Anyone using Nature Boy/Girl nappies?

[LizC]

I've just started using nature boy/girl nappies as I wanted to use something environmentally friendly (we use cloth nappies most of the time and just disposables when we go away) and I was quite happy with them. However, I've just bought another 2 packs and they've changed, to what seems like a more papery but slightly easier design to use - tabs are more easy to do up. BUT we've now had 2 nappies break - the tabs have simply ripped off while our dd has been wearing them and everything has leaked out (this was while she was having an episode of diarrhoea). I've never had this happen before with a disposable and to have 2 of the first something like 5 nappies we've used break seems like a design fault. Have other people experienced this with the new version of these nappies? I'm really annoyed as I feel like taking them back, but then I'll have to use ordinary disposables and I wanted to be 'green'!

hi marina, i have heard this too, also from a "green" friend - she is in the reusable nappy business! i think the issues are the end to end lifecycle (e.g. from growth/manufacture of materials to ultimate disposal, taking into account laundry), and also real life usage - most people i know do not use organically grown hemp reusables which are washed in environmentally friendly products and then line dried. also heard the 70% biodegradability claimed by nature b&g relates to the urine and faeces and not to the materials used in making the nappy.

so a lot of anecdotal evidence/comments but nothing of substance. i've asked friends of the earth to see what they say, and will post back here.

Where I'm living we have solar panels on the roof which go to the national grid which is apparently very efficient even this time of year (it was sunny today). All our grinded waste goes towards electricity too.

I'm happy using cottons. Meanwhile...

Why is is so good to makemoney for Mr Pamper or Mrs Huggie? I think that we are very much encouraged to think that only disposable (very lond degredaables) are fine.

Ds's nursery here is quite happy to use cotton nappies. Why shouldn't nurseries use cottons?

My dd has been to 2 nurseries now and both have been happy to use cotton nappies (and I know at least one friend using a different nursery and cotton nappies too). These are all Ofsted inspected, so surely the Ofsted reason is just an excuse?!

Well, that's what I was told. The nursery manager has actually stood for local council elections as a Green Party candidate, so I assumed her view on the matter was reliable. The news came in a round-robin of changes to nursery policy once Ofsted came into force and a lot of the other changes seemed positive. But I agree it's a shame. At least they will still provide appropriate storage for expressed breast milk - at least one commercial sector nursery in SE London has apparently refused to do this any more. The local NCT branch is investigating.

On which is greener, disp or cloth: the women's environmental network has a critique of 2 studies by disp. nappy manufacturers -- studies which showed clothto be no "greener" than disp. But the WEN hired someone to review those 2 studies and came up with some pretty damning revised numbers.

Personally, if you tumble dry, I suspect that there isn't much difference between cloth & disp; & I strongly suspect that laundry services are almost always both less green & much more expensive than disp....

I've been helping our nursery to update its health & safety policy..and wee/poo count as a hazardous substance and require suitable special treatment/disposal. I suppose if you're talking cloth it's more a case of where/how to store before they're taken home to be laundered and whether the nursery has space to do that.

marina, that's shocking re: EBM..I remember rejecting one of our possibles because of the same reason. do let us know what happens.

Re nappy sacks - Nature are apparently 100% biodegradable - made of corn starch I think (haven't got a pack with me to check). They are quite a bit more expensive than others but do make me feel less guilty.
I've tried Tushies and I thought they were terrible - really leaky. I've been using Nature for about 16 months for all but overnight and they've been great.
I'd be really interested to hear what Friends of the Earth have to say. Obviously the most environmentally friendly thing to do is not to have any babies at all!

Bundle, my dd's nursery is happy to change her cloth nappies. The flushable liner goes down the loo, and the wet nappy and wrap go into a waterproof bag for us to wash. I can't see that there is a transmission of infection risk.

Ds's nursery put his used nappies in a washable nappy bag for me to take home. It's not much different from putting it in the bin and the hygiene is pretty much my problem as far as I can see it.

One of my friends in the UK said that her family allowance just about kept here 4 month old in disposable nappies. Is subsidising the profits of Mr Pamper,Mrs Huggie and Ms Tesco Homelable the whole point of child benefit? Considering the amount of waste that gel disposables create should their cost not reflect getting rid of them? Or are you happy with the staus quo?

While I agree that the cost of disposables is less than desirable, I would point out that reusable nappy companies and cleaning services are also in it to be profitable, just like the "evil" Mr Pamper and Ms Huggie...

Message withdrawn

I was really committed to reusables and invested heavily for DS. Took me ages to find wraps which didn't leak (boots plastic pants worked best in the end) and had no real problems although have to admit that although storing them was fine, loading into the machine always made me heave. DD arrived when DS was still in nappies and couldn't cope with 2 lots so sadly reverted to disposalbes. Also found them really difficult to get dry, took ages. Was really chuffed to find the natures ones as seemed excellent compromise. Never had any problems with them day or night - (used space carrier bags as nappy sacks when I had too) and will definielty use them again in the future. My view is that if reusables work for you then its great to be green but its hard with a baby (or 2) so if you find it too much then you shouldn't feel guilty - but biodegradable ones are definitly a good compromise.

Or on a less serious note, go "totally green" by doing what they do in China....their babies do not wear nappies at all - instead they have holes in the back of their trousers/garments and when they want to go, the parents hold them over the nearest thing available...often street gutters! I have witnessed this myself!!! If I could afford it I would definately try the bio-gradeable ones....

Katherine - or any one else who doesn't like loading the nappies into the mashine - you can buy mesh bags that fit into the nappy bucket and you lift the whole thing out and straight into the machine. I don't use one so not sure what they cost, or if you just upend the bag and then wash it everytime, but I've seen them next to the nappies and liners in the shop I go into.

got a reply from foe today re "green" disposables v. reusables. they pointed me towards the women's environmental network (link already posted by zebra) and the real nappy association - pretty useless and appears to be just a satellite of wen anyway.

have skimmed the report on the wen site which makes some interesting, and i think convincing, points. i thought it was interesting that laundries were recommended, from the costs for this service in my area it would certainly wipe out the cost savings associated with reusables.

anyway, back to the main point of the thread, we used to use nb&g but stopped as they were leaking at night. moved reluctantly to pampers active fit (they are excellent - although obviously not from the environmental pov ). have persuaded dh we should try moltex (that is the problem when dh is very hands on - he expects a say in things like this! ), so will see how that goes.

for the next one (if and when) am keen to try reusables, although in my case it will definitely mean additional loads of laundry. groan. not to mention protracted negotiations with dh who is not keen.

There's actually no need to use nappy sacks at all. We just put any disposables we use (not often, we are pretty keen on our cloth, only use disposables when on holiday) in the bin. Why add another layer of plastic to something that is going to take beyond your child's lifetime to decompose? At my Dad's we put them all in the utility room bin then once a day (when a pooey one comes along) we just take them all to the outside bin.
One thing you can do, even if you are using non environmentally friendly disposables, is flick any poo you can into the toilet. This then is processed as sewage rather than going straight to landfill. It is amazing that poo in a nursery is a hazardous substance but poo leaking into the water from a landfill full of nappies isn't!