I used reusable nappies for both my children. They are a bit harder work than disposables but once you get used to them they are fine.
I lived in Fulham when I had my first child and at the time (2008/9) the council gave all new parents £30 towards cloth nappies they also hosted monthly events called nappicino's presented by a couple of parents who were very pro real nappies. They talked about why to use real nappies and demonstrated a few , may be worth checking the H&F website. At the time Bumgenius (version 3) were the favourite and I bought 20 of these. They are an all-in-one nappy (over cover and 2 inserts) that grow with the child so you only need about 20 to last from birth to toilet training. They cost about £15 each but I got a discount and the voucher so paid about £200.
With real nappies you have to change every 3/4 hours otherwise you get leaks but as long as you know that they are great. You wash as 60 degrees and use very little detergent and sometimes a napisan. I considered using a washing service but we have a warm large kitchen and the nappies tended to dry over night, they are made of a quick drying material. I washed every 3 days, kept the soiled nappies in a bucket. Once you wean use a very fine paper liner that generally contained the poo which you flush down the loo. So there is very little poo and not much smell.......particularly compared to disposables!
I did however use pampers at night, I could not find anything better and did not want my babies waking because they were wet ....as well as hungry! However I know there are some good environmentally friendly disposables, that have a high percentage of biodegradable material. Websites like 'spirit of nature' are good for this.
I did fine them too hard work for a newborn when you can have frequent changes and there are lots of other things to get used to. Mine were both quite small and had thin legs so the nappies did not fit around the leg until 6-8 weeks.
Once my babies started feeding they grew fast and were both chunky babies. So there were some clothes that did not fit so well around a larger bottom so no skinny jeans!.... i know there are some websites that sell clothes for real nappies but I just made sure the bottoms were not too tight.
Youtube had some great videos of how to use a range of real nappies I loved Bumgenius and I am sure there is a version 4 and a lots of different designs now.
The are some Facebook sites like:
'Bumgenuis bums' and 'Cloth nappies for sale' which are worth looking at.
Good luck with the new baby. Please pm me if you want anymore info.
Sorry for the long post.
