If you have a baby and you’re looking to save money, cloth nappies might just be the answer!
‘Are you kidding’ I hear you say – ‘too much hard work, could never handle with all that washing, don’t they leak everywhere?’
Actually all of the above couldn’t be further from the truth and the advantages of using cloth nappies far out weigh the advantages of using disposables.
Facts About Cloth Nappies
Save money!
Cloth nappies will save you a small fortune in the long run and the savings can be even greater if you have more than one baby. Using disposable nappies could cost you between £600 to £1000 per child, depending on which brand of nappy you use, whereas a really good set of modern cloth nappies will cost between £200 and £500. A massive saving! Just think of all that money that could have just been thrown in the bin!
Reliability
The advantage of cloth nappies is that it is very easy to boost absorbency, where as with disposables there is nothing you can do, except keep changing your baby. Most babies are fine during the day but night time can be problematic. There are various ways to boost the absorbency in your cloth nappies; it’s simply a case of finding the right nappy cover and filling it with the right amount of cloth to get your baby through the night. It is widely known that cloth nappies are far more reliable than disposables. They contain nappy content much better because they have 2 parts to them, therefore: fewer leaks, less complete changes of clothes resulting in less washing of babies’ clothes.
Environment
Cloth nappies are just natural materials, no plastics or chemicals next to baby’s skin. And there are organic cotton and bamboo nappies so you know your baby’s skin is chemical-free. Think of those land fills that won’t be clogging up with your baby’s nappies, instead you can just put the contents of the nappy down the loo (where they should be) and store the dirty nappies in a bucket, add some tea tree oil, then wash on a 30 degree setting and hang out to dry. If you want to wash on a higher degree to flash out any germs, and then use an eco washing powder and you’ll know you’re still doing your bit for the environment.
By using cloth nappies you will produce far less household waste and creating a eco-friendly environment. About half of the waste a family with baby produces will be nappies if they use disposables. By toilet training a baby will have used the same weight in disposable nappies as an average family car, and this will still be sitting in a landfill site when they are grandparents.
And the best reason of all…. Cloth nappies come in really great designs – disposables don’t!
Ethicalbabe offers a trial pack of cloth nappies – so you could try them out and if you don’t like them there are lots of schemes which buy them second hand.
