Ripostes please for folk who think reusables are dirty/smelly

[WalkingBoob]

The other mums at a local group I go to are already puzzled by my lentil weaving ways (breastfeeding; sling wearing; tripping over own armpit hair), but they seem genuinely disgusted by my use of terry nappies.

Personally I'm really pleased with the washables and if anything I'm getting less leaks/smell than I did with disposables. I believe that each mum should be free to do what suits her/her baby and I don't judge others for using disposables, but I do need some sort of polite retort for those who react in an 'eeew!' sort of way!

Any ideas?

Sorry none. (But I love your nickname! )

Hehe I'll have to think of a new one when DD is weaned!

Tell them you are just glad you don't have poo sitting in your wheelie bin all week- that would be gross.

well its only poo, your old child's at that. not as disgusting as filling a big landfill with pooey nappies which won't ever rot.

Agree with mumface, I bet they notice the smell now it is so hot, just say you tried it and could not stand the smell of shit wafting about your garden, you much prefer the smell of freshly laundered cloth!

How about this: fuck off.

Do people have nothing better to think about? I can understand people reacting with guilt that they 'ought' to use washable nappies, but being disgusted by terries? Do their children not poo/ wee into their clothing? What do they do then? The same as you: they change them and wash their clothes.

What numpties.

@ CKN and Speedy (thanks for the image of William Shatner's areolas, which I will now not be able to remove from my psyche for at least 24 hours!!).

One mum asked me if DD didn't get too hot in this weather in cloth nappies, which almost had me worried for a mo...surely not!?

It is a line from Land of the Lost, I am a massive fan of Will Ferrel and his ramblings, sorry!

IMO disposables stink, I hate it when DH puts one on DD, her bottom smells of chemicals. Sorry, no quick riposte but I am at your group. (and since when has BFing been lentil weaving-y?????)

debka bf-ing is certainly not a lentil-munching activity, but you'd think so if some people's reactions are anything to go by! I swear if the MIL makes one more comment about giving her baby rice...

I guess as long as DD and I are happy...have had a couple of 'smothered wrap' incidents which I wasn't sure how to deal with at first, but so what!!

Thank heaven for mumsnet is all I can say!

LOL about the baby rice. My MIL started pestering me to give DS baby rice when he was 6 WEEKS old. I'm sure you can imagine her reaction when I told her that we were going to do BLW at 6 MONTHS

Have no ripostes but just to say that can relate. My general hippy-esque ways combined with baby sleeping in a hammock etc have meant that we have had our fair share of comments.

Interestingly quite a few of the commenters have sidled up to me of late and asked about nappies and slings so figure that won't be such a freak for so long!

Thanks for your replies. Truth is I just can't handle the thought of hundreds of nappies festering in landfil just because I want the convenience.

Can't say that to people though as that would be seen as either preaching or as a criticism of their choices. Difficult one...

From the further on perspective, it's good preparation for the stage where (if you have a busy boy who finds it hard to spare the time to go to the loo when playing) you'll be washing wet pants and trousers (or worse).

But I just used to explain that I would put nappies in a wet bag or a bucket and never have to touch them again, and that seemed to be enough explanation.

The heat thing - the gels in disposables actually are very thermally insulating, so they get very hot. If you were really concerned you could use wool outers over cloth, and then they evaporate the wet and have a pleasant cooling effect (apparently)

i had the same trouble when i started using them. i have since moved areas and made new friends.

you dont need people in your life who judge you. in fact my closest and dearest friend i have ever made is a cloth nappy user its about finding the right people who you dont HAVE to justify yourself too.

that being said i do retort with cloth nappies being 'safer, cleaner, cheaper and better for the environment' then disposables, and then i tell them that the things in a disposable is actually poisonous if their baby ever got into one. people tend to shut up then

Gosh, I've never had any negative comments at all. Most people are very positive and say they feel bad for not using cloth. I am a sling user too and I am often asked if it hurts my back, but I think that is just genuine curiosity (and a fair question!).

IMHO, disposables are way more disgusting than re-usables. Baby poos/wees in a bunch of plastic and chemicals which then gets wrapped in another load of plastic and stuck in the bin to hang around for up to 2 weeks (fornightly bin collections here), when it's then collected and buried in a hole in the ground. What's clean about that?!

With reusables, baby pees/poos into lovely soft material, poo is disposed off in the proper way (ie down the loo) and any other dirt is washed off. And dirty nappies don't hang around for more than a couple of days.

And reusables don't smell as much as disposables, IME.

Most people who see DD cloth nappies comment on how pretty they are, of course they ask if im washing constantly and how do i find time? But i just explain i do no more washing than an average family using disposables.

If someone said they wouldnt use stinky terries, id say well its better than my baby sat in plastic, chemicals and paper all day!

I just say that flushing poo down the toilet is much more civilised than leaving little bags of it in your kitchen bin.

That usually works

also, disposables leak newborn BF poo, did they cope with washing all those soiled baby gros or did they bin them and buy new each time? no different than catching it in cloth then washing them is it?

I would laugh and ask them if they would choose to wear pants made of paper and plastic, like wearing thick sanitary towels all day every day, or would they prefer to wear nice soft cotton ones?

Or when told they would never use cloth nappies because it was too much like hard work I'd ask 'what on earth do you find difficult about putting the washing machine on every now and then?'

You will get the upper hand in time - about 6 months time. My daughter was the only one at mums and tods in cloth and I was considered the odd one for living in the poshest road (furthest away) but always walking everywhere never using the car, and I was told that cloth was too much hard work and aside from which we never gets leaks by one lady.
6 months later I was asked if I could lend daughter's 'spare' trousers as darling Chloe had another accident. Took gret delight in saying 'sorry we never get any leaks so I never carry any spare clothes'!

imo forcing the dustbin men to deal with raw sewage (as disposables do) is far more disgusting than it going into the sewer via the toilet/washing machine.

when I get the work load thing I reassure them that actually I don't have to scrub away elbow deep at a washboard, I just turn the dial, add the powder and press on. Its easy peasy, don't you have one?. Then I point out that its far less hassle than legging it up to the 24hr pharmacy because we suddenly ran out of pampers. I NEVER run out of nappies and feel very smug about that I hated lugging disposables home on the buggy all the time before I discovered cloth, THAT was much harder work!

Hehe, great, thank you very much . Think I'll just quietly accept that it is each to their own, but I'm pleased with my decision, even after DD's gigantic BF poo this morning!

WalkingBoob - re your 'convenience' statement, the thing is, if people feel able to criticise you for using washables, why on earth are you so sensitive towards their feelings when it comes to pointing out that they're damaging the environment? I know, I know, I'm exactly the same as you and wouldn't give a confrontational response either, but you see my point?!

As for the question of your child overheating, (1) you're not wrapping the WHOLE child in a nappy, just their bum (did that mum not realise that that's how you use nappies?); (2) why do they think cloth nappies are 'warmer'? You change them more frequently, so they don't fill up with as much liquid as disposables - i.e. they're not as dense when full. If anything I'd think disposables would be more likely to make a child too hot.