DadTrackWorld – Reusable Nappies

We’ve had our wee boy two weeks now and are shocked at how much plastic waste we’re generating!

Anyone have experience using reusable nappies? Recommendations of brands? Did they cause any rash/chaff issues on your child?

Cheers!

biodegradable disposables?

http://www.ecomarket.com/discover/organic-baby/babies/cloth-diapers/biodegradable-diapers/

Mine must be a matter of days older than yours then. It is mind-boggling how much waste there is isn’t it? And the poor washing machine: I don’t think it’s had a moment off.

PM Lister on here. He’s done the hippy nappy thing twice & seems to have become an aficionado.

We used re-usables quite a bit, they work quite well when they’re pooing so regularly that they need changing often. However after about 6 months we moved to disposables at night as she slept better. Also used disposables when out and about.

If you’re prepared to be washing a load of nappies every 2 days then they’re fine. I think that they’re best suited to young babies like yours but when they’re pooing at a more regular interval the priority is their comfort and keeping them dry from wee, to that end I find disposables better but you only go through 4 a day.

Anyone have experience using reusable nappies?

Yes

Recommendations of brands?

All seemed largely a much of a muchness though some were easier to use and wash. Had tried pretty much every brand available when kids were younger as the [ex] wife sold them as a business. I dont think it makes a huge difference re fit or anything tbh.

Did they cause any rash/chaff issues on your child?

I forget the rational now but all kids get rash and its not really down to the nappy

Pros – reusable, cheaper in the long run, easy to use.- even used when we went camping
Cons – storage of dirty nappies, lots of washing, drying a problem in winter. Bigger bag to carry around.

they tend to get better bladder control as when they wee they get wet so they associate it. With disposables you could probably leave it on till they poo- is this more hygienic – dont know for sure but i doubt it

Yes, and heaven forbid we bought second hand 😀

I think you tend to change them more when young, but it effectively only adds an extra clothes wash every couple of days, but does save a small fortune. Best to get some quality ones (bumgenius?), and depending how big your little one is, they tend to be a bit bulky once the liner is added – that’s the only downside we found.

Can’t remember how long it was (6 months?) but we basically started to use the ease of disposables more and more as the tiredness gradually kicked in 🙂

We used washable and it saved us a lot of money as well as the waste issue. They are also much better for Jnrs skin as they are 100% natural fibres (bamboo I think).

Can’t remember the brand but it came as a pack with various sizes and a bucket. You fill the bucket with a sanitizer solution so it doesn’t smell and you would be washing them every other day or so. Helps if you have a decent set up for laundry – we have the washer in the garage so that is where the bucket lived and was no bother.

We did this for at least a year. It is a bit of a commitment but it works well. We also had a very smooth ride when potty training which may or may not have had anything to do with the above.

Congratulations!

despite a number of studies in this area there is no evidence to suggest that re-usalbes are any more environmentally friendly than disposables (energy in mnufacture and re-use etc.) – not saying they’re not but when you get home after work and the house is destroyed, your missus is knackered and emotional, you’ve got to make tea, wash up, get the boy to sleep, do the bottles, put the bin out, order yet more sh!t off t’interweb, hoover, iron your shirts…..do you really want to add wash nappies, dry nappies, iron nappies to the list when you can just just think ‘ahhhh, saved a load of energy there, well done eco-dad!’

Regarding the rash thing we were told don’t use talc, only bath once or twice a week and just cotton wool and water for the first couple of months. Not sure if any other regime would have made any difference but ours was rash free.

Our little chap is sporting disposables (1 or 2) overnight and when out and about (or when utterly knackered from lack of sleep or having an attack of cant-bear-sed), otherwise its reusables all the way. I guess we do an extra wash every couple of days or so. Certainly saves a few quid in the long run.

Have a mixture of brands (yup, we’re penny scrimping with second hand nappies), little lamb, motherease, tots bots – all much of a muchness.

wash nappies, dry nappies, iron nappies

WTF? you iron nappies?

No – we use disposables but if i didn’t i would – should do tea towels and under crackers too…..but don’t (the MiL is horrified that we don’t on hygeine grounds!)

OP – using a mix sounds like a good shout – not really thought of that before

thestabiliser – it’s more about reducing waste to landfill, not saving energy per se. Not sure the degradable ones are any better TBH, they’ll be stuffed in a plastic bin bag then buried in the ground with no air and no means to degrade. Probably!

We used them – offspring is now out of them, but we got through on basically one £300 batch of reuseables. Haven’t worked it out, but that’s a pretty big saving and a lot less into the landfill.

We have a full set of reusables available at the moment if someone wants to make us an offer £400 worth but don’t want much for them 😉

http://www.nappyinformationservice.co.uk/environment.htm

it’s more about how you launder them for aggeragte environmental impact
Also if the local authority of the OP uses energy from waste rather than landfill for disposal it would change again.
Yours
Principal Consultant
Environment and Sustainability

A-£2bn-environmental-services-organisation

Í live in Sweden and it’s illegal to landfill. Our waste goes to a CHP plant which heats my home.

If I buy secondhand reusables, that makes a big impact!

also, @thestabiliser – I’m not saying it’s false information but the above life cycle comparison of cloth vs disposable was funded by the disposable manufacturers.

Pessimistic glasses on.

Really?

Not the EA, Defra and WRAP then?

We used terry squares with the eldest, they were fine until he got too big for them so we bought some shaped ones.

We just used to prefold the squares every night and used nappy nippers instead of pins, because they’re loads easier. Use flushable paper liners to cut down on the amount of shite you’ve got sitting in the bucket.

We switched to disposables when the eldest was about 2 and the youngest had come along. Don’t seem to work as well with girls, the poop goes where you don’t want it to be 😕

The page quotes a study done by EA, Defra and WRAP but the website is run by AHPMA.

Members of AHPMA: http://www.ahpma.co.uk/members.html

I had 2 in terry nappies. 😐 Memories of a sterilising bucket, or was it 2 buckets? 😐

Don’t use baby wipes, plain water and cotton wool is much kinder.

Read the report then – not the website

We used reusables that had a flushable paper liner when ours were small, but as they grew switched to disposables to cope with the quantity of ‘waste’. Still got them so if anybody in the Farnborough area wants to try them get in touch.

STOP

We have two or three binbags of the buggers. Please take them from us!

despite a number of studies in this area there is no evidence to suggest that re-usalbes are any more environmentally friendly than disposables

The studies I read had people boil-washing them and tumble drying them. You don’t need to boil wash, in fact ours had 50C on the washing instructions, and we rarely tumble dried, only a handful of times.

The best ime are Tots Bots, the soft ones that don’t make a thick wad between the legs. We hav 11 of these, and two binbags of thick bamboo ones, older style Tots Bots. They work well but our kids found them uncomfortable when toddling around. They are shaped like disposables, with velcro tabs, so no pins or folding required.

Energy aside, you save a LOT of money. And we are the most disorganised parents ever, but washing the nappies never seemed much of a chore for some reason. Just chuck em in the washer every few days.

With toddlers we went to a disposable at night for reasons of nappy rash. Although you may be lucky, depends on their pee and guts. Some kids seem to have more acrid emissions than others, and more delicate skin.

Oh yeah we also had terry wipes, they were way more effective than disposable wipes. Makes for an easier job in fact.

Yes, Bumgenius Elemental from here. Had him in disposables for first 8 weeks or so and still at night as they don’t have as much wee capacity as disposables without the boosters that I have yet to buy.

Dead simple to use, no more difficult than a disposable, don’t think the washing is that much of an issue, chucking a dozen nappies in the machine every 2 days and hanging them to dry is about 2 minutes work (I timed it)….they don’t need ironing.

Although I feel good about reducing waste to landfill, main reason was for cost, which is undeniably lower, even more so when you consider you can use them for a second baby, or that there is a pretty good second hand market once you’re done.

Recommend the Nappy Lady[/url] for information and advice, even if you choose to purchase elsewhere.

We use Bambino Mio and, despite my advice to the contrary, the wife puts them in with all our other washing at 30ºC 😯 .

They became much easier to deal with once she started eating proper food, there was muchos mess in the first few weeks! Oh and Cheeky Wipes as well- great for getting rid of dried on Wheatabix!

Cheers,
Jamie

I actually found it easier for the first 6mo, breast-milk poo is far easier to deal with than real food poo 🙂

serious question, with reusable nappies, do they go in the washing machine poop and all? or is there a scraping into the bin stage?

As well as a liner, you also use disposable liners which catch most of the muck – they look like those softener sheets you put in the tumble dryer and buy a role of.

We never had success with the paper liners, they always bunched up and ended up not catching anything.

Our kids seemed to have soft sticky gooey poo for some reason, rather than firm turds – most of the time at least. The occasional firm turd is a bonus, it just plops into the toilet, but otherwise yes it goes into the machine poo and all. Poo is very water soluble. Some bad ones I scraped a bit, but only around 18mo-2yo, it didn’t really happen before that age. And even then it was just shaking some lumps into the bog.

8OThanks for that molgrips, very informative

The paper liner thingies catch most of the poo. If it all goes horribly wrong, the odd nappy gets hosed off in the shower (or outdoors). But 99% of them just go straight from baby to storage bin (and then washing machine later obv).

At 30deg, the nappies come out still smelling faintly of baby turd. I don’t think I’d be putting them in with the other washing!

liners worked most of the time but they did require occasional sluicing if it was really sloppy- flushed whilst in the toilet

It did smell emptying the bucket but not as bad as emptying the chemical toilet

We have re-useables for our 2nd child who is now 3 months. Loads cheaper than disposable nappies and seem much comfier than disposable ones. Cheeky wipes for us too! Thought my wife was becoming a tree hugging hippy when she suggested the whole scheme but it’s working out well.

This is handy (clicky), although we only needed it with #2 over about 1 year old.

Don’t use baby wipes, plain water and cotton wool is much kinder.

Not what our midwives said. After the first two weeks they were happy for wipes to be used and said there wasn’t any evidence to suggest they shouldn’t be.

Not what our midwives said. After the first two weeks they were happy for wipes to be used and said there wasn’t any evidence to suggest they shouldn’t be.

Just because they are ok to use, doesn’t mean that water and cotton wool isn’t much kinder. Oh and our midwife told us differently.
Whatever is kinder, water and cotton wool/terry flannels are much cheaper than wet wipes, so does us fine!

Ours is now 5 months old. Been exclusively using reusables.

First started on the Bambino Mios but then migrated to the Tots Bots easyfit.

They’re brilliant. Add a microfleece liner in there to wick away the pee, no need for paper inserts.

Have been using reuseable wipes aswell – Cheeky wipes- come with a container and some scented oil.

All used nappies and wipes go into a bin with a mesh liner, mesh bag goes into washing machine. Job done.

It’s easy. So easy, cheaper and better for everyone that I am flabbergasted the number of seemingly intelligent parents who use disposables.

We use cheeky wipes and disposables however we take part in a scheme were the disposables are recycled so very limited if any landfill. I will dig out the details.

Just about to have first one…

Anyone trying to get rid of reusable? Molgrips?