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?

I don't mind the washing - but they just leak despite trying different brands and spending €€€€, and the babies got nappy rash no matter what I did.

Those of you using cloth nappies and are happy with them, which brand are you using?

I call hogwash on the idea they are too expensive. The amount I spent setting up our cloth nappy system initially was roughly equal to the cost of 3 boxes of landfill causing nappies. By month 3 they had paid for themselves in savings. By DC3 they have paid for multiple family holidays in savings.

There are many low cost options, including buying basic new ones, or buying good quality second hand. If you have very basic sewing skills you can buy ones with old elastics for a pittance (or often for free) and replace the elastics yourself.

Unless a family is absolutely destitute, it's in reach and financially advantageous to do cloth.

@Lucafritz I don’t shit in my knickers! Do you?

you also take the solids out and flush them down the loo before washing the nappy

No thank you...!

I’m not going solid poo fishing!

🎣

I think if you put enough research into yourself then you can find everything or if you've got older generations in the family they usually say 'in my day I used terry nappies'.

I thought I'd only ever have one baby. Shot myself in the foot by giving all his baby stuff away. Almost 3 years later I'm having another baby boy. Realistically reusables weren't an option at the time as I didn't think it was worth the expensive for just one child, if I had known a few years down the line i'd fall pregnant again then I possibly would have thought about it.

Plus who really wants to be spending every day washing nappy covers and inserts. I do laundry maybe three days a week or just one day a week depending on how many loads I feel I can cope with a day.

You throw nappies away and they end up in landfill but what about the amount of electric we use just washing the nappies every day. My standing charge for electric is 26p per day to start with, without the extra electric used even with an economical washing machine. My electric bill would be ridiculous! It'd go from being just under £30 to probably over £50. Not really saving money there! No way would I wash them by hand either 🤢

@cough you get soft paper liners on a roll, put them in the nappy and it just goes straight down the loo. That was the best bit, no stinky bin waste! Just wish the other stuff had worked out better.

Because the younger generation are not aware or wanting to listen to the 60-80 crowd.
Before liners; you held onto a corner of the nappy and flushed the toilet and most of the solid material off. Rinsed the nappy in the fresher toilet water. Wrung it out and put it into a “diaper pail” that was filled with watered down detergent. A couple times a week you washed the diapers in hot soapy water.
Yes they occasionally leaked.
Yes they were strong incentive to toilet train before 2.

People saying about the amount of electric and water - give over. Does that mean that we should all use paper plates and plastic forks? Because obviously washing the reusable stuff is such a huge waste of water, and electricity if you're using a dishwasher ... Right?

And who is washing them every day? I wash nappies about twice a week on a quick cold wash. Line dry. Uses sod all energy (from me and from the washing machine)

I had DD in Brighton 16 years ago and most of the mums I knew used them then - there were quite a few nappy laundry services around too although I didn't feel the need to use one. Nursery was totally happy to deal with them too, just flushed liner (with poo) and popped the nappy in the waterproof bag I provided. Such a shame if fashion has swung back to disposables again 😐

I remember when my little brother had cloth diapers. I found them so utterly disgusting that I didn't think I could ever have babies. I love disposibles.

@CoughSplutter so every time your child gets shit on their clothes, do you just throw them away, or is that a totally different kind of poop going in your washing machine?

@Misty999 no....nappies cannot generally be recycled, at least not in the traditional way with household waste. I believe there has been a trial nappy recycling plant opened somewhere in Europe which is specifically and only for nappies, so it'll be expensive for each and every council to ship them there. I'm guessing why it's not been rolled out countrywide 🤷‍♀️

I bloody love my cloth nappies. Spent just under £100 for a full time stock, so they paid for themselves after a couple months. She's never had nappy rash, and they never leak. Unlike the disposables she was in for her first week of life.

Also, the argument that you have to change them less in disposables is kinda gross. It's not like they poo or wee less when they're in disposables, so you're basically saying 'I'd rather leave my child to sit in their own waste for longer because they can't feel it as much'. I change every 2-3 hours in cloth, same as I would in a disposable.

@user1199 I use Bambino Mio, but these are known to leak, they just happened to fit my DD perfectly! I also use Pop-In and Little Lamb which are fairly bomb proof.

Those of you using cloth nappies and are happy with them, which brand are you using?

I used TotsBots all in ones with both my dc (youngest is now 7), from when they were about 6 weeks old. No problems.

All four of us in our antenatal group are now using cloth so I think it is getting more popular. We were having almost daily poo leaks with disposables - not a single one since we switched to reusable. Cloth wipes are way more effective than disposables too, which just smear shit around rather than actually clean it off half the time. You can do in one cloth wipe what you would do in three or four disposables. My DP was really sceptical but soon changed his tune! I even offered to get disposables in for when I'm away for work next month and he said he'd rather use the cloth now.

I don't really get the squeamishness as either way you are dealing with shite. You can use liners that you just bag and bin if you don't want to flush the solids away etc. and it's still far better than using disposables. But if you flush away you don't have stinking nappy bags sitting in your bin for two weeks.

We use Bambino Mios as they actually fit my DD really well, but I know they can leak on less chunky babies. We also have some TotsBots and Close PopIns. We do a nappy wash every two or three days.

We bought the whole shebang and consequently gave it away as when I had DD1 and was struggling to breastfeed, riddled with anxiety and coming down with PND as much as I wanted to the faff of reusables was just too much.

Wish I’d kept the stuff for children 2 and 3 though.

Personally I think the quicker “win” is for reusable wipes. IMHO it’s easier to eliminate wipes from your life than disposable nappies.

I used them with baby number two but now about to have baby number four and I can't deal with the extra washing involved with them. In fact, it isn't so much the washing , it's the getting them dry!

I don’t have kids but I genuinely don’t think they’re more eco friendly. They have to be washed at 60 degrees then are supposed to be tumble dried on a high heat to kill the bacteria!! Surely it’s better to buy bio degradable ones?

I feel like if you get squeamish about poo, then kids are not for you 😂🙈 it makes me a bit disappointed that people are immediately 'ew absolutely not' when they haven't even given them a go!

I don't know about other cloth users but I'm not picking lumps of poo out with my bare hands every day. I genuinely have never had to touch poo the whole time we've been using them- coming up a year now. Nor is my washing machine full of poo and stinking...

I don't wash every day, I probably do an extra 2 loads a week, which does not equate to an extra £20 per month on my water and electric. I genuinely haven't noticed a difference. The environmental cost is nowhere near that of using single use (hate the term disposable, because they are in no way that!)

I use Alva, Charlie Banana and Littles and Bloomz. Cheap and cheerful and work really well for us.

@Hithere12 they don't have to be washed at 60, 40 is fine for us and actually, tumble drying the ones most people use these days can ruin them, so they really shouldn't be tumble dried :)

@Hithere12 That's just not true. You don't have to tumble dry them and in fact most suggest that if you do at all, it's on a low heat to preserve the waterproof lining of wraps and all in ones. And you don't have to wash at 60 either unless baby is unwell. It's fine to wash at 40 most of the time.You also get nappy sanitiser that goes in with washing powder which kills bacteria.

There's a lot of misinformation out there apparently!

@Ginandgingers92 Cross post!

@Celebelly 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Oh and I was reluctant to use them as in my head there was a lot of faff and pinning things and folding, as I had never even heard of all in ones and was thinking of old fashioned nappies and safety pins.It was only when one of my friends was changing her DC that I asked and she explained about all in ones. My mind was blown