Why cloth?

Inigo wearing a flannelette nappy with a scottish fold, and a bespoke polarfleece cover by Whizz Kidz.

Ok, so it’s falling off in this picture, but if you do the nappy cover up properly, they stay on, and hardly ever leak – even when the poop is explosive.  When we have used disposables, there have been incidents.  I won’t go into detail.

Before Inigo was born, I did quite a bit of research into Disposable Vs. Cloth nappies (diapers for those of you in the US).  Media reports quote a study that found that cloth nappies had THE SAME environmental impact as disposable nappies, and tend to encourage the use of disposables.  Which seemed odd to me.

I know that growing and processing cotton is hugely wasteful, but to me it seemed almost impossible that a disposable product could be as environmentally responsible as a reusable product – it just didn’t make sense.  The only edge that was conceded to cloth nappies was in using a nappy service – apparently the economies of scale involved mean that cloth nappies get the edge in that circumstance.

So I kept looking, and eventually found “The Australian Nappy Network” and Oz Cloth Nappies, both advocacy groups for using cloth.  It turns out the study that is widely quoted starts off with a few dodgy premises.  And we all know that good science requires good foundations, right?

Firstly, they assumed that a baby would go through 4-6 disposables in a day, not 6-8, which is more realistic (at least for a baby, older kids may differ).  They also assumed that cloth nappies would only be used 150 times before they are discarded – they didn’t consider that cloth nappies can have lifecycles up to 800 uses, they can be passed down to younger children, passed on to friends, and even repurposed as household rags (I use old cloth nappies to clean the bunny houses).  They also assumed that cloth nappies would be laundered using the most ridiculously wasteful laundry methods, including ironing the nappies after they come out of the dryer!

Most cloth nappy users don’t use nappysan, many wash in cold water, and only HALF the normal amount of detergent is recommended (especially for babies with sensitive skin).  No antibacterial or bleach products are needed if you can line dry – UV light is an excellent stain buster, and kills any nasties hanging around.  If you follow these washing guidelines, and have a washing machine with a water level sensor (so you never use more water than you need for the cycle), then it makes sense that you’re doing the right thing by the environment by using cloth nappies on your child.

And if you can find nappies made out of an alternative to cotton, the difference is even bigger.  Hemp and bamboo are both excellent nappy materials, bamboo is far more absorbent than cotton, and far less wasteful to produce.  Put it all together, and using cloth nappies is a no brainer.

Of course, there is all the extra work to consider…

Which I don’t – since having the baby I have had to wash every day anyway, and an extra load every two days is no big deal.  I fold nappies (or often Mark does it) in front of the TV, and it’s as relaxing as knitting  😉

Inigo in his first cloth nappy – moments after getting out of NICU.

And it looks so much cuter than disposables!

Check out this article for a more detailed critique of the study.

P.S. – Terry nappies are very “old school” right now. The funky babies are all wearing “Modern Cloth Nappies”, which are tailored like a disposable, and look really groovy. You can see Inigo wearing a modern cloth nappy here, and here.