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 understand it either OP. Even having a child part-time in cloth would make a difference, both to the environment and your cost of diapering your child.

I don't understand the sqeamishness about the poo. You should be putting poo in disposables down the loo, as was in the news recently. You will be dealing with potty training, accidents, and wiping bums. If you have children there will be poo.

I bought some second hand nappies on one of the Facebook nappy selling groups to get started. I'm 4 years in now and still happily using cloth. I send cloth to nursery and it's no problem.

I use reusable sanitary pads now as well.

Because people are lazy. That's what it boils down to. Plus people are weird about poo in the washing machine (which is much less of an issue than people think).

And £200+ initial outlay? That's bonkers. I spent less than £50. But again, people are weird about buying second hand stuff.

We bought some, but we lived in a flat with no outside washing line, so found they took too long to dry. We compromised by using biodegradable nappies, which I know still take a long time to breakdown, but this was a compromise we were happy to live with.

I don't know how you all think we managed years ago before disposal nappies. Terry towelling nappies with liners. Solid poo was flushed down the toilet, it wasn't hard for goodness sake. Stick in the washing machine, then out on the line in the garden, no one had tumble dryers, lots didn't even have washing machines.

I used cloth nappies for my two and found them excellent.
If anyone here wants to try them out and is based in NI send me a PM as despite all the people on here complaining about the initial outlay no one seems to want them in perfectly clean second hand condition.

Because we live in a small flat with no utility/laundry room and I didn't want stinking buckets of shit next to where I was preparing food.

I had a CS, didn't breastfeed or keep my baby constantly next to me in a rainbow sling either so I'm pretty much exiled from all mother and baby groups so I no longer give any fucks.

Thirty years ago I was using Terry nappies with no problems (just a bucket, a washing machine and washing line). My daughter uses cloth nappies for her baby and they are great. Seem very easy from what I have seen. She also gets a lot second hand so not as expensive as you may think.

People are lazy about change I think. Seems quite irresponsible to me when we can make such simple changes in our lives which cumulatively can make a difference.

There should really be more support for potty training at an appropriate age. In the old terry square days people potty trained their children at 2 because the nappies didn't really fit or contain the wee after that point. If we could encourage this again we'd save so many disposables from landfill, as well as the emissions from washing reusables. This would be the single best thing for reducing environmental impact.

Because disposables take a lot less effort.

I used old fashioned towelling nappies (with plastic pants and liners ) for dd1. Each day's batch was soaked in a fresh bucket of Napisan and then machine washed and dried on the line - we were living in a hot country so drying wasn't a problem.

Disposables were more readily available when I had dd2 so I used those - TBH the environment wasn't a big issue then.

I do wonder now about the cost of drying reusables if it's wet or you have no outside space - it'd mean a long, hot tumble dry every day. Certainly far less landfill but a lot more electricity.,

In the past I remember siblings' nappies steaming on a clothes horse in front of the fire - and washing them was no joke before most people had automatic washing machines. It's no wonder toddlers were usually potty trained rather earlier than now.

@Greyhound22 very similar to me... although I didn’t even bother go to baby groups , nor NCT 🤭not my cuppa tea!

Absolutely loved them. I purchased 20 initially and they pretty much saw me through three kids. Saved a small fortune. I had a small pressure hose attached to the toilet and would spray off the solids and flush. Line dry and we were all good.

I did read once a study once that it takes just as much water manufacture a disposable nappy than it takes to manufacture then wash a cloth nappy several times for a year.

And the old style nappies leaked terribly. People simply didn't take babies out very much. It wasn't practical.

I bought 2 starter kits when my 1st 2 were little, through a council scheme. £20 each so £40 for 10 nappies.
Dc1 they gave him a rash, rubbed his skin. I used them for a month and I found it fine but it didn't seem fair.
Dc2 I used them every now and again but she was trained at 20 months.
Dc3 won't wear them. She takes them off. They are obviously less comfy.
I buy supermarket nappies at 7p each. She has one morning, one afternoon, one night, so 21p a day. If she were trained at 20 months that would be £130 in nappies. Cost wise I'm ok with that, considering with reusables there are washing and liner costs.
In terms of the environment it's not great I know.

Used them successfully for 2 years
Initially bought cheaply end of range
With all of my children including twins I always used cotton wool and cool water to clean and wipe

@bluebluezoo how many nappies do you get through to fill two bin bags a week?! Baby awake for twelve hours during the day, even changing every two hours, that's six daytime nappies and a nighttime, so 7 a day, 49 in a week 49 rolled up nappies wouldn't even fill one bin bag and you would've been out for some of that time, so disposing elsewhere. I understand the point you are making but hyperbole isn't going to win any debate.

I spent a bunch of money on cloth nappies when I was pregnant, and really tried to use them but I am 100% disposable now, for the following reasons;

1. husband wouldn't get on board at all. Just thought the whole idea was crazy and perhaps slightly embarrassing (especially as he knows no-one else who uses them)

2. I had bought a few different brands in small sizes to try them out and find the right brand for us to continue with - my baby pooped about 17 times per day for the first 2 months (no exaggeration - perfect baby in every other way but- My God, the poop!). Couldn't keep up, and by the time she was pooping less, I had gotten into the habit of disposables and she had grown out of many of the reusables I had bought. But nevertheless I did give it another try.

3. I found that the reusables really padded out her bum and made it harder to fit into certain clothes / made her look kinda uncomfortable with her legs so far apart

4. I found out that all our rubbish goes to a plant that burns it to convert it to heat, rather than going to landfill. At that point I thought 'sod this'.

We use cloth wipes for food messes and still use cotton pads for cleaning bums. I know that's not perfect but I'm satisfied that I've given it a go and at least we're using a bit less plastic on the wipes front. I'll save the reusables to try again on my next baby (hopefully if they poop a little bit less), and then will donate them so they won't go to waste. I'm also trying to potty train early.

My piece of advice for reusables would be to wait and see how things are going with your baby before you buy them. Someone once said to me "give yourself 3 months to figure out what the hell is going on and then start thinking about things like cloth nappies" and I wish I had taken that advice.

@Idratherhaveacupoftea out of interest when did you go back to work? DM used Terry towelling with us, but didn't go back to work until we were both at school/school nursery class , she said she doesn't think she'd be able to do it and go back to work when we were babies, there are just under two years between DB and I so she had two in nappies for a little while. I use both, but only have one child. SIL uses disposables and has two children. We both went/are going back to work after ten months.

We used them with our first but not our second as I just couldn’t cope with all the washing once we were a family of 4.

I used cloth nappies and my childs nursery did too. And just as others are squemish about me flushing the waste down the toilet to a treatment plant, im squemish about them rolling it up and keeping it for a week and giving it to another human to drive off with and bury ...
However, i think the way forward is to focus on developing more environmentally friendly disposables and doing some kind of hot composting to break them down and use the heat for greenhouses or something. I always think its better to progress than go back.

@JocastaJones completely agree about potty training earlier, DN was toilet trained at two she's now 4 and lots of her friends are still in nappies at least some of the time or have not long been using a toilet. It's the most logical route. DM used to run a large preschool from 2 years 9 months and all of the children were toilet trained. This was only in the nineties/early 2000s.

My child was born at under 7 pounds.

We went to a baby fair when she was 5 days old and none of the vendors sold nappies small enough. We had long conversations with a lot of the vendors selling different stuff as they were surprised a full term baby could still be born under 7 pounds.

While we were there we were given a sample of nappies which we later found from Aldi that fitted properly, so we used them for about the next 6 weeks.

So while we planned on using reusable for a while I was at home - as my partner could get a grant to get some with loads of money off - as she was too small we didn't bother. My LO has actually grown rapidly and seems to take after some of her cousins who were all under 7 pounds when born.

My brother and I were put in Terry nappies 40 years ago, it was normal back then.

I used disposable, 11-13 years ago. I feel guilty about it now, but I am a working parent, and the nursery my dd went to didn't have the means to cope with reusables. I think reusables are far easier to use than the Terry nappies my mum used.

I think we need to be phasing our disposable nappies. I won’t be using them when I have kids.

Phasing Out

You really have no idea?

To enlighten you, it’s because no one wants to be tied to nappy buckets, soaking, washing and drying. Not to mention they contain shit. Yes, your beloved little offspring’s shit but still shit.

It’s like going back to the dark ages before the wonderful invention of modern moisture capture/draw away nappies.

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.