Every month after the main podcast is recorded I sometimes manage to keep the girls in front of the microphone just a little longer to answer some listener questions.

 

Transcription: Q&A Sep 2018

Andrew:         How are you doing, Vicki?

Vicki:              00:13          I'm good Andrew, how are you?

Andrew:             00:13          How are you doing, Vashti?

Vashti:             00:16          I'm good thanks, Andrew, how are you?

Andrew:             00:18          Oh, another one of those podcasts where you wish the microphone were on five minutes ago. So, questions and answers. The first question is, when will one size fits most nappies fit my baby.

Vicki:              00:31          Well, like one size, fits clothing, they fit most of the babies, most of the time. So, realistic expectations, four to four and a half kilos seems to be kind of a magic marker. You may get them on a newborn baby. I've had one size nappies on three-kilo babies without a problem, but I'm all about realistic expectations, so I say four to four and a half kilos so six to eight weeks, to get a good fit.

Vashti:             01:04          It's funny because I say around about the five kilos. I've found that by about five kilos is that magic number for us, but that definitely will fit down smaller. Most one size fits most will fit from around three and a half kilos, but it does depend on the shape of your baby.

Vicki:              01:20          And also, if you're a first-time parent too, putting a nappy, putting one size fits nappy on your first baby, is ... there are this whole trial and error. I remember even with Arabella, putting her first nappy on she leaked straight out of it and I had already cloth nappied one child. I think as long as if ... you can use one size fits one size-

Andrew:             01:42          That was an accident, I always thought that was on purpose.

Vicki:              01:42          Yeah, of course, it was.

Andrew:             01:42          Because it was on me.

Vicki:              01:47          Always on you. So a one size nappy will fit from birth, even if you don't get a great fit, it will still fit from birth. You've just got to realise that if you do get the odd leak, don't give up. That's more to the point. That's a little bit frustrating, do people have expectations that oh, okay, a one size nappy is going to fit from three kilos through to the toilet training, and then they put it on their three-kilo baby, and they get leaks. So, if you have realistic expectations that it may take a couple of weeks or one to two months until you get a good fit, then you'll be fine.

Vashti:             02:28          You used them from birth?

Vicki:              02:29          That was a bit of a ramble wasn't it?

Andrew:             02:33          That was a good ramble. How do I find the perfect nappy?

Vashti:             02:34          There is no perfect nappy. There's the perfect nappy for you and the perfect nappy for your baby.

Vicki:              02:38          And for your family situation.

Vashti:             02:40          Yup. However, there's not perfect nappy for everybody, because everybody is different.

Vicki:              02:45          And priorities are different too. Some people like flat nappies, some people like the most convenient and easiest system like an all-in-one and there's everything in between. I think finding the perfect nappy is more about education, so if you actually understand the different styles of nappies, and then understand all the different fabrics, which we went through in the podcast one and two. I think it would be good to readdress that, actually, now that we're a fair way through the podcast.

Andrew:             03:14          You mean you're seasoned professionals.

Vicki:              03:17          Oh, we're seasoned professionals. We're good at talking now.

Vashti:             03:23          I think we should go back and listen to those podcasts, because I think it would be really interesting to listen to our first couple of podcasts and now listen to these, and see-

Vicki:              03:30          Where we're more in a groove and-

Vashti:             03:32          Yeah, yeah.

Vicki:              03:33          But I like ... I have no idea what I was talking about, but anyway.

Vashti:             03:39          [crosstalk 00:03:39].

Vicki:              03:38          Yeah, yeah, education. Sorry. However, once you have an understanding, a broad understanding, you'll then be able to say, "Okay, I want to use one size fits most nappy and I want it to be a pocket because that sounds the best for me, and I want it to have Velcro." Moreover, then you can start to go looking for that nappy because you know what you're after.

Vashti:             03:59          The other thing to remember though with the perfect nappy, is what might be the ideal nappy this week could be the worst fit in history next week, because as your baby changes shape and size, as they put on weight or once they start crawling and walking and they drop weight, you may find that what was working perfectly one week just doesn't ... you can't get that right fit the next week. However, then in another month, it will be back to being beautiful again.

Andrew:             04:27          And of course, when you go to your next baby, the next baby might be completely different.

Vicki:              04:29          Completely different.

Vashti:             04:31          Yeah, well we found that with [Breth 00:04:33] and Makayla. I had my system down put with Breth, and I had one size fits most fitted nappy with great colours, wool overnight with extra boosting over the top of the fitted nappies. Makayla came along, and those nappies were humongous on her. I could never get a great fit, constantly leaked out of them and it just wasn't working for us. We had to find different nappies for her, and she ended up being ... a sized nappy was perfect for her because she was quite trim and small, and so I had to buy different sizes for her. I could never use the one size.

Andrew:             05:08          Why are my nappies hard when they come off the line?

Vicki:              05:09          Because of the sun.

Vashti:             05:16          It's the same as your sheets, like if you put your sheets-

Vicki:              05:19          Do your sheet come out hard? Towels?

Vashti:             05:21          Well towels, sheets. They come out-

Vicki:              05:23          You need a higher thread count on your sheets.

Vashti:             05:25          Well, yeah. No, I've got a reasonably high, but they will come out that little bit crisp, whereas if you put them through the clothes dryer, they're that soft and smushy.

Vicki:              05:33          Don't you find putting ... this is totally random ... don't you find putting nice fresh sheets-

Vashti:             05:39          Fresh sheets.

Vicki:              05:39          -on the bed is like actually nice, which is the complete opposite of nappies. It's like you don't want a crisp nappy on your bum, you're, "Oh, that' a little bit uncomfortable." Not that I have had any nappies on my bum, that's not my thing.

Andrew:             05:54          Even when you were a baby?

Vicki:              05:55          Well, yeah, but I'm just assuming that putting a nice crisp nappy on your bum wouldn't exactly be comfortable.

Vashti:             06:02          Well it's the same ... think about your underwear. When you dry your underwear on the line, outside, on a sweltering day, when you pull it in, it is a little bit stiff, so there is ... well, not that sort of stiff.

Vicki:              06:11          I thought maybe you need to look at your wash routine.

Vashti:             06:17          They just ... it doesn't matter what it is, any fabric. When you bring it inside after a sweltering, sunny day, it will be that little bit stiff and that little bit crunchy almost. If you have the same load that goes through the clothes dryer-

Vicki:              06:38          They're soft.

Vashti:             06:38          It'll be soft and smushy. It's just a reaction to the environment. You can combat that, so if you're only line drying, try and line dry in the shade, or line dry first thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon. Don't line dry out in the heat of the middle of the day.

Vicki:              06:56          Generally, the faster your clothes or your nappies dry, the harder they'll dry. The idea is to dry them slowly, which is hard-

Vashti:             07:04          When you've got a ... yeah.

Vicki:              07:05          When you're trying to get your nappies dry and they're super thick and all that sort of stuff. Give them a scrunch off the line, that really helps, or even ten minutes through the dryer, if you do have a dryer, will help combat that.

Andrew:             07:15          So, that's the argument I'm going to use next time you have a go at me about using the dryer.

Vashti:             07:19          You want soft clothes? No stiff underwear for you, Andrew?

Andrew:             07:23          No.

Vicki:              07:29          Oh, this podcast has degenerated entirely.

Andrew:             07:31          Nice, stiff pyjamas, [inaudible 00:07:33]. So how do reusable swim nappies work?

Vashti:             07:38          They're designed to catch poop.

Vicki:              07:40          Not wee. Not wee, they are not absorbent. So many people make that mistake. They are not absorbent at all, because if they were, they would soak up the pool water.

Vashti:             07:50          Pool water. They'd become really heavy and saggy and uncomfortable, so they're ... on the whole, swim nappies are a very dense weave, and they will catch even the runniest newborn, breastfed baby poo.

Vicki:              08:07          But they're designed to get you out of the pool.

Vashti:             08:09          Yeah, the idea is that most parents will know when their baby's going to poo and so you get out straight away because if you stay in the pool with poo in the swim nappy-

Vicki:              08:21          That's poo in water.

Vashti:             08:22          Water will get in, and it will break it down even more, and it will start to [crosstalk 00:08:27]-

Vicki:              08:26          You'll start to get a nice trail.

Vashti:             08:29          Trail.

Vicki:              08:30          Through the water, a bit like the yellow ... why doesn't pool water go yellow for the babies?

Vashti:             08:34          I don't know.

Andrew:             08:34          It doesn't go yellow for anybody. It's a fallacy, and it's a myth.

Vicki:              08:40          No, I've peed in the pool before, and it has gone, it has colour.

Vashti:             08:43          Why are you peeing in the pool?

Vicki:              08:44          I did it when I was a kid. I haven't don't it for a very long ... however, that circle, that ring, that ring around. You cannot tell me that you had never peed in a pool and had a ring around you when you were a kid.

Andrew:             08:56          Well, that little thing where they say it turns the water yellow-

Vashti:             08:59          Or blue.

Andrew:             08:59          It is yellow.

Vicki:              09:01          Yeah, don't drink the pool water. Never, ever drink the pool water.

Andrew:             09:08          Oh, wow, how much time have we got left. Okay, we got time for one more, as long as you don't talk too much. Why do you need to do a prewash?

Vicki:              09:14          Because it's basically just getting the bulk of the urine and faeces that's in the nappy, off the nappy. It allows you to wash in clean water. If you're not doing a prewash, it means that the same water that did that initial rinse is ... you're washing your nappies in poo soup. Least I didn't talk too much.

Andrew:             09:40          Thanks for keeping that short.

Vicki:              09:41          And we'll leave it at poo soup.

Andrew:             09:45          Let's leave it at poo soup. Thank you, Vashti.

Vashti:             09:46          Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew:             09:46          Thank you, Vicki.

Vicki:              09:47          Thanks, Andrew.