DISPOSABLE NAPPY APPRECIATION THREAD - Sod the landfill! Come here to sing their praises!

[BoffinMum]

There are some of us who think reusable nappies are an eco-conspiracy con designed to get mothers firmly back at the kitchen sink feeling guilty.

There are others of us who have stopped using reusables because our children developed dread diseases of the bottom area.

Some of us even gag at the thought of dealing with all the poo manually, instead of just cursorarily flinging a bit down the loo and then bunging the whole affair in a nice scented nappy sack.

Come join with us if you too are heartily grateful for disposable nappies and the liberation they bring.

Washersaurus you said 'I would also like to add that I have yet to come across anyone who uses washable nappies that looks down or 'beats with a stick' people who choose to use disposables. '

May I suggest you look in the mirror then because that is exactly how your posts are coming across on this thread.

FYI I said that 1 child I knew in reusables smelt - he did - that is a fact and it put me off. Secondly I said that children in 'real' nappies need bigger trousers and that is also a fact - as evidenced by posts on this thread and man. many others!

You think washing your nappies is no bother - I disagree with you and as I've already said - using disposables is not a criminal offence!

Boffinmum was very clear in her op that this thread was for appreciating disposable nappies - so why don't you back off and let us do that?

Hmmm please can someone answer my question about why and how you're supposed to get the poo out of nappies before you bin them??? I am seriously wondering?!

"I breastfed successfully, twice. I think we're all agreed that breastfeeding is healthier for baby and mother. If I saw a thread saying "bottle-feeding appreciation and support", would I click on it to express my opinions as to the virtues of my boobs? No, because I would recognise that those women needed a place to talk amongst htemselves as to how they were finding bottlefeeding."

Ok, so what if these bottlefeeding mums were claiming that breastfeeding isn't healthy, is not nice and is really inconvienent etc - all the opposite to what is true? Would that not make you want to correct people? I mean, if they actually seemed to beleive that FF was healthier or something?

To be fair justabout, I think a more comparable thread title would be 'formula appreciation thread- sod the babies the tits are for the men' and include discussions about how ff is just easier and the milk's just the same, innit (and yes I know it was supposed to be tongue in cheek)

Schulte with reusables a quick shake (or some times a bend/stretch) of the nappy over the loo is enough. Presumably it's the same for disposables.

Schulte - you just tip it down the loo. With washables, people often use flushable liners, so you just take off the top layer and flush, which makes it easier. Or like me, I use a nappy that is lined with fleece so is lovely and soft and the poo falls straight down the loo. Poo in a disposable is a bit harder, and depends on your LOs poo I guess.

To be honest, it wouldn't really bother me. If someone was saying that they wanted to breastfeed, but couldn't because of various 'facts' that weren't true, I might point it out.

If they were happy with their decision, I'd leave them to it - it's not my place to try to convert people to my methods of parenting in any form, whether that's what they feed their child, how long they let them cry, or what they wrap around their pooey bottoms. Surely it's hard enough making these judgement calls for yourself, never mind chasing other people around with them?

I am not middle class or hoity toity.

I have not said or implied that I am better than anyone.

As I said, I USE disposables sometimes. So am I barred from this thread because I use washables most of the time? So I have nothing to contribute because I have tried both sorts of nappies and prefer washables to disposables?

You cannot seriously compare bf & ff with nappy usage...

Littlelamb - my thoughts exactly.

Soon2Be - nobody is saying its wrong/ bad to use washables though just that we want to use disposeables simply cos we want to for whatever reasons (misguided or otherwise) we want to.

So my changing table isn't anywhere near the loo... so I am supposed to take the nappy to the other side of the house only to get a bit of poo out? Why? Surely the poo won't do any damage in landfill?

I am used to using cloth now, but for the first four weeks I used just disposables, and when it came to switching over if I hadn't already bought a load then I wouldn't have bothered, but I felt I had to try them as I couldn't get any disposables to hold the poo in.

Disposables ARE easy, really bloody easy, I definitely felt that I couldn't be arsed with cloth as well as a newborn PFB. I have come to realise that some real nappies are easier than others, and certainly not all need bigger trousers BUT tbh you can't get away from the fact that disposables are easier than cloth to do up, no need to stuff them, no need for a wrap if it's a two-parter, and no need to wash. I love my real nappies, but I don't like the amount of space they take up when drying!

In short ladies, you crack on with disposables, I am very in to my real nappies but I totally see why most people would use disposables, it's not about laziness, it's just about not wanting to find extra work to do.

Oh, and I use Little Swimmers, didn't even cross my mind to use reusable swim nappies for some reason!

Haha with DDs poos a bit of shaking over the loo wouldn't help!

As I said, I don't think the carbon footprint of reusables is small enough for me to do this, particularly as my kids get wet eczema as a result and I would have to be chasing down steroid cream for them, etc. Nobody has dismissed the environmental argument completely, we're just making an intelligent proportionate response.

Schulte, you are supposed to scrape as much poo as possible off and put it into the loo so the sewerage system can deal with it properly, because otherwise nasty stuff leaches into the water supply from the landfill or washing machine (I think).

FWIW I think formula can be quite handy and I am glad it exists, btw.

And Boffin do you do that? Scrape the poo off I mean? I'll be buggered if I do!

I don't think anyone is advocating using reuseables on babies that react badly too them 'twoud be cruel, IIRC flame stopped using them on her DS for just that reason...

to

I have a good go, but obviously it's pointless if it's a squishy one.

There iss this article floating about from the Ecologist as I know there's been a bit of a debate on energy used making the different nappies:

The Ecologist dispelling reusable nappy myths.

The average baby will go through 5,000 nappies. As 85 per cent of people are using disposables, they now form 4 per cent of all household waste, costing the taxpayer £40m each year to dispose of them.

Of the approximately 8 million disposable nappies used in the UK every day, around 7.5 million end up in landfill sites.

Disposable nappies use three and a half times more energy than real nappies to produce, eight times more non-renewable materials and 90 times more renewable resources.

The 3 billion disposable nappies thrown away each year add 1 million tonnes of nappy waste to our already overfull landfill sites. They then take up to 500 years to decompose, and produce the potent greenhouse gas methane and leachate, a toxic liquid that can leak into soil and local water supplies. The 10 per cent that aren't landfilled get incinerated, a process that results in the release of carcinogenic dioxins into the atmosphere and creates ash (which does need to be landfilled) containing heavy metals and other toxins."

This is the full article

Surely it's 'greener' to potty train them as soon as possible!

I think the carbon footprint argument is a big and complicated one though. I honestly don't see how the manufacturing process of a disposable nappy, that will be binned after one short use, can be less than that of a washable nappy which will get used repeatedly for years and years and years. Some of my nappies are now on possibly their 4th child....

I'm definitely no expert though.

My children suffer from eczema and I have had to deal with using the steroid creams too, when using both washables and disposables.

You know that gel in disposables? It's been banned from sanitary products for years...

I use disposables and best thing I ever did was to stop using reusables.

Reusables might work for some, I tried with both dd1 and dd2.
Dd1 screamed constantly and needed changed every 1-1.5 hours, tried again with dd2 and the result was an extremely excoriated bottom, which needed heavy duty treatment to clear up.

So, Washersaraus, reusables or have a child who's nappy area was completely broken down and bleeding?

Sorry world, but my baby's comfort and skin integrity was more important to me. Selfish reason to stop using them, or a mistake to use disposables, no I don't think so.

Good that they work so well for you but you can't expect everyone to have the same positive experience as you do.
I have done my research and will continue to use disposables, thank you.

Some eco disposables are compostible, have tried to do this (family member helped out as runs a gardening business and knows a bit about composting) but have had to stop adding to the collection as not really working as well as we had hoped).

I had a bizarre thought - I wonder what the carbon footprint of toilet paper is, and whether we should all use bidets instead?