Why cloth nappies instead of disposables?
From birth to toilet training each child uses approximately 6,000 disposable nappies... that's the equivilent of 30 brown wheelie bins!
Disposable nappies take hundreds of years to rot down in landfill sites as these sites do not have the correct environment for decomposition. 90% of all disposables end up in landfill so that is a huge amount of nappies every year that are just sitting there and not decomposing.
It takes 440 – 880 lbs of wood pulp and 285 lbs of plastic to supply a single baby with disposables. Ancient forests are being felled in order to meet the demand for this wood pulp.
You can also further influence the impact on the environment by your choice of washing and drying methods - more information is available on our cloth nappy fact sheet
Using cloth nappies can save you around £500 per child during the time that they are in nappies. This saving can be even greater if you use birth to potty nappies and then use those nappies again for second or subsequent children.
Demand for second hand nappies is very high and, depending on the type of nappy you buy - you will probably be able to sell it on again for 50% of the RRP. Have a look at our links page for sites which sell second hand nappies.
A study conducted at Kiel University in Germany in 2000 showed that the temperature inside disposable nappies was up to 5 deg. centigrade higher than in cloth nappies. It was suggested that for boys particularly, this could endanger future fertility as the semen-producing function is developed in the first 2 years of life, and is dependent on the testicular region being kept reasonably cool.
The chemical which makes disposable nappies so efficient is called sodium polyacrylate. This is a super-absorbent powder which, when it becomes wet, swells into a gel. You can sometimes see clear crystals of sodium polyacrylate on your baby's bottom when you change a nappy. There are many doubts over the safety of sodium polyacrylate: not least is the illusion of dryness they create which could encourage the nappy (and its contents) to be left in place for longer than advisable, in conditions which are bacterially ideal for the growth of infection.
Although disposables are marketed as being 'super absorbent', this super absorbancy means you have no way of knowing how much urine your baby is producing. In the early days, especially when you are breastfeeding, this is a really important sign and is the only way you are going to know if your baby is getting enough milk. This is also important when your baby is poorly and you want to check that they are hydrated. With cloth nappies you really can tell how much your baby is weeing.
The same goes for the child’s poo (us mums like to talk about this don’t we!). Being able to see the consistency and colour of your child’s poo is important and is sometimes the only way that you may be able to tell if they have a tummy upset. With disposables it is all drawn into the nappy and you have no way of knowing what it really looks like. Moving swiftly on….
Children in real nappies toilet train on average six months earlier than those in disposables. The first step in toilet training is for the baby to recognise the link between bladder release and a wet nappy. With disposables they simply cannot make this link because the nappy sucks up all the moisture.
If you were given the choice of wearing scratchy paper pants or lovely soft cotton pants what would you choose? One of the things I find most satisfying as a mum is picking in Lily’s nappies when they have been drying in the sun all day. It gives you such a nice feeling to know that they are fresh and clean and they do look really cute when they are on. Sometimes I wish Lily could just run around in her nappy all day.
The extra padding that you get with cloth nappies is a real bonus when your baby starts learning to walk. It gives them a nice soft landing when they fall on their bum which you wont get with disposables. Paediatricians recommend cloth nappies for babys with 'clicky hips' as it encourages correct hip alignment.
With the right cloth nappy and wrap, you should not have problems with leakages. Ok, so a few times it may happen – that’s inevitable with any kind of nappy but on the whole they do contain everything much better than disposables.