Nappy changing with minimal waste

[nextchpter]

Hello. 20 weeks pregnant with first baby and starting to plan a bit. I am planning to use disposable nappies but hopefully the ones that biodegrade a bit faster. I don't really want to use wipes that end up in landfill if I can help it. Are Cheeky Wipes worth it or a lot of hassle? Tips for changing a baby in a convenient way but without too much waste much appreciated! Thank you.

Honestly if you use reusable wipes I found t easier to use reusable nappies too. Until weaning that is

Then the whole lot just goes in the wet bag together and in the wash rather than having a bag with a dirty nappy which you have to find a bin for as well as a bag with dirty wipes in to take home and wash.

Also some people swear by cheeky wipes but they are quite expensive and the poundhsop baby flannels do as a good job as do cheap flannels/old towels cut in to squares.

I don't think there's any such thing as a disposable nappy which biodegrades faster, unfortunately.

If you're looking to reduce waste you'll want to look at using cloth, perhaps part time if you feel like it's too much all the time? Or elimination communication which is where you try to reduce your use of nappies by catching as many wees/poos as you can in a pot or over the sink. Again you can use cloth or disposable nappies for some of the time even if you do this.

One tip I heard for reusable wipes or cotton wool is to have a thermos with warm (not hot) water available for changes, this makes them more effective.

I will say you don't need nappy bags, this can also reduce the amount you're throwing away.

I might be wrong about this but I've heard that biodegradable nappies aren't really that much better because they need oxygen in order to break down which they usually don't get at a landfill site. So unless you compost the wet ones yourself at home, they'll probably be in landfill the same amount of time as any other nappy. Agree with pp that using cloth wipes is easier if youre using cloth nappies too because you don't need to worry about whether or not to do a separate wash for them. We have cheeky wipes but the quality isn't great tbh - I've heard good things about close parent wipes though. Try babipur - they have loads of different brands on there.

Eco nappies are likely to have a lower impact than normal disposables due to the production processes and the materials used. Better is better even if it's not perfect.

Maybe a mix of eco and washables. For wipes we had a pile of thin small bamboo flannels and got a small bowl of warm water for home changes and used eco wipes for changes when we were out.

Thanks so much - these are great tips. "Better is better" is just what I'm looking for. I'm not a saint but really want to try and do my bit. I think I'll get through the first few months on disposables and then maybe introduce reuseables for when I'm at home when I've learnt what I'm doing.
Definitely will look into the flannel and warm water method for wipes. Keen to avoid chemicals on skin where possible so that appeals for another reason too.

Great tips from people. the issue is that biodegradable nappies need the right conditions to degrade and landfill isn’t ideal, but obvs they will be better than non-eco nappies.

I have decided to use disposable (baby no2) and have bought Bambo Nature nappies, which were ethical consumer mag’s Best Buy. Think the company have a zero waste policy at their factory and other good things. I’ve also bought cheeky wipe and am really looking forward to trying reusable wipes this time.

I looked into this and have decided to go cloth... Some of them are so easy these days and the patterns are adorable... Not to mention cheaper!! We've got the Bambino Mio solo because they get rave reviews but other people have other preferences :-)

Good luck with whatever you decide :)

Great thread. I'll be keeping an eye on this for tips and advice. Like you I'm not perfect but would love to be able to do my bit. My sister ia really into environmental and sustainability matters (it is her job) so after I tell her the happy news maybe I'll ask her to look into best eco options.

Based on your tips I am thinking I might buy a few reusable nappies even to start off with. I read on the Bambino Mio site that even using one a day will save money and resources so that feels achievable.

Just looked at Bambo Nature eco nappies. They are £6.35 for a pack of 28 which is 22p a nappy - cheaper than pampers!
I have a trial pack of Lidl ones so might try both and the Bambino Mio reusable ones and see which work the best for our lifestyle, probably in combination!

Follow 🙂

Ps just incase it looks like I work for them - which I don't - here are the other prices I've researched
Aldi 4p per nappy
Pampers 44p

Sorry pampers 16p

We use cloth in the day (Alva cheapies from eBay!) and Naty disposables at night/on holiday/if I’m behind on washing

Oooh good idea @Icklepickle101 to use the most absorbing ones for nighttime to avoid getting woken up!! Defo remembering that one.

We used cheeky wipes (with disposable nappies) last time and got on great with them. I haven't tried others but it's an easy system to get your head around and minimises yuck factor (dh was converted). We still had the boxes so went for fresh wipes and oil which we'll use this time round. I looked at buying separately but I couldn't see it worked out much cheaper.

We've decided against cloth nappies because I can't take the extra washing (the wipes just go in towel/bedding washes). But we're using naty nappy bags (because they degrade and my understanding is the bag is half the problem, but even biodegradable nappies aren't amazing in landfill, because they need the air) and I've got some nappies to try; kit and kin and the bamboo nature. There were less options last time, naty were fine for the day but they weren't great at night.

I agree that sometimes just trying is a good start.

Following if you don't mind!

Just to add that once weaning is underway, you're down to one to two poos a day, which isn't too bad. I wonder if you can flush nappy liners with the poo on them instead of putting poo in the bin?

I use Cheeky Wipes. My baby is 2 years old now and they're still going strong. I personally prefer the cotton flannel ones over the microfibre/ bamboo ones they do, as they seem better for cleaning sticky mess off little fingers!

I also use reusable nappies off and on. We found the bambino moo ones fine when he was younger, but now that he can deal with Velcro, he can take them off too easily!

We like the Bumgenius ones a lot. They have popper fastenings and are proper birth to potty ones and seem to fit our son a lot better with fewer leaks.

You can get flushable nappy liners so you can flush the poo, or once it's more solid, you can just sort of take it off the liner with toilet roll and pop it in the toilet. (It's not as gross as it sounds!)

Good luck!

If you want to e even more sustainable you can pick up reusable nappies second hand online for not too much money

Wow someone needs to tell my 10m old he's only supposed to do 2 poos a day 😂 I'm lucky if it's only 4 (and if none of them were in the bath...)

We use naty nappies and find them better than any others, they are lasting 13 hours overnight easily. We tried Kit and Kin ones but they were leaking through within 5 hours max at night. I'd thought about cloth but our flat can be damp and lacks drying space, so we would have struggled.

We recent started using cheeky wipes for bum and face/hands. My OH isn't 100% convinced as he thinks the bum ones are too rough... but it's stopped us going through a million and one disposable wipes a week. I just bought the wipes and have stuck them in Tupperware boxes with some water, and I have a small food waste caddy in the bathroom for poopy wipes to soak in.

Gross stuff - use the nappy to get as much poo off the bum as possible and then one cheeky wipe is all that is needed (and if it's a reasonably solid poo you can sometimes shoogle it off and down the loo instead of binning it with the nappy). I imagine the same would go for nappy liners, not sure they are supposed to be flushed.

You can definitely flush the biodegradable liners I do. Convert to cloth here... Miosolo are the best I've found. Still haven't quite found one that will do him all night, he seems to wee for England whilst he sleeps.

I love cheeky wipes - so much more effective on poo and face mess in particular than disposables. I tried a few types of cloth nappies and they all leaked wee, I found I'd have to change them so much more frequently which unfortunately I couldn't deal with in the early days! I'm going to try again with dc2 and hope baby's bum fits the nappies better!

@nextchpter I've bought some bambino moo nappies to use when my daughter is a little older (she's only 3 weeks now). I'll probably have a go in the next few weeks! I'll try find this thread again when I do and let you know how we get on