Reusable Nappies

So, with less than a month to ours is due, we are talking about Nappies.

Apart from the Ecological and Cost benefit, are their any benefits to the baby in using Reusable Nappies?

Cheers

It's parents save a shed load of cash to pay for nice toys/private tuition if needed/ college fund/good food?

Just a thought.

The inserts make great oil rags etc.

We invested an arm and a leg on reusable nappies, and whilst they're good for the occasional post poo nappie before bed we've stopped using them as the little darlings prefer to drop into cloth than a disposable. And frankly scraping cr@p off nappies when you're knackered just isn't on.

So, maybe get a few, but don't expect to be 100% enviro, there's enough hard work out there being a parent without making more of it…

we use em when we are in. when we go out we dont as its too much bother.

liners mean no poo scraping. but you do need to change a little more often.

we do save a fair bit on disposables – enough to notice. we have good space for drying after washing so dont need a tumble dryer.

the only issue we find is that most of the clotes are cut for the slimmer disposable nappy so getting the nippers arse in trousers wearing a re-usable can be a challenge.

Another benefit is you don't have two keep a pile of nappies until the next bin day!

We use reusable nappies with our three month old (today!) and have no regrets about it. Can't say I'm looking forward to whenever she starts eating solids but that's going to smell whatever nappies you use.

Cheapy hardware or pound shops are a good place to get nappy bins by the way. And if you're lucky your council will give you cashback when you buy reusable nappies.

We tried using them but with two little darlings it was a lot of work and they just didn't seem to get on with them, pretty much the whole day was spent changing nappies.

Used them with both our nippers, highly recommended. Seem to leak far less than disposables too. Did use a collection/delivery service which takes a lot of the hassle out of the cleaning side of things.

The enviro aspect is way over egged.

The enviro aspect is way over egged.

In my limited experience folk using disposables tend to bag them in palstic bags before binning, thereby increasing the time they take to rot away.

We'll be going the reuseable route when our little on comes along in the next week or so. We got them all on Freecycle and saved a shed load that way.

We used cloth nappies on our 2 children and did find that nappy rash was less of an issue with these over disposable ones. Presumably this is due to breathability although we used supermarket brand disposables rather than Pampers and that.

It worked well using the cloth nappy most of the time but having disposables on hand for the first few weeks during the black sludge period and then to take out and about.

Based on experience with our first child we stopped using the cloth ones sooner on our second, the biggest issue being capacity. There is only so much absorbancy in a cloth nappy and when thekids get bigger they obviously pee more.

A downside of using both types is that clothes that are tight in cloth and loose in disposables and vice versa.

They are a faff to wash (I didn't end up doing much on this side) but then our bin didn't fill to the brim between collection days.

The options for cloth are wide and varied now and they can be very easy to use (washing aside) and look loads better than they did back in the day.

The liner cloths can be bought cheap enough, we got a load of fleece ones that a seller made at home and knocked out cheap so do shop around for those. A quick trip to the loo and a shake tended to get rid of most of the "issue" so the napy bucket wasn't as bad as it could have been between wash days.

Cloth cost a lot in the first instance and you'd have to be pretty determied to make them last until potty training is cracked but I got over all my reservations really quickly.

I used 'terrys' with liners on all mine in past 12 years. Worked well and had a couple of the shaped velcro ones too. Didn't give myself a difficult time tho when away and used Huggies then. Nothing more lovely than a lineful of nappies blowing in the breeze……….and they made great bike cleaning rags when continence was achieved!

Once heard that every disposable nappy that was ever produced still exists somewhere…!?

Also as disposable nappies end up (as you would expect) in landfill the contents go a long way to helping the natural decomposition of other landfill so using terries are, in one way, bad for the environment.

My daughter is now 2 weeks old and we are using re-usable nappies(Bum Genius).

And we are getting on fine with them, she gets through between 6-10 a day and they go in the wash ready for the next morning. (we have 20 nappies in total and havn't yet got to a stage where they are all dirty/wet/drying on the line)

As for being more eco friendly i'm not so sure, but they are definatley saving us money.

but they are definatley saving us money.

But don't forget the extra power and water bills as well as all the washing powder… And what will you do in the middle of a rainy winter spell?

We are using disposable simply because we have twins (as I am sure you all know by now 😉 ) and the washing machine is already on constantly, we have put up two washing lines which are constantly full and our loft room is now a drying room just with all the clothes, bibs, muslins, bedding etc.

"Extra power" equated to about 1 (2 max) extra washes per week (poo scraped into loo, dirty nappies stored in a lidded bin with water and tea tree oil).

With second child we didn't have a tumble dryer and everything got dried outside in a very small covered space on the side of our garden shed (so can just leave them out for a day or so with no worries about rain etc). One study that questioned the eco aspect based caluclations on using fabric conditioner (which you don't), super hot wash (only needed every few washes) tumble drying them and ironing (ffs!). Also didn't consider re-using for future siblings and then re-use again as bike wash rags etc. I guess at the end of all that they could be burnt for heat!

Shaped washables look OK but expensive and can take ages to dry. DO NOT overlook the humble square of terry cloth. Dirt cheap and unfolds to single layer so drys quickly. Because they are cheap you can have a big pile of them so never short of stock / frantic to wash and dry quickly. One size fits newborn right through to toddler, and different folds suit different kids / stages in their life (e.g. runny newborn poo etc).

Secure terry with a rubber nappy nippa (they are ace). Then spend a reasonable amount on the outers – velcro ones are most adjustable and look for good breathable waterproof fabrics.

Used cotton nappies for both of our kids. They work well up to 12 months, but after that there is too much volume for them to contain, and it all gets a bit messy.

You definately save money compared to disposables, in terms of weekly shop.

Less convinced about longer term environmental benefits (and I work in the environmental industry…). More power, water and detergent use – plus our washing machine was on its last legs by the time they were both done with nappies.

Thanks everyone for the info, we're going to give them a try and see what happens 😀

**** lost my whole post! Damn connection!

Anyway, to summarise: reusables good – little lamb/tots bots the best we found. Saves loads of money, washing is easy just toss em in the wash. Drying inside on a rack in a warm palce. Perform jsut as well if not better than disposables. Bamboo is best. Don't get Motherease ones they smell, leak and give rash. Reusing saves loads of money and doesn't require any special procedures. Paper liners for older kids on solids, otherwise just throw em in the machine. Fleecy/pile liners wick amazingly and keep arses very dry.

Shop around on eBay for deals.

Also as disposable nappies end up (as you would expect) in landfill the contents go a long way to helping the natural decomposition of other landfill so using terries are, in one way, bad for the environment.

Disposables take ages to decompose, and swell up in landfill (thus taking up valuable space). And when they do decompose, they generate methane, which is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

I'm not having a go – the reality of looking after twins could well make me abandon my environmental principles!

mastiles_fanylion – Member
Also as disposable nappies end up (as you would expect) in landfill the contents go a long way to helping the natural decomposition of other landfill so using terries are, in one way, bad for the environment.

You really are clutching at straws.
Why not just post up your topic you started (assume it was yours) we did this to death then.
Basically reusable [slightly] better for the environment and cheaper [especially if you have more than one child – not twins mind] but require more parental effort.
Disposal bad for environment cost more but convenient (oh yes good for landfill that hot bed of biodegradabilty )

Laundred service bit dearer than both probably best for environment

When you post up the study please post up the follow up one which admitted that the first one was wrong.

Junkyard – I do not know what study you refer to – I am simply stating a fact that was mentioned to me by my father-in-law who owns a business that supplies liners to the landfill industry and who has done lots of research into landfill and its management – not clutching at straws at all.

I did say *in one way* good for the environment. I am not saying they are perfect which they aren't, but no nappy system IS perfect. If you want to be perfect let your kids cr*p on your ecologically friendly carpet.

Cloth cost a lot in the first instance and you'd have to be pretty determied to make them last until potty training is cracked but I got over all my reservations really quickly.

We almost managed that – oldest son was in them until he got pull ups (soon after starting with a potty, as we realised it would help encourage), and wasn't in pull ups for that long. Wish we could say we had potty training cracked though! Timing was good, as that happened shortly after little one started in cloth ones, so we didn't have much overlap. Certainly with the little one it now seems easy compared to the hassles of having a hard to control 2 year old in them!

Cloth nappies also prepare you for "accidents" when nappy training (pants just go in the nappy bin) – as opposed to somebody we know who was throwing away lots of pants!

Laundred service bit dearer than both probably best for environment

I doubt it – they probably tumble dry them, which is not often necessary in our house.

MF – why is your washing machine on all the time? You only have twice as many kids as us, and ours isn't on half the time!

Same number of kids as us (given the bigger one's busy potty training and not always getting it right, along with jumping in puddles etc. he gets through more clothes than the little one who's a similar age to yours), and ours isn't on half the time.

Do not take it so literally. Perhaps I should have said 'it is on for an awful lot of the time'. Does that make it any easier for you to understand?

And, as I am sure you with older children can still remember, babies do make lots of mess. One child jumping in a puddle means one change of clothes (unless you take that child straight to another puddle, then more fool you.
But two babies need feeding up to 9 or ten times a day and tend to be sick lots until their tummies have developed enough to keep food down. And that sick gets on bibs and baby grows and bedding and coats and play furniture and…

And, as I am sure you with older children can still remember, babies do make lots of mess.

Given I've got a baby (as I mentioned) I can remember quite well. As I also mentioned, the older one gets through more clothes than the baby. We've admittedly not ever had the problem with sick going everywhere, which I can accept as a reason for running the washing machine lots.

We've admittedly not ever had the problem with sick going everywhere,

Which has been the root of most of our problems – some days we have had to give Evie up to 8 changes. Izzi is generally better.

They both also like to wait for days before unloading sh*te from hell which goes everywhere, through layers and onto seats too. (Cue claims that re-usable ones are better at dealing with that level of p00).