To wonder why more people don't use reusable nappies?

[GinGeum]

I know this will be controversial and I know there will always be some circumstances when they are not suitable, but since becoming a parent, I've not come across a single other parent using reusable nappies.

Everyone I know has also said they were never mentioned to them at all by antenatal classes/midwife/anyone. In the hospital, none of the staff we encountered had any idea what our baby was wearing.

Surely now we are all thinking about reducing plastic, disposable nappies should be fairly high on the list of things to cut down on? Programmes like the war on plastic on BBC barely mentioned disposable nappies. Even switching to reusable wipes would make a huge difference.

AIBU to wonder why reusable nappies aren't promoted more?

We can only just keep on top of our washing and drying as it is. Adding reusable nappies would mean our house would resemble a laundry 24/7. I did look into a laundering service but it was so expensive compared to disposables.

And I despise the argument about them being the only choice back in the day and women managed easily... this argument can be applied to any household appliance that has been invented to make life easier. I mean why on earth are you using a washing machine? Women used a bucket and mangle for years and managed fine, using a washing machine is just so lazy

Because I'd have to buy a second washing machine for all the other clothes.
Not putting poo through my machine that washes everything else day after day.

Also, you can always tell who uses cloth nappies when you walk into a mum friends house... there is an underlying smell of poo.

Surely the liner shouldn’t actually be flushed as only toilet paper, wee and poo are meant to be flushed down the toilet to avoid blocked pipes etc...

I think there needs to be a move to force cloth whether through subsidies or other methods. I will use disposables for the convenience despite knowing they are bad. More education about earlier potty training might help as well. Mine didn’t train until nearly 3 and I felt bad that she had an extra year really in nappies compared to some of her friends.

Also, what about babies/toddlers in daycare/nursery. Workers there don’t want to fluff around dealing with disposing if solids, bagging up filthy nappies and storing them god knows where. Disposables so their efforts can go on looking after the babies/toddlers rather than concerning themselves with this stuff.

My nursery is happy (and even encourages) to use cloth nappies. They installed a special sink to sluice them in and everything. They say they care about the environment and realise that some babies bums don't get on with disposables.

They're really not that difficult.

@WhyBirdStop

As the amount of energy generated by renewable methods increases, the environmental cost of the energy used in laundering reusables will become less and less significant. About 50% of the energy used in the UK is from renewable sources, and that is increasing all the time.

The manufacture of reusables may well have a higher carbon footprint than that of disposables, but they only need to be moved around the country once. Imagine how many lorry movements are needed to transport a child's nappy-wearing lifetime of disposables? From factory to depot to shop, and more if someone uses a brand that's not manufactured in its country of use?

And the landfill requirement is massive. In the UK , it is getting harder and harder for LAs to find suitable sites for landfill. One of the reasons East Sussex county council opted for building an EFW incinerator was because they would soon need to transport all their landfill to Essex if they didn't. While the incinerator produces emissions that are less than ideal, the overall atmospheric impact is less than that of rubbish travelling across the Thames and the empty trucks coming back again.

I think the environmental cost argument has been more than won by reusables.

Just use terry nappies and liners,soak them for 24 hours then shove in the machine. I managed with 2 in nappies, no central heating and living in the North of Scotland, you just have to be organised.

Just.

I find when people is the word ‘just’ a lot, they tend to fail to acknowledge that other peoples experience might be different from theirs.

I used cloth nappies with my first from about 4 weeks until potty training, and then with my second on and off as she had nappy rash wheat hard to keep on top of. Before she was potty trained, the environment agency report as referenced on about page three came out which totally took he wind out of my sails. The problem with that report is it judged cloth nappy on only one aspect of the environmental impact; carbon. But it was incredibly authoritative at the time, and if felt to me like it set reusable nappies back hugely at the time.

For my third, I used muslins from newborn, but simply couldn’t keep up with the drying through the winter in my small flat.

I don’t feel that a lack of organisation had anything to do with my failure to cloth nappy him.
I knew how to do it and was motivated, I was organised.
Others will have different issues which make cloth nappies less practical. Not everyone should be forced to do it, but if you can, you should give it a try.

Wrt posters claiming nobody with kids has the right to claim any green credentials.

Some of us are attempting to do what we can with the situation we are in. This should not be dissed. Do you think we should just give up trying to reduce our impact on the environment because we have transgressed and had 3 kids?

If they did nappy pants in reusables I’d be up for it. Pants are the only shape that fit our DD’s bottom securely without leaks.

I also would love to find a brand that do plain white all in one reusable pants - I hate seeing patterns through clothing.

Once I return to full pay in September we will be looking to invest in reusable wipes. We sadly haven’t found any second hand ones for sale in our area yet.

I thought about them very seriously for number 2. But we have a washing machine, no tumble dryer and a tiny London flat. We already struggle to wash and dry everything in winter without adding nappies to the list. I breastfeed, seldom drive, don’t eat meat during the week and use refillable cosmetics etc as much as possible. I feel guilty about using disposable nappies but I do try to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible.

I didn't want a bag of shitty nappies handed to me at the end of nursery each day. I barely cope with the laundry that we have without adding more.

I agree about earlier potty training though. On the one hand mumsnet act like you've clubbed a baby seal to death if you use a plastic bag and on the other tell you to wait until your child decides they don't want nappies anymore. The vast majority of NT 2.5 year olds can be trained with a bit of effort and we should be making that effort to cut down on nappy use.

You do not put poo through the machine. Sometimes nappies leak poo on to vests etc. What do you do with soiled clothes? When they are training poo accidents happen. Would you throw clothes away rather than wash them?

I found it confusing as to what I would need to get started, plus I couldn't afford a chunk of money at the beginning. 3 kids in and really wish we'd used them.

Also toilet trained my first day and night at just 2. I know not all babies are ready by then but wanting to stop using nappies was an incentive!

I’d be interested to then see those who are very pro reusable because of the environmental impact if you for instance...
Fly to go on holiday ( carbon footprint)
Drive a diesel car
Have switched to an electric car
Use a composter
Use public transport and have scrapped your car?

Have wooden toys not plastic..: the list is endless.

It’s no criticism as I’m very much each to their own, but it’s more for those who are openly critical of disposable nappies.

Reusable are very trendy at the min ..... some of my friends only use them as they like the patterns - not for the environmental reasons!

Time and convenience.

I don’t know how many kids the OP has. When our twins arrived we had twin babies and an autistic preschooler. I’d be fucked if I was adding any additional tasks into my life.

The babies I've met in reusable nappies smell. Sorry if that's upsetting for anybody. They may be pretty but you've got to get the laundry right or they smell.

I think there needs to be a move to force cloth whether through subsidies or other methods.

I wouldn't object if a chunk of my tax was spent on giving all first-time mums a starter pack of nappies and liners from various manufacturers. I bet some would be happy to supply a couple of nappies at little more than cost on the basis that they might get the repeat business.

It would be tough for parents living in situations where they can't have a washing machine (homeless families, mainly, temp accommodation often doesn't have laundry facilities) especially now that launderettes seem to be getting rarer (the nearest to me is 10 miles away), but that could be compensated for by increasing the threshold for CTCs/UC for parents on low incomes.

haven't RTFT. I used reusable nappies on my DC 20 years ago. We had a bucket in the bathroom where I had my changing table. the nappy goes in the soaking bucket, you hold the nappy liner with the solids in the toilet and flush, then the liner goes in the bin.
Once a day I put the nappies in the washing machine for a rinse and spin, then hung them on the line to dry. In summer they were bleached beautifully white by the sun.

My DC are 19 months apart so there was overlap with nappies. We had about 20 nappies - mostly the old-type terry towelling squares, but some smaller baby shaped ones. The waterproof covers were shaped and we had 6, in 2 different sizes.

Out and about for a few hours, I took a sturdy plastic bag to put the used nappies in. But more than that I used disposables if we were travelling or on day trips.

No way I spent more than about 40 quid on equipment.

I used cloth nappies with my son 15years ago. I had Terry squares and separate wraps, the nappies wee held together with a Y shaped grabber. I used fleece liners and washable wipes. Poo went down the loo and then stored nappys in a bucket and a wash every 2-3 days. They went on the line in good weather or on an airer in wet. They didn't take long to dry at all because they erred just a single layer. The nursery were happy to use them and at that time he was the only one in cloth nappies. He was dry & clean in the day at 2 years 2 months. I also used cloth San pro.

We were not evangelical about it and used disposables on holiday or days out, but we certainly didn't have the poo splosions with cloth nappies that we had with disposables.

I do think that you need to be organised with cloth nappies, as soon as they were dry, I folded then put a liner in so that they were ready to go for the next nappy change and I can understand that it just feels like more work if you are already overwhelmed. I really liked the routine of folding and getting them ready to go, loved the way my ds looked in them, loved that I was doing my bit for the environment, but everyone's different.

you've got to get the laundry right or they smell.

If you don't wash any clothes properly they smell. Although if you struggle with a modern washing machine maybe you shouldn't have kids, keeping children clean is a very basic part of caring for them.

Cloth nappies don't suit everyone but with modern machines being what they are the act of actually washing them is hardly complex or labour intensive.

I think there needs to be a move to force cloth whether through subsidies or other methods.

This is totally unrealistic and a very MN perspective on real life.

Do you have any idea how many people out there can’t afford gas / elec?? They won’t be able to afford to wash the nappies.... food banks and baby banks give out nappies to those who are sadly can not afford them.
UC has a lot to blame for this. But people are in dire situations of poverty in this country with young children and babies and then we want to force them to use reusable nappies that they can’t afford to wash?

I found the language around cloth very confusing, I was too tired before and after birth to research (had chronic insomnia while pregnant), I live in an old house where it's difficult to dry things, the initial outlay was too expensive, there's no nappy library or wash service in our area, there's no space to be having buckets of soaking nappies till wash time as some upthread have suggested.

We did try one brand but DS cried as soon as he weed until I changed him, we couldn't afford to keep trying new brands at £7+ time a go.

We do make other changes - I use CSP and flannels, I'm swapping out single use plastic bottles etc when we run out of an item, DS has a small wardrobe of clothes as clothes are ridiculously high in energy costs (and human costs) to produce - both me and DH only buy when we need to, walk for shorter journeys rather than use the car, toys & books from the charity shop, we don't upgrade tech every year etc.

There's also lots of myths about cloth nappies. Nowadays you don't need to soak them. When babies are solely milk fed you don't need to scrape either, the poo is water soluble, although I still gave them a swish in the loo to get the bulk off. I've also never tumbled them and just put them on an airer, with no issues. Dry pail, chuck them in the machine, short cold rinse, then long wash at 40 or 60. We use Baba and Boo pockets and little lamb or TotsBots bamboozles at night with a liner.

I think a lot of people are either put off from trying or just aren't aware of them as it's not very mainstream yet. I live in an area where it's pretty common (although still a minority). I don't drive so it's nice not to have to continuously lug bags of nappies home, and I never run out.

I think the faff factor is pretty overblown (I also thought they were a faff until someone lent me a few all in ones and I realised how easy they were). But in some cases even a little extra work can be the thing that tips the balance so I do understand why people are wary. I am fortunate to have an incredibly even tempered baby who will sit and play with toys by herself for upwards of 45 mins while I get stuff done, so plenty of time to put a extra wash on or fold and put away nappies (I too weirdly enjoy this!). If she was a high needs baby or a screamer, then I might find the slight extra work that reusables are more than I could handle. I also have a supportive partner who is also capable of putting a wash on!

I think for most people, though, they will be less work than you think.

Price wise, we've spent £300 and that's for everything: 25 nappies, two nappy buckets, three wet bags, a stock of liners, and boosters. That was all new.

I agree with a PP too who said that reusables wipes are a really easy switch to make if nappies are too daunting. They are also far FAR more effective than disposables at wiping poo.

I’ve used them for all four of my children. The initial cost can be high unless you get lucky and find a second hand bundle on eBay or you buy them bit by bit. I know some people will buy one a week or one a month during pregnancy for example.

I think some people think they are complicated and picture the old school ferry style nappies with a pin. It isn’t difficult at all, reusable nappies have long since moved on. They’re not difficult to wash either, some people may think they are.

I also think some people are reluctant about having shitty nappies in the washing machine. Thing is, if you have children shit, piss, vomit etc will always enter your washing machine somehow...