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?

presumably because if anyone talks about anything other than the normal now you get accused of 'judging new mothers'

We do half and half (mainly because of the drying not the washing)

If I had known that the first few months before weening that baby poo was soluble and so you can just wash it away in the machine with no scraping, I would have started sooner.

I think the main reason is what you say , nobody does it and there are so many different types (and price differences) and add on extras like wash bags and cheeky wipes (we use rags) mean it seems more expensive to get started.

Also people forget that you don't have to exclusively use cloth. We half and halfed it (we didn't have enough because they take too long to line dry and we don't have a garden for the sunshine or a dryer either) DH said it was more hassle than it was worth but he came around on the third child.
I haven't used cloth in about 3 months now because of my washing pile. Winter for us was always a hard time.
Our radiators don't work well and are too expensive so we couldn't dry them on there.

I definitely think midwives should be knowledgeable about it- they don't mind wasting time trying to shove those crappy plastic Emma bags down everyone's throats. I couldn't believe my midwives and health visitors knew nothing about cloth. It would have helped to have some recommendations/ advice.
I was using the pocket nappies wrong for my whole first child. I didn't realise that there was a pocket so I was putting the inserts in like a sanitary towel on pants... it was messy and probably very uncomfortable for baby.

Also, one of mine had really bad nappy rash that was only solved by using reusables.
They must have had an allergic reaction to something in the throw away nappies.

I used Egyptian cotton prefolds and separate wraps (36 prefolds plus 4 wraps per size), lasted 2 kids and sold them on for almost the initial outlay afterwards.

First child: brought all the kit. Baby spent 12 weeks in hospital then 18 months in and out. We tried in-between but we couldn't reasonably use them in hospital and between being in and out plus consultant appts it was just too much .

Second/Third child: Twins. Enough said imo. I know some do, but frankly keeping up with their outer clothing is enough.

Would have saved some nappy panic in LD1 but then so would breast feeding and I couldn't make that work either.

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.

I used them for my first DC until she was about 1, then being very slender meant they didn't fit too well - the "extra" bit on the inside of the nappy used to shift around and let leaks out.

Used them a bit for DC2, but just ran out of time. Cloth SPs are much less time consuming - the time hanging them out after a wash when I can barely keep up with washing and dryy everything else.

I've also found a very reliable brand of disposable nappies for DC2 so don't want to rock the boat.

@GhostPenguin that was my experience too. We got an all-in-one with the scottish baby box voucher and it leaked every time we use it, but the rest of the time we’ve used terry cloths and motherease airflow wraps and they’ve been amazing. We’ve only had one leak (from a serious blow out that nothing could have contained!) and they’re so soft and comfortable. We use micro fleece liners which wick away moisture and we’ve never had an issue with nappy rash. I think we got lucky with the option we chose because it has worked so well for us. We definitely didn’t get on with the all-in-one option.

Because he was born in the middle of freezing January and all washing would have to be dried inside.

Because I didn't want to be washing more bodily fluids off clothes and cloths than I currently was

Because we didn't have a tumble drier

Because I had a difficult birth with a long recovery

Because I had raging PND and struggled with keeping myself alive, never mind considering the minefield that is cloth nappies - brands, covers, sizes, leaks, washing, drying etc etc

Local cloth group...jeez I couldn't think of anything worse. My SIL used them and it put me off to be honest. They were always rock hard and felt like they needed changing.

Last time I looked it up, I read that once you factor in the electricity used to wash (and possibly dry) them, reusables were no more eco-friendly than disposables.

Eco-disposables seem a good compromise to me. What is missing is a service which would collect them and take them away to biodegrade. Otherwise they just go to landfill.

Just the thought of more washing and drying when my electricity and water bills are through the roof already put me off. Plus the initial cost for them is high.

We part time clothed for a little while, unfortunately I had to stop due to mental health issues where my husband just couldn't cope looking after me and the baby, doing everything around the house, going to work etc.
The main other issue we had was the upfront cost. It's £200 (or there about), I managed to get mine cheap from Aldi (which if you're on any of the cloth pages on Facebook they are very much looked down upon so that makes you feel a bit rubbish for using them). We just couldn't afford that much outright.
Also, the cloth community is awful at times, unless you use a certain type or even part time cloth you seem to be plague-ridden, at least that was my experience with it.
Id love to try it again with any other children though, but I would only do it part time.

Pretty rich to virtue signal about cloth nappies, when having a baby in the first place is pretty ecologically damaging

I agree it’s ridiculous to complain about what nappies people are using, but it’s also ridiculous to complain about someone having a baby when you will be doing things to damage the environment yourself.

Maybe we should just all stop judging each other and thinking we’re all better than one another when we’re all just as bad as each other.

For me it was the abundance of information out there. There were too many options and I didn't want to make the wrong decision so I never made one at all.

I've never met a mum who used cloth nappies, not even the earth mother types I met at the sling library.

I use them and know quite a few others who do/did. However I didn't start using them til my baby was 6 months old or so (don't really remember). By then he wasn't pooing quite so frequently and also I could invest in "one size" nappies which should see him through to potty training, rather than having to get newborn size ones on top of the others.

I was also not in the complete sleep deprived haze of life with a newborn and could come up with a fairly easy system for washing and storing. It's not really more work and nor, to me, is it any more gross than a whole bin full of pooey nappies outside your door, but it is something else to get your head around with a newborn and there is quite enough of that already.

We still use disposables when we're out and about or when DS goes to my mum in law's house for childcare. Obviously since we are in lockdown we aren't often out and about so perhaps if things were normal we'd use disposables more.

I use Motherease wizard duos which are amazing and have never leaked as long as they're changed every 3/4 hours in the day. They don't need tumble drying as they come out of the washing machine practically dry, and only need a couple of hours on a clothes horse. They're not a cheap investment upfront though and are quite hard to get hold of.

We use the same brand for night time too, but only started doing that when DS stopped feeding so frequently at night - he normally only has one or two night feeds now. So you might find others who use them more as your baby gets older.

I might consider using them from birth if I had more babies, but then again that would mean buying newborn size nappies that I might only get a few months' use out of.

I'd say about 3 in 10 of my mum friends use reuseable.

I switched from disposables to them for about 3 months but decided to switch back and sold them. I was struggling to keep up with the washing alongside clothing and bedding, also never mind what I did with them my son started getting bad rashes and getting upset with that.

To be honest, you sound like one of those 'new mums' that doesn't have at understanding that ask babies are different

You think that all babies would be fine if they were cared for the exact way yours is - I remember having that too. It's not true. Please try really hard to be less smug, it'll make it easier when the penny drops.

I used them part time until my son potty trained at 2, and I fucking hated the things. I hate the washing, hated how bulky they were, having to find “cut for cloth” clothes, didn’t think they were particularly cute and our gas and water bill went up by £10 a month for each. So that plus the initial outlay of buying the nappies, then having to buy different because they didn’t work for us, sure you can sell them on but not for what you paid. They cost a fortune.

The poo knife killed me every single time - my DS had soft scoop ice cream poops until potty training, and no amount of liners (fleece or disposable) prevented it getting all in the nappy.

He also still has the scars on his bum from a teething nappy that burnt his skin - never had that with a disposable. (He’s 3 now)

I persevered out of sheer stubbornness. I’m expecting baby 2 in April and absolutely NOT using cloth nappies this time.

I do plenty to help the environment in other ways so not piling guilt on myself this time!

We will be using cloth wipes, these have stuck around.

I use cloth sanitary towels also, again find these so much easier to keep up with washing as once a month, not every day or two with nappies.

it’s great if they’re work for you but they’re not for everyone

Blimey, is someone who can't understand why some people prefer to use disposable nappies really capable of all the thinking involved in raising a child? Or is it that you just wanted to feel a little bit superior to those parents who choose disposables?

*any understanding that all babies are different

Definitely sounds like the washing (or rather, the drying) is a major factor, which I totally understand. It’s not easy living in a cold, wet country.

They are making strides in developing better fabrics which dry faster (like bamboo) which may help, so perhaps that’s an issue which will diminish in time as the difficulty lessens.

I looked at them when I had my last four years ago but the initial outlay was a lot for the reason that you would never know if they would suit until you tried to use them, just like with disposables - different babies suit different nappies, at least in my experience. It also creates a fair amount of extra work (especially without a tumble dryer) and having gone back to work quite quickly doing shifts I just didn’t have time for it sadly. Like the idea though.

I think the initial outlay would be too much for very many people too.

In the first lockdown last year I spent a fortune on a birth to potty pack from a reputable company which started leaking after 2 months of use. They admitted they were faulty but god it was a faff while they tried to establish if I had the fit right, had damaged them by washing incorrectly etc. The leaks were happening after half an hour or so wear. My little one is almost 2 and has worn Lidl nappies since birth, and we still haven’t spent as much as the reusables cost us, even without the added cost of washing them.

Oh, come on, the reasons why are obvious.

Initial outlay is far higher than disposables. They have to be washed and dried- and drying them can be an absolute ovary ache. They leak more easily. Nappy rash etc happens more often. They're bulkier when on. Going out and about when cloth nappying does require more work than if only using disposables and not everyone wants to walk around with a bag of soiled nappies. Etc etc etc.

I know loads of people who were using them when I started having kids 15 years ago and loads who use them now, but very few people who use them exclusively.

I considered it but there was so much choice that it put me off. For everyone who got on with brand A, someone else found brand B better etc. How the jeff do I know which one suits my baby the best without spending a fucking fortune.

We tried them for a bit as we were given nearly a hundred of different types from my sister who had used them on hers. Disposable nappies are designed to keep urine away from the skin whereas all the reusables we tried would just get wet and leave DS uncomfortable and crying. It meant having to change him every time he had a wee which some days was 20+ nappies often just minutes apart. We had neither the time or resources to make an industry out of washing nappies.They were also so bulky it restricted his movement when compared to wearing disposables. Whilst they are noble in their intent they are a terrible product overall.