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Have you heard of ‘cloth bumming’?

The new trend involves mums collecting fashionable, reusable nappies. With some costing hundreds of dollars!

Cecilia Leslie is one collector, she admits she has 500 nappies in her collection.

The mother-of-four spent $300 AUD on a pair of limited edition nappies, with just 100 made in the range.

Leslie admits to being addicted to the cloth nappies and is even a “nappy influencer” on social media, amassing more than 22,000 followers on Instagram

“I feel a sense of pride about how nice it looks and it’s a conversation starter, especially at baby groups,” she told the BBC.

“Some brands will launch a collection a couple of times a year, with about five or six prints each time, and I would buy all five in one go. I’ve also been known to buy five of the same print if it’s one I particularly love.”

She initially swapped disposable nappies for cloth to reduce waste but over the years collecting the colourful prints soon became a hobby.

“I’ve got a lot of limited editions, which sell out quickly. It became a bit of a game trying to track them down – I used to source them from Canada, Australia and the USA.”

She added, “I do get some negative comments about the size of my collection. Yes, it’s more than I need, but those nappies were bought at independent shops, so it’s keeping people in jobs, and I use every single nappy I own: none of them just sits on the shelf.”


View this post on Instagram

Interesting that today’s topic for the #ourcolourfulkids challenge is cloth nappies and I am joining in . I say interesting because there is an uproar on social media today with myself right in the centre of it. I have no intention to read any threads out there on the subject, but I know there will be lots of negativity . I have reporters wanting to come to my house, radios wanting me to do live interviews as well as dozens of newspapers and agencies wanting a piece of my opinion. My phone hasn’t stopped pinging . When Jenna, from BBC, interviewed me about my rather large cloth nappies collection back in January I knew exactly what the backlash would be. Yet I went ahead with it, why? . Because I want cloth nappies to become mainstream, I want mainstream media to talk about it, I want parents going on facebook and discussing it. I want to reach people who are unaware modern nappies look the way they do. I want the article to reach as many people as possible (link in bio) it’s within the 10 most read articles online today. . A headline saying ‘ I paid £2 pounds for a cloth nappy’ would not spark a debate, me saying I had a collection of 10 nappies would get diluted amongst the daily news and nobody would batter an eyelid. I don’t mind the ‘bait article’ ,as some have called it. It was necessary to capture people’s attention. . The only aspect of this I do not like is the division amongst cloth nappy users this always cause, the “ them and I”. Really, there shouldn’t be a “ I am a cloth user with 10 second hand nappies therefore I am more righteous than her” . Where is the supportive cloth nappy community we want others to be welcomed into, when we cannot be united in promoting cloth within our own means and budget ourselves? . But that is, unfortunately, a necessary evil on my journey to making cloth main stream . As I say to my children: “do not ever get upset about what others say about you, their words don’t determine who you are, do not give them that power. True power is sitting back and feeling secure in yourself and standing by your decisions, even when the world may think otherwise ???? Join me in #makelaundrynotladfill #makeclothmainstream

A post shared by Cecilia mum of 4 (@cecilia.leslie07) on


View this post on Instagram

Whenever I have a bit of time at home (like today ????) I like to prep some flip covers for a rainy day. They are so versatile, if you don’t know them, they are a an amazing cover and you customise the inserts. I make them robust and thick for night time or if Isaac has been drinking lots. I make them slim for when you need a nappy just to tide you over for an hour pre-bed time. You can play with the width of the inserts also- when they aren’t well???? I make the inserts as wide as can be so to catch everything; if it’s certain it will only be a pee nappy I get the insert narrow but in several layers ???? You can see by the photo how different they look . #dresskids_likekids #loveclothnappies #makeclothmainstream #clothnappies #clothdiapers .

A post shared by Cecilia mum of 4 (@cecilia.leslie07) on

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  • Good gravy. It’s amazing what people collect. If you have the money and enjoy it, why not. There’s far worse and more harmful things money can be spent on.

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  • More money than sense if you ask me!

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  • Unless these new cloth nappies are a big improvement on those available 6 years ago they are no near as good as they were advertised to be. They take “forever” to dry. Because of the “fabric” on the outside of them you cannot put them in a dryer at all. The inserts that go on the inside take longer to dry than the outer part so we needed more of them.

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  • They do look stunning, but I couldn’t justify spending this amount of money of something like this for a baby. Babies are expensive enough when you buy just the basics, I would think most new parents couldn’t afford these

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  • wow imagine how many people you could help with that money

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  • Wow they sure are pretty. But 500 reusable nappies would ask for a very big extra cupboard or even a spare room.

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  • Nappies are nappies whether their cloth or disposable, I personally never tried cloth, but I congratulate those that do, it’s work and worth it

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  • Designer bums, getting a little carried away…

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  • It just seems like the point of reusable nappies is to reduce waste. You really only need about 15-20 re-usable nappies for full time use. To have a huge collection seems so wasteful!


    • That was exactly my first thought when I saw this.



      • It’s only wasteful if she chucks them in the bin after she’s finished with them. If she sells them second hand or gives them away to other parents, it’s not so wasteful :)
        Wasteful of money, yes lol but some people spend their money on worse things.

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  • I personally couldn’t do reusable ones but i support those who do

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  • probably cost a whole lot less than we spend on disposables, it is their money, their child, their choice

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  • I loved using cloth nappies! There were so many great colours and patterns but I wouldn’t have paid that much for just one, that’s just ridiculous

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  • I do think it is great that she is encouraging and promoting modern cloth nappies, it’s great for our environment reducing landfil with plastic nappies etc, they are not so outdated that you need to use nappy pins etc and they are great for the budget too.

    I think though that spending $300AU dollars on one limited edition modern cloth nappy is really quite ludicrous – I mean it’s going to be pee’d in and poo’d in and eventually it would stain etc, I mean she did spend money on it so it can be used right? I know you can wash them etc but eventually that $300 investment is going to not be a shiny and pretty limited edition, it’s going to end up being used and smelly and worn out!

    I can think of loads more things I would spend $300 dollars on for my child rather than a nappy!

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  • People will pay through the nose for anything that is limited edition

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  • It’s nutty, but most people have something they splurge on.

    Reply

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