Disposable nappies are unhygenic

[Dodaday]

I think disposable nappies are very unhygenic, having just returned from a holiday complex where I witnessed parents putting rolled up used nappies outside their chalets, only sometimes in a bag. Even some of the litter bins were full of them. The satisfying thing about using terry nappies, is that when I change a dirty one, the poo and liners go straight down the loo where it is supposed to go, and not into a landfill site, the thought of which makes me crynge! I wonder how many people using disposables scrape the poo down the loo first? I suppose it's possible to use a liner with a disposable nappy, but I don't know anyone who does, it's never mentioned, and the manufacturer's don't suggest it.

SaggyPossum, 10 months is not too late though it might be harder at the beginning, why not sign up from the late starters group on yahoo groups....
Late Starters Yahoo Group

We EC too. Yesterday DD spent her one year birthday party being passed from person to person in trainer pants and was dry all day, all wees in the big toilet upstairs.

We normally keep her in knickers during the day but in case we had a miss, we reverted to trainer pants.

We also found that before DD could crawl/walk we were getting a pretty much 100% success rate for both wee and poo. Now she is walking, she is clean (catching poo) but we have between 0 and 3 misses a day, usually 0 when we are out of the house.

The misses are when DD refuses to use the potty/toilet and then wees a moment later on the floor, not sure what that is about but I'm sure we'll figure it out shortly

SaggyPossum, 10 months is not too late though it might be harder at the beginning, why not sign up from the late starters group on yahoo groups....
Late Starters Yahoo Group

We EC too. Yesterday DD spent her one year birthday party being passed from person to person in trainer pants and was dry all day, all wees in the big toilet upstairs.

We normally keep her in knickers during the day but in case we had a miss, we reverted to trainer pants.

We also found that before DD could crawl/walk we were getting a pretty much 100% success rate for both wee and poo. Now she is walking, she is clean (catching poo) but we have between 0 and 3 misses a day, usually 0 when we are out of the house.

The misses are when DD refuses to use the potty/toilet and then wees a moment later on the floor, not sure what that is about but I'm sure we'll figure it out shortly

No idea why that message appeaered twice

Isn't wrapping dispos in a nappy bag ADDING to the landfill? 2 bits instead of just one?
I drop what I can down the loo - and then wrap it up tight in itself and put in the bin.
Only have a nighttime one now though and is usually only wee.

I always used to put the pooh down the loo if using disposables (used a mixture, latterly more disp as washables were all manky by DS2) tho my sister laughed and told me np-one else did.

I still did it tho (didn't want a bin full of poo)

You can get compostable bags (much much cheaper than "nappy bags") and nappies which are mostly degradable, so that makes it a little bit better. Shamed to say that I've only just started emptying the nappies into the loo because of this thread. So thanks.

poo in disposable nappies turns into a toxic liquid and gas in landfill and all new landfills are equipt with a special lining and exhaust type system to hold and somehow expell the liquid and gas (it still ends up in our environment somewhere just not concentrated around the landfill). it is all bad bad bad. that is why the councils would prefer we use non disposables. I use mostly non disp, but if i use disp (holidays and at night) i scrape the poo off, it's not that hard, but most people i know dont scrape (these same people are shocked that i dont flush my tampons). The liquid produced is called lucreat (spelling might be wrong) look it up.

The point I am trying to make here, is that there is nothing wrong in people using disposable nappies if they want to, it's just the consideration or lack of it in the way they "dispose" of them. It's a bit like dog owners allowing their dog to foul public areas. I can never understand why dog owners walk around with a transparent bag full of dog poo. Why don't they use a black bag, so you can't see it?

-Oh, so you are all coming out of the woodwork now -

Yep

We started ECing at 10 weeks old...

What exactly is EC then? Is it like baby signing? Sorry but i am going to be lazy and expect other people to tell me instead of googling as i haven't got much time on here this afternoon....pleeeease can somebody tell me?

and while i am querying, does this late starters site send a load of files to it's members that i can't open on my pc, cos the last yahoo group i tried to join did .

EC: elimination communication. A method of 'potty training' that is used by a great deal of the world - China, Africa.

No nappies are used and the parent watches for signs that the baby needs to poo/wee and holds the baby over the potty/toilet.

it's a bit more complicated then that., but can be very effective when done properly.

Ok, thanks. Do you have to keep baby with you at all times then? Just curious.

if the baby is with someone who doesn't do EC, then the baby goes into a nappy.

EC

Ah...why do i always forget about Wikipedia? Thanks much, Belgo, have bookmarked that for later reference

I don't use the nappy bags at home becasue I sort of felt it was just another thing that had to lie around waiting to rot. I roll mine up and use the self sticking stuuff to seal it together in a ball then chuck straight in my wheely bin. Is it better if I also use a nappy bag each time?

No...it takes longer to degrade as it's sealed in plastic, and the sealed nappy makes the poo turn into a toxic liquid, i think somebody said. So actually you are doing better than me.

Oh good, that's kind of what I thought but didn't know for a fact. Will stick to not using nappy bags then. However I wouldn't leave them outside a holiday home, if there was no bin they would go in a bag with other rubbish.

unfortunately the toxic liquid is created bag or no bag, but i would go no bag if i were you for the reasons you stated (it's gotta break down too and would slow things up). the best thing to do if possible is scrape, it's so simple but so few seem to want to do it.

Also though i put the post up, i'm not bagging people who use disposables, i use them at night and on holidays as i said, i'm just stating the facts as to why councils want more people to use non disposables. i think the filthy piggy types who put them outside hotel rooms etc are just filthy people. they were filthy before they started using disposables. Because someone is filthy and uses disposables does not make all disposable users filthy.

actually while we are on the subject, i notice everyone hear refers to disposables or non disposables, but have you notice the councils etc refer to non disposables as 'real nappies' as in the real nappy campaign, why is that, if disposables aren't real nappies then will they not work? they seem to catch my DS's wee in the night.

I scrape poo into the toilet and roll the nappy up and but it in the bin. I use eco disposables.

If I am at someonelses house I would put the nappy in a nappy bag first before putting it in their bin but I would still scrape. I use the degradable bags but try to avoid using bags at all as read that they make the nappy take longer to degrade.

I had to change DS's dirty nappy at the airport and couldn;t find a nappy change so changed him in the ladies. There was a queue so I asked the first lady if I could pop into the loo before her to dispose of the nappy contents. She refused so I had to stand in a queue for 5 mins with a stroppy toddler while holding a nappy full of poo. I think many people would've just dumped the nappy poo and all in the handtowel bin but I just couldn;t. (looking back I wish I;d handed the nappy to the woman who wouldn;t wait 5 secs to do me a favour!)

7 out of 10 times I dump contents of nappy into the loo and then roll nappy up and put into wheely bin.

I thank god for nappies but no feel bad about using them. However with a child of 5 who has special needs and is still in nappies, a 20 month old and 1 on the way I think i'd go mad if I had to do the washing of nappies thing. I'd love to have the energy to not use disposables.

clooney, good on you. not that i would advocate child abuse but i would have squeezed my childs hand just a little so he would be even stroppier and maybe whine a bit more just to grate on he a little.

Oh and i would have let you in. I make a point to let people with kids in head of me anyway (if i dont have mine with me) some people are just on a mission to be impolite.

Thomcat, i think your amazing, i'm a peads nurse who does community work mainly with special needs kids, so i visit lots of families a home, and i take my hat off to you, whenever i think i'm having bad day i just remember people like you. you may not realise it but you are doing a great job, for a great little person.

This thread has me thinking. If (hypothetically) we were to agree that it would be impossible to get everyone to use reusables, what could be done to make disposables better? For example, get councils to accept degradable nappies in their green waste bins? Would any nappy currently on the market decompose like this? Do the tabs degrade? Would it be possible to get reusable tabs, etc on disposables so that all the rest was degradable? Just wondering what others think.

Oh, thanks SO much Veggiemummy. That gave me a much needed little lift then. I feel awful about the nappies we can get through in a week and to be still using them 5 years down the line with DD! makes me feel really awful. We are making some good progress with toilet training but it's slow, hard work.