Cloth Pad Tips and Help

This page is to help give some tips/pointers/help to those trying cloth or thinking about trying cloth for the first time.

• Don’t buy or make lots of the same type of pad at first – use several kinds so you can find out what suits you best (so you’re not stuck with lots of pads you don’t like). See the Pad Suggestions page for more tips on buying/making pads

• Wear cloth pads with well fitting/snug undies…. not your daggy old ones you’ve saved for period use. Cotton underwear is best, as it’s not as slippy as something like nylon. They don’t have to be super tight, but just snugly fitting, not baggy old stretched out ones.

• Wear the pads around the house while you get used to them (and their absorbency). That way if you do have any issues, you’re at home where it’s not as catastrophic.

• Bunching, shifting and other annoying problems are generally because the pad shape is not right for your body or your underwear. So you may need to experiment with different pads and different underwear to find what works for you.

• Pads will naturally migrate to have the centre of the pad in the narrowest part of your crotch (generally straight down from your vagina). So sometimes you may need a longer pad than you think, or a pad that has one end longer than the other, to give you the coverage you need – because just placing a pad further up at the front/back may not work – it may slip its way back to where it wants to be :P

• Place a disposable or piece of plastic/PUL under your cloth pad while you work out how absorbent they are if it doesn’t have waterproofing.

• While out you can fold the top and bottom ends of some winged pads in (soiled side in) and snap the wings closed around them to create a little parcel that keeps the pad contained.

• Use a “ziplock” bag or PVC pencil case to hold pads in while you are out, if you don’t have a purpose made “wetbag”

• Don’t get dismayed if you get leaks or they don’t seem to work well at first. Sometimes it can take a few cycles to work out what shapes/styles/absorbencies/changes you need.

• Talk to other cloth pad users if you need advice or just to talk cloth!

• Change your soak water regularly to avoid smells (See more washing tips on the washing page)

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