How to use and care for Flaparaps

Quick links: How to put on a Flaparap, How to offer a pottitunity, How to deal with a miss, How to look after your Flaparaps (pul and wool), How to look after your pads.

How To Put On A Flaparap

Standing, Crawling or Tummy Time

Flaparaps are easiest to put on or change if your baby isn't lying flat on their back. This might seem a bit odd if you've never changed a baby in any other position, but you get used to it very quickly.

1. Attach One Side of The Belt to The Flaparap

Then fold your pad and locate your child.....

Small pad: fold in half, then in half again to make a short rectangle, then in half again to make a long retangle.

Large pad: fold in half, then in half again to make a short rectangle, then into thirds like you'd fold a letter.

2. Fasten The Belt Around Their Middle

Under the belly, above the bottom. Flap at the front, belt at the back.

The belt needs to be tight enough to hold the flap securely. Think about how tightly you'd fasten your regular nappies, and aim for that.

3. Insert The Pad

The pad must be pushed forwards against the front of the Flaparap. This bit is important and it takes a little bit of practice to do it fluently.

4. Tuck and Tug

Tuck the flap under the elastic.

Spread out the back of the Flaparap so that it's flat and comfortable.

Give it a tug on both sides to make a seal around the legs.

Done!

No need for a changing table or pinning your child down with your elbows; just nice clean pants in under a minute.

How to Use The Belts

Flaparaps come with two adjustable belts to take you from birth to potty training.

This short video demonstrates how to use them.

How to Offer a Pottitunity

Once they're on, exposing that little bottom is fast and simple.

1. Unflap the Flaparap

Twist and pull to one side at the front. This stops the pad from falling out and keeps the flap well out of the stream.

2. Offer

However and wherever you offer, these pants won't be in the way.

3. Flap back up.

Do this with your child standing if they can stand, or hold them facing you tummy-to-tummy if they're tiny. Or while they try to crawl off if they're a bit of a pickle.

How To Deal With A Miss

If they're wet

Flap down, replace pad, flap up.

If the elastic is wet, use a dry part of the pad to draw out excess moisture.

Even if the pad got a good soaking and the wrap is a little bit wet that wetness won't come through the new pad so your child will feel bone dry.

If they're soiled

Unclip one side of the belt and remove the whole thing!

How To Look After Your Gear: Flaparaps

Washing PUL Flaparaps

Wash at 40°C and air dry.

After a poo miss your Flaparap might well be soiled. Rinse it off (in the toilet under a running flush if it's heavily soiled or otherwise in the sink).

Use cool or warm water. If you use hot water you might damage the waterproofing.

Do not wring out. The twisting will stretch and damage the waterproof coating.

Do not leave them in a pile of soggy pads while you wait for wash day. As the water evaporates, urine can become quite potent stuff. I've seen fabrics damaged by concentrated wee if they're left for days at a time on a regular basis.

Lanolising Wool Flaparaps

Lanolise your Flaparaps before you use them! (Or they won'd be waterproof...)

Lanolise your Flaparaps for the first time, again after two weeks, again after a month, and then every 6 weeks - 2 months after that.

1. Dissolve the lanolin in hand-warm water.
   
   • Trial Pack: Add 1 sachet of soluble lanonlin to 1L of hand-warm water.
   • Starter Pack: Add 2 sachets of soluble lanonlin to 2L of hand-warm water.
   • Never-Look-Back Pack: Add 3 sachets of soluble lanonlin to 3L of hand-warm water.
2. Add the Flaparap(s) and give them a good mix about and a few gentle squeezes to make sure they are thoroughly soaked.
3. Leave to soak overnight.
4. Gently squeeze Flaparap(s) to remove the water. Do not wring. Do not spin.
5. Lie Flaparap(s) out flat on a towel to dry. This will help them keep their shape.
6. Roll the flaparaps inside the towel as if they were the filling in a swiss roll. Squeeze the roll to get the water out of the wool and into the towel. Lie the Flaparap(s) out flat and leave until completely dry.

Hand Washing Wool Flaparaps

You won't need to do this very often.

If you have more than one Flaparap and can air them between uses they should stay fairly fresh for weeks at a time. If they get grubby, or start to smell, or don't seem as waterproof as they once were, rinse them or wash them and then relanolise.

To Wash Wool Flaparaps:

1. Use hand-warm water.
2. Use 'wool wash' liquid or another gentle washing liquid. (You don't want to strip off all the lanolin. You want to leave some as a base even though you'll be re-lanolising after the wash.)
3. Wash by gently squeezing the wool to force the water through. Do not wring. Do not rub or scrub.
4. Rinse thoroughly in hand warm water. Again: squeeze, don't wring or rub.
5. Rinse again in clean warm water ;)
6. Re-lanolise following the instructions above.

How To Look After Your Gear: Pads

Washing Pads

Wash the pads before you use them!

Residues from the manufacturing process make the pads water resistant. If you use them without washing them first, you'll have leaks everywhere.

They also need to shrink to size and full out.

For best results, wash at 60°C and tumble dry before use. Preferably twice.

If you don't want to do this, they should still shrink with repeated washes.

Do not use fabric softener. It coats fabric to make it feel soft, but it's also water resistant.

The pads are likely to bleed for the first few washes. Treat them as you'd treat a cotton t-shirt of the same colour.

Washing pads after a miss

Wet pads can be washed in your normal wash cycle. A couple of wet pads with a load of clothes makes no odds, but 20 wet pads probably hold half a litre of wee between them so you might want to rinse them first.

Soiled pads should be rinsed as soon as possible or left in a bucket of water until wash day. Most cloth nappy users swill soiled nappies in the toilet (under the running water of a toilet flush). You can also rinse them in a bucket and tip it down the toilet, or rinse them in a sink (if it drains into a sewer).

I rinse soiled pads until they're clean enough to go into my usual bucket and wait for the next wash cycle.

Drying Pads

These pads like to be tumbled; so if you have a tumble dryer, go mad.

If you're going to air dry them, don't peg them by the corners because they'll stretch out of shape. Fold them in half over the line.

Testing your pads

If you have any doubt about how well your pads are working, fold one as if you were going to use it and then tip half a cup of water onto it. If the water is sucked in immediately, you're fine. If the water pools or runs off the sides, it's going to leak.

Reminder

Don't rinse anything in your toilet if you have slow-dissolve cleaning products in your cistern!

How Did It Go?

If you have a few minutes to spare, do let me know how you got on with your Flaparaps.

If something isn't quite right, hopefully I can help. If everything is smashing I'd love to hear that too! jenn@bornready.co.uk

Happy Flaparapping!