I think my baby is outgrowing their OSFM nappies?

I see and hear this statement a lot. Mostly with OSFM nappies that are a trim fit. Sadly, I've had people recommend against our nappies (and other trim OSFM) claiming they wont fit their 10 month old for much longer - even though they haven't used them through to toilet training!

I have now taken our nappy design from birth to toilet training (plus some) - and it does fit. They still fit on Charlotte, 34 months old, 16kg and very tall. Charlotte is not a super skinny girl. She's about average.

So why is this misconception happening?

Starting out as a newborn the nappy should be on the smallest setting in the front and in the waist. Below is Emma at about 6 weeks. This setting fit her from 2 weeks old.

Em at 6 weeks

By the time a baby gets to ten months, they are usually not snapping down in the front anymore. This makes many parents panic. They think there child is going to outgrow their cloth nappies before their first birthday.

No front snapping 

Plenty of room still in the bottom for growing up big and tall!

This simply isn't the case. Many babies get very chubby before they walk, or crawl, making parents think the waist has been outgrown or the babies legs are too big. But, babies change shape constantly. Once they are walking they trim down and you find the nappy fits well (even if there is a period of time where a nappy doesn't fit).

I want to show you how our nappies fit on a small baby and a toddler.

Direct comparison,  Child on left is 28 months, Right is 4 months

Above you can see the largest child is about 28 months. The younger baby is 4 months. As you can see, the same nappy fits on the larger child. As they grow, the nappy tends to sit more along the undies line then as a nappy extending towards the belly button. This is most suitable as it allows their clothes to fit them better and you shouldnt need to size up clothing due to the trimness of the nappy.

Below is Emma at almost ten months. Notice she is on the same front snap setting as the older child in the picture above? Yet the waist snaps are done a bit tighter for her smaller waist.

Ten month old baby 9kg

You can see how some parents would think looking at this shot of Emma, that she will not see another two years out of these nappies. But the evidence in the above picture of Charlotte at 28 months proves the nappy will continue to fit.

These are Baby Bare nappies in our photo examples, but you will find this applies to many OSFM on the market. So don't panic. Just have a look through these images to see that the nappies will see you through much longer then the ten months/ 1 year mark!

Some more examples below.

Charlotte at 22 months

Charlotte at 14 months

Charlotte 23 Months

Em 4 weeks old in her Baby Bare cloth nappy, note the overlap on the waist.

Lay By your cloth nappies today!

We are introducing Lay By to Baby Bare. I know a lot of parents like the ability to pay off their nappies over time, so we are introducing a much asked for Lay By system.

So how will it work? Minimum spend is $100 and non-refundable 20% deposit. You can take up to 12 weeks to pay off the Lay By (extensions may be applied for). Warranties apply from date of shipping, so you still get a full 6 months of use with your products before your warranty ends.

We suggest starting the Lay By before your baby is born, and taking a few months to pay it off slowly. You will be given a reference number and payments can be made through PayPal or Direct Deposit. You just email us when you've made your final payment.

You can even give the reference to your friends and family and have the nappies paid for as a baby shower gift. Just let us know and we can help arrange this for you!

I do not require regular payments, but you need to have completed the payments by the end date of your lay by date, twelve weeks from placing your order (unless otherwise agreed).

How to order using Lay By

Add everything you want to your cart, to a minimum of $100. Enter in the discount code area the lay by code 'LAYBY'. Your cart will update to only require 20% of the payment. You will receive an invoice from PayPal and confirmation of your order from us.

We will then contact you to confirm your Lay By terms with a completion date, final amount due and to ensure you have no special requirements - such as arranging for others to make payments on your behalf etc.

After twelve weeks, if you have not already completed the Lay By, we will contact you to arrange the final payments and confirm your shipping address has not changed since placing your order. We will then ship to your nominated address!

It's that easy.

If you cancel your Lay By you will forfeit your 20% deposit, or a maximum of $40. So if your deposit was $80, we will refund $40 to you. All payments in excess of $40 will be refunded to you once you notify us of the cancellation.

If at the end of your Lay By period, you have not completed your payments and you fail to respond to our communication within 14 days, we will reserve the right to deem your Lay By cancelled.

My top 5 tips for using cloth nappies

1. Use a clothes horse. You can hang nappies out inside, then move them into the sunshine. Once the sun is gone for the day, bring them in to finish drying. If it starts raining, you can grab them quickly with no need to rehang. This is simply the number one thing you can do to make cloth nappy use easier!

2. Ask questions early. I've had many customers come to me after weeks or months of using our nappies with questions they've been holding onto. A quick answer may help you in a big way. Leaking nappies, poor fit, care of your nappies etc. No question is too silly. Any business that doesn't give you the attention to ensure you are happy with using their products doesn't deserve your business!

3. Wash your nappies regularly. Simple care of your nappies will see them have a long life. Don't leave a soiled nappy too long between washes, the nappy is deteriorating while it sits waiting for a wash. You may not see the damage immediately, but delayed washing will see your nappies lifespan reduce. Aim for every 48 hours.

4. Shop around and save money. So many parents are unaware of the different options on the market, and that they don't need to spend a fortune to get a decent nappy. I see very often the same few brands being recommended to parents - even though these may not be the most budget friendly or even the most suitable product. Do your research and try a few options. You may be surprised how many great nappy options there are out there (and for a lot less then the most well known). There are hundreds of different nappy makers and brands available - don't be limited to the one with the biggest advertising budget! I myself started out that way, and none of the well known brands suited our daughter - it's how we ended up with Baby Bare!


5. Stick with it. I find a lot of parents quit cloth in the first few weeks of using them. I have found their are periods of time I just don't want to wash nappies. I've taken a break for a week - then come back to them. Or there have been times our daughter is sick, and the nappies are so disgusting its unbearable to put her in one. On those occassions we have used disposables and later come back to cloth. I find cloth gets much easier as you go on. It becomes part of your routine and you don't notice it so much. I find considering the amount of rubbish we are preventing and our monetary saving, also help me stick with it. So if you are ever feeling like you want to quit - remind yourself why you started with cloth nappies in the first place.

ENJOY!

Try cloth nappies before you buy

We know a lot of parents are unsure about using cloth nappies. They wonder how they will find washing them, using them and having them fit their child.

We have come up with what we think is a great solution for parents.

For a limited time, you can try 10 Brand new cloth nappies for $55 including shipping. The trial period is for four weeks from when you received them. We believe four weeks is enough time to get the feel for using nappies, and determine if using cloth is for you.

Parents who chose to keep the nappies receive a discount off future purchases plus an accessories pack. You can mix up any ten of our nappies (excluding Ruffle Cubs). So you can try the PUL nappies, our classic Bare Cub or our New Bare cub range. You also get a credit for your $55 when choosing to keep the nappies. So at the end of the trial you only need to pay $125 - essentially, your trial was free!

Do you know someone who wants to use cloth nappies but isn't convinced? They should try our trial soon, before it ends!

Our minky cloth nappies, available to trial.

Using detergent on your cloth nappies

There is a lot of conflicting advice going around about using detergent on your nappies. I find parents don't really know what to do. This small factor, is a cause for a large lot of confusion.

I've met parents who claim they use NO detergent in their nappies. I've met parents who use totally normal detergent, the full amount if not a tad extra.

So, how much detergent should you really use?

This is a tough question. It's like you asking me how much detergent to use on your coloured load. I can't see how big the load is, what your detergent is, how dirty it is, what sort of machine you have etc. But I can give some general guidance - I find it's good to start with some guidance and work from there.

I use a plant derived detergent, I use about 1/2 - 3/4 of a cap (depending on whether the load is really full or just average) of my liquid detergent. I have found it makes my nappies squeaky clean. I then do a rinse cycle at the end to rinse out excess detergent.

I've never had to strip wash my nappies and they still work really well.

The fact is, detergents clean your nappies. You wouldn't put your clothes through the wash with no soaps of any kind, so why would you put nappies in that are full or poo and wee? They need detergent to get them clean. Modern Cloth Nappies are pretty awesome, but they aren't magical. They live under the same laws of science as the rest of your washing.

Smelly nappies I have found are more often caused by not being clean enough, then by a build up of detergents. The advice from smaller amounts of detergent has been around since before we had such a range of eco/plant derived alternatives. But with these products available and being used, I encourage you to consider your washing routine.

My best advice is play with the detergents. Get a good balance for you. And always rinse, it will help remove any residual soaps at the end too.

Click here for our washing instructions.

Our new video featuring our new nappies

We have just finished editing our new clip that demonstrates how to use our cloth nappies. The clip will soon be uploaded onto our website,in the meantime it can be viewed above or on youtube.

Our clip gives you a good peak inside our new nappies, and of our new inserts. I find when buying products, the more of them you can see the better!

Our video also demonstrates how to adjust the size of the nappies, as well as getting a tighter fit around the waist. This is useful for any brand of cloth nappies that use front snaps to make size adjustments.

So get watching, you will even get a glimpse of our little munchkins who inspired Baby Bare, and continue to inspire us to create beautiful products for our customers.

What you don't know about our cloth nappies!

I thought I'd write a little bit about what makes our nappies so special.

I started Baby Bare with the intention of making a great quality nappy affordable. I honestly believe I have achieved that aim.

So what makes our nappies great quality and different from the others? There are so many nappies on the market, it is hard to know what quality nappy you are getting for your money.

Our nappies are made from plush minky. Many nappies on the market use a light weight, short pile minky fabric on their covers. You especially see this with the range of cheap china nappies on the market these days (often found on ebay or rebranded on websites). I have searched far and wide to get a nice plush minky fabric. Our fabrics are short run colours so you wont find them from any nappy seller. I have sought out the softest fabrics to ensure our nappies are comfortable and make your bub super cuddly. It is for this reason that so many parents comment with how soft our nappies are.

Our inserts are trim, yet still super absorbent. This is achieved through using the highest quality bamboo fabrics. Our inserts have gorgeous rainbow stitching, another premium feature. This looks gorgeous and helps you identify your Baby Bare nappies in a washing basket full of inserts. Many businesses use a stock standard insert that is bulky and doesn't work too well. Our inserts have been designed with lots of thought to make sure they absorb fluid quickly, and hold onto it.

I have designed our products based on the needs of my own two children. Tried and tested, day after day, wash after wash. I have made small improvements based on my own observations and the feedback from our happy customers.

I am now designing our own custom minky patterns - to ensure your Baby Bare nappies are unique and gorgeous.

Our new custom minky fabric - exclusive to Baby Bare

All this for only $20 a nappy is amazing value (not to mention up to 20% off for buying in bulk). I think I've achieved my aim and proven, you don't need to pay double the price of our nappies to get a quality product.

Classic Bare Cub versus our new cloth nappy range

I've gotten a lot of questions about our old and new nappies. So here is a run down of the different designs so you know exactly what product offers which features!

It's important to realise, the shape and fit of all nappies is identical. The snap in insert is the same across the range and you can use inserts from your Classic nappies in your New design nappies. Our new design is even trimmer then the previous, as the built in microfibre added a bit of bulk to the nappy which has been eliminated with a trimmer bamboo insert.

You can find all the nappies from here.

Nappy Style	Outer Shell	Inner Lining	Pocket	Snap In insert	Built in Microfibre	Bamboo Booster	Drying Time	Fit
Classic Bare Cub	Minky	Suede Cloth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Can be added, purchase separately.	Quick, but has microfibre in the shell which takes some time.	8 Waist Snaps.
New Bare Cub	Minky	Suede Cloth	Yes	Yes	No	Included and to be used for best results.	Fastest, shell is made of non absorbent materials.	10 Waist snaps for more waist and thigh room.
Silky Bare	PUL	Suede Cloth	Yes	Yes	No	Included and to be used for best results.	Fastest, shell is made of non absorbent materials.	10 Waist snaps for more waist and thigh room.
Ruffle Cub	Minky	Suede Cloth	Yes	Yes	No	Included and to be used for best results.	Fastest, shell is made of non absorbent materials.	10 Waist snaps for more waist and thigh room.

A few tips for the new nappies:

• Ensure you use both bamboo inserts included with your nappy. The rectangular bamboo insert should be faced with the rough/terry towel side facing up. This is because the terry is faster to absorb then the fleece. It works much like microfibre to absorb very quickly. This helps stop leaks as fluid travels across the fabrics in the nappy. 
• Shells without microfibre will dry very quickly. In the summer, almost instantly. Take advantage of this by buying more inserts then nappy shells. You can then have a set of inserts drying while using the spares. 
• Our ruffle cubs are so gorgeous you wont want to take them off. Buy a spare set of inserts and when changing just change the inserts and not the cover. You can get a few wears from the same nappy cover. 

Cloth Nappies - our little ruffle cubs

Last summer I blogged about Nappies as Clothes. Sydney sweated through the hottest summer in history (along with the rest of Australia) and we had a new baby and a 2 year old in nappies. My solution was a gorgeous minky Baby Bare nappy and a cute light weight top.

This got me thinking how we could change the nappies to make them even more appealing for the warm summer months. Suddenly, my love for ruffles and nappies combined.

I've talked a bit about these new nappies before, but I am just so excited. Our littlest girl, Emma, has been trying these nappies out since they arrived a week ago. She has all the colours and she is already getting compliments on how amazing her nappies are. She is wearing them under dresses to smarten up her bottom (we all know 10 month olds like to flash their nappies - and why not when they look as good as these!) as well as on their own with a singlet.

So, if you have a little girl at home, grab some Ruffle Cubs. Summer is already on our doorstep! You can just buy the covers and make use of existing inserts at home, or grab a whole nappy. You can also just change the inserts meaning you can use the same cover for multiple changes.

New cloth nappies with ruffles

Buying Second Hand Nappies - the good, bad and the ugly!

When I first started with cloth nappies, I didn't even realise there was a second hand market for them. I looked for some good sales and bought a few to try out. Not long after, I was designing my own and through all my research found there was a very strong market for selling used nappies.

This concept took me by surprise. I totally understand why parents buy second hand nappies - you save money, it gives you a chance to trial cloth nappies with minimum outlay, and it gives the nappies a further chance to be used and not wasted.

But. And this is a big but. Some times I really wonder if it is worth it.

Baby Bare was in many ways started from the second hand trade. Seeing nappies selling for almost $40 a piece, I could see why they were selling second hand. I aimed to come up with a nappy that could be bought for the same price so many are selling second hand. Yet, it was brand new.

I am apprehensive to tell any parent to buy second hand. I recommend using a nappy library, and then buying nappies you know are perfect for you.

So why do I personally recommend against second hand nappies?

• Second hand nappies have no warranty. You're on your own if something goes wrong.
• You have no idea what condition the nappies will be in when you receive them.
• You have little idea how much life is left in the nappies when you purchase them. 
• You can buy great nappies for less then $20. Buy brand new in your budget, rather then second hand. 
• Do not fall into the trap of thinking you will get a better deal on a second hand $40 nappy, then a brand new $20 nappy. 
• The controversial one - another baby has peed and pooped in the nappy. It probably isn't worth the price tag on it. After all, what other items of clothing would you buy after they'd been used in this way. 

I honestly think a set of cloth nappies will see out there best time being used the first time through. If you have subsequent children they will also benefit. You have full control over your nappies from the start. You know the history of washing and care, and if anything goes wrong you have a warranty. Your baby gets the luxury of a brand new nappy and at the end you can sell them and make back your money.

A work at home cloth nappy mum

I'm a work at home mum. Commonly known as a WAHM.

In my previous life (before I became the mum part of the WAHM) I worked in tax accounting in the public service. Spending a year at home with my first daughter saw me wanting to create an opportunity to work from home, I also had itchy feet. I needed something to keep my mind active. I combined my interest in cloth nappies with my business background and Baby Bare was born.

I get asked a lot what I do, and how I juggle being a work at home mum. The truth is, it's a tough gig. A lot of people think working from home is a luxury, but I've found it to be harder then having an office job. There is no designated time to work, I don't go to the office and get in the mind space of work and I have to fit in the business around my other job - parenting.

A typical day for me sees me doing my emails and social media (read facebook) through out the day whilst doing my 'parenting' job. I don't go into the 'office' until the babies are in bed. So I start work at 8pm at night. Packing orders, sending invoices, sewing samples or repairing nappies, sorting the shelves, emailing suppliers, recording sales and expenses, calling the courier, counting stock, contacting retailers etc. It's tough work, working at night when I'm at my most tired.