Disposable versus washable

blueberrypie

Re cost: even if you bought the most expensive re-usable nappies you could find, and lots of them, and washed them in the most expensive way you could think of, and even if you only used them for one baby, and did not recoup any of the cost by re-selling them, I think it would be difficult to match the cost of disposables.

Re childminders: it is just not true that regulations prevent childminders from using re-usable nappies - I know several childminders who do. It might be that a childminder would say this as an excuse because she didn't want to use them herself, perhaps because she thought they were a hassle - she might change her mind if you showed her and explained, or she might not - but if she is digging her heels in over that, what other issues will she be inflexible about?

Re environmental impact - the research which "found" that disposables and re-usables were about equal from an environmental perspective was funded by the manufacturers of disposables and managed to avoid quite a lot of very important information. It was not a "lifecycle" analysis, which included the impact from the beginning of the process to the end, but rather only considered the impact from the point of purchase onwards. When manufacturing and transport are taken into consideration, the picture is very different: an independent study found that in comparison to re-usable nappies, disposables use 3.5 times the energy, 2.3 times the water, 8.3 times the non-regenerable materials and 90 times the renewable materials - and create 60 times as much household waste.

The Women's Environmental Network complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about advertising based on the studies funded by the disposables manufacturers; the ASA upheld the complaint.

It's also worth noting that these studies do not include the impact of using cloth nappies for subsequent babies - the only extra impact from cloth nappies at that point is extra washing, but the impact from disposables is double *everything*.

I used disposables for my first child, a mixture for my second, and cloth only for my third and subsequent children. My sixth baby is now in cloth. When I think of the money I could have saved if I'd used re-usables from the start - argh! LOL. I have a variety of types, but find myself mostly using a mixture of Tots Bots and decent-quality terry squares (I say decent quality because I have three varieties, and I'll *always*, without thinking, pick up the better ones rather than the Boots cheapies).

On the rare occasion when I change a disposable nappy (e.g. if I'm babysitting for a friend), I find it horrible - they smell worse (mixture of perfume plus absorbent chemicals plus nappy contents) and it just *feels* really weird to me to be putting a packet of urine and faeces into a bin - it's such a peculiar thing to do, when you think about it. But I also think about it in this way: would I rather wear cotton underwear or paper underwear? No contest.

elaina79

I use a mixture of one life nappies and lollipop pop and grow nappies. I used disposables with my first 2 children as I couldn't afford the initial cost of the reusables. Now my 3rd child is in reusables and I really wish I had used them from the beginning.
I am thinking about using washable wipes as well. I calculated it will cost me over £500 in wipes by the time my daughter is potty trained. Thats scary!!

blueberrypie

elaina79 wrote: »

I am thinking about using washable wipes as well. I calculated it will cost me over £500 in wipes by the time my daughter is potty trained. Thats scary!!

No need to buy specially-made cloth wipes - I use face-cloths. Cheapie ones will do, or you can sometimes buy them in bulk on ebay or the nappy forums. I do have a friend, though, who just mentioned to a few of her friends that she was on the lookout for old facecloths and did they have more than they actually used? - she said that between her mother and mother-in-law alone, she had about 30 donated to her.

FairyElephant_2

Hiya,

I've stated collecting a few bits & pieces towards the baby (not too much as DH is still very cautious!) and intend using facecloths for reusable wipes. In case you are interested, I found yesterday that Wilkinsons currently have a pack of 5 white flannels for 93p! I'd already got a pack of 4 from the £1 shop, and a couple of hand-towels from Ikea at 89p each, so my collection is growing!

HTH someone!

FE -x-

elaina79

blueberrypie wrote: »

No need to buy specially-made cloth wipes - I use face-cloths. Cheapie ones will do, or you can sometimes buy them in bulk on ebay or the nappy forums. I do have a friend, though, who just mentioned to a few of her friends that she was on the lookout for old facecloths and did they have more than they actually used? - she said that between her mother and mother-in-law alone, she had about 30 donated to her.

I had never thought of that, thank you:j What do you use for the solution. I read somewhere about using water and baby wash mixed with baby oil and some lavender oil.

ktpie

elaina79 wrote: »

I had never thought of that, thank you:j What do you use for the solution. I read somewhere about using water and baby wash mixed with baby oil and some lavender oil.

I've only ever used plain old water and it works fine, just wet the cloths as you need them.

blueberrypie

elaina79 wrote: »

I had never thought of that, thank you:j What do you use for the solution. I read somewhere about using water and baby wash mixed with baby oil and some lavender oil.

I used to do that - used lavender and tto in water - but now I just use water and wet them as needed. If we're out I always have a bottle of water to drink so I just squirt some of that on the cloth.

arwenelf

Hi
My youngest is in washables at home and disposables when out because my eldest is potty training and I would have to take half the house out with me if I took washables out as well as the 3 changes of clothes lol. I use washable wipes which I made myself - cheap towels cut into squares, an old fleece blanket cut into squares and a square of each sewn together so you have a soft side and a slightly rougher side for the more 'extreme cleaning' :rotfl:The solution is a cup of chamomile tea with a drop of lavender oil if he had nappy rash. the wipes are in one of the pampers wipes tubs and the solution is just brewed and poured over it in the morning!