Reusable nappies or disposable - partner says he won't use reusable

[dec20]

Hi everyone

I've been looking into reusable nappies and would really like to try these. My fiance is really hesitant about using these and he has no logical reason. It's really frustrating me.

Has anyone used reusable nappies and find they've been ok or do you prefer disposable? Also any recommendations?

Thank you

I did mix and match. Reusable at home, disposables when out and about or at nursery. This way, you can try both and see how it feels.

I do my bit to be as eco-friendly as I can, but I couldn’t entertain the idea of scraping poo off nappies and then having poo particles hanging around in my washing machine!

@CaptainCabinets

use a nappy bucket.

I couldn't do it personally and I think his logical reasoning would be obvious?

I was put off by dealing with smelly poo, but honestly, it isn’t so bad, especially if they are exclusively fed breast milk.

If you are drawn to reuseables for environmental reasons, you can get more eco friendly disposables now. They aren’t perfect but no nappy solution is really.

@dec20

i think the term 'reusable' doesn't do them any favours. I prefer 'cloth' 😊

ask him why he doesn't want to use them & realistically how it's going to impact him??

the modern ones are a world apart from Terry Rowling ones, nothing like a line full of white terry towling nappies 😃. They feel cleaner & they're less faff to get dried. But I guess you're wanting the newer variety!!

Talk to him about why he doesn't want to use them & see what you can do to make him see it differently.

is he very eco minded in other ways? I don't know how much more Eco fruendly the reuseabkds are with all the washing/drying, but there's certainly a lot less landfill!!

I tried reusable ones with my youngest but they were too big and I was forever washing the things. Went back to disposable, just less faff for me

Agreed

@Wingingitmum11

no it's really not, why couldn't you do it?

have you got children? Nappies are not the worst if it!

It might be worth seeing if you've got a local nappy library or cloth nappy peer support group to find out more. My husband was very against the idea of cloth nappies when I was pregnant with our first but during pregnancy the smell of disposables made me vomit so I was able to carry the point and we used cloth nappies almost exclusively on both of our children

We found reusable so much better than disposable - leak proof, more absorbent, and just felt nicer and less plasticky against DS’s skin.

DH also absolutely HATED opening a bin full of dirty stinky nappies, so washing disposables (you flush the poo down the toilet, and wash them every 2 days) was just much less disgusting.

There was a good podcast that covered the eco considerations and also ways to make it easier, if he's unaware that cloth nappies have moved on considerably since he was a child.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md4l

Do it for the environment, it's fine, plastic nappies are completely gross

I preferred disposable. I worked in a daycare that used cloth nappies for environmental reasons and we had to constantly check who was dry and who was wet so no little kid was sitting in a wet nappy.
The disposable ones however stay dry, meaning less nappy changes and less checking. It also means you don’t have quickly find somewhere to change them. Much less hassle and much more comfortable for the baby

Personally I wouldn’t do it either, disposable nappies are there to make life easier. Who wants to be scraping or scrubbing poo off of a nappy before having to wash them, as a new mum, the washing machine is used often enough without adding nappies to the mix.

We ended up using cloth nappies because DD would get 5 blow outs per day. At least with cloth nappies the mess was contained...

Loved my reusables. For the first 6 months/while they’re solely on milk the poo is water soluble so you don’t have to do anything to the nappies just store in an airy basket and then wash.

If he’s not on board, I’d try and understand why as he may just be imagining handling poo and it being much grosser than it is.

Would reusable wipes as a start be a good place to try from? They’re so much nicer and better at cleaning than disposable wipes.

It's worth getting one or two and then you can try them out and so can he. If it turns out too inconvenient then you won't have lost much money. If it turns out he finds them less of a hassle/etc than he expected, then you will be able to buy more before having spend loads out on disposables.

I didn't like them as much as I expected to. People online get extremely into these things and it's so polarised you can end up thinking they are the best thing since sliced bread. The reality was underwhelming.

If he is going to be doing half or more of the nappies, he gets to choose. I used disposables which is kind of against my principles in some ways but I was fucking exhausted and had enough to do without dealing with buckets of diluted shit. they are expensive - I had hand me downs but never got it together to use them, not even once - if you think you might not, and he knows he won't, don't spend the money.
Normally I am tough as old boots on lazy men and also men who have opinions about childcare which they think are worth anything compared to those of the extremely well informed woman. But in this case just let him choose

I used both and once I had tried cloth there was no going back. They were better at containment - no more messy leaks, had no sickly sweet chemical odour and looked gorgeous!

I used fleece liners and simply shook any poo into the toilet to flush away at changes.

Used liners and nappies went into a net in a lidded bucket filled with Napisan which was kept in the bathroom.

When the bucket was full the net bag of nappies went into the machine on a hot wash, and the used Napisan was flushed away and the bucket rinsed out.

Any staining would bleach out in sunshine and a row of nappies drying on a washing line is a surprisingly satisfying sight.

@SummerSplashing I clearly have children from my username lol

My child has a dairy allergy and has been on allergy formula, not solids and trust me, I would not want to be dealing with that on a cloth nappy!

I’m with DH. Fuck. That. Life is too short, and particularly as a parent of a baby. Convenience all the way with anything to do with babies and small kids.

I used cloth nappies for my two, the modern ones are shaped and use velcro, and I used a nappy liner so there was no scrapping poo off. it was no hardship to have a nappy bucket, wash and dry them. Looking online now there is more choice of brands.

I used a mixture.

Started in disposables and at about 2 months invested in terries and some other formed ones (can't remember the brand, sorry). I ended up using reusables the majority of times when I was at home, and out and about if I was on my own.

My ex completely refused to engage with washables (despite not changing a single nappy until DS was weaning at 6m). DS didn't sleep through until over 12m so was able to use washables until he did, then for absorbency switched to disposables overnight only.

For ds2 I started with the washables at about 2 weeks and probably used more disposables overall because we were out and about more and ex wouldn't entertain carrying dirty nappies that were fully wrapped and watertight in the nappy bag for me to rinse and wash later

Saved an absolute fortune using terriers compared to the shaped ones or disposable. I'm still using the terrries as ds1 approaches 20 years old for cleaning the car!

When I had one kid and a garden, bog standard cloth nappies were easy - just flush the stuff, bin the liner, drop into a bucket of Napisan and then into the machine at the end of the day to dry the following morning.

Once I had two and no garden or space for a tumble dryer, it was disposables all the way.