This was it. The first picture I posted to announce to friends I had gone all retro during lockdown on 26th March 2020, and how it all started.

My first wash of terries on the line and my friends were all agog...apart from a minority few who knew the love…and some who were curious already.

I had been fascinated for a while on how women coped before the invention of disposable nappies, and I think put this down to being a massive fan of “Call the Midwife”. I was hooked on it on-demand during my maternity leave bubble & it got me through the night feeds & pumping to donate.

Empty shelves

Then the world changed. Disposables in a size 3 just weren’t available anywhere and the reality of being dependent on a costly, wasteful and unsustainable baby basic finally spurred me into action.

I had visions of us being up to our elbows in pre-weaning sloppy poop; and was already counting in my head the number of muslins I had as an extreme measure.

The panic buying had hit it’s peak and I remember Vanessa Feltz on This Morning telling people to “buy some terries” which I had never really truly considered, but it made me get online and look as I am addicted to researching things online…

Taking a leap of faith

At first I was totally shocked about the cost of real nappies. So I bought some cheap terries and covers instead as they seemed:

1. cheaper to buy in bulk;

2. easiest to wash and dry; and

3. it was only supposed to be an emergency measure so we didn’t end up elbow deep in s**t anyway.

What I needed was the cheapest, simplest, fastest drying and readily available option whilst I figured out a process of how I could do this. See “What about poo?”.

Little did I know it would change everything I ever believed in. And give me the confidence to change my life and start my own small business.

Have a go!

In a world of YouTube videos it’s easy to find a fold that suits your baby’s needs, you just need to be open minded and a bit experimental.

My favourites are the “poo catcher” because Mr Monkey was about to start weaning when I began playing with cloth, and this fold will work for both newborn and early weaning. For maximum containment also google “jelly rolling” or the “good key method”.

Then when his system was established on solids I moved to the “bat fold” as I think the shape is good when they start to get a bit more mobile and need to move their hips and waist. It also creates the most absorbent layers between their legs where it’s needed whilst being efficient with the cloth elsewhere.

Daddy Bundles cutely thought I was folding them into “rockets” just for laughs!

The heat was on…

When the heat soared daily to 30 degrees or above, as it did a lot during summer 2020, I used cotton terries in the bat fold plus my old faithful Muslinz sized wraps as Mr Monkey has a tendency to become a little sweat ball.

The natural cotton breathes better than anything else in the heat, plus air can get down the front without leaks and circulate with these wraps.

In my opinion they are similar to a Mother ease “Rikki” but cost about half the price so are ideal for those on a budget (and without the snagging velcro).

Trust your mum, & your gran!

When we were eventually allowed to get out and about, and I was explaining modern cloth nappies I got comments from my Mum’s generation saying “I used to use terries and you had to soak and boil them” and I tell them this was how I started too, but they usually don’t believe me!

Now I don’t think you can really call yourself a cloth bum parent unless you have used terry nappies. And I highly recommend giving them a go one day, even if it’s just for the fun of having a go at the origami.

Here’s an interesting article for further reading. It’s worth a look just for the black & white photographs alone.

Help guides

For more straight forward practical tips on how to switch to reusable nappies, have a read of my further blogs:

• Wash routine

• What about poo?

• How many reusable nappies do you need?

• The importance of having a varied “stash”