Nappucino and nappy confusion

Well, I went to the Lewisham 'Nappucino' or 'Nappy Natter' this morning. I've registered for my £30 voucher and I've got a great bunch of papers about nappy care which even taught internet-obsessed little me a few things! The downside was that the talk was given by one of the companies you can use the voucher with, so it was as much a sales pitch as advice session. The lady in question very much pushed the brands she sells, which whilst giving me lots of information on pocket nappies, meant that I didn't learn as much about shaped nappies and terries as I'd have liked. I'll explain what that all means to real nappy novices in a minute! However, for the price of a sales pitch, I got to hear first hand experience about using these nappies and how they can fit into a routine. I must admit, it really sounds like a plausible option and not a huge amount of work, despite common perception.

Anyway, now I really need to get researching, as there seems to be three main routes we can go down, or combinations of the three:

First is terry nappies, the big flat squares that both mine and Al's parents used. These require learning a spot of origami, but have the advantage of being very cheap and tried and tested by our parents.

Option two is the shaped nappy. These are similar to the terry nappies, but have been, er, shaped. This means they just do up with press-studs rather than having to faff around with origami and pins/nappy nippas. They make for a less bulky nappy too, but are a little more expensive than terries. Another advantage is that we've got about 15 of these already, plus liners. All we need is is the outer waterproof wraps and the paper liners and theoretically, we're sorted for nappies. However, they are quite old and won't last forever. Plus there is the temptation of...

...the pocket nappy. The most expensive option but the easiest. Basically it's an all in one nappy with an outer waterproof layer, inner fleecy layer then a pocket to put liner(s) in, like the Bum Genius that the lady was particularly pushing today. If I'm honest, I'm a little bit sold on these if we can afford them. They are one size, so 15-20 nappies will last us until Dylan is 3-3 and a half and they come in pretty colours. Yes, I am sad! However, I think these might end up being a bit cost prohibitive.

Whichever way we decide to go, at least I come away from today knowing which kind of liners are best for various issues, like heavy wee-ers, or heavy poo-ers (nice!) I think it'll be a trade off with convenience vs cost, so we might try a few of each and see if we take to it? We might be so overwhelmed we end up using 'evil' disposables after all.... dum dum daaaaaaah!