Making terry flats last longer

[peta73]

I am very new to cloth nappying so this is probably a silly question.

My DD is 13 wks old and I currently use tery flats during the day at home and disposables at night (My new stash of MCNs came today Yay!). The only problem with the flats is that DD needs to be changed constantly. She is uncomfortable with even the slightest amount of pee in the nappy (it's dry on the outside), consequently I find it very hard to get her to sleep during the day for longer than about a half an hour. By the time I finally get her to sleep, she does a pee and so I change her and have to start all over again.

Is there anything that I can line the flats with to give her a drier feeling and make them last longer? I currently line them with the last of the J&J liners I had leftover from my failed attempt at cloth with DS.

[~Melissa~]

Try some microfleece liners & I think you will find this helps alot. We use microfleece & my DD's bottom is dry to touch even when her nappy is soaked.

You can order some pre-cut liners online or you can just go to your nearest Spotlight & buy a large piece of microfleece & cut it up to whatever size & shape you want. It doesn't need to be sewn at all

[jessicas_mamma]

We use terry flats a lot here and I definatly second the fleece liners as Melissa said You can grab some from spotlight pretty cheap and just cut out some rectangles, that's what I did and I am definatly not crafty

I have tried disposable liners before to and found the johnsons left bub really wet & scrunched up a lot, but I hve found the cheapo homebrand disposable liners from woolies are a lot better at keeping baby drier, much better than the johnsons and only cost about $2 for 100 A4size liners! Still not as good as fleece liners IMO

[bilbylove]

hi Peta, i noticed my DD weeing a fair bit more (in quantity) around the three month mark too. ALthough i was not using flats at that stage, i think i could make an educated guess and suggest some tried and true things.

Liners - in MCN, there are some fabrics, called STAY DRY fabrics, that MCN e.g pockets and AIO's are lined with, like suedecloth and microfleece. This keeps baby feeling dry, cos the wee goes THRU the stay dry layer and passes THRU it to the absorbent layers beneath (the hemp, or bamboo). So you could buy a half metre of microfleece from Spotlight (or buy microfleece online at places like nappies covered, bubba earth, fairy fabrics, babydelight etc) cut up rectangles of microfleece, and line each flat with those. You wash them with the nappies. They also catch most of the poo so makes cleanup time easier.

babysoftlandings sells large microfleece liners great for flat nappies.

Other idea is to BOOST your flats. So you fold the flat, lay in a bamboo or hemp trifold, foldup, booster etc, put the microfleece liner on top, then do nappy up on your DD.

so the microfleece liner will make her feel drier
and the hemp/bamboo boosting will absorb more wee, make nappy last longer.

ANother idea is the TYPE of flats you use.
i have come across
muslin
flannelette
cotton terry
hemp terry and also bamboo terry
F L A T S
so there is quite a variety available, i have listed them from low to high absorbency.

don't worry, no such thing as a silly question. you only learn by asking questions, so keep asking.

you'll find heaps of info at www.ozclothnappies.org by reading the FAQ freq asked questions link, that is such an excellent resource. The "New to Modern CLoth" link on this forum is good too.

welcome Peta!

[Bek]

microfleece liners definately.
and you can boost the flats with a facewasher or similar to give it a bit more absorbency in that wetzone, which might help keep the wet in that area a bit more rather than it spreading out immediately into the whole of the rest of the nappy.
have you read about EC at all? some mums find that they can talk their 'mostly asleep' baby for a pee-opportunity if they stir in their sleep, and then often they'll feed back to sleep really easily after they've done their wee.
hth

[nangari]

Something else you might like to try is a trifold bamboo velour booster (I know Iish Fly have them). This will boost your nappy AND make bub's bottom feel drier Just love that bamboo velour

Cas

[elizabetty]

Also, I find the way I fold it affects the absorbancy. At the moment I use a "Jo Fold" which puts a lot more fabric where its needed for my little boy than the "kite fold".

Computer not working for my to get you a link but the nappy lady has a diagram of the "Jo Fold"

HTH