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?

I found them fairly straightforward to use tbh. The thought of the amount of shit encrusted plastic dumped in landfill everyday motivated me.

We already use a guppyfriend

I think you’d have mentioned that sooner tbh.

It’s ok. I appreciate that you feel a bit attacked. I’ll leave you to it.

@Piglet89 not sure that’s fair - I responded to you directly and acknowledged your point, as well as referring back to a previous discussion earlier on in the thread on the same topic. Happy to keep discussing it with you as it’s a valid and interesting point, but I don’t think it’s reasonable for you to claim I didn’t engage with it.

Mumsnet seems to view any question asking as disingenuous, but it shouldn’t be so hard to believe that someone might actually just be interested in hearing a range of perspectives. I don’t really care if people believe I’m not being sincere - it’s their problem, not mine, if they don’t. But I’m not going to bother arguing with them about my intentions. It’s a waste of time and certainly won’t persuade someone who’s already made their mind up anyway!

@PlumsInTheIcebox not really my issue if you don’t believe me!

@Toddlerteaplease

I've been a paediatric nurse for 17 years. I've met one baby wearing reusables! There are somethings that really need to be single use. Nappies and sanitary towels!

Why do nappies and san pro NEED to be single use?

I use cloth nappies, wipes and sanitary pads. I don't feel the need to shove these choices down anyone else's throats and can understand why it's not for everybody but it works for us. I certainly don't feel any NEED to use disposables.

Arguably though we do as a society NEED to think more about the environment and use far less single use plastic. Nappies and sanitary products play a part in this.

Our lives are so led by convenience now that it will be very hard to make a significant shift towards reusable nappy use. The same goes for lots of choices where environmental impact is pitted against time, ease and convenience. We like being able to buy chicken breast chopped up in a plastic pack, we don't want to buy a whole chicken and portion it up. We like sitting in peace and quiet driving on our own in our cars instead of waiting at the bus stop in the rain. 50+ years ago we wouldn't have had all of these options to make life easier but now we have the options we don't want to let go of them.

It will ultimately take big strides by the government to make cloth nappies more mainstream, including heavily subsidising them. A few hundred quid to stock up on cloth nappies is achievable for a financially comfortable family who are committed to the idea but it's a huge outlay to a lot of families when you can buy a pack for disposables for a pound or less.

@KatyClaire you did acknowledge my point - that’s true - but your answer to the issue was apparently that we all need to get to the root of the problem by demolishing the patriarchy - while women continue to launder shitty nappies.

Heaven knows where we’d all get the time to demolish the patriarchy while spending hours on the internet researching the right cloth nappies, followed by chained to the washing machine and the washing line/laundry airer, then stuffing cloth nappies with their liners. You know?

It will ultimately take big strides by the government to make cloth nappies more mainstream, including heavily subsidising them. A few hundred quid to stock up on cloth nappies is achievable for a financially comfortable family who are committed to the idea but it's a huge outlay to a lot of families when you can buy a pack for disposables for a pound or less.

This is definitely the issue that has come up time and time again on the thread, and I think it’s a really good place to start because it’s one that can be remedied. If people don’t want to use reusables because of potential additional inconvenience then that is, of course, entirely their choice and isn’t something that can / should be ‘fixed’ - but for people who would like to use reusables but aren’t able to front the initial expense, so much could be done with government subsidies to make them more accessible.

Maybe they should do a reusable nappy rental scheme. Then there wouldn't be the upfront costs. It would also be much easier to change brands, go up a size and not have to work out what to do with them once they are no longer needed.

I also think that once they stop building pocket sized homes with rooms and a garden too small to swing a hamster in, then people would have space to have the nappy bucket, the airer and a tumble dryer to actually make it a more practical option.

Also - you mention you have a fairly new baby and this is your first. You don’t know what’s around the corner and I’m assuming you are still on maternity leave. My son is 18 months old and I am 6 months out of mat leave, looking to return to work and further my career.

I am tired with many demands on my time; to launder nappies would divert valuable time I want to spend returning to the adult world of my profession and advancing in my career.

Oh OP, I've just given in to the temptation to advance search and discovered that your baby is 9 weeks old I'm sure you're very enthusiastic and evangelical but you might get a bit more insight into why not everyone does everything exactly like you when you've been doing it a bit longer and your baby is older than the cheese in my fridge...

@Piglet89 but what’s the alternative? We give up on demolishing the patriarchy and on protecting the environment? I come back to being torn, as always, on where to give up on personal responsibility. I don’t drive unless I absolutely need to, I’m vegan, I use reusable products whenever possible, I take the train when I travel for work instead of flying even though it means a fight with my boss every time, I recycle religiously, I avoid single use plastics like the plague. And yet I know, of course, that 70% of all carbon emissions are caused by about 10 companies. And when it comes to dismantling the patriarchy I don’t even know where to start, except by obsessively reading everything I can on how to raise my son to be one of the good ones, and challenging sexism when I see it, and standing up for other women, and volunteering in a women’s shelter. But these things aren’t doing to address the structural inequality which keeps women in second place and exploits their labour relentlessly.

So what do I do? Do I lie down and concede that everything is pointless and individual action not worth bothering with since it’s barely a drop in the ocean? To do so feels so hopeless and depressing, but perhaps it’s realistic. Or do I accept that I can’t fix the world but I can do my part in it, and that’s worthwhile and important in its own way?

There’s clearly no obvious solution to this, and we all draw our own lines in the sand. The issue of personal responsibility is a hot topic, and people much cleverer and more thoughtful than me have grappled with it relentlessly. So please don’t feel that I’m flippant about solutions, or that I think I’m a one-woman saviour of the planet because I’ve saved myself a few thousand nappies in landfill. I know that we’re dealing with issues much, much bigger than the choices made by any one person. I‘m just invested in doing my bit, and curious as to where others stand on the same issue.

Maybe they should do a reusable nappy rental scheme.

This is an excellent idea, would love to see this become more widespread. There are nappy libraries offering this service but I don’t know how common they are or how well-publicised.

@Hardbackwriter

Oh OP, I've just given in to the temptation to advance search and discovered that your baby is 9 weeks old I'm sure you're very enthusiastic and evangelical but you might get a bit more insight into why not everyone does everything exactly like you when you've been doing it a bit longer and your baby is older than the cheese in my fridge...

Oh wow 9 weeks is tiny. It's certainly much too little to be so set in your ways regarding something as changeable as using cloth nappies. Please don't be so set on them I'd honestly absolutely hate for you to feel like you had failed if things didn't work out as your baby got older. At 9 weeks old I had loads of plans for my baby most of which didn't go the way I'd imagined.

Nappy rental schemes have existed before. Nappy laundry services too where someone comes and takes away the prey nappies and leaves clean ones. Trial nappy schemes have also been available so people can try before they buy. But all of these have been low scale and people haven’t been all aware of them and the promotion has been low. Basically the schemes have been underfunded and so haven’t been able to make much impact.

There isn’t the will and funding from government to address it.

Nigtingale hosptials show what can be done when things feel desperate. Government and society dot. Feel the environmental issue is desperate and until they do, any push from them will be minimal and underfunded.

There isn’t the will and funding from government to address it.

See also: decent maternity care and medical treatments to deal with post-birth injuries and incontinence.

I should say: consistently good post-natal care.

@Same4Walls that’s very kind, but they’re really not a struggle for me! I am absolutely not set in my ways when it comes to parenting and I wouldn’t get upset about things not being how I imagined (as it is I’ve already dealt fairly well with having a difficult birth which could not have been further from my vision of water baths and candlelight, a baby with severe reflux, parenting in a lockdown and various other unexpected challenges!). But I appreciate you being so kind

The extremely thinly-veiled PA on this thread is absolutely hilarious.

but they’re really not a struggle for me! I am absolutely not set in my ways when it comes to parenting and I wouldn’t get upset about things not being how I imagined

That's good to hear but you do seem to have invested a lot of time and energy into researching and using cloth and it's clear from your recent posts that you are very pro when it comes to environmental issues. Therefore I'd honestly hate for you to hit a road block at some point and feel like you absolutely must persist. Just remember it's ok to change your mind if you find it stops working for you, you won't be single handedly killing off the polar bears if you do use disposables.

@Same4Walls perhaps, but show me a parent who doesn’t invest a lot of time and energy into researching their parenting options

Probably most of our own parents TBF.

The agonising over parenting approaches is a fairly recent phenomenon.

[quote KatyClaire]@Same4Walls perhaps, but show me a parent who doesn’t invest a lot of time and energy into researching their parenting options [/quote]
Honestly I hardly researched anything and I only had my PFB just over a year ago.

Yeah, maybe the advent of google has not been a great thing for the collective parental mental health of the nation.

Because when you are a new mum there its exhausting anyway, and buckets of nappies to wash and dry is just not a good use of your time.

Plus the energy used to wash and dry them is as environmentally damaging as the disposables and makes them just as expensive.

Everyone I know who used cloth nappies needed a new washing machine. 2-3 extra loads a week is significant and will reduce the lifespan of you appliance, which results in more landfill.

Impossible to use them if you don’t have a tumble drier or a bloody Aga so your kitchen is always warm. You may not tumble the nappies but you’ll have to tumble your other laundry to make room for air drying nappies. Modern ones take ages to dry. Terry squares that we had in the old days dry quickly but they leaked horrendously. People simply didn’t take babies out much as a result and I’m not sure modern parents want to go back to that.