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?

I was just starting an anonymous thread on the Internet, I didn't think about my wording as much as I should of.

Or, after a fortnight, you realise that every morning, your babies always wake up, feed for a bit, giggle and pull at your nose, and then do huge poos simultaneously. Then it's a huge rush to change them both before it squishes up their backs and through their sleepsuits.

So, then you get two potties, some baby books, and start plonking them on the potty while you point at brightly coloured zebras straight after the feed!

There was one post that was ignored, but valid. The lady said she wanted to use reuseable nappies, but could not afford the money all in one go. Now then, surely there needs to be some help given there?

You can pick up decent birth to potty pocket nappies for as little as 3.99 each pretty sure its Alva baby or alba baby that do them dudeybaba do a wider range of patterns and they come with 2 inserts instead of 1 for 5.99 each. Both companies if you email them first will sell you bulk packs with a discount I regularly buy 10 or 15 at a time usually get a 10-15% discount and free p&p, they tend to be my gift of choice when a friend has a baby.

I have nappies ranging from the £30 each ones to the £3.99 ones I find the cheaper ones to be as good as the expensive ones with the exception of little lambs pockets as they leaked and IMO don't wash as well,off the top of my head they were about a tenner each.

I get a nappy pail for about £5 and put the nappies in it with a print out explaining care instructions. Even the friends who have no intention of using cloth full time have often said how handy they are to have for those skint or can't get out times.

Most of the wild life funds will lend you them to try out so expensive mistakes don't happen,

Mooncups cost about £20 meluna are almost half the price come in different firmness and colours and with different styles of removal grips,you can even get ones with glitter in.

Washable wipes can be made from an old towel you were going to chuck away or nice new towelling or you can buy them cheaply or expensively, they are a lot nicer to use than wet wipes as they clean better with no smearing so one wipe does what 4 wet wipes would, you can use them with tap water or one of the additive products but plain water is fine.

Reusable breast pads feel so much nicer and dont get that smell that disposables do,and even boots sell a pack of 2 pairs for about the same price as a box of disposables

Reusable pads can be expensive I have some that were £25 each but I'm currently using a £2.40 one and its fine.

Wow ! Dudeybaby and Alva baby look cheap! Do you know where they are manufactured?

And hadn't heard of meluna, shall look into that!

Dudeybaba, West Midlands. And alvababy china

So I guess dudeybaba could be a good choice if you have an aversion to second hand, but you'd still need to reuse them in a second baby and pass/sell them
In when you've finished with them.

www.meluna.org/epages/63898218.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63898218/Categories/MeLuna_Produkte/Monatshygiene/MeLuna_menstrual_cups

Looks brilliant!

The good thing about meluna is the firmness differences. They do very soft ones medium and very firm so it can be helpful for either pelvic floor issues sensitivity or super toned.

I found sometimes the mooncup branded one hurt but soft meluna does not.

Dudeybaba has great customer service and do really cute baby leggings as well there comfy and toasty warm.

Some of the nappies I've got have been in almost constant use for over 20 years obviously mainly terries but the modern pocket types I've got have all done at least 4 babies

This company

luxurymoon.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=58_209

Is fantastic for all reusable San pro stuff and the woman who runs it is happy to spend ages giving advice and she will nt try to over sell you more stuff than you need or more expensive things when cheaper will do.

She's often talked me out of buying products when a less expensive one would meet my needs.

Personally if there is one thing I wish I could 'unlearn' from mumsnet it would be about mooncups. I was happier not knowing about them. And they are always being discussed!

I am really surprised to hear people have babies that poo at the same time everyday. I recently noticed that DD (2.5 yo) has had a few days in a row of pooing first thing after morning milk but it was like good grief she did the same thing 4 days in a row...it NEVER happened before.

Presumably if your baby fires it out at random the elimination communication isn't for you?

Maybe so. But if you're interested in it and not just pointing out how ridiculous it sounds, then my DD was more random than my son. She only occasionally has had periods of pooing to a schedule.

But it's called elimination communication because it goes two ways. It's not just you knowing when they are going to go and putting them on the potty. It's the baby recognising that an opportunity is coming up ( through consistent timing), or signalling they need it ( through body language when they are tiny, and afterwards through sign language or then verbal skills) and also reacting to your cues ( ie putting them on potty and making a noise/ saying a word/ singing a song).

It's just a combination of normal stuff, communicating with your baby to see what they need and teach them. Like feeding, that's usually done at regular intervals, at the response to the babies cues. Or giving solids, that's usually done at set points in the day and the baby is taught to expect feeding whilst sitting in a certain place at a certain time. Or like sleeping, most people agree that some level of sleep training is necessary for a healthy happy baby ( ie observing naps and having a bedtime routine or something similar) . And if course there are all different sorts of babies that eat dufferently and sleep differently. But the majority of people agree with a combination of listening to the babies cues for when they are hungry and tired and offering and teaching structure and expectations . Don't know why it's cinsidered so weird and outlandish to do the same with going to the loo.

:-)

Agree with SockReturningPixie washable wipes are more effective and don't irritate the baby (rash wise) like wet wipes do. I got loads of wipes free and they seem do chemically - even the sensitive ones can cause a rash.

I bout about 35 like towelling squares on amazon. They have fleece on the other side. I just dip the in warm warm and then use a fresh one to dry her. They clean up pretty well.

My Mum was a childminder and some of 'her' babies were in terry nappies, I remember nappy liners, which were sort of like those tumble dryer fragrance sheets. Do modern reusables still use something like that?

Most modern cloth nappies rely on liners too, sometimes washable ones.
The last thing I want is to be intimately acquainted with my child's soiling and wetting habits. The appeal of that completely escapes me.

It's all academic to me now. I was being serious about the ridiculously twee name. I might have taken them more seriously when I had the need for them if they weren't called "mooncups"

Menstrual cups can be bought on ebay (brand new obviously!) for about £8 including p&p.

I have to say I baulked at £20 for a mooncup in Boots and put off buying one for ages based (nonsensically) on the price. When my ebay one needs replacing - hopefully not for a good while yet - I wouldn't hesitate to shell out if I had to.

20 quid for about eight years use! Not bad in my book. But maybe the cheaper ones are better for folk trying it out.

I think that was the mental block I needed to get past. There's no denying the maths, but if I didn't get on with it for whatever reason it's not like you can sell it on or give it away!

I'm all for people trying cheaper versions if it means them taking the plunge with it

Mooncup is just a brand name there are many other brands and most expensive does not mean better.

Yeah I use fleece liners. It's just a cut up old fleece blanket. If you get a pooey nappy, the poo usually just flicks/falls off it into the loo. But you can get disposable liners as well.

I got hovered over a tolet at an early age and toilet trained very young. I must mention to my Mum that could be considered abuse.....But I don't do that with my DC and have two in disposable nappies. I agree with everyone else - it is easy to say don't use disposable stuff but hard in real life - tough enough for me having 2 under 3 without having to worry about messing around with blood soaked pads. And I have heavier periods since having children. Don't even know what a mooncup is!!

Sorry I've not read the whole thread, just 1st and last few posts.

I want to be environmentally friendly and I have tried but kept coming across barriers.
For example, I bought a mooncup ready to 'do my bit' but I have short arms and stumpy fingers and I just couldn't get to grips with it-literally.
Another example, I bought some reusable nappies (I think they were mothercares own as they were cheap and good reviews) however I found they leaked wee and smelt awful after just an hour or 2 and they were really bulky so dd looked like she had a massive bum. I did persevere for a while into the next size, but as dd grew and peed more they just weren't keeping her dry so I had to go back to disposables. I couldnt have afforded the dearer nappies so tgat was out of the question.

So now I do what I can by recycling everything I can, using 2nd, 3rd even 4th hand stuff on my dds (its good I have 3 girls and I dislike throwing stuff out so plenty of clothes for the younger one) I use freecycle and try to buy loose fruit and veg so less packaging.

I think I'm doing ok.

I too try to recuse, recycle etc. I'm not great at it but I make some enviro-ethical choices along my way. I do think the "each to their own" argument has real validity though.
To what extent do we have any moral responsibility to be "Eco friendly"?
Eating cattle/ dairy produce has a huge impact on the environment. As does keeping a dog as a pet, or less so, driving a car. All these things are acceptable to most people, although not usually essential, just preferences for taste or convenience.

Having a dog has a bigger environmental impact than having a car? Really?

Well cattle farming has a huge environmental impact. Massive.
Dogs eat meat.
But what I meant was that using a car has an impact, albeit probably less than does eating meat as a nation.