Twins in Full time Cloth

Hi, I'm Charmaine - mother of 5, including 2 year old twins. This is my personal story of managing twins (plus 1!) in cloth nappies full time.

When my eldest was born, I was passed along 5 small BBH Magicall All-In-One nappies (with completely slack elastics) to try out. At the time, I didn't know anyone who used modern cloth nappies (MCNs) and I wasn't confident to jump in, so they promptly went into the linen cupboard and never resurfaced.

My twins were born 18 months later and honestly, the thought of using cloth didn’t even cross my mind until I got pulled into the world of baby wearing where I met a whole group of families who also used cloth nappies. After scoring a secondhand cloth nappy starter kit from my local Buy/Nothing group, and thanks to some wonderful advice and encouragement from the amazing Alyce, I finally took the plunge the month my twins turned 1.

“Even using one cloth nappy a day, you’re still making a difference”

You often hear “even using one cloth nappy a day, you’re still making a difference”. To be honest I found leaping straight into full time cloth nappies within a few weeks so much simpler as it made my wash routine much easier to follow – a daily pre-wash of all dirty nappies, with a main wash every second day bulked out by some baby clothes.

I also found that cloth wipes are so much easier to use with a cloth nappy routine than disposable wipes - simply take everything to the laundry to rinse and chuck in the dry pail, so you’re not having to separate and throw soiled wipes in the bin. Using cloth wipes also saves us hundreds of dollars a year. According to Seedling Baby, you can save up to $500 per child by making the simple switch from disposable wipes to reusable cloth wipes. After trying out a few brands, my favourite cloth wipes are the Grovia and Seedling Baby wipes. 

"Cloth wipes are so much easier to use with a cloth nappy routine than disposable wipes"

My beginner stash was mostly made up of generic pocket nappies with charcoal bamboo inserts. I soon found that the twins could out wet the nappies reasonably quickly which frustrated me, and I thought that maybe cloth nappies were not a good idea. BUT! I didn't give up. I quickly bit the bullet and decided which MCN style I preferred to use and bought better quality nappies which absolutely made the world of difference! The twins were in cloth for 3 months before their surprise baby brother arrived and was in part time cloth from birth and full time from about 6 weeks.

Over the past year I have slowly replaced and passed on the nappies that were not working for us and now have a stash made up of predominantly Seedling Baby Multi-Fits, Bubblebubs Candies, Peekaboo All-In-Two Nappies (these are brilliant for daycare!) and Baby Beehinds Night Nappies with Seedling Baby Comodo+ Wraps for overnight. All 3 of my cloth bum kids go to daycare twice a week and still wear cloth nappies there.

Seedling Baby makes OSFM and Plus sized modern cloth nappies to suit every little bum.

I now have approximately 30 day nappies set up for the twins combined and 6 night nappies. My youngest also has his own stash of about 15 day nappies and 3 night nappies. This gives us about 3 days worth of nappies, which is managable with a main wash every two days. If I wanted to stretch out the main wash to every three days, I would likely need another 12-15 nappies between the 3 kids, plus 1-2 more night nappies per child. The washing doesn't take particularly long to do, and even if I haven't folded and stuffed all of the dry nappies straight from the clothesline, I find I can get away with doing them as I go if needed. Sitting down to put the nappies back together gives me a good excuse to drink a cup of hot tea, watch some Netflix and chill out when the little people are sleeping! 

We've found Peekaboo All-In-Two nappies great for the twins because they're easy to adjust and comfortably fit additional boosting for the heavier wetting twin.

One of my biggest tips would be to start out with a few cloth nappies and see how you go - I found I managed to save a lot of money this way. Whilst the various VIP groups on Facebook can offer good advice, it can get overwhelming seeing the size of some of the stashes. You can very easily get sucked into the new releases and wanting alllllll the pretty prints, however it's absolutely not necessary to have 100 nappies for 1 kid, unless you want that of course! 

To anyone thinking of taking the plunge my main advice would be just give it a go! Ensuring you have the right nappies, and a solid wash routine makes the world of difference and we can help you with both of those things. We are now offering trial pack options so that you can try a few different options before you commit to your favourite brand/s and jump all in!

Please feel free to contact us for more information: shop@clothandcarry.com.au

Charmaine x