Nappies: used, abused and reviewed

So you've decided to use cloth nappies. Good for you! After days and nights of research we made the decision to use cloth nappies instead of disposables. There are pros and cons to both and you may find that you use some of each. When you are away from home, it is certainly more simple to use disposable ones...

Cloth nappies are a more environmentally sound option than disposables. Disposable nappies take hundreds of years to break down. In the wrong conditions (buried deep in a landfill where most end up, for example) they may take even longer to break down. A few disposable nappies wouldn't be such a problem, but if you think of a box of nappies, multiple it by 30 so you have a truck sized pallet of 30 boxes, then multiply that by every child under 2 - and you can imagine how many nappies go to the landfill each year. Also, I bought some 'biodegradable' nappies to try (Moltex Oko are actually only 40% biodegradable) and put one in our compost for a year. I dug it up a few weeks ago and was surprised how much of it was still there... anyway, 40% is better than nothing I suppose.

On the other hand, people argue that the water usage for washing cloth nappies makes them less environmentally sound. It is true, washing nappies will increase your household water usage, but merely having an extra human in the house will do that, so therefore the most environmentally sound option is to have no children... and if you take the argument further... well, let's not go there.

There are so many nappies and so many claims about the specific benefits of each brand. It really is a difficult decision. Modern fitted nappies are costly. And you need plenty of them, especially if you don't have or use a clothes dryer (if you can, the sun is a much better way to dry nappies because it disinfects and deodorises as it dries - amazing huh!)



How many nappies?

I think you could use 8-10 a day for a newborn to six month old baby. The poo is often runny, so it discolours the cloth a little, though it doesn't smell bad until they start eating solids. If you had 20 nappies you'd probably have to wash and dry every day. If you have family around (and a drier, in case it rains) then this is probably an option.

Better option - Nappy service. Yaahooo! They take the poo-stained nappies away and deliver nice clean fresh nappies. Also, industrial washing services are generally very water / electricity efficient! Bonus!

After 6 months - 18 months you could use five or six nappies a day. Again, you can do the maths regarding how many you need to buy in order to always have a set of clean and dry ones at the start of each day.

If you are able to connect it to your toilet water supply, a nappy / diaper sprayer is a worthwhile investment. We used a brand called Little Squirt - http://www.littlesquirt.com.au/ which was great. But the Bum Genius featured on the left is similar. More about Bum Genius below...

Which brands are best?

The short answer is - it depends.

There are different materials - some dry quickly, some slowly.
Some materials are man-made (plastic) some are natural fibre.
Some have velcro fastening, others have dome type fastening.
Some are all-in-ones (AIOs) and others use removable inserts.
Some have waterproof outer layers, others need a separate waterproof cover.

The brands we used are pictured and reviewed below:

Blueberry

This is a Blueberry 'Minky'.
Pros: Looks good
Lightweight and Soft
Microfibre insert based (daytime size, or nighttime size) - so they dry quickly.
Resizable

Cons: Not natural fibre (won't break down!)
Velcro is easy to fasten, but may loose its grip over time and older children can possibly open this type of fastener...

This is a Baby Beehinds bamboo nappy
Pros: Natural fibre, soft and comfy
Very renewable resource
Removable inside layer allows for faster drying

Cons: Slow drying

Bum genius

This is a Bum Genius.
Pros: Lightweight
Fast drying
Removable insert
Resizable

Cons: Not natural fibre, won't break down
Velcro is easy to fasten, but may loose its grip over time and older children can possibly open this type of fastener... (but what are you going to do, padlock them on?!)

Imse Vimse

This is an Imse Vimse nappy thingee... 

Imse Vimse makes some nice organic baby products. 

We liked the idea of this lightweight, natural fibre nappy but it didn't really work for us. It leaked badly. Might have been our own fault, but we couldn't seem to get the thing to do up properly.

Pros: Lightweight, natural fibre 

Cons: Didn't work

  

Itti Bitti D'lish (http://ittibitti.com.au)

Pros: Very soft exterior. Comfy interior too.
Removable snap in insert (you can only use snap in inserts though) Booster insert also pictured.
Very good fit.
Some natural fibres

Cons: A little slow on drying time.
Some non natural fibres
We needed to use a waterproof cover

Mother ease

This is a Mother Ease one size nappy

Pros: very simple
Soft cotton (other natural fabrics available too)
Use with removable inserts
Fairly quick to dry
resizable
Mother ease makes good nappy covers / diaper covers

Cons: Rather bulky
Needs a nappy cover

And finally this is a tots bots nappy...

Pros: Nice slim fit.
Very absorbent (this one was made from bamboo - called a bamboozle).
Good fastening system (easy to fasten)
Removable insert (dome fastener)
Tots bots make excellent nappy covers for this nappy range.

Cons: Takes a while to dry.
Needs an additional nappy cover.

Our enduring favourite was the Bum Genius3.0 (and the Blueberry which is very similar in design). Despite being non natural fibres, the utility value of such a fast drying nappy meant alot to us. However, the Tots bots and the Baby Beehinds were also very good at both are natural fibres and therefore should be biodegradable at the end of their lives... unlike the Bum Genius!

We used flushable nappy liners which were excellent and saved us from having to wash heavy soiling out of the nappies.

Here are a couple of our favourite nappy / diaper covers:

Imse Vimse cover - we like it

Baby Beehinds cover - pretty good

Tots Bots cover - lovely - a good fit on their nappy

 

Mother Ease - we like it

Baby Beehinds wool cover - we like the idea of it, but found it didn't work very well!

Bummis super bright cover - not so good. Noisy! But their nappies might be good.

And a final word, as far as natural fibres go, I think the old fashioned cotton (or other fabrics) squares of towelling are actually very very good. Yes, you need to change them more frequently, and they are a little more bulky - but they're still great!

The thing I learned from all this nappy / diaper research is that in our crazy consumer world (of which I am obviously a part, sorry) we create all manner of confusing choices for our customers where none are really desperately needed. The bare facts of the matter are that there is still an awful lot of poo to deal with - and nothing will change that fact!

The exercise also made me think how wasteful we humans are... but this blog is not about that! So go and choose yourself some nappies! Have fun!