Real vs. disposable nappy debate

[SAHMof1]

In a House of Commons debate yesterday Ivan Lewis (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health) said ?It has to be said that a report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that, in the end, in terms of overall environmental consequences, there was very little difference between disposable and reusable nappies.?

Why are they still using that report when it is known to be flawed!

Another post, another point. Think what's important is not only the type of nappies but the amount of nappies we use in a child's life. Not putting on a nappy after a bath saves one nappy per day [and allows dcs bits to breathe]. letting dcs play in garden without nappies saves more.

do they scrape off the poo?
mine wouldn't

love my bamboozles too. I use for day & night. Boosted at night with a wool wrap is fantastic. During the day they are slim & have never had a leak.

oh we save lots of time by not schlepping nappies back from the shop too olive

Ooh yes, I forgot about doing that with the teeny inserts Mozhe. How is he doing in himself anyway?

LOL olive oil!

We used disps on hols and they are literally crap - washing nightmare

I am currently in love with my sandys

I am a bit late to this thread - sorry about that but I have been busy all day ironing my 45 bamboozles. And if they really think it only takes an hour to iron all that lot then they really aren't ironing them properly....

It takes so long where you have to iron each individual loop of terry otherwise the nippas don't grip do they?

witchandchips-cloth is less absorbant? which nappies did you use? I love my cloth nappies because they are LESS likely to leak than disposables!

Well I've had to ditch the terry nappies because they're too small for 11 month old DS and I was having to change him every hour or so. My mum was shocked at how poor the quality is. Can't afford to buy a load of fancy reusables and haven't been able to find any second hand/free so sadly we're using disposables now.

But I put a liner in them so that if he poos soon after being changed I can often recycle the nappy (sorry!). I will also put the same nappy back on after getting him washed if there's only a very little wee in it. Otherwise we'd get through so many and I can't bear the waste or the expense.

it wasn't that they leaked but that they could get drenched with one or two good pees. [think this is no bad thing actually as helps in potty training] - used bummies, which were brilliant

And Oliveoil, i used to spend far more time bagging up nappies and taking them out to the wheelie bin than i do just chucking them in a bucket and tipping the whole lot in the machine twice a week.

Plus they smell nicer, and look nice.

I have an A+ rated machine, only wash mappies twice a week when i have a full load, use the minimum amount of detergent and wash at 40. I line dry them and certainly don't iron them!

I think maybe we need to create our own survey to show how real mums actually use cloth nappies-I think they'll be surprised by how different it is to how they think we use them

I read that report before and just the mention of it makes me turn red.

More articles on this can be read at the Nappy Lady site

Here

I probably have about 40 nappies but I have a 2.4yo & an 8mo in nappies f/t just now. I wash probably 3 times a week & rarely tumble dry (we didn't even have a tumble drier at all 'til about 6 months ago). Most of my nappies/wraps are at least 2nd hand as I got them from the nappy trial service when it was winding down & they will be getting passed on.

I'm in our local real nappy network & there have been outraged emails zipping back & forth all day. It is absolutely infuriating the way this 'research' has been treated as fact but even taking out the environmental factor who would want all those chemicals around their babies' bums? Also what about the research that shows that cloth nappies are better for hip development as the extra padding between the legs holds the hips in correct alignment as well as providing a shock absorber when baby falls on his butt.

I have spent much of today trying to justify to "unbelievers" about why to use reusable nappies. I was getting quite fed up with "well, 'that report' says that it is all a waste of time".

I have to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone on this thread, that you have cheered me up no end. It is SOOOOOO good to hear people supporting other real nappy users and slating the quite flawed report from 2005.

My personal belief is that we live on an island with limited land (and therefore landfill) hence throwing things into the rubbish is to be avoided as far as possible.

Flame...he is doing brilliantly . Absolutely no problems at all so far.......fingers xxx that it continues. He has a lot of growing to do.....oh and learnin to breath on his own too ...we are happy with him atm...

Oh that's good to hear (obv except the not breathing on his own thing, but ya can't rush these things - other babies decide to just lounge around inside for ages, he was enthusiastic to be out there )

I'm so angry that these reports make other people so smug especially as they think cloth envolves so much more work (wtf-i'm one of the last people to do extra work!!!!!!)

I wash at 40 every other day, dry pail, line dry (but i have been known to tumble ) and use hardly any powder, they are bamboo and btp and i plan to use them for other children (hopefully!)....
what else can I do to make it better
Are eco balls really good?
sould i get some more nappies so i can wash every 3 days? or is that worse environmentally?

From a seller's perspective - yeah, get enough to wash every 6 days

You are probably a 50/50 split - the damage done by the slightly extra washing is probably cancelled out by the manufacturing etc

oh and whilst i know you're around flame-we use and love our whambamboos so if i was going to get a couple more i'd pos. get the same-why have they changed to bambenio and then to bambinex? are they the same?

Or are there any new slim fitting nappies i should try (if they were faster drying that'd be a selling point!)

I've hi jacked

Bambineos was too similar to Bambino mio (amongst other things I think) hence the change to Bambinex. They changed from wambamboo for a more international name (like opal fruits n starbursts).

Bambineos are slightly fluffier, but still soooo slim.

Quick flip lights are lovely and slim, and fast drying (buy two boosters as they take a lot longer to dry than the outers). Not as absorbant as wbbs.

oooooh maybe I should get a couple of each....just have to get the tight one to agree.....ho hum!

bambinex-sounds medical or something not sure about it definately not a 'cute' name kinda reminds me of tipex

coming up with a name must be bloody hard though

Tots got in there with Bamboozle and the rest is downhill really!

I guess its better than some of the cutesy fluffy names though

Loving all the positive real nappies vibes here!

Real nappies are not time consuming at all as you do put real nappies in a bin, just it?s a lidded bin. You then put the nappies in the machine, instead of taking them out and putting them out for the binmen. The only extra time is drying them, but isn?t that the same time needed to go to the shops and buy some more disposables???

And Daisyandbabybootoo, and others who might want to find out what real nappies are all about, why not arrange a nappy demo with a local agent. Use the nappy finder to find your local agent!