Washable booster pads

[Stroller]

My old booster pads are starting to reach the end of their life, so I've been looking for replacements.  Perhaps booster pads isn't the best term, as when I'm in pocket-style nappies, they are the only absorbent part, so they're crucial rather than an extra.  My old booster pads are a few years old, and from a supplier I no longer deal with, as they owe me money for an order not fulfilled a few years ago.  The pads are good ones though: cotton and about 50cm by 50m (20" by 20").  Folded in three they work really well and they're very absorbent.  Crucially they dry as quickly as the terry squares I use for my nighttime nappy.  Sadly nothing lasts for ever though, and the cotton is starting to disintegrate.  One by one I'm having to throw them away.  So, what could I replace them with that's easily available here in the UK?

First I bought a couple of boosters from Nappies R Us.  £4.99, and about 50cm by 20cm (19" by 8").  They are quite thin and made of man-made fibre.  I wasn't convinced I wanted them for my daily wear - I'd prefer natural fibre.  Secondly I bought a couple from Cuddlz.  Slightly shorter than the Nappies R Us boosters, £12.99, and made of multiple layers of terry cotton.  These work much better, being very absorbent.  The downside though is that they take ages to dry.  I'm not prepared to keep the dryer running for long enough to dry them out completely, so I'd need to air dry them for a couple of days after their time in the dryer.  I can find a bit of discreet space to dry a couple, but not enough for a full washing machine (10 or 12?) so they're not the solution.  I'll probably wear them overnight though.

Next I went looking for baby nappies to use as boosters.  Most were 60cm by 60cm (2ft square), which is too big for me.  A booster 60cm long gives me an unfortunate bulge at the front.  Then I found some 50m square nappies on Amazon from merrygoround.co.uk.  Cotton and bamboo, soft as anything, they give my nappies an extra bounce!  £37.50 for 12, and they're maybe 2/3 as absorbent as my old ones.  So I'll be using 3 of these instead of 2 of the old ones.  I just love these.

[Alyeskabird]

If you could sew I would say just make your own. Me, I allways just stuffed a couple baby diapers in there if I felt the need for extra absorbancy, but thats not allways posable, nore is it allways posable to do it comfortably. The drying time is a huge issue with cloth as well, spec as a lot of places now want to make diapers really thick, ignoreing how much of a pain that might be for cleaning up and drying after the fact. I find 2 or 3 'day' waight diapers, is better than 1 'night' waight diaper, just cause they dry so much faster.

[Stroller]

I had sewing my own as a backstop, but now I don't need to.  Drying is an issue, and every 2 days our tumble-dryer is going for about 2 hours drying my nappies.  It takes that long to dry my overnight terry squares, so anything that can dry in the same time or less is OK with me.  Soaker pads that you have to fold up will dry OK, but multi-layer pads won't, in general.  Man-made fibre nappies will dry OK, but thick cotton nappies won't.

It'd be nice to be able to line-dry in the summer, but we don't have enough privacy here for that to be practical.  I can line-dry my onesies though, as they look pretty much like T-shirts on the line if you don't get too close.

[Alyeskabird]

Yah line drying is best, also, the the sunlight helps to bleach them white, and helps to sanatize them, and they tend to be fresh smelling compaired to just out of the dryer. On the other hand, I rather enjoy slipping on a cloth diaper fresh from the dryer in the winter, really warms me up quickly.

[foreverdl]

I like to wear disposable diapers But without the paper on my skin. I have been getting the cotton kinda baby blanket 2 ft square, and I put it inside of the disposable diaper. Then I toss the diaper, and when I get around to washing the bucket of my cloth inserts. They dry in just about 30 mins.

[Fakename4me]

Have you considered cloth baby diapers?