is the case x

We have separate bags for clinical waste and sanitary waste in our CC area.

but I am sure that attitudes to bodily functions were warped by these early experiences
I am not sure that my attitudes to bodily functions are warped anno - perhaps some may disagree

Sanitary waste still all end up in landfill though!

Oh shit!! (no pun intended)

Merde indeed.

At least here they are burnt in an ultra safe incinerator, with the resulting heat heating a community in the vicinity. The amount of methane gas produced by putrefying nappies adds massively to the pollution too.

Always used terry nappies got mine from mothercare. Loved to see them blowing on the line in the wind never used napisan just a good boil up

Yes I remember my neighbour used them.
I was a little girl in the 60s and our neighbour hung rows of these on her line.
I hadn’t seen them before nor have I seen them since.
They were a great idea so it’s very odd it didn’t seem to catch on

Those little buckets with lids on from Mothercare were never big enough for the terry towelling nappies from my 2 girls who were both in them for about a year. I bought a beer fermenting bucket, huge and bright orange, and put it outside the kitchen door in the garden! We were pretty hard up, but had a second hand washing machine, line dried them or on a clothes horse in the hall. I also used to wash and re-use the non-woven liners which were just wee'd on, not those that were poo'd on obviously! The one time I used disposable nappies on my oldest (in the early 80s) she got terrible nappy rash so I never used them again. My GC have both had disposables and they are much better these days, but I do worry about the impact on the environment. But how many full-time working mothers have time for all that washing and drying?

I should have said that they "overlapped" with wearing nappies for about a year - not that they only wore nappies for a year each!

I used terry nappies for all of my 5, but we lived in Lancashire, near to cotton mills, and were able to order from there. No fancy brand name, and they cost 19 shillings for a dozen. This was in the 1960s and early 70s.

I used terry nappies for the first - double at night! she was always soaked - and disposables for the 2nd.,

I started potty training both at just 2, having read that they weren’t physiologically ready until then. It took just a week both times, leaving nappies off all day - but rather longer for night times.

Neither of my Gdcs was trained much before 3. With disposables so much better now there just isn’t the incentive to make an effort earlier, IMO. A dd’s friend’s little boy - no SN - was still in nappies at 3 1/2 - apparently he still ‘wasn’t ready’.

In my DM’s day - no automatic washing machine, certainly no tumble dryer and no central heating - presumably there was that much more incentive to train that much earlier. Who else remembers a clothes horse draped with steaming nappies in front of the fire, on wet winter days?

With her 3rd -still only 18m - my dd was fully intending to use reusable nappies, and stocked up with plenty. She did use them for some time but little Gdd is in disposables now. I’m not sure of the reason - not absorbent enough or just too much faff when she has 3 and is working.

Both mine were in terry nappies and DGD was in reusable nappies, shaped and fitted into nylon pants with poppers, easier than all that folding.

Both mine and DGD were fully dry before their 2nd birthday encouraged I'm convinced by not wanting to be in a wet nappy.

My Gran used to say "keep kiddies dry when they are very small but let them be uncomfortable for a while once you start them using the potty" seemed to work.

I'm not sure there is the same feed back sensation with disposables as there are with reusables. As for the environmental impact I do wonder about that.

I did love seeing the clean nappies on the line but wasn't so keen seeing them on the clotheshorse forever.

I remember all the advertising blurb telling us Napisan would get nappies clean. Yeah right! They never came clean out of the bucket and always needed a darn good wash.

I believe you can get environmentally friendly re usable nappies. There are also companies that wash nappies. Think I would rather do it myself.

I used terry nappies on my 5, with buckets of Napisan as others did. However, there are more modern types of re-usable nappies which are becoming quite popular. My daughters have used them and what surprised me was that the advice was not to soak them, but put the used nappies in a bucket with lid. They might not be washed for a couple of days but surprisingly don’t smell much.
They use washable fleece liners which keep the skin dry. These modern re-usables seem quite expensive but there is a good market for second hand ones.

I was a nanny in Canada in the mid 70s and looked after a new born and two older children. The baby had clean nappies delivered weekly, which I used with nappy liners, and the dirty ones were put into a large lidded bucket containing some sort of cleaning solution. There was no smell and I thought it was real cutting edge living.

In the 80s my own children had terry nappies and napisan in buckets. No dryer or washing machine but I used a spin dryer and either the maiden in cold weather or line dried. I still use napisan for soaking/washing tea towels.

Just for some Gransnetters who may be interested about the talcum powder .
There is a body powder that is 100% talc free called Medipure.
Hope thats useful to someone.

The delights of lifting the lid from the nappy bucket every morning. That pungent mix of Napisan with a hint of wee and poo. It certainly cleared any catarrh.

I had 36 Harrington Terry Nappies which I used with liners for my first 3 DC. My cousin sourced enormous boxes of the liners (2nds from the factory) which lasted ages. I well remember the lidded buckets and Napisan.

By the time DC4 was born the nappies were very thin so I bought shaped terries from Mothercare. I used these most of the time for the youngest two but by then I used disposables too. They were so much more convenient for new born babies, for holidays and days out.

I'm sure terry nappies are better for the environment. It is fairy disgusting putting nappies in the black bin even when double wrapped.

I used cloth nappies for my son but not terry towelling ones - in Australia, they were like a brushed cotton that you also used to have to soak and wash and thankfully, nappy liners saved a lot of staining!
Never used plastic pants over the top, in Aus, they used to have "Fluffies" that were made out of like teddy bear fabric, that were quite waterproof surprisingly!
As well as the lines of nappies on the line, I remember how long it used to take to fold the nappies into a kite shape that were then stacked into the nappy stacker and kept next to the change table!

I used terry nappies for my two. Could only afford Mothercare's cheapest ones that were rather thin and not very absorbent. DD used reusable ones for her boys. The council gave a grant to help with the cost of buying them. She was working full time so part of my day baby sitting would be putting the washed and dried nappies back together again. She eventually had to put the younger one in disposables when he went to preschool and they decided the disposables were easier to cope with.

I remember asking the council if something could be done about disposing of my mother in law's incontinence pads. I was told that they should just be put in the bin with the rubbish. I felt sorry for the bin men because the smell would have felled an ox.

Love love love cloth diapers!

My youngest is still using them

I remember how long it used to take to fold the nappies into a kite shape that were then stacked into the nappy stacker and kept next to the change table!

I'd forgotten about the nappy stacker, jaylucy - I made my own from a magazine pattern, in the same fabric as the dinky duvet cover and the covers on the cot bumpers (now consigned to history, of course). In neutral lemon and white because we didn't know what we were getting.

Isn't it a strange feeling when you realise that you're reading a zombie thread as you see your own words of wisdom pop up from 6 years ago?

MMB I remember reading this thread all those years ago how time flies by.

I used terry nappies for 4 babies, loved seeing them blowing on the washing line and very much looked down upon disposables.
BUT babies in cloth nappies got nappy rash, often very badly and the wetness was kept in by horrible plastic pants. I’ve never heard of nappy rash since disposable nappies became the norm.
Also, most parents work full time now and would never have time to wash and dry a line full of nappies, muslins and sheets every day.