What's so special about newborn nappies?
Okay, so I’m not that long out of the haze that was the newborn phase... I’ve since turned the corner into the 10-month sleep regression, but that’s a story for another day! And I’m the sort of first time mumma who proudly did my Goldilocks share of baby research, you know – not too much to totally scare the pants off me and my husband, and not too little to feel totally unprepared. In my mind, I did “just enough” research and actually felt pretty happy about welcoming a new addition to the family!
I was prepared for some all the confronting stuff that is labour and birthing, and was totally on-board with the newborn crawl to the boob, but I must admit that I really hadn’t given much thought to the number of newborn nappies me and my husband would be changing for our little poop-machine!
Of course it does vary, but most newborns will require 10-12 nappy changes per day!! Yes, you read correctly!! Cloth or disposable, you will be changing *that* many!
Up to 84 in the first week…360 in your first month….over 1000 within the first three months of your newborn’s beautiful existence! Seems crazy!?
WHY SO MANY NAPPY CHANGES?
The liquid diet of a newborn is plentiful. Although they only consume in walnut sized doses, the volume soon adds up and ends up in their nappies. Some babies poop after every feed, some every three days. A “normal” pooping schedule for a baby can vary heaps! Always chat with your child health nurse, midwife or GP if you’re concerned.
As with any routine you find you and your bubba settling into, the nappy routine of your newborn will soon change. There is light at the end of the newborn pooping tunnel. Anywhere between 4 and 6 months, you will start to see a reduction in the frequency of nappy changes. As your bubba grows, so too does the size nappy, even for adjustable size or one-size-fits-most (OSFM) nappies and this allows more absorbency to be fit into the nappy.
WHY A SPECIALISED NEWBORN NAPPY?
From my experience, it was all to do with fit. My bustling 11kg 10-month old bubba was once a delicate little flower and she needed a tiny little nappy to fit around her tiny little waist and tiny little thighs. Even though she tipped the scales at 3.9kg at birth, so clearly wasn’t one of the super tiny ones, I had real problems getting a good fit from my OSFM nappies. So, we tried Bambams instead and had a great experience with newborn cloth nappies as a result. Even my husband loved them and I thought he would prefer the ease of the all-in-two style nappy. But he loved how delicate and beautifully fitted the Bambams were on our newborn and was a bit sad once she grew out of them which for her was around 5-6 months mark :( That was also around the time, for us, where we dropped to using around 8-10 nappies per day and now at 10 months, it's more like 6-8 per day. So if you can get into the habit of cloth nappy-ing from the start, it just gets easier!
Side note: being able to fold down the top of the Bambams to avoid the umbilical clip was super helpful! I was really paranoid of knocking the peg and I was worries about the nappies rubbing – but we had no issues at all!
WHY INVEST IN CLOTH FOR A NEWBORN?
- COST FACTOR: For me it was quite simply because it was more cost effective!
- CUTENESS FACTOR: I also got very used to seeing my beautiful baby in cloth especially when summer rolled around and she only needed the addition of a cute top to her nappy and she ready to roll!
- GENTLE ON BABY’S BUM: Touch wood but we’ve never had a case of nappy rash in cloth!
- ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR: We love that we are reducing waste by choosing cloth.
Here's my little Maeve - 3 days old....bless!
That was just my experience with cloth with a newborn. There are PLENTY of cloth options for newborns including flats, pre-folds, fitted and all-in-one nappies (coming soon!) which vary the costs associated with the initial outlay so if you have ANY questions, get in touch with us. We would LOVE to help you find the solution that works best for you and your family!
Bubblebubs Bambams have the title of BEST NEWBORN NAPPY from the Australian Cloth Nappy Association which we are super proud of. We just love supporting people in their cloth journey and would love to help you find the newborn nappy for you! We guarantee that our nappies will fit (see above) and have a money-back guarantee - you've got nothing to lose!
And, YES, that is my chubba bubba modelling a Bambam at 8 months!!!
Happy cloth nappying!!