Disposable eco nappies?

[acciobaby]

Hi,
Is there such a thing as an eco friendly (bamboo?) disposable nappy that’s good, widely available and is a similar price to normal disposable nappies? Have seen some in Boots & Aldi but don’t know how they compare.
I’m not an all out eco warrior or anything, but would like to try… First baby on the way and wanted to try reusable nappies but DH isn’t exactly on board with it.

When i looked into it, i found that the eco nappies weren't that great - they're maybe made in a more eco friendly way but if they're going to landfill they still won't break down. I bought some second hand reuseables to give it a go and my husband actually said he found them better than disposables! Remember it isn't all or nothing - we only use them on the weekends.

Not really. Why not buy a few second hand cloth nappies and just try using them part time along with disposables to see how you get on?

My dh was against cloth nappies too but I persuaded him to just let me buy some and then he actually ended up liking ( or at least tolerating / not hating!) them.

I'd really recommend little lambs.

It's impossible for a single-use nappy to be 'eco-friendly' no matter what the advertising of packing might say.

They cost a lot more than normal disposables.

It really is worth trying cloth nappies, especially with a young baby as if you breast feed their poo is nothing like adult poo at all. It’s yellow liquid.

Disposable nappies also have a smell added to them so they stink after 1 wee, a baby in cloth nappies smells a lot less. That’s what I’ve found in my experience of using a mixture of both anyway!

The short answer is no, not really. There are definitely some that are better for the environment than the standard plastic pampers but they still will take hundreds of years to degrade in landfill. Eco by naty are good but more expensive than own brand options.

Even if you use just one reusable a day at home, that's nearly 1000 nappies you will save from landfill from birth-potty training.

They call them eco because they do breakdown in landfill, but it still takes a ridiculous amount of time to the extent I wouldnt call them eco at all. I think its all for marketing tbh.

Id use cloth if you want to be eco friendly.

Reusables tend to mean a lot fewer 'poonamis' than disposables, which may help persuade DH. (Similarly, reusable wipes are much better at actually getting baby's bottom clean after a dirty nappy – we did not miss our disposable wipes at all once we switched.)

As previous posters suggested, why not try a mix of disposable and reusable nappies and see how you get on? Plenty of people do 'part-time reusables', and it still means fewer reusables in landfill.

We used Naty with DC1. We didn’t bother with DC2.

If you really want an eco option then I think you need reusables.

Thanks everyone.

I worry that a half way house approach would just drift into full time disposables with the added expense of some reusables hadn’t got the benefit of.

DH’s objection is that it’s extra washing when we already have lots to do, which I understand, and also the ick factor… so I’m interested to hear why it means less poonamis @skkyelark
My feeling is that it’s better to try reusables from the start and just never know the alternative, and also that it’s not exactly a choice between clean and dirty anyway, but he’s not convinced.

Doesn’t help that DM is also against the idea so I’m feeling generally quite unsupported on it.

Reusables contain poo way better than disposables. We never had a single poo leak or explosion with reusables but had them daily with disposables. So they're great for avoiding the all the way up the front/back korma stains on vests and things!

I much prefer reusables for very young babies, mainly just due to the poo containment. Reusables wipes are way better for milk poo too. They actually clean and don't just smear it around. You can do with one reusable wipe what it takes 4 or 5 disposables to do.

I mostly used Tots Bots all in one reusables by day, and Bambo Nature bamboo disposables at night and on holiday. The Bambo nappies are so much more absorbent than normal disposables, so have a reduced impact on landfill in that respect. I tried composting them too - took several years for the few I tried, so not terribly practical on a domestic scale!! Our local authority incinerates waste rather than landfills what they can’t recycle, and I liked that the potential air pollutants in the bambo nappies were minimal.

My youngest has been out of nappies for 8 years though…. things may be different now…

We use tots bots reusables. We have never had poo leak up babies back or poo/ wee all over bedding that I hear many people talk about.

We wash every other day usually, so an extra 3 washes per week. But you could get that just washing extra poopy sleeping bags or clothing if other nappies leak. Also things like baby muslin cloths for dribble/ sick/ changing mat go in the same wash which you would still need to wash regardless. Ours usually go straight on to wash by whoever gets up to make tea so by 9am all washed and hung up to dry.

Another bonus is the lack of nappy rash. We have never had to deal with nappy rash apart from when we stayed away one weekend and used disposable wipes and nappies for 36hrs and he came straight up with a rash! We just travelled 2+ weeks and took the washables with us instead.

I had every intention of swapping to reusables but 10 weeks in, I have to be honest, I can't see how we'd manage it. It is a lot of extra faff (I know people who use them) and there are issues with the extra washing you end up doing negating some of the environmental benefit anyway.

We use Kit and Kin disposables which are marketed as an eco brand. They are a bit more expensive than pampers but not significantly if you buy their bundles. We've got on well with them. Occasional leaks but nothing major. They claim they degrade in 3-4 years I think, and make lots of other claims as to how they offset environmental impact of production.

We do use cheeky wipes reusable baby wipes thought which are great - worth looking into, although the containers they come with are plastic which isn't ideal.

Re nappy rash, our baby hasn't ever had it either and has been in disposables. I'm not sure this is entirely down to choice of nappy. Some element of luck re skin sensitivity and frequency/effectiveness of changing and washing etc.

We did cloth- I didn’t ask DH’s opinion, I bought them and got on with it.
You don’t need anyone to agree with you, I didn’t ask anyone for their thoughts on it either.

As it goes DH loved cloth and when we used a handful of disposables he complained how rubbish they were.

The eco ones are all vastly inferior I found. Very leaky and expensive.

We’ve just potty trained and I am sad to sell my nappies on.

Another that would suggest doing part time reusable rather than 'ecodisposables'. I also agree that whilst reusables nappies are more work, reusable wipes make clearing up poo way easier and save you work (and are significantly cheaper than disposable wipes, where as disposable nappies aren't always financially beneficial).

We clothed my son using a mixture of Close Pop Ins, Baba and Boo (my preference) and then tots bots bamboozles with a close wrap for night. For reusable wipes we use cheeky wipes. Although the initial outlay for them was more than for disposables my son is now potty trained at 19mo and they'll be used for my daughter who is due at the end of November so will then be saving me money.

Oh, my husband also preferred reusables in the end as they smell less and contain poo way better (probably helped that I did the majority of the washing ;-) )

The cheeky wipes only come with plastic container if you buy it, you can just buy the wipes alone and wet them under tap as needed, or use own container you already own.

Washable really aren’t ‘ a huge extra faff’. We prob spend a max 10 mins washing, hanging and away into the days we wash. So 30 mins per week. Divided between dh and I. It would take me longer driving to the supermarket and back to buy disposable

I think you get fewer poonamis simply because they aren't made for a few pence per nappy, so better quality, proper elasticated back, etc. This also means that reusables aren't necessarily higher 'ick factor' or that much more washing. We went into it thinking we'd mostly use reusables, but not stress about using disposables here or there if the washing got too much/everyone was ill/etc. We actually found it less work than we expected and didn't use the disposables after the first week or so. (I think we'd have used a few if covid hadn't meant no travel.)

Your mum might also be thinking of older style cloth nappies, buckets of solution with nappies soaking in them, etc. Modern cloth nappies you just chuck in a dry bag (sometimes bag inside a bucket), then toss the whole bag in the washing machine. No need for folding or pins either, unless you want to –most people use shaped nappies that velcro or popper on pretty much like a disposable.

Perhaps see if you have a local nappy library – they'll hire out a kit so you can try different ones cheaply and see what works for you, and they're also usually good for advice/troubleshooting. The Nappy Lady's questionnaire and facebook group are also good for advice. It's also worth seeing if your council does anything to help with the start-up cost of reusables – some give a voucher or even a little starter kit of nappies.