You want the serious answer?
Nothing.
But, there are complications. Firstly, whilst disposables have coalesced over the years from a variety of different styles to one basic design, cloth nappies have done exactly the opposite. They have gone from a traditional terry square (in the UK) …
Traditional terries with a nappi nippa
to shaped nappies, which may be sized or birth to potty …
Birth to potty shaped nappy
or a pocket nappy, with the waterproof outer built in …
Pocket nappy
it might not even look like a nappy at all …
Tie on with woollen overpants
You get the gist? And I’ve barely scratched at the surface of choice there. I haven’t even mentioned prefolds, the American equivalent of a terry square.
The point is, you know what you are looking at when you look at a disposable. With a cloth nappy, you start off from a complicated choice of style options, before you even work out what you need in the way of constituent parts (I’ll come to that soon in another post).
You have to decide what is right for you (which is where the Nappy Lady’s free advice service comes in). And then you have to know how to use it.
The days of boil washing at the kitchen stove are long gone. We have washing machines now. You might have heard of them.
But there are lots of tips and tricks on how to get the best use out of your nappies. In the days of terry squares, when everyone used them, you could get that “garden fence advice” from your next door neighbour. But with the decline in usage amongst parents of washable nappies, and the increase in choices available, that garden fence advice is no longer readily available.
And that’s why the advice service provided by The Nappy Lady and your allocated advisor is so important, and why we offer you a broad range of practical nappy tips if you want to browse for yourself.
It’s more broadband advice than garden fence advice, but it achieves the same purpose. Nappy advice for the modern age. Your mother would have loved it.
