I knew I wanted to use cloth nappies (before I knew just how cute they make them these days) so it was never a lightbulb moment, but I had to persuade Colin, who had visions of a bucket in the corner of the room soaking nappies, terry towelling and nappy pins, that things had changed. So, how did I persuade him that cloth was the choice for us?
Colin will tell you his decision pre-Daniel was based on cost savings and the other reasons only became real for him once we using the nappies so I'll start with cost here.
1. Cost
Disposable nappies are expensive and you literally throw them away sometimes after only a few minutes on. The cost soon adds up.
Disposable nappies cost around 21p a nappy (look in supermarkets at the cost per unit - ranges from about 16p a nappy at the first stage, to around 29p a nappy in the bigger sizes, I weighted toward the price of nappies you change more of). You probably change about 7 a day on average, with around 10-12 changes in the early months, maybe 5 when the child is older.
Weekly cost: 7 x 7 x 21p = £10.29
Annual cost: 52 x £10.29 = £535.08
Cost to 2 1/2 years old: 2.5 x £535.08 = £1,337.70
You also have baby wipes to factor into the cost. I still can't believe how awful these are as a product. I bought a packet for a camping trip so I was only using cloth nappies and could throw the wipes away. Some dirty nappies I'd need to use 4 wipes, they just moved the mess around, really unsatisfactory but anyway, even assuming you use one wipe a nappy change, with the occasional 'two wiper', you'd go through a 56 wipe packet a week, at a further cost of £1.79 a week.
Annual cost: 52 x £1.79 = £93.08
Cost to 2 1/2 years old: 2.5 x £93.08 = £232.70
That's a total cost per baby to potty training of £1,570.40.
Cost of cloth nappies can vary depending on the type, brand, whether you buy a birth to potty system (one size fits the whole way through using poppers to adjust the size with time) or sized nappies (so you'd need to buy two sets of nappies) but here are two extremes in terms of cost:
Budget option: You can buy all the prefold/terry style nappies (more like the traditional cloth nappies) you would need to get to potty training for around £100. Even some brands like little lamb regularly offer 20 pocket nappies for £100.
Premium option: Buying a full branded kit of patterned nappies costs around £400
You also need to factor in an airtight bucket to store the nappies, and washable wipes. You may also want to add flushable liners and a washable bag to put dirty nappies in when you're out and about. That will come to about £75 maybe, buying premium options.
That's a total of £475 for the premium option. I've spent a bit more than that but I bought way more nappies than any baby would ever need (including a full set of newborn nappies as Daniel was so small for so long, most people never bother with separate newborn nappies), maybe around £600? It's still considerably less than the cost of disposables. Cloth nappies are like Minis, they hold their value and second hand nappies can sell close to their purchase price (limited edition tots bots prints often sell for way more than their RRP!) and be used for future children so the cost saving isn't just the cost upfront.
People then talk about the cost of washing the nappies. I do maximum three washes at 60° a week with an extra rinse. You use about a third of detergent than a normal wash to clean nappies so the costs isn't much. In any case, my friends who use disposables regularly get poo explosions where they need to do a whole outfit change as the baby's clothes have poo on them. We had one nappy where a small mark of poo came out onto a vest when Daniel was mr chicken legs at a few weeks old and that's been it. Cloth doesn't leak. I'm still amazed at the acceptance of disposable nappies leaking and all the extra washing of the baby's clothes. Which brings me on to reason two:
2. Performance
Cloth nappies do the job of containing wee and poo better than disposables. As I've said above, people seem to accept that disposables leak and you will need to change the baby's clothes because poo gets on them. Even if you're not sold on the idea of cloth nappies, why not buy the washable wraps and put them on top of disposables? This would contain any leaks and save having to change the baby, plus they look nicer than disposables!
3. The environment
I do believe we should try our best to look after the world in the ways we can. People would say what's the point when China opens new power stations every week, but disposable nappies are a huge problem for landfill. They also are made using chemicals, and cause health problems as people don't bother putting the poo in the toilet so human waste goes to landfill.
There was a report done by the Environment Agency a number of years ago which said there was no overall difference between cloth and disposables, essentially due to the washing and drying of cloth nappies, but this report was flawed. It assumed that you tumble dried nappies (I never have tumble dried them) and used regular amounts of detergent, and did daily washes. None of which are true!
4. The look
Cloth nappies look so cute! They come in lots of different patterns, bright colours, and give baby a lovely big bum. The padded bum also helps when they're learning to stand as we're currently finding! Disposable nappies are just a bit blah when you compare them! You can't match them to outfits or have themes.
Daniel coordinating his nappy with his clothes for St Patrick's Day!
5. Toilet training
Babies who wear cloth are more responsive to potty training. Cloth nappies now have stay dry layers so the baby isn't lying in sodden nappies, but they are definitely wetter than disposables and it's been shown than cloth nappy users are quicker and younger to potty train. We started putting Daniel on the toilet at nappy changes when he turned one. Within a week or two he was peeing within a few seconds of sitting down and now he doesn't pee much in his nappies and I can go days without changing a dirty nappy as he goes mostly in the toilet. Given that we would expect him to take longer to learn how to potty train, it's amazing that he already can control his bladder and bowels to this extent. I'm convinced it's the connection between relaxing muscles and him feeling the wetness in his nappy that is helping. That and the fact that the Makaton sign for toilet is particularly amusing (the middle finger is isolated and wiggled side to side much like a rude gesture!) so we don't forget to sign!
So that's my thought on why cloth is a better choice than disposables. I should state that I understand that the main selling point for disposables is not based on any of the reasons listed above, it is purely for convenience so if you choose disposables, these reasons will probably not be of interest to you. I am not a believer in convenience being a good reason for many choices though, so that's why I shared my thoughts! Don't get me started on formula milk...!
