Real Nappies aren't worth the hassle??

[Magscat]

This was on the BBC news this morning.

As a cotton nappy devotee I can't believe they are saying that disposables are not much worse than cotton - just doesn't make sense.

Any other thoughts

EA full of assumptions (who irons their cloth nappies for one) 2000 disp users / 117 cloth users?? see here for more on why this report is not all it seems.

sorry for double post

'Over 2,000 parents using disposable nappies were surveyed. By contrast, most of the survey results for reusable nappies were drawn from a sample of 117 parents, further reduced to 32 because users of terry towelling nappies were relied on for most assumptions. This resulted in as few as two respondents being used for certain key assumptions.'

from WEN press release. This I think is the most telling bit of the report. How on earth can they base a report on 32 people- 2 in some places. This is totally incomprehensible. How on earth this report was published is totally beyond me- makes no sense at all

Has this come up yet: "elimination communication"?

THE most environmentally sound way out of this debate - not using nappies at all!

My friend who wants to practise lotus birth is now planning to practise "elimination communication".

check out: www.motherandchildhealth.com/Prenatal/sarah/ec.html

can i ask how many disposables a day people here use? And how many the report said people used? We did cloth for dd1 and a year of cloth and a year of disposables for dd2. But (and maybe this is horrid, I don't know) we didn't change disposables til they were full to bursting or had poo. We didn't used nappy sacks either.

3 a day, mostly.

oatcake - that article is hilarious! still weeing her in the middle of the night being a small pirce to pay...needing to go every ten minutes wehen she was tiny...poor child must have spent half her life hovering over a plastic bucket.

My mother-in-law had kept the old-fashioned Terry nappies from her youngest, then aged 15- got them out of the loft and I used them on my two tots! Cheapest ever?
Toilet training- all babies vary. Both mine were out of nappies during the day at 16 months old, the youngest at night by 18 months- but the eldest was not dry at night until 13 years! No reason other than he was too solidly asleep. I was told he would grow out of it eventually, and he did- ruined a few mattresses in the process though!

Am 37 weeks with first baby and have already brought the birth to potty pack from bambino mio, they are all washed and ready to go. My husband`s best friend and wife have just had a ds 8 weeks ago and really slated me for buying cottons, they did me a favour as this unprovoked attack on my choice for my baby was what gave me the full support of my husband as he was dubious about it. what i now find ironic is that after 8 weeks of changing the binbag 2 times a day and spending an extra £20 on shopping ( Wifey didnt breastfeed either) a week, guess which friends of ours now have there ds in bambino mio.

I could not believe the report on the news either and think that there must be pressure from the nappie companies.

And by the way certain councils do a laundry service for nappies once a week, just give them a call and they will tell you if they participate in the scheme

i'm awful for changing when using disposibles as i know they can hold a lot of wee, so bubs doesnt get changed as often .

almost all of dd3 nappies are 2nd hand.

in addition to the nappy washing thingy - some councils offer money back if you spend a certain amount on real nappies - I had £50 off with a minimum spend of £100. made a real difference!

I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense - I mean, disposables sit around for 400-500 yrs until they finally decompose completely, whereas washable cotton ones, well by the time they have come to the end of their useful life (and invariably have been used for many babies in the process not to mention as cloths later on!), they are practically falling apart anyway and rot down in a matter of months in a rubbish-dump. I just wonder who sponsored the research which led to this latest bizarre report - Pampers? Huggies? Hmmm..!

I have been using one-life nappies for 7 1/2 months now for my dd and I think they are fab!! I refuse to believe that something that is from a natural source and only manufactured once, without bleaching agents (in one-life's case) and without using pesticides or chemicals can be worse for the environment than disposables. The research is obviously flawed and probably a knee-jerk response to the perceived threat posed by increasing numbers of real nappy users. Most people using real nappies are responsible and don't use hot washes unneccesarily and don't specially want to spend ages tumble drying the blessed things. The fact that real nappies can be used for more than one child and for loads of other things too - tack cleaning for horse-owners perhaps? makes a nonsense of suggesting that they could be more environmentally damaging for the environment than disposables. Btw, has anyone ever tried burning a disposable? We tried, in desperation and couldn't burn the thing - apart from being good news if they on your bubs surely says something about whats in them which is a bit worrying??!!

I refuse to believe anything that contradicts my current beliefs on anything.

The world is flat.

The sun moves around the earth.

Hi ! Just joined the debate & read the whole lot of posts! Phew ! I am a cloth person expecting our 3rd - our 23mth old is still in them, but hopefully heading out ! I wash every other day @ 40/60 degrees, flush only dirty liners (find I can get quite a few wears out of a wet one - once washed !!!), use a few drop of Tea Tree for soaking, line dry (or on airer if raining) - I admit to tumble drying for 5 mins if they're really stiff - but with towels etc. We use Moltex (Little Green Earthlets) or Nature (Waitrose)disposables if we go away - only using eco-friendly nappy sacks (Nature - Waitrose)for a dirty nappy. The other 'clothies' I know are similar.
I fail to see how this is not more environmentally friendly ! It's cheaper and no more hassle once you get into it. I bought prefolds & a couple of shaped ones (LGE)to see how I got on - some are now cleaning cloths, but most are fine for no. 3 !!!
Very annoyed about the report - it's undoing all that us 'clothies' are trying to do ! Nappy laundry services are all very well, but it's easy to DIY !
OK - end of rant.

Having a debate with my sis in law - who does not recycle anything. We throw away half a black bag of rubbish a week - for a family of four that's not bad - compared to her 2 bags for 2 people ! By recycling, fruit & veg deliveries & using cloth nappies - anyone can reduce their rubbish, it's just being arsed to do it. It can only be a good thing !

well maybe 'refuse to believe' does sound a bit ott but I thought you'd know what I mean - I was a bit annoyed about what I perceive to be divisive journalism - hey, we're just all trying to do our best however we can and being a mum has got enough pitfalls without anyone else putting their oar in and trying to blind us with dodgy research!!! Apologies for the strong tone , though actually there are lots of things I refuse to believe - father xmas doesn't exist?? my dog doesn't understand me?? You get the picture

Ive got a bet of a fiver on with dp that next time we see his brother he'll bring this up with a 'ha ha' smirk on his face. oh boy am I looking forward to that argument

This has been winding me up more and more lately - even dh agrees and he would usually be the first one to say something like "soyou know better than a panel of experts with govt money to burn do you?"

I'm particularly incensed that the conclusion was "no differnce" when they could have concluded, for example, that "some cloth nappy users negate the benefits to the environment by washing too hot and tumble drying". Also why is electrycity use as bad for the environment as landfill? We can plant trees to make up for the carbon dioxide, or use renewable energy. We can't do very much about the huge swathes of land being given over to landfill and the noxious gasses given off by anaerobic decomposition.

So who wants to write a letter to the environment agency?

father xmas doesn't exist??

of COURSE he exists!!!!!!

I've been using cotton nappies since my daughter was 4 months old - she's now 14 months. It makes sense not to tumble dry them and in the summer that's easy! Mine are all on the line now. It saves me a lot of money anyway. I use a disposable at night and love the new boots environmentally friendly one, and there are around the same price as most brand nappies - slightly dearer than supermarkets own brand but I don't mind that as I feel I'm doing my bit! Scary though that my 13 year old daughter's and my other two kids nappies are still in a landfill somewhere and will be for a hundred years or so!
Sarah xx

By the way - if we go for a day out or on holiday with no washing facilities I use disposables and to be honest I don't change her any less than when she's in the cloth ones! I use a prefold nappy and a cloth liner and a disposable liner for the dirty bits and don't find that she gets anymore wet than with a disposable.
Sarah x

My first 3 children were all out of nappies at around age two (although not at night) - I'm sure this one will be the same.
Sarah x

I've got some questions...

Why don't the nappy makers make bio-degardable nappies (like Nature babies) ?

Is there just nappies in these landfill site ? I'm just amazed at all the packaging that comes with everything these days..

Are all the cloth nappy users using ecover or other brands of environmentally friendly wash ?
powders ?

As long as you do your bit & everything in perspective I think.

We use disposables. I've tried SO hard with the cloth ones, kooshies, motherease etc, but just couldn't get my head round them (up to my elbows in faeces soup..yuk). My daughter now has disposables - but she has organic food, organic bubble bath, baby cream, toothpaste, etc etc. We use the pampers vouchers we get sent in the post to buy organic veg ( asda accept them for anything) & we use nature babies nappies at night. We also have a composter, even the cat has organic food

I just couldn't get to grips with the cloth nappies - if anyone lives near Reading & wants to go over it with me, you're more than welcome !