My Cloth Nappy Story

I had heard of other mothers who said cloth was better for baby, but had nobody who actually used them (other than our parents - who both hated them) to ask.  So with nobody else to seek advice from, I made the decision that disposable seemed easier.  Thanks to my sister, I also had sourced an incredibly cheap nappy supplier, where I could buy nappies in bulk from the manufacturer, saving a lot of money.  So if disposables were affordable and easy, how bad were they for the environment?  Cloth nappies needed soaking in chemicals didn't they?  And how about all that power and water wasted on washing them and the clothing and bedding that would be leaked onto (as my mother and mother-in-law both explained would happen). But disposables use paper/wood pulp (cutting down trees) and plastics (very bad for mother nature), plus chemicals to manufacture them...  Which is worse?

At the antenatal classes, I asked the Midwives for their opinion on the environmental aspect. They  told me there were studies done and found that Cloth nappies were not much better for the environment than the modern (more papery) disposable nappies ... because if you factor in the amount of nappies you go through a day plus the extra clothing and bedding if they wet/poo through... the bleach/soakers you use,  the power for the washing machine and dryer (if you use one - pretty essential in winter), and the water costs (and the environmental impact of water usage)... It all adds up!  So she said that environmentally they are not much better than a papery disposable nappy (as long as you don't individually wrap them in plastic bags like most people tend to do).  Plus nappy recycling (a gross concept, but anyway) is becoming more widespread, so those who use it, can turn their old disposables into garbage bins and other plastic objects.

Hmm....Our water supply is always low, so we are on permanent water restrictions....  So I always bucket out my washing water onto the garden, (we have yet to install a grey water system) I  take quick showers and try not to waste water as much as possible (like only using the dishwasher occasionally).  Our power is not from a renewable source (coal), so its best to limit power usage for that reason alone (not to mention cost).... Napisan and bleach are bad for the environment....Our washing machine is old and not energy efficient... But.... disposables take up space in landfill, use power to manufacture, use wood pulp and the manufacturing process will produce tons of waste.

Which should I use?  I was confused.

In the hospital we had a nappy service.  We were given clean nappies and cotton balls, and just had to put the dirty nappies into a bin that was taken away and laundered.  My sister chose to bring her own disposables into the hospital (and she also had to take them home to dispose of), but I happily used the hospital cloth nappies.  If they are going to wash them and deal with that, I'm happy to use them!.  However once I got home, I decided to use disposables.  I'd had a caesarian (emergency) and was very sore.  We'd been given a lot of towelling flat nappies from a friend (who had been given them, and had only used them as burp cloths).  I did use them during summer, when I wanted something a little more breathable and comfortable for bub, and only when I was fairly confident there would be no solid contents!  or for emergencies when we ran out of disposables.

I suppose that people will find it strange and almost hypocritical that I would use disposable nappies and cloth menstrual pads.  I did give it a lot of thought though.   I find using cloth pads is less gross or time consuming than using cloth nappies, and I found disaposables very convenient.  However, I did feel guilty about the environmental impact.  But I also freely admit that with Post Natal Depression and trying to work from home and be a mum, disposables are easier for me -  a person who does laundry once a fortnight...and can't even be bothered to sort the whites from the coloureds (I haven't ironed something in years!)

When my baby was about 9 months old, I was at a market, and saw a stall selling cloth nappies (ezynappy).  Not the ordinary white towelling nappies I knew, these were brightly coloured large cloth pads, with velcro tabs.  Interesting!  They were sold as a sort of swimming thing for babies.  Something that would absorb some of the wee, and contain most of the poo... I'd seen a sort of plastic pants thing for swimming, but this was more like a nappy, in that it had layers of absorbent core with a semi-waterproof outer layer.  They did apparently also make ones for normal use, but they weren't available at that time.  At $14 each the frugal aspect of me shuddered at the thought of having a few days supply of them, but I bought one to try.  Admittedly I mostly bought it to have a peek at how it was made so I could make my own ;)  I used it a couple of times, but it didn't fit well.  I made a version of it myself, making the bottom a little wider (the original gave bub a bit of a wedgie as there was not enough at the back), but it failed terribly.  So I gave up on the idea, and I never saw that stall or anything like it again.  I had tried my version for night use, when she is a heavy wetter, and I believe the design was more at fault than the absorbency.

Then, when my daughter was 22 months old, 2 people e-mailed me on the same day about comments I had made on my cloth menstrual pads page.  I had compared cloth pads to cloth nappies, and said that while cloth pads were better for the environment, my Midwife had told me cloth nappies weren't (for the reasons I said above).  One lady gave me a list of websites to look at, which were about the studies that were done on the environmental impact of nappies.  The other lady explained to me that nappies have come a long way from the flat white towelling ones I knew.  She gave me a link to ozclothnappies.org. From there I found dozens of websites dedicated to these new cloth nappies.  WOW! colourful, fun looking.... they even looked like a disposable!  They looked easy to use and apparently worked well.  I had never seen anything like it before.

How had I not known about these ?!?  I'd read parenting magazines and books.... gone to dozens of parenting websites and I thought I was fairly well researched in the ways of parenthood before my baby was born.  I'd even read natural parenting books, which gave all sorts of advice about natural ways to parent your children.  5 of my close friends had children just before me.  Nobody had even mentioned these nappies.  I had thought that the flat nappies were the only other option to disposables.  Why wasn't it mentioned in our antenatal classes?  I felt almost cheated!

Yes, the information is out there, and looking back, a lot of the sites I'd been to for cloth pads, had pages on "cloth nappies" or "cloth diapers".... but without knowing such modern nappies existed, I had assumed the nappies talked about were the standard flat white towelling thing, so I hadn't bothered looking.

I excitedly told my mother about the websites I had visited and how I was planning to make some of these to at least use at night time, when even thirsty looking disposables had failed to contain the nighttime pee deluge.  Her reply?  "Ohh no, I remember the constant bright red burnt bottoms from cloth nappies, disposable nappies are a much better way to go".  I tried to explain that with polar fleece and other such fabrics, apparently baby stays dryer, and that perhaps it was the napisan/detergents that contributed to the problem... but I don't think she was convinced.  But I was.

I'm not fond of poo..... before I had the "eww, it has poo on it, it must be napisaned to within an inch of its life!" type view... but the very first time we tried our modern cloth during the day, we had a poo.... no liner and onto white fleece (Hmm.. thanks for christening it like that!).  I was at a friends house too...so I wrapped it up and left it until I got home.  It was surprisingly easy to clean!  I started scraping with a knife, then realised it was easier to rub the 2 sides together and then rub it with my hands to get the last of the stain out.  I'd been told napisan wasn't neccessary, so I just popped it into the normal wash.  No stain, no smell and I got over my poo thingyness.