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?

Ok so tell me this: I’ve read online folk talking about cutting up fleecey blankets and fabric for “lining” the nappy (for poops).

I have two questions then:

1. Is this true? Any of you done it?
2. So if my liners aren’t truly disposable and she does a cowpat, what do I do? Scrape it off and dispose in the loo? Or put it in the bin?

If it’s the latter that means my kitchen will stink to high fucking heaven in 2 hours.

Yes exactly. They're also forgetting about the amount of energy used to produce, package and transport disposable nappies. Not to mention the energy used to dispose of them. Unfortunately we live in a disposable society where people value their time more than the environment. As long as they don't have to deal with it then it's easy to bury their heads and ignore the environment impact. I wonder if more people would switch if the government started charging extra to dispose of nappies?

Can I just say (as a mum of adults, so nappies are an irrelevance to me now) that this thread contains a couple of the most bonkers comments I’ve ever read on MN.

‘Baby poo is the same as pee.’ Er nope. If you’ve ever tried to wipe baby poo off your shirt you’ll know it isn’t.

As for the poster claiming there are more shit particles in underwear than a nappy- speak for yourself love. I can honestly say that my lacy undies never had anywhere near as many shit particles in them as my baby’s full nappy did.

Hear hear @Ponoka7.

Yes I use reusable fleece liners. Most of the time the poo doesn't actually stick to the fleece so I can just let it fall off into the toilet. If some does stay on I just rinse it in the sink before putting it in the nappy bucket. Disposable liners aren't that great and shouldn't really be flushed down the loo. They're a lot like wet wipes in that they don't break down so must contain some plastic.

I guess you have a weaned baby though @minilev ?

Again I’m honestly not being tricky but what do you do with poops of a looser nature with the fleece liners?

Nobody on this thread seems to be being straight about turd disposal - if you’re not meant to use the disposable liners what do you do with a sticky splat?

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut - ok, poo details.

With BF poo I just chucked it in the washing machine with a pre-rinse cycle. Apparently BF poo is water soluble. If this isn’t true it doesn’t seem to have killed me/anyone in my household. Caveat: I do not have a second washing machine because that is insane. Before I started doing this I used disposable liners, put them in nappy sack and in the bin at the end of the day. Not ideal, but better disposable nappies.

I find most weaned poos just roll off the fleece. If not, I either give them a nudge with a bit off loo roll and they sort of peel off (oddly satisfying) or hold under the flush. The fleece works really well - I prefer it to disposable liners. It also means if they poo straight after a new nappy goes on you can just change the liner rather than the whole thing.

I wash my hands with soap afterwards.

I used disposable with DS1 and converted to reusable wipes at 6m. DS2 I use cloth nappies and wipes.
Two washes a week, drop poo down the toilet and the rest goes in a wet bag. It’s easy, and for me a no brainier. I don’t get leaks at all. If the poo is wet then I put a flush on the toilet and rinse the liner in the flush.
I use totsbots easyfit 👍I did get others which I wasn’t keen on but just sold them on for more or less RRP

PaulHollywoodsSexGut fleece liners here too, but not polyester fleece as that's plastic.

Breastfed poo goes straight in the washing machine. I've been doing this 3.5 years and never had an issue. Weaning poo, the not bitty not yet solid poo gets sprayed off. We have a sprayer attached to the loo but before that we used a jug with water and held the liner in the loo and poured the water over it, or held the liner in the loo and flushed.

I love the nappy lady, but her advice is WRONG on flushable liners. Just like "flushable" wipes they go round the u bend but cause huge issues in sewers and the sea and on beaches. Check your waterboard- I'm certain that they say don't flush anything but human waste and loo roll.

Does the nappy lady say they are flushable? I’m surprised. Thought we all knew nothing except toilet roll and poo

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut She's out of nappies now so it's a while since I've had to deal with poo. Early stages were really easy. I'd just rinse any poo off before putting it in the nappy bucket. Technically you can put them straight in the wash before they're weaned. Once she was on solids things occasionally got a bit messy. Solid poo was easy to tip into the toilet, but if it wasn't I used to rinse the liner in the sink (we have one in our utility room). You could wear gloves, but I never bothered. Just washed my hands thoroughly after. I honestly found them so easy to use, even used them when we went out and overnight. I've saved all of them and plan on using them again with my next child.

You hold the nappy in the loo and flush the solids off it, then put it in a bucket of water. If you buy a nappy solution you just need to rinse the nappies, after they soaked for a while. You need waterproof pants. Overall it is cheaper once you have bought the towelling nappies they last for years, 24 should be enough. Put them on a boil wash once a week.

We didn’t use them as were expensive to set up ( we moved 9 weeks after ds1 was born and married when he was 11 weeks old , he was an unplanned baby so couldn’t move these dates)
It’s bloody wet and miserable in Scotland in the winter and when living in a small 1 bed flat for 9 weeks , with no tumble dryer was a pain.
Dh was back at work within 2 days and I had no family support. My friends all worked.
I got used to them
Ds 2 was in hospital for the first 6 months of his life , so washing nappies wasn’t high importance.
We moved when ds2 was 3 weeks old due to being broken into and I felt unsafe in the house.
Dh was back at work 6 hours after I gave birth.
I was aware of these nappies and would of used them if I had normal kids , that didn’t require extra help, I didn’t move and dh being away so much with very limited family support

All these comments about extra washing and falling to the woman as extra women's work! Should we wear disposable clothes as well to lessen the load? Are men not capable of washing clothes and nappies? My partner and I work and both of us are quite capable of putting a load of washing on in the morning then whoever is home first hangs it up

lets not kid ourselves, most unpaid domestic work is left to the woman.
Not everyone has a partner who does washing, there many threads on every parenting forum about women wanting the man to do more at home

Comments about boil wash’s and soaking? It’s not recommended to soak nappies and certainly not boil washing!

I’m obviously fairly lucky my OH does laundry including nappy washes, but like I said, twice a week isn’t a huge hardship for us

Yes, I've never soaked or boil washed!

For those saying they'd be putting poo in a washing machine- you'd be putting pooey clothes that have been leaked on from a poonami in the washing machine though?!

@Forgottenwhatsleepis unfortunately I do know someone who used to chuck clothes that had suffered a poo explosion. She looked at me like I was an alien when I said a bit of vanish and hanging in the sun got the stains right out.

For those that are so concerned about 'stinking nappy bins' in your house, but also don't flick poo into the loo even from a disposable...what do you do with the disposable nappy after changing? Not trying to be goady here... But unless you immediately put it in an outside bin (which I know some people do) it's likely to be sat around in a bin in the house for a little while, particularly when you have a newborn pooing every hour. So really what difference does it make if a pooey nappy is sitting around in a bin that later goes outside or that goes in the washing machine.
What I'm trying to say is surely having a baby means there will be shitty nappies in your house whatever nappies you use!

For those saying they'd be putting poo in a washing machine- you'd be putting pooey clothes that have been leaked on from a poonami in the washing machine though?

i did just chuck it out, if id just cleaned a child from poonami, i didnt even bothering to endure cleaning the clothes

what do you do with the disposable nappy after changing?
we put it in the outside bin or if it was cold dead of night, inside a bag outside the back door till morning

Forgottenwhatsleepis There are people who do just throw away the offending item
My sister was one of them! Until I pointed out that she might as well just wipe her arse with a £5 note and throw that in the bin!
If anything got particularly shit-stained when mine were little, I’d try my best to scrub the stain out, and if it wouldn’t shift after a couple of spot stain treatments (Thank you Vanish Gold ) and a wash, then I’d relegate it to “weaning clothes” which would just become equally as stained with food!

Poo vests were soaked first in a bucket. I did use disposables in the 90s.

I used to soak my dds period pants too which she used to hide (presumably embarrassed).

I would never throw clothing in the landfill bin

Day 4 of the switch to reusables:

Not going badly at all but DDs poo crumbs have stained the bamboo liners so may need to wash again at 60°

Can anyone recommend any genuinely flushable liners? The idea of sticking my hand down the bog to rinse is just a bit too faffy. There MUST be truly biodegradeable liners surely.

Also; just bought a moon cup. Won’t attempt to flush that; promise x

Haven't read the full thread at all but came here to say that using flat Terry and muslin nappies and wraps has been the single greatest decision I've made as a new parent:
The initial cost has been about 100£, spread over the course of my pregnancy. I did buy some of the modern 2 in 1s but much prefer the flats. They are absorbent, they don't leak and they dry very quickly.
Apart from not contributing to plastic waste, the biggest pro is cost. Not buying nappies, wipes and formula (although that's a different decision to make) has saved us a fortune.

And as for poop: at the moment I dry pail and put everything in the machine 3x a week. When DS starts solids, and the poo change that comes with that, I'll empty the poo into the toilet before I dry pail. I wipe his bum on the regs so I don't see the diffence and I'm not prissy about it.

To be fair, whether you use disposables or cloth nappies...we’ve all been in the position where the wipe slips and your finger takes a slide down mud valley right?!
So I can’t get me head around the squeamishness about washing a cloth nappy!