To not understand common attitudes to disposable personal hygiene products?

[hooochycoo]

I'm confronted by this again and again on MN, and I confess I don't understand why it's OK to justify using disposable nappies, wet wipes, sanitary protection etc? Why is it OK to add so much rubbish to the world on the justification of convenience when there are alternatives that are still easy but generate less or no waste? Use a flannel, use a moon up, put/hold your baby regularly over a toilet/ potty, use modern easy quick drying cloth nappies. Why's it OK to recoil in horror at the hippyness of such things? But it's ok to continue buying disposable rubbish from huge corporations and throw them into landfill? Apart from an argument of "each to their own", aibu to not get it?

But what about animal poo?

Iv no idea about animal poo as don't have an animal

I've yet to try holding a lurcher over the loo - there may be some objections

Poo is human waste. It has to be disposed of properly. Hence at hospitals they have proper disposals for anything covered in poo/ blood/ vomit etc

There is much less chance of cross contamination if you wrap a pooey nappy immediately after it is taken off and dispose of it, as opposed to carrying it through the house touching doors on the way to the loo to empty the poo.

How exactly does that work with a peanut buttery textured poo anyway? Do you use some sort of scraping implement? I can imagine it works ok with a nobbly poo, but small babies tend not to do those that often.

I've never thrown poo from a disposable nappy down the toilet and don't know anyone that does. How do you do this? It just sticks to the nappy. Do I have to own a special poo removing implement to achieve this? If I just hold the nappy upside the poo stays there.

The amount of disposable sanitary products used each year in the UK is 4.3 billion.
The Marine Conservation Society did a survey that showed for each kilometre of British beach they found on average 30 sanitary products.
Its even worse for cotton buds - the average was 97.
Its not a minor issue

That's down to people flushing them down the loo, which is yet another issue.

Doesn't it say to flush them on the packet though?

Binky, lolly sticks? Really euuggh! I had no idea such things existed! Noflaming, not wanting to hijack thread, but I was you 6 years ago then had a Mirena coil fitted. Took about a year to settle but I'm period free for last 5 years! Might be worth looking into if you haven't already been down that road?
But hovering dc's over a loo? How does that work? My kids were really heavy, like REALLY heavy. I couldn't last 2 minutes. And how does the timing thing work? Don't get it sorry. Not judgey, fair play to all who can make it work for them, but me, nope.

Agree with you but I use them. Yep I am a hypocrite...

No - they show that you are supposed to dispose of them in a bin and not flush them down the toilet.

Really? Shows how long it is since I read the instructions on a box of tampons

I think if you can, you should. But lots of people can't, without losing their dignity. Nappies; yes - but so difficult to break away from convenience. Those who do should be applauded though. I agree that it's babyish to dismiss mooncups and cloth nappies as 'hippyish' etc.

Right, did not spot the updated one had been linked to already. But I absolutely disagree that on average people boil wash and tumble dry their reusables. That completely twats most of them, making them unusable. Secondly, the advisory board for the first report was pretty biased, let's face it. Thirdly, the environment agency is not wholly centrally funded. It also derives some of its income from sources such as waste handling licenses. Which does kind of create a teensy conflict of interest.

This level of Eco awareness is but a drop in the ocean compared to what needs to happen. Use these products because you want to, not because you feel you should. If you want to do it, you're less likely to be a martyr about the whole thing.

Never held a baby over the toilet, except on rare occasions, as we have these nice convenient things called potties.

I just made sure to offer a tupperware or potty (depending on age)!when I changed the nappy. I used cloth AND disposables, just to confuse you all! And they seemed to like it, so I carried on. I definitely liked it! Swishing baby poo out of a receptacle is a lot easier than scraping it off a bottom and out of a sacral dimple. And it doesn't have a chance to go all the way up the baby's back.

I have fond memories of the diarrhoea-y mess at ten months that I didn't have to clean up. Baby woke me screaming in distress. Tried feeding him, etc. Walked round with him. Burped him. Didn't work. Finally, having run out of ideas, I placed him on the potty. His whole body relaxed, and this stuff positively gushed out. Took him back to bed, and he snuggled down happily.

Jessie if the post below was in relation to my earlier comment, this was something relayed to me by a child psychologist in a fostering scenario. I said it can be tantamount to child cruelty, not that everyone who did it was torturing children. If you feel comfortable with your parenting decisions then there is no need to be defensive.

She explained that she had dealt with a mother insisting her daughter was sat on a potty after every meal until there was a bowel or urinary movement. This was sometimes for well over an hour, until the child was in discomfort and upset & it wasn't an isolated case.

I mentioned it to her because I was toilet training my DS and had visited a friend who also made her children sit endlessly on a potty, eat meals on a potty and read on a potty, or, when they tapped their nappy to tell their mother they need to urinate, resulted in some kind of army drill - shouting, rushing and swinging the baby to the toilet and ripping the baby grow off as fast as possible. Berating the child for not holding on, and making a mess. Changing outfits etc.

I found it quite stressful, and I was 35.

Now some people may do this in a very calm and balanced way, and not chide when said baby gets up and wees three inches to the left of the potty, but others won't manage to remain as calm. My friend was very well educated, but I was totally shocked at the way she carried it out.

Kew tied to the potty?

thebigjessie I defiantly think EC can work with some children; as you have described with your son.

I think it is a parenting choice however, rather than an Eco one

Holding babies over the toilet is meant to refer to the practice often known as elimination communication. It's how babies were toilet-trained before we became reliant on disposable nappies & still are in developing countries. Like BLW there are various ways & levels of how people do it, from never using a nappy to effectively just early potty training. I have used some of the principles of it with my DC as I found them easy & it made sense to me.

On the OP's original point I don't think people will change their ways until they become financially persuaded to, or legally have to.

I used disposable nappies but if they were being changed in the house I did empty the contents down the loo. I vaguely recall I did a lot of shaking and may have used an old spatula or similar to scrape.

Mooncup sounds hugely impractical for anyone with a heavy flow and/ or who is out of her home for long periods of time.

Jolly if you don't like people picking up on your broad brush comments, don't make them.

I'm not defensive. I'm annoyed.

ziggie probably a parenting choice (did not like seeing the stress some people get into with trainimg toddlers, a financial choice (I worked out the cost of changing a nappy twice in ten minutes!) and an eco choice.

Given I had twins, it seemed most sensible.

Caitlin I have very heavy periods and have found my Mooncup to be far more practical.
Its way more absorbent than any tampon Ive used - (absorbent isn't really the right word).
I don't have to carry tampons/pads with me and its easy to clean .
I work 12-14 hour shifts away from home if there is a loo then Im fine !

Gluezilla but if loos are rows of cubicles with wash hand basins outside are you happy with washing it out in front of other people? All the loos in my office are that style.

Why would you want put poo from a nappy down the loo anyway?

Poo inside disposable nappies is not the issue with their disposal, poo is organic, it's the plastic that is the concern.

Wrap and bin. I don't want to be a nappy martyr either!