#086 How To Fit Cloth Nappies

Vashti and Andrew dive into the most asked question. How do you fit a cloth nappy. But the answer does very depending on the style of nappy you have. Vashti and Andrew cover the tricks for the most popular styles that the maker of your cloth nappy may not cover in depth.

 

Transcription: How To Fit Cloth Nappies

[00:00:00] Andrew: How doing Vashti?

[00:00:15] Vashti: I'm good. Thanks Andrew. How are you?

[00:00:17] Andrew: You know when we started podcast, that means you put your phone down.

[00:00:22] Vashti: what don't you think? I can do two things at once. 

[00:00:24] Andrew: I'm sure you can, but you know,

[00:00:26] Vashti: you know, it's, it's men that can't do two things at once. Historically.

[00:00:30] Andrew: actually, I read a. Yep. Called, I can't remember what the book is called, but it said, there's no such thing.

Yeah. It's it's not really true. What you're actually doing is you're switching focus back and forth between two subjects.

[00:00:42] Vashti: Oh.

[00:00:42] Andrew: And, uh, that's, that's never good.

[00:00:44] Vashti: Yeah. Mm.

[00:00:45] Andrew: Uh, actually an interesting thing too, one of the tests they did to see if you could do two things at once was they basically gave you a set of sums that were plus sums set of sums that were minus sums.

and you did plus, then you did minus and you plus and minus. And then that timed how long it would take people, and then they got you to do all the pluses and all the Moes and the people who did all the pluses and all the Moes did it in half the time. Of all the people who.

[00:01:10] Vashti: Really?

[00:01:11] Andrew: Yeah. So you're much more efficient focusing on one subject than you are trying to focus on two subjects because you're just not saving time, but you may think you are.

[00:01:19] Vashti: Oh, fair enough. Okay.

[00:01:22] Andrew: The book is called Deep Work by Cal newport

[00:01:24] Vashti: , Well, my phone's down now. Okay.

[00:01:27] Andrew: And Face Down too. Wow.

[00:01:29] Vashti: no, 

[00:01:30] Andrew: Oh, it's Face Up. So you're gonna see all the notifications anyway. Yeah,

Cool. So what are we talking about today?

[00:01:35] Vashti: Um, I thought we might have a chat about fitting cloth nappies. Yeah.

[00:01:39] Andrew: fitting's a, a tricky subject actually.

[00:01:41] Vashti: Oh, not really. It can be,

[00:01:43] Andrew: Well, it's, it's a tricky subject when you first start.

So the idea here is we're gonna try and get rid of some of the easy things so you can fit your cloth nappy. one of the reasons why you get cloth nappy that leak.

[00:01:54] Vashti: Mm. It's not, if it's fit properly. And we did discuss that last episode. 

[00:01:58] Do You Have To Put A Nappy On Differently For A Boy Or A Girl?

[00:01:58] Andrew: My first one is, this is my favorite one, is do you have to put a nappy on differently for a boy or a girl?

[00:02:05] Vashti: Not really. A nappy goes on exactly the same for boys and girls. It can differ. If you wanna put more absorbency up the front because little boys. All their bits are at the front

[00:02:21] Andrew: That's right.

[00:02:22] Vashti: should actually say what?

It's, it's a penis.

am I, Why am I being scared about saying the word penis?

[00:02:28] Andrew: Maybe we were gonna say the other word for years. For penis?

[00:02:30] Vashti: Yeah, no, no. We'll keep it clean.

[00:02:32] Andrew: that's right

[00:02:35] Vashti: , the penis is at the front, whereas with girls, the vagina or the vaginal area is down a bit lower and. If you want, some kids do wet, like I have most of the time. A little boy will wet more towards the front and little girl will wet more towards the bottom of the nappy.

But I've got little girls, like I've got customers whose little girls the front of their nappy is completely drenched their front wetters. I've got little boys who have very elongated penises and so they wet more towards the bottom. So,

[00:03:08] Andrew: I guess it also helps to, if they're lying down or if they're lying their side, definitely to, you know, cuz the water's gonna run to the lowest point.

[00:03:15] Vashti: It will. It will. So, you know, if you have a younger baby, the back of the nappy will be wet more. So, um, you know, having more of the absorbency towards the back will definitely ha help because they're generally on their back most of the time.

But, you know, toddlers are up and about and running and, and doing some assaults and, you know, loungeroom, gymnastics, so it could be anywhere. so look, putting the nappy on is no different for a boy or a girl. You can move the absorbency around depending on your baby, though. 

[00:03:47] Andrew: So with the absorbency we're talking about like, say you've purchased an all two and it's come with an extra booster. That's what the extra booster is for.

[00:03:55] Vashti: Yeah, definitely

[00:03:56] Andrew: Put it to the front for a boy to the middle. For a girl.

[00:03:58] Vashti: Yeah. So for the candy you have the trifold and then you have a, an oval booster folded in half and move it forward or move it to the bottom. So,

[00:04:08] Andrew: Cool.

[00:04:09] Where The Snaps Are Supposed Be When You Start?

[00:04:09] Andrew: Cloth napes with rice snaps. How do you know , where the snaps are supposed be when you start?

[00:04:14] Vashti: I think we normally recommend, like if you're using a one size fits most with rice Snap. From an early age, snap it all the way down. 

[00:04:23] Andrew: So the smallest,

[00:04:24] Vashti: Yeah, the smallest setting. If you are studying more as they're a bit bigger, it's really, it's a per, like, it's an individual thing.

Each baby is different. So, You know, I can't sit there and say, Yep, at four months you need to be on the second rice setting. Because at four months, my youngest was like the chunkies little Michelin man and he was pretty much unsnapped on most of his rice settings. So

[00:04:50] Andrew: can you, can you put the nappy on and then do the rice

[00:04:53] Vashti: Definitely. So we normally say start the back of the nappy around about in line with the belly button. So nice and high, you wanna cover the back crack. So any of those, number threes that. Upwards are definitely contained. And then just bring the front up and you sort of bring it up as high as you can and then fold it back down to find the rise that you are gonna need. So, okay, 

[00:05:14] Andrew: And the extra fabric, where does that go?

[00:05:16] Vashti: You always point that extra fabric up so that that fold a fabric that's made when you snap. Down. It needs to be pointing upwards. If it's pointing down, that's when you can really affect the fit. Because it's all, know, bunched and, sitting weird in the leg cracks.

You can have the inside of the nappy actually pointing out. So you really wanna fold it up. It forms a lovely smooth front to the nappy. so popping a couple of fingers into that fold and pushing it up or popping your thumbs into the corners of the fold and pulling it up as high as you can, definitely helps make it a little bit easier and, a much smoother front.

[00:05:56] Andrew: Okay, say you've got a nappy that's got two rows of snaps. Is there any tricks with two rows of snaps?

[00:06:02] Vashti: It really is different for a front snap or a side snap nappy. So if you've got, a double row of snaps on the hips where it does up on the sides,

[00:06:11] Andrew: So it still has rice snaps?

[00:06:12] Vashti: Some of them do. Yeah, definitely. But you know, you can offset those snaps so you don't have to have your snaps aligned. You can have, you know, Tight for a skinny waist and chunky thighs. You can have it snack in around the waist and out around the thighs, and that'll help open up the leg holes, but keep the waist nice and trim, or more often than not, especially with younger bobbies, we see they've got these great big pot bellies and these teeny tiny little chicken legs.

So snap it in around the legs and out around the the waste and that will adjust it. 

[00:06:43] Andrew: That's a, that's a big advantage of two rows of snaps

[00:06:45] Vashti: Yeah, definitely. For a front snappy nappy, you can do that as well. Like you can offset the snaps. They don't have to be, you know, in line with each other. But we do find, I've personally found like front snapping nappies, it's a little bit trickier to offset the snaps.

Generally a lot of front snapping nappies, the snaps are already offset so you don't have to worry too much But in saying that you also don't have to have, equal number of snaps on both sides. Like you could have your nappy pulled in three snaps in on one side and two snaps in on the other.

So, um, I have also got some where like, I'll find that I need to pull it a little bit tighter around the thigh. So like with a single. row,

I'll do the first snap, like the hip snaps, as tight as I need and bring it nice and tight. But then I will skip snaps around the way. So, you know, I will, fold the, the back lower fabric in a little bit and pull it in.

So I'll skip a snap or I'll let it out a little bit. So I won't take that wing all the way across so it.

does fold a little bit and bulk a little bit, but you don't have to have a super snug or you know, super flat or anything at the front. You can play around with it and find what works for you.

[00:08:10] Andrew: We have spoken before about making sure the nappy is in the underlying

[00:08:13] Vashti: Oh, definitely. So that is a big thing, making sure that elastic is nice and high. Exactly where you put your undies on, that's where you want the nappy to go. Now that's, that can be difficult with. Rollie Polly Buies because you know, you, you may think that you're in the underline and you're actually on the first fire roll

[00:08:33] Andrew: That's true. 

[00:08:35] Vashti: Like definitely sort of the, the knee up, and sort of fall, like roll the leg out and pull none. Elastic as snug as you can into the underline and make sure it really is in. That leg joint. Um, that will definitely help with you know, red marks with leaks, with all of that sort of stuff.

And it means that as your baby gets moving and stuff, the nappy isn't rubbing in any way. And it's sitting nice and snug and trim.

[00:09:04] Andrew: And how tight should it be around the waist?

[00:09:07] Vashti: The

[00:09:08] Andrew: You were saying before that some nappies don't have elastic in the waist and some do.

[00:09:12] Vashti: Yeah. So like if you have a nappy with elastic at the front, you will have that nappy sitting fairly snug. And the, the easiest way to tell if it's at the right, tension or tightness is the finger test.

So, you know, you can do this around the legs and around the waist where you just slide a finger into in between your baby and the elastic. And if you can slide your finger in there easily. Feel that elastic pull back against your finger, then it's, it's at a good tightness if you have difficulty sliding your finger in there.

Or if you're seeing, like, if you have difficulty sliding your finger, or when you do get your finger in it's really tight and you can feel it pulling really tight against your finger and even, you know, causing you a little bit discomfort, that nap is too tight. If you can see gaps where the elastic is, then that nappy is too loose.

For nappies that don't have any elastic on the waist or at the tummy. When you're lying them down, your baby's tummy sort of flattens out. You have a look at your own body when you lie down your tummy flattens, and then as soon as you sit up, it sort bulges out a little bit. And that's why we lie down on the bed to put on a tight pair of jeans.

[00:10:23] Andrew: I don't have, I don't have tight 

[00:10:25] Vashti: no, you don't have tight jeans. . 

[00:10:27] Andrew: I've never that. So that's why you lie on the bed.

[00:10:29] Vashti: why you learned about, because it flattens your tummy, it makes it easier to, to do the zipper and the button up.

[00:10:34] Andrew: Wow. Yeah. So, But they don't have anywhere you can lie down when you're buying jeans though, do they?

[00:10:38] Vashti: No, no, no. Yeah, that's why online shopping's great with free returns.

course, like with your Nappy won when your baby is lying down there, tummy will flatten.

So when you pop the nappy on, you may see a little bit of a gap at the tummy. And you know, that's actually not a bad thing. So we generally say when they're lying down, you wanna be fit two fingers on top of each other, in between your baby and the nappy at their belly button area, because as soon as they sit. up, their tummy is going to fill out that area and it's gonna close up that, that gap that you have at the front. Okay,

[00:11:20] If You Are On The Last Snap, Are You Gonna Need To Buy A Bigger Nappy?

[00:11:20] Andrew: that's good. if you are on the last snap, are you gonna need to buy a bigger nappy?

[00:11:28] Vashti: Well, that depends on how big your baby is, but no, generally not Most one size fits, most nappies will last your baby through to toilet training.

They look, they are a one size fits most, so they fit most of the babies most of the time.

[00:11:44] Andrew: But it's the last snap. it's the end of the world. Yeah.

[00:11:46] Vashti: But like, okay. Your little one will generally stack on like in those first sort of six months, they're putting on lots and lots of weight and they're growing at a rapid rate. By around about that six to eight month mark, your little one is starting to get on the move. They're rolling, they're crawling. They might even be, you know, cruising furniture depending on how, , rapid, their progression is. But as soon as they start moving, they will actually start to plateau in their weight gain.

And some of them even drop off a little. bit.

Like my youngest Kylin, he hit eight kilos at four months. He more than doubled his birth weight in first four months. In the next 16 months, he only put on another three and a half kilos. So he was born at 3/8/15 or eight pound 11, hit eight kilos at four months.

At 20 months he was 11 and a half kilos. He was just so quick in his growth in those early. But once he got mobile and active, he really just hardly put it any way. So while we were heading towards the last snaps, you know, at around that four to six month mark, once he got active, we actually came in again at the waste.

Or you know, we might have let the rise all the way out. Once he got active, we started going down a rise setting again. So, and it's just that whole finding what works for you, keep in mind as well, like if you are still snatched down on the rise and you all the way out on the waist snaps, then you know you can let the rise out one or a couple and your wings will actually come in.

As you let the rise out, you'll bring your wings in a little bit and that just adjusts how the nappy sits on Bobby.

So don't be stressed if you are on the last dry settings, or the last waste snaps or anything like that. You're most likely, and, and if your baby's not mobile yet, You'll most likely actually come in again.

Yeah.

[00:13:51] Andrew: one of the common questions we get asked through the, through the help thing

[00:13:54] Vashti: that my baby's only six months old on the last rise setting. What do I do

[00:13:58] Andrew: Do you make a bigger candy? like, no, we don't need to make a bigger We know it's gonna happen.

[00:14:02] Vashti: Yeah. like. But in saying that, if your Bobby is, you know, pushing the outer weight limits of the nappy, like if they are up at that 16 kilo, 17 kilo mark, and you're on the last rise setting, and there is no sign of your little one toilet training anytime soon.

You may wanna look at a bigger nappy. Um, so just that is another thing.

[00:14:27] Andrew: What are some of the brands that have a bigger nappy?

[00:14:29] Vashti: Grovevia does the, the big one and , BabyBehinds does an extra large and an extra, extra large, , Petite Crown does the Trimer Plus, designer bums does the DB large. Like there are lots of brands out there who do plus size nappies, and they're fantastic for special needs kids or kids that are toilet training a little later.

Or just big kids and there are big kids out there. There are plenty of babies that, you know, will buy 12 months be hitting that 16 kilo mark. , you know, their parents might be, you know, bigger boned and stuff like that so if you've got 2, 6, 6 foot, uh, six foot, six parents, there's a good chance their baby is going to be big as well.

So, nothing 

[00:15:18] Andrew: because your children always outgrow you. Yeah. your children always end up being taller than you like, and you thought you were taller. Yeah. Your children always seem to get taller. don't. I don't know if it's that the parents are shrinking. Cause both, both my kids are taller than me Abbi and Arabella are both taller than of, than me.

[00:15:33] Vashti: See? Bro's. Taller than me, but Mikayla's not.

[00:15:36] Andrew: All

[00:15:36] Vashti: So she got, um, some ultra platform docs for her birthday. She'd been asking for them for months and months, and, And I managed to find someone special and we went and tried them on and she just adores them. But their ultra platform, she still only comes up to my nose

[00:15:53] Andrew: Oh, well you know the, you know the problem there is she's did't buy.

[00:15:58] Vashti: Obviously no butings, like, I'm sitting there looking at her going, How are you walking in those child

[00:16:05] Andrew: That's

[00:16:06] Vashti: And I like, I mean, I'm not short, I am tall. Anyone who's met me knows I'm tall, but, and so most of my footwear is flat. Um, you know, I do have a couple of boots.

[00:16:17] Andrew: You could be more intimidating if you had a heels. 

[00:16:19] Vashti: Yeah, I know. I just, I've never been a heels person. Never. Every time I go to a wedding or a special event or something and I have to wear heel. Like one, it's a nightmare. Trying to find them in my size cuz I'm a 43, which is like a size 12. I used to be a size 10 and a half, but after three kids, my feet have grown.

[00:16:38] Andrew: I wonder why. That's funny,

[00:16:39] Vashti: it's, no, it's really normal. Women after pregnancy, their feet generally go up a size. No,

[00:16:44] Andrew: Oh, I did not know that.

[00:16:45] Vashti: Yeah. it's like they flatten a bit and so yeah, they stretch it out. So it's completely normal. Don't stress if you're pregnant, listening to this. You find after Bobby comes that you don't fit into any of your shoes.

It's really, really normal. . Oh

[00:17:00] Andrew: good. They get to buy more. Yeah.

[00:17:03] Vashti: Shoe shopping. I need to go shoe shopping. It's end of season, so, And I need new pair of boots for next year. I always wait until end of season. I get 'em at half price. It's so much better.

[00:17:14] Andrew: That's funny. Yeah.

[00:17:15] Vashti: So.

[00:17:16] Andrew: Cool. Okay, I think we covered that subject. Anything else you wanna say?

[00:17:19] Vashti: And if you're struggling with fit, contact your local retailer.

[00:17:23] Andrew: that's That's what they're there for.

[00:17:25] Vashti: Send 'em a message on their socials or an email or, you know, go in and visit your local nappy, supplier. They will help you with fit. So there's plenty of videos online as well, so have a look.

I know Bubble Bubs has got heaps of different videos their brands.

[00:17:41] Andrew: over a hundred videos.

[00:17:43] Vashti: And I know that at Nest we've got lots of different

[00:17:45] Andrew: videos. I think you're up to 80.

[00:17:47] Vashti: Yeah. with most of the brands that we stock and there have bubbies of different ages as well. So I know at Nest we've got Bubbies down to four days of age still with the umbilical snap, attach a stomp attached all the way up to about two years of age where,

[00:18:01] Andrew: and if you, and if you're not pregnant and not, don't have just, they're cute watch. They are, watch the, the fears really cute.

[00:18:08] Vashti: I love the ones Jess did with Henry and it was like, he was really good in the first couple and then he was sort of, you know, getting a little. Touchy. And so like we're sitting there talking about different ways that you can entertain your toddler while you're changing. And Henry was watching the Wiggles on Jess's fire while we did the video.

[00:18:23] Andrew: so That's right. Um, I watched it too actually.

[00:18:26] Vashti: There you go.

[00:18:27] Andrew: go.

[00:18:28] Vashti: you had the view. I I was at a different angle.

[00:18:31] Andrew: Nobody grows outta the wiggles. I had to, I had to make sure that it wasn't on the camera though. Cuz copyright rules

[00:18:36] Vashti: Oh, of course, of course. 

[00:18:40] Andrew: The volume is all the

[00:18:41] Vashti: way. Yeah. So, um, but Henry is such a cutie.

I love it. Jess talking about number three, She's not far off. Starting with number three. I

[00:18:49] Andrew: How, how old is Henry now? Because we did him as baby, didn't we?

[00:18:52] Vashti: , no, Henry was two when we did those Yeah. So, he's nearly four. . Ella complete mind blank. , Ella is, Ella like 18 months now, so she turned one back in February.

[00:19:07] Andrew: Wow.

[00:19:08] Vashti: So no, definitely we've got lots of videos. And they're a great way, like if you are sitting there at two o'clock in the morning feeding and, you know, if you, if you're one of the parents who wants to sit up and feed and stuff like that, watch one of the videos with the sound turned off and you can sort of, you know, just get the ideas or have the video there when you're putting an nappy on,

[00:19:28] Andrew: turn the captions on.

All, all of our are captions, so you can just turn the captions on. Yeah.

[00:19:33] Vashti: It's just a nice way of, of doing it, So,

[00:19:36] Andrew: yeah. Nice. Thanks Vashti.

[00:19:38] Vashti: Thanks, Andrew. Bye.

I know , It doesn't stop. Honestly. And I've got like the year old. He Okay. I asked him to mow on on the weekend and he came up with an excuse that he wasn't gonna do. He was gonna do it when he got home from TAFE on.

And I get home, I ring him on my way home and I'm like, you know, how'd you go with the lawn? And he's like, Yep, yep, yep, it's done. Get home. And I'm like, That's not done. He goes, No, no, I did it. I promise I did. I said, Well, it's a really cri job so you can do it again. And so, you know, I told him I don't go home on Tuesdays if dad walks after them Tuesday nights.

And, um, Got home Tuesday night and it was dark and I'm like, I don't think it's done. Get up Wednesday morning. Nope, definitely hasn't been done. And he'd been told if he didn't do it on Tuesday night, he was losing his phone Wednesday. And so I took his phone off him Wednesday morning and he cracked the SADS at me.

And it was

like I said, No, I told you you don't do the lawns on Tuesday night. You do. You'd lose your phone on Wednesday. So we get home yesterday and he goes out and does it. Um, he normally gets paid $50 for mowing the.

lawns.

I decided no, because of the grief he gave me, he was only getting $20

[00:22:15] Andrew: I thought he would just would've got his phone back, , 

[00:22:17] Vashti: he got his phone back

cause he does listen to music or podcast while he is mowing. So it's like, okay, that makes it a little bit, you know, more. Attractive to mow the lawn, but you know, no, he also got, um, a monetary penalty for, but he's texting me going, Have you put that money in my account? And I'm like, Why?

Have you spent all the money that's already in your account?

[00:22:38] Andrew: Uh, I, I bought a new lawn, like this is nine o'clock nappy subject, but I bought a new lawn moer on the weekend.

[00:22:43] Vashti: Oh, really?

[00:22:45] Andrew: One of those battery powered ones. Ooh,

[00:22:47] Vashti: how's it go?

[00:22:47] Andrew: go? Holy crap. It's great. Yeah. You like it? Oh my, my gosh. I, I, I feel like mowing the lawn because, um, Normally the big barrier for me of mowing the lawn is bull's stupid mower start.

Ah. Because you know, it's hard to get it serviced because it doesn't fit into my little car

[00:23:03] Vashti: No,

[00:23:04] Andrew: that's,

[00:23:04] Vashti: It's a

[00:23:05] Andrew: job to get it Yeah, But battery powered thing. I, And it's gutsy too. Yeah. And I didn't spend a lot of money on it. Like I bought one of the mid-range ones. And I love mowing the lawn again.

[00:23:15] Vashti: Oh, I'm so glad.

[00:23:16] Andrew: Could you look out the backyard? It's,

[00:23:18] Vashti: have to go and have a

[00:23:20] Andrew: band. Fantastic. Yeah, that's right.

[00:23:22] Vashti: I

[00:23:22] Andrew: made the front too. But there's the junk out there. Ah,

[00:23:25] Vashti: Ah, that's curbside collection.

[00:23:26] Andrew: Curb. So collection. Love of the curbside

[00:23:28] Vashti: collection. I've noticed driving down the street, it's a lot of junk in your street.

There's nothing really salvageable.

[00:23:34] Andrew: Um, No, because people have already taken it. Oh, have they? Like I had a whole heap of stuff

[00:23:37] Vashti: there. There, Yeah.

[00:23:38] Andrew: like you can see how it's spread over a

[00:23:40] Vashti: a

[00:23:41] Andrew: and it looks like right in

[00:23:42] Vashti: of your yard. It

[00:23:43] Andrew: And it looks like I've really spread it out, but no, all the bits in the middle have been picked up.

Oh,

[00:23:46] Vashti: right. Okay.

[00:23:48] Andrew: I even like, there was an old metal filing cabinet I had. And I thought, Oh, and I, I was thinking last night, I'm gonna get rid of this. So I put it out last night after it was, I woke up this morning and it's gone. So it's fantastic.

[00:24:01] Vashti: Anything metal goes really quickly, I've noticed. So yeah, all the, the scrap people, like they it up for scrap metal.

So,

[00:24:09] Andrew: Excellent.

[00:24:09] Vashti: yeah.