AIBU to wonder why more people don’t use reusable nappies?

[KatyClaire]

I have a fairly new baby and I’m a little surprised at how few people I’ve encountered are using reusable nappies. I haven’t met anyone using them in my antenatal group / baby classes / local parents group etc. There has been such an explosion in the use of reusable products (sanitary products, straws, cups, make up wipes etc) that I had assumed it would have crossed into nappies as well.

I don’t know whether it’s a perception issue (people thinking they’re messy and hard to clean), the upfront cost, confusing information etc?

Washable nappies are fantastic!! I've had all my 4 kids in them and, for me, it's much easier and cheaper.
I dont have to remember to buy nappies. Just liner, and I do a bit more washing but that doesn't really bother me. My kids also never had rashes in them (my first child had v sensitive skin and would get a rash within a day of wearing disposables).

I will be honest and say the first reason I went for them: the dogs! I was worried our 2 staffies would find the nappy bin and choke on disposable nappies. Given the kind of dog we had at the time (one of them at least) I think that fear was justified. And then I figured that once we were sorted with the bulk of it it would be easier. I breastfed so no formula buying either so I could keep my shopping habits very similar.

Personally it has worked for us but neither of my 2 sister in laws has really got on with it though they tried!

One thing I realised along the way - babies in dispo nappies smell more when the nappy is dirty and at least for us it seems to have helped with potty training. My first 3 kids were out of nappies by age 2 approx. My youngest is only 6months old.
For us it definitely worked but it's not for everyone.

I've replied to so many threads like this in the past in a calm, thoughtful, careful manner.

However it's anot her lockdown and I cannot be arsed pandering to people!

Most people don't choose reusables because they are lazy, selfish nuggets who are too precious to deal with them.

There are also the following reasons:

They have nowhere to dry them (there are quick-drying options available)

They can't afford the initial outlay (I saved up throughout my pregnancy and used some of the child benefit money to buy a set of nappies that I used on all my children - so that argument doesn't hold any water with me)

They 'didn't know' about them (hmmm. Really?!)

They have this insane belief that they affect the baby's ability to walk/create bandy legs (well, that must mean every person over the age of 45 in England has bandy legs abs had issues walking... which of course they didn't).

We live in a lazy, selfish, throwaway society where precious people like the easiest option.

throw away culture - disposable just gets wrapped up and dumped - you have to wash the other ones

I don’t mind the bulkiness, and I actually quite like the fact that it helps with the proper development of their hips. Reusables can actually correct mild forms of hip dysplasia.

The wetness would be an issue if I felt my baby wasn’t dry, totally sweet why that would be off putting. Luckily with the system we have he’s kept totally dry and comfortable, and thankfully we’ve never had nappy rash. I absolutely understand why that would be a factor if the nappies weren’t working properly though.

@KatyClaire

£400! I don’t blame you for finding that off putting. We paid £120 for our system (Terry cloths, liners, wraps, nappy nippers). I reckon that’s about half what we would have spent on this baby even if we had used disposables (based on the cost of a supermarket own-brand at 4p per nappy).

I'm with you on the terry squares, I just couldn't get throw-away nappies to fit my skinny but tall child, they all without exception leaked up the back as they don't have elastic. In cloth and we never had a leak at all, so much more adjustable.

@PoplarTrees- ah yes I forgot about the liners. And actually for the more solid poo i do try & put it down the toilet even with disposables. I do admire people that use reusables & before I had my daughter I always wondered why more people didn’t. Like you said it probably depends a bit on the child & how often they need changing

We used to have a great scheme locally where you got a voucher for a set amount that you could spend on cloth nappies. I did it with my second baby.
She was only in cloth during the day as she was a heavy wetter and I couldn't afford to keep trying different solutions.
When I had my third baby the scheme was long gone and I couldn't afford to initial cost even though I knew long term it would be better.

Cost keeps coming up. Should have added to my earlier post I spent £15 and that saw me through 3 kids.
BUT we used disposable a lot too for many of the reasons mentioned on here.

@Ariela my boy is long and skinny too and I LOVE the Terry squares for that reason - I can fit them perfectly to his body and they’re comfy and snug as anything. I also think they’re softer at the edges on his skin - I’ve never liked the plastic edge of a disposable nappy, it just seems so harsh on baby skin.

I worked as a mother's help for a mum who used reusable nappies. Oh my God.. the washing! I did consider it but I couldn't be arsed either. Doing the washing for the new mum confirmed I made the right decision.
Most rubbish gets incinerated these days any way so don't stress over landfill. Just emissions

@VegemiteIsToasty

Lots use them where I live in Australia, but we have a lot of sun so easy to wash and line dry too. But we do some other things, like * plastic straws are rare in cafes and restaurants * supermarkets encourage you to bring your own bags that last for years (if you forget them you can buy a plastic one that is meant to break down in a certain number of years) * we have three bins at home so green bin is for food waste and is collected every week, yellow bin is recycling plastics and glass as it goes into road base and is collected each fortnight and red bin is non green and non recycling and is the smallest bin collected each fortnight and just goes to general waste and the dump.

With the nappy thing though, it’s not so great in drought conditions for us when you want to limit what water you use.

@VegemiteIsToasty, U.K. the same on all 3 bullet points.

i saved up throughout my pregnancy and used some of the child benefit money to buy a set of nappies that I used on all my children - so that argument doesn't hold any water with me

Unfortunately, it seems from plenty of experiences on here that the reusables don’t hold water either, so...

I moved on to reusables when DS1 was 18m and I was pregnant with DS2. Having a significant overlap of two in reusables meant that we didn't have bin capacity issues.

DS1 had food allergies, and every poo was a poonami that blasted up his back and usually between his neck and knees, writing off that day's outfit. So I was used to dealing with a fairly extreme mess and the washables contained far better than disposables ever did.

I did get more wee leaks, but they were far better than exploding poo!

I wasn't pureist. Nursery's protocols just weren't practical, so they wore disposables then. It did save thousands of nappies festring in landfill now.

I've moved on to CSP since, and still find the cloth wipes useful. They were amazing. Disposable wipes just used to smear the mess everywhere.

Those of us old enough to remember a time before disposable nappies don't want to go back.
It's misogynistic.

A lot of things inc most development in this world is environmentally unfriendly. Why just pick on the mums?

My mum used them with my siblings who are much younger than me, this was between 14 and 17 years back. Quite simply I decided there and then aged 13, when helping with the laundry that this was not what I would be doing when I had a baby.

@Crystal90567

I don’t think reusable nappies are inherently misogynistic - like I said upthread, my husband really takes the lead on ours. He does all nappy changes when not working, all the laundry for the whole household, and took the lead both in researching which nappies to buy and on the different kinds of folds etc.

I think there is a broad inequality when it comes to child rearing generally, in that women clearly tend to do more than their fair share and are often burdened by entitled and unsupportive men who fail to pull their weight. That is clearly a huge problem which affects all aspects of child raising, and it’s not clear to me what the solution is. How do we get men to take raising their children more seriously? I’m lucky to have a husband who does all that he ought to and more, and is easily as dedicated and hands on a parent as I am. But mumsnet has taught me that I’m in a lucky minority, and that many (most?) men are not decent, fair and hard working when it comes to their kids.

So in short - I agree with you broadly, but I don’t think there’s an inherent misogyny in reusable nappies. Rather, the decision as to whether or not to use reusables is situated in a patriarchal system which exploits women, and we need to look at the big picture for solutions.

I never used them because they were unaffordable, you save in the long run but I could never afford the upfront cost 🤷🏻‍♀️

@EmpressSuiko that definitely is a factor - I wish more councils would do voucher schemes etc to make it more affordable. It’s so wrong that people on lower incomes have to spend more in the long run because the upfront cost isn’t accessible.

How on earth do you figure out which brand to invest in though? Last thing I want to do with a newborn is to have multiple nappies to test and have to figure out in the middle of the night which one I’ve got and how it works...

“DaisyHeadMaisy -

I also think sometimes cloth talk turns into yet another competition amongst parents, who has the biggest, brightest collection, who has this print, who has that print etc, who has the scandi wardrobe to match. It defeats the object of using cloth and just becomes consumerism. It really put me off asking for any advice while I was trying my son out in cloth.”

(I know it was quite a while upthread but I’m still working my way through.)

THIS 100%, with bells on, is how I feel. Bizarre cloth nappy competitive obsession. It’s just another stick for mums to beat each other up with.

I can't believe how self righteous some people are getting about this.

If it works for you great, no need to be a dick because it doesn't work for someone else when you have no idea what their circumstances are.

I hope all the people here banging on about how selfish and lazy people are don't have cars, make all their own clothes and don't eat meat.

At risk of being accused once again of being PR for the nappy lady, I found her site very helpful. She has a questionnaire asking your views on price / Washing and drying facilities / patterns / convenience etc and makes recommendations based on that. She was spot on for us, her top rec has been perfect.

I also found this article really helpful at explaining the various kinds: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/recommended/kids/best-reusable-nappies-tried-tested/amp/

We were lucky enough to get loads from a lady selling hers at an NCT sale and then bought some new with vouchers for the council.
Used disposable from Lidl at night and when out of the house. It doesn't have.to be all or nothing.

I used both reusable and disposable for one of my children. The main minus points for reusable are they’re not as dry so you need more changes - can get away with 4 disposable a day for an older baby compared with 10-12 reusables. They are harder work especially with poos. When out and about you can just Chuck the disposable. I spent more on reusables than I did when I just used disposables.