why doesnt everyone use cloth nappies?

[misdee]

sort of carry on from the breastfeeding thread.

pros and cons of cloth nappies to be discussed lol.

I use cloth nappies and quite often I can't be arsed with them - especially when you have 2 in nappies - lots of washing, have to keep remembering to change more often, having to bring wet and dirty nappies home from a day out, not having toilets in baby changing "facilities" to chuck the poo down, not being able to find trousers to fit properly etc etc etc

February firstborn in a house with no heating & no drying facilities, followed by 3 September babies & 2 or 3 in nappies at the same time for several years....

Hmm, I was considering cloth nappies when no. 2 is born in March (used disposables for DD as I don't think there was so much choice in cloth ones 7 yrs ago). After reading all these posts, I've been put right off the idea! So much for trying to get my halo to shine again

Ah Boneym, I'm sure there are plenty of threads trying to convince you to use them! I do use them but not exclusively for the reason mentioned below but every time I put one on DS2 I feel a bit smug that I am doing my bit. I use disposables for night time and when we are out - best of both worlds

Got 2 still in nappies (plus another at night) and my washing is unmanageable as it is.

I'm afraid I'm going for convenience/can't be arsed. I bottle feed too and my kids eat smiley faces - I'm not fit to have children

Can't be arsed either!!

I used cloth nappies on ds1 for the first 8 months. I then moved somewhere with no tumbledryer and it was a nightmare. I persevered for a couple of weeks but drying them on a radiator left them hard and uncomfortable. Tbh I wasn't all that sad to give them up. Even though I changed them far more frequently than disposables ds1 seemed to have an almost permanent nappy rash which cleared up within days of switching to disposables. I didn't even try with ds2 I'm afraid. He was a winter bby which would have meant having the central heating on almost permanently to get the damn things dry.

Bonym your halo can glimmer feebly if you use biodegradable disposables like nature boy & girl (from waitrose & sainsburys). About the same cost as Huggies. But remember to put them in a biodegradable nappy bag! (NOw they're expensive!)

It's the half hearted wishy washy option for those like me who wish they could be more earth-mothery but can't be arsed!

BTW my eco-friendly mum was keen for me to use cloth nappies 1st time round and bought the all for me. I managed about 2 weeks before I gave up.....

Re storage space - my cloth nappies are almost permanently in the washing machine or on the line so disposables take up more room for me....

I get more leaks with disposables - which means washing more of my own clothes, yuk.

Cloth nappies are a pain sometimes but throwing things away makes me anxious.

Tried them, but ds got hideous eczema from them, his poo always escaped from the liner onto the nappy, I found washing and drying them a bit of a pain and disposables were so much easier when going out. Like GeorginaA, I also found I couldn't smell the poo very easily. And none of his clothes fitted when he was wearing cloth.

Thought I might try again with ds2 but if I still don't like them I'll sell them (look out for the advert!).

no tumble drier
can barely organise my normal washing

wish i had both the time and inclination though...

Because I'm a lazy person, didn't get organised before DS was born, and at nursery they supply nappies so couldn't inspire myself to be well behaved.

Keep telling myself that I'll (a) at least buy one reusable nappy, (b) when there is a DS2/DD get into them but fear it may come down to (c) just be a lazy mummy.

Feel now.

It was never discussed ever.

Tell a lie, it was mentioned at parent craft but all of us Mums 2 be were not interested. (funny as we were all adamant to bf) So that was it really.

Reading the thread I can see the laundry issue. Since DS was born I wash every day which drives me potty as it is (No GCH so bad weather means wet washing everywhere)Disposables = sanity

Puff, I'm still looking for someone to tell me how to get those pomegranate stains out so can't get too involved in this one!!!

Will tell you though that I never use disposables (vile vile things, will render your drinking water poisonous and your ds's sterile) find reusables a piece of piss, have saved a ton of money (to add to that saved by not buying formula) and my kid was potty trained months before her contemporaries.

Was that contentious enough to get you all going again?!

No. I just think you need help.

i didnt mean for this to be a thread about NOT using cloth nappies, feel sad we may have put people off now.

for me, washing and drying isnt an issue. i do heaps of laundry anyway due to dd's eczema so one extra load every other day isnt a big deal. and even tho i am bad and use the dryer during the winter months, and have been using a dryer for years i now finally have a garden so can hand clothes on my new line yay!! also have a ceiling airer to go up in my bathroom as well.

The nappies dd2 is using (and has been since she was year old) will be passed onto #3, saving me more money.

I have a nappy bucket in my bathroom, i dry pail so it doesnt smell too bad when the lid is shut, and i dont have buckets of water everywhere. i find the smell of disposables and nappy sacks absolutly vile, it makes me heave.

the issue of space, all of dd2 nappies fit in a basket which fits onto a shelf. i found more storage space was needed for disposables as to be ecomeny wise with them it pays to buy the larger packs/boxes.

hygeine issue, nappies in the kitchen bin, er no, thats vile, and i know so many people who do that, isnt it better to store your nappies in a bin with a lid?

Cost upfront, yeah i'll give you that, but a lot of councils offer a cashback scheme for using washables, herts waste aware scheme will pay you £40 to use washables, so you could get a starter pack of cotton bottom nappies for £45, claim the £40 back, so you get a load of nappies for a fiver, thats less than a cost of pampers!!

leaks, put dd2 in dispoables last week and on holidays etc, and they leak a lot more than washables. plus the poo went right up her back, shudder.

hope thats some positive thoughts on this one

I use them and must be a freak cos I really like using them. and come on its not like we have to stagger down to the river to bash our clothes against rocks, washing them is hardly a chore.

i like using them as well. and dd2 is the only clothie they've had in a year of being open at her nursery.

I use them too. DS has dead cute ones with little whales on them. I love the fact he has a big bum in them, even if I do have to buy trousers so big he doesn't need socks! Nothing makes me feel fuzzier inside than seeing my garden sparkling with white nappies, and feeling like I'm doing my bit for the environment. Also the money saving is top. Um, as for teh beating on rocks thing, I do throw ds's nappies over bushes to dry if I run out of space...

I like using them too, am on my 3rd dd in the same nappies. it's not that much hard work - changing nappies is far worse than washing them IME. we don't even tumble dry them, for green reasons. You just get in the habit of it and it's no big deal. any more than using re-usable cutlery is.

moondog, don't let a small thing like pomegranate stains defeat you .

As with breast and formula feeding, I've done a bit of both on the cloth and disposable nappy front. But then I've always been a lily livered sit on the fence kind of gal .

I'm with misdee et al

the only place that dd didn't have eczema was her bum!

washing and drying is a doddle- yes I use tots and a tumble drier, but I did hang them out on the line in the Summer

I have saved loads of money. Most of my nappies and wraps were bought 2nd hand and sold on again with very little depreciation- I had at least a years use out of each of my size 1 Tots, bought for £6 each, sold for £5 each

Rinse the poo down the loo and dry pail and nappy buckets don't smell. Not half as bad as disposables, anyway- they reek, especially when wet, and then there's the vile smell of those bl**dy nappy sacks. Yuck!

All dd's nappies, wraps were stored on top of her chest of drawers in a basket; some in the bucket, some in the drier, some in the airing cupboard; space not a problem

our wheelie bin is only emptied fortnightly- imagine what 2 weeks' worth of smelly disps would be like in the Summer.....

absolutely... disps leak more than a well-applied cloth nappy. Tots are bomb-proof.

the women's environmental network has looked closely at the environmental cost, as well as the financial cost of disposable nappies- even taking into account water used in washing, phosphates in detergent, electricty used and depreciation of your washing machine, washables are still better. The absorbent gels in disps don't biodegrade, FACT. Quite apart from that, it is actually illegal to dispose of human ecrement in the dustbin, but this can't be enforced, because councils haven't the wherewithall to do it! No-one I know who uses disps flushes the poo away before chucking them

I could go on and on, but I have to go and polish my halo

Well, Tissy, now you do know someone who flushes the poo from a disposable down the loo, because I do!

Shame on the lot of you!

if you dry-pail the nappies they don't smell (as missdee says)

Yes you do more washing, but any pale-ish baby clothes that can be washed at 60 degrees (pretty much all of them, as it turns out) can be washed with them and I find that the nappies actually help me organise my other washing. They get dried on the radiators. I've been using disposables a bit lately (due to wedding and other things), but now I'm really behind on the washing!

They don't take up any more space than an "economy" pack of disposables.

Nappy rash - well, you do have to check for poo. But as I have no sense of smell I can't spot it with disposables either.

Also agree with missdee - if you've got decent fitted nappies in the right size they don't leak. Traditional terries (which I use when I run out of the others) leak a bit, but not really any more than disposables.

Cost upfront: yes, I suppose. But you dorake the savings in. Incidentally, if anyone is waveriing over whether to use terries for a new bab but can't afford them, you can have ds's size 1 tots bots plus the wraps. They're not in great nick, but they still work and don't leak!

Good grief! What a load of wimps some of you are! Ds1 was born in mid-winter, our house had no central heating and we had no tumble-drier but still managed to keep ds in clean, dry nappies. I used to use Napisan or similar in a bucket in bathroom. I remember one morning the whole thing was frozen solid! You mums today have it too easy!!