Cloth Nappy Chat Group (Ireland)

Cloth Nappy Chat Group (<--link to group)

Impact on RL!!

This chat group was not one of the first to crop up as a common denominator on EBI (you might like to click on that to see what it is if I've lost you already) and Cloth Nappies are actually something I knew little about until about May of 2012 (5 months into the existence of EBI) but it is one of the many groups that started out there. With membership of almost 600 at the moment (just over a year in), there my not even be a lot of overlap with the other groups I have been involved in -though I'm sure all my nappy spamming has drawn a few to the fluffy side.

This is very possibly the one group that has brought me most joy and personal pleasure and impacted most on my personal life (in real life that is). This group has had quite an impact on others and on the environment, as it was the birthplace of the Cloth Nappy Library in June 2012 :)

 It qualifies as a passion for sure!!!

I had started using cloth nappies when my 3rd little one was about 9 months and my 2nd was a big boy of 3 years and 3 months. Quite a late starter!! I had wanted to use them with my 1st baby but hadn't thought they existed any more and I had tried some out in the early days with my second but it was a bad bad experience with leaks and they ended up on the dolls. I had nobody to ask and gave up on the third wear!

What was different this time? 

I had some good nappies to start with, borrowed from a friend and then because I now knew someone using them I also had someone to ask about the practicalities. Within about a fortnight I had bought the few I'd borrowed and invested in more so we could use them on both of the boys full time -saving a small fortune as well as the environment. Most convincing for me, my 3yo refused point blank to wear "sposies" (as we call them) and demanded "WOVELY NAPPIES" all the way. (I can see why now that I've tried out some "mama fluff" -much more comfy and not at all irritating.)

My personal favorite
in Kerry Colours!!

The chat group was very beneficial -helping us out with a little smelly nappy problem (-it turned out we were using too much detergent) and sharing a few other ideas to make life with cloth nappies that little bit easier. (Not that it was difficult, I'd hate to put you off!). I was in touch with experts and seasoned cloth nappy users, addicts if you like. I ended up getting the odd mad nappy myself -losing the run of myself and my very frugal and practical nature. I was in the right spot to hear about sales and bargains and my stash grew. I went 100% fluffy -with a little help from my friends!!!



I'll get back to the joy of cloth nappies again so don't think for a second that you've heard the end of this!!

.... I'm just jumping to the library for the moment!

Cloth Nappy Library Ireland

The idea of a library arose quickly in the group as we realized that success with Cloth Nappies was to some degree dependent on getting some advice, a chat and even borrowing some to try out. Our intention was to help out those who had already opted to use cloth nappies since so many don't have a friend who was using them to show them the ropes. We asked retailers to donate nappies that people could borrow and their responses were very positive. Early on we had decided that we would try to get to baby events to reach more people all at once. This would help to let people know that the library was there to help and would also let people know that cloth was still an option and to see modern cloth nappies in the flesh: they are far from the terry nappies of old. 

Our first outing!

By time the All About Baby Fair was on, which gave us just over a month, we had collected a full stash of nappies with one of almost everything to show off. There was a lot of interest in our nappies there and we got to meet Ann from Anniepooh.ie, Sandra form Joeyroo.com and Monica from LittleComfort.ie in person! We also got to meet each other -the members of the Library Team at that stage. We'd only been collaborating on facebook before that! As well as being busy with the Nappy Library there we got to meet familiar faces (and sometimes just the names) from EBI in person.



We were off to a good start and it had all spilled over into real life!! Scary stuff -don't they say never to meet up with people from online forums? I was just so delighted that nobody turned out to be a creepy old man instead of the mama I was expecting! I don't watch a lot of TV but I have had a weakness for CSI, Criminal Minds and the likes in the past -that past might well have caught up on me but luckily I had at that stage accumulated many months of good EBI Karma to keep all those potential dangers at bay!

Watch this space for updates on the Cloth Nappy Library -I'll have to get around to sharing the rest of our success story. I've a funny feeling we'll have news to share in the coming weeks! Just in case you forget to check in here again you might like our FB page:
 Cloth Nappy Library Ireland

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