Due to Covid-19 Nappy Leaks was unable to have our usual live audience, so we have a special guest, Keryn. She is Bubblebubs' Cloth Nappy Support Specialist and comes across all sorts of questions from families starting out with cloth nappies through to those who have used it across multiple children. She calls in to join Vicki and Vashti, discussing with the ladies the top 3 questions she gets enquiries for. The nappy has gaps around the legs and leaks, please help! How to contain poo leaks, is it ok if poo gets on the inside of the cover? What is a dry pail?

Transcription: Live Sep 2020

Andrew: Welcome to Nappy Leaks with Vicki Simpson and Vashti Wadwell. Hey, Vicki, Vicki: Hey, Andrew. How are you doing? Andrew: Doing fine, how about you? Vicki: Good. Hey, Vashti. Vashti: Hi, Andrew. Andrew: How are you doing? Vashti: Good, how are you? Andrew: Good. If I say how are you each time, it makes it sound like we haven’t recorded these one after the other. Vashti: Oh fair enough. Andrew: Hey, Keren. Keren: Hello, how are you? Andrew: Is it cold there? Vashti: Cold where? Keren: It is freezing at the moment. Vicki: It’s freezing here too, so don’t worry. Andrew: Freezing, it’s not cold here. Keren: It’s now crept four degrees. Andrew: Oh, four degrees, wow. Vashti: Four degrees, I could not do that. Andrew: It would be four degrees here too, if I could turn the air conditioner down that far. It doesn’t go down that far. Vashti: See, I’m wearing Heat Tek and I’m in Brisbane. So… Andrew: Let’s get started. Ask your first question, Keren. Keren: Yes, these are the questions I’ve had commonly around this week, so I just thought other listeners might be interested in them. The first question is a bit of a trouble shooting one that I get often. The nappy has gaps around the legs and leaks. Please help. Andrew: Crickets. Vicki: Put it on tighter. Vashti: That’s a fit issue. It could be a number of things. So if your baby has got really, really skinny thighs, it can sometimes be hard to get a nice fit. It might be that you’ve got too much boosting inside the nappy so it’s pushing the shell away from the body. It’s about doing it up tighter. We do find a lot of parents, especially with newborns, they’re worried about doing the nappy up too tight, because it leaves marks on their baby. And nobody wants to leave red marks on their baby, but if you can slide your finger in and feel the elastic pulling back against your finger, that’s where you want the nappy to be. If you’ve got gapes, then it’s too loose and you are going to get leaks. Red marks from nappies aren’t a bad thing. It’s only when they start to get really angry red or inflamed, or angry welted or things like that. That’s when the nappy is too tight. A normal red mark is sort of like when we wear tight clothes, if you take your bra or your undies or your swimmers off or something like that and you see a little bit of a red mark because you’ve been in them all day. It hasn’t hurt you while it’s been on, it’s just sitting snug against the body. That’s definitely what you want. Newborns do mark a little bit easier because their skin is so soft, but it shouldn’t… having a nappy too loose is actually going to be more detrimental because it’s going to rub. Well not only the leaks, it is going to rub against the skin as you move baby, or if baby does move, and that’s when it’s actually going to break the skin. So you want that nappy sitting nice and snug. Keren: One thing just with my role at Bubblebubs, people tend to get this often with Candies, sometimes. Just because a nappy is set up one way, doesn’t mean that’s the way you have to use it. We’ve had a couple of customers come up with a brilliant hack, I guess you could say, of folding the trifold, means three, into quarters instead of third, just to make it a bit more narrow between the legs just to make sure the shell can reach up and around and make that seal. So I guess as well, don’t be afraid to try different things to try and get the nappy to fit as best as you can. Vashti: I’m a big fan of saying there’s no nappy police out there. No one’s going to jump out of the cupboard and tell you you’re doing it wrong, so do what works for you and your family. Keren: Yeah. And just with the leaks, I think some people also, they think they’re doing it up tight because they are doing those leaks, but it’s more perhaps making sure the elastic is up a little higher than sitting on the thighs as well. Vicki: Sorry, I missed that. Vashti: Yeah, you really want the elastic to sit on the undie line, you don’t want it down on the thighs. Vicki: Yeah, that’s what I thought you said, and then everyone’s looking at me to answer that. I’m like, but she just answered it, didn’t she? Vashti: Yeah, so just make sure that the elastics from the nappy are sitting in that undie line, so where your undies or your swimwear would sit, not down on the thigh. That can be a little bit difficult for chunky thighed bubbies sometimes. If you’ve got a bubby with lots of rolls on the thighs, sometimes you think you’ve got it into the undie line, but it’s sitting in that first roll of the thigh. I always recommend, bring the leg up into a crook, I suppose you could say. The knee up so it’s higher than the hip, and rotate that leg out and just pull the nappy in so it comes all the way into that groin crease. Vicki: Pull on the skin as well. We’ve got some videos on the website of how to fit, actually how to get it into the undie line and interestingly, when Jenna’s little boy was here for a photo shoot, I took photos of his red marks, which were not in his undie line. Vashti: [intake of break] Jenna! Vicki: I know. But they were perfectly fine. The marks were perfectly fine, and that’s why we took photos of them. Still have done nothing with them. Keren: So that’s on the Bubblebubs website, the blog there, so if anyone is looking for… Vicki: Oh, did I? Did I actually pass the photos on. Keren: No, no, not the photos, but the fit of how to get them up in the thigh. And also, don’t ever do a fit check after the nappy has been on a while, because you never know what’s inside the nappy. Andrew: Who learned that lesson? Did you learn that lesson? Keren: Yes [inaudible, 06:28] Vashti: That’s when you check to see whether or not your baby has done a poo by sticking your finger in. And it comes out brown, and you’re like, hm, that was not what I wanted. Vicki: Which… Keren: Check when you have facilities to check. Vicki: But see it’s like, I wonder if you’ve done a poo? I’m going to stick my finger in and see if I come out with something squishy. When you actually think of the logistics of that, it’s a really stupid thing to do. I think you’ve done a poo, so I’m just going to… Vashti: Stick my finger in it. Andrew: I remember you asking me, can you check to see if Gabriel has pooed? And I’d just smell his butt, and go no, he’s fine. Stick your finger in. No, I’m not sticking my finger in. Vicki: Just open the nappy up. You just open the back up. Andrew: Open the back up, that’s right, let the smell out. What’s your… oh, I see your next question is a poo question as well. Keren: It is too, yes, it is. How to contain poo leaks. Is it OK if poo gets on the inside of the cover? Vicki: Yeah, it all just washes out. It’s all just bodily fluids. That means that the nappy is contained That’s actually a good thing. Better than being on the clothes. Keren: Some people seem to think that it just has to get onto the insert, so when it gets onto the cover, I think some people get a little bit worried about that. And another thing as well, is poo leaks through the stitching. It can happen. Vicki: That’s fairly common because, it’s similar to flooding actually. Newborn poo is very, very liquid, so that will often happen if you don’t have the inside of the nappy, whatever your booster is, nice and firm against the skin, so there’s a bit of a gap there. That allows it to roll off the boosting and onto the shell and through the… Vashti: The stitch line. Vicki: …through the leg. Yeah, the stitching holes, that’s it. The leg stitching holes. Andrew: Actually speaking of… Keren: Or if you don’t change fast enough. Vicki: Yeah. Andrew: You know how people say to us, do I have to touch poo? And we say, that’s the worst thing you’re going to touch. I got wet cat food on my hand the other day. And that… Vashti: That’s gross. That is so gross. Andrew: That is so much more gross than kid poo, baby poo. It was like, had it on my finger and I was like ugh… and it stinks too. Yeah. Vashti: My youngest actually spilled wet cat food on his pyjama shirt the other night, and he came up to me afterwards and went Mum, I’ve got cat food on my pyjamas. And I’m like quick, go and change it, because you’re not sleeping in those. Keren: And it’s so oily as well. Andrew: It’s disgusting. It’s gross. It’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had on my hands. Vashti: You know actually, I would say wet dog food is worse than wet cat food. I hate wet dog food, the tinned dog food, and you get that on you… Vicki: The jelly. Vashti: Oh, ugh, I just want to throw up. My kids have definitely eaten wet dog food. Dry dog food, maybe. But no, when we had dogs, we never, ever bought that tinned dog food, it’s just, I can’t stand it. It’s just disgusting. Andrew: So last question, Keren, what have you got? Keren: What is a dry pail? Vicki: It’s a basket or a container that you store your nappies in. It can be a nappy bag, it can be all sorts of things. Andrew: Wet bag. Vicki: Yeah, that you store your nappies in, in between washes. Vashti: Anything that’s aerated that has air flow going through it. Vicki: It’s basic. Keren: And if you’re using a dry pail with your washing and you’ve done a pre-wash, is it OK to put that wet washing in a dry pail? Vashti: Yeah, because it’s spun out, so there’s no liquid in it really. Andrew: Strucket. There’s a good plug for strucket. Keren: I think it’s the name that throws people. After they do their prewash, they feel maybe they need to dry it to put it in a dry pail, it’s the name that’s confusing. Vicki: The nappies going on top are wet anyway. It’s not like they’re sopping wet out of the washing machine. They’ve spun them and what have you in their prewash. Andrew: OK, I think we’ll finish. Thank you, Vicki. Vicki: Thanks, Andrew. Andrew: Thank you, Keren. Keren: No problem, thank you. Andrew: Thanks, Vashti. Vashti: Thanks, Andrew. Andrew: I almost got you. Vashti: You almost got me. Andrew: Bye everybody. Vicki: Bye. Keren: Bye.