First time posting, sorry if it's wrong! Was about to buy some nappies and found they were having a sale!
Baby Bare cloth nappies are having a 20% off sale. This includes the already discounted trial packs! Just put 20percent in the coupon box when checking out. All orders over $75 get a free nappy too ($18 value).
Ends midnight Sunday.
I cant see how it could be.
edit: well unless you are buying 2nd hand disposables!
Nah even the cheap disposables are way better at sucking up moisture and keeping it away from the skin.
Let them go free-range I say!
Here I go again, sounding like a fanboi…
It's true that disposables have a higher capacity than cloth. Those super-absorbent polymer gels they put in there are quite remarkable. You can get away with leaving a kid in a wet disposable for longer.
But I found that the absorption RATE of a good cloth system was better than disposable - which was handy for avoiding leaks.
We used a layer of microfibre over a layer of hemp. The microfibre sucked up moisture super fast, and spread it out so it could soak into the hemp (which can hold more moisture than most other materials). By comparison, a disposable gets saturated at the point of impact, and can't absorb any more, or simply can't soak through the lining layer fast enough.
I'm not just talking wee either. Think big wet "teething" dumps. Yeah, you know, the ones that gush straight up the back and out the waistband of a disposable nappy. Time for an entire new outfit, and an early bath time. Our microfibre just sucked the moisture out - strained the solids and dried them out before they could escape.
We definitely had more frequent poo explosions out of disposables.
In terms of not having a stinking bin full of human excrement sitting around the house until it goes to landfill, absolutely.
Standard practice with cloth nappies is to rinse the solids into the toilet (into the system that was built for the purpose). Used nappies go in a lidded bucket, which doesn't get a chance to get feral because you wash them (hot) every day (as opposed to the bin getting emptied every week… ewww, that gets rank in summer). And before anybody starts about "all the extra washing" - it's one load a day, you just have to tip them in and hit "go", and it's not as though you're not doing several loads a day with a newborn anyway.
Hygiene for the parent - no difference. You're going to wash your hands after changing a nappy anyway, aren't you?
Hygiene for the baby - no difference. You don't leave a baby stewing in a full nappy, whatever it's made of. Ours had more nappy rash from occasionally using "trashies" (disposables) than they had from cloth.
A hot washing load everyday, that's gonna see the utility bills sky-rocket!!
BTW, respect to any parents that go the cloth nappy route, not sure if I could.
Buying nappies every week, that's gonna see the grocery bills sky-rocket!!
Back-of-envelope calculations… worst case, you're using 100L of water (wash cycle only in a big top-loader), heating it by about 40°C (from 10° to 50° say), using electricity.
Heating that water will take 16.8 MJ, which is 4.7 kWh.
At 25 c/kWh, you're talking $1.16 electricity cost.
That's worst case. Realistically, your daily nappy load isn't going to be huge, so you will probably use half that much water. Heat the water with gas (or solar!), use a front-load washing machine, and the price will come down significantly.
Disposables cost about 40c each. 10 of them per day and you're waaaaaay behind even the worst case.
We found cloth to be easier than disposables, even without considering the cost.
We found cloth to be easier than disposables, even without considering the cost.
Just this ridiculous line is enough to just discount everything you just write. Who on earth would find cloth nappies EASIER than disposable? You're right about the fanboi thing, because that's just ridiculous.
How about…
1) Never running out and having to load kids into the car and make a run to the supermarket for supplies
2) No poo explosions escaping nappies and requiring a change of clothes
3) No nappy rash. How convenient is a kid with a red raw bum?
4) No stinking bin full of turds in the corner of the room… all poo goes straight down the loo
5) No overflowing wheelie bin full of turds with no space for other rubbish
As someone with 4 kids and have used both system i think you are being pretty hugely biased here.
1) you can run out of clean washed cloth nappies as well. You can run out of whatever you are washing them with. This is not a win for cloth.
2) completely false, they both have their moments. I would estimate 'number 2' leakage about once every 2 weeks with our 4 month old. Happens in cloth nappies as well. Washing the occasional suite is nothing compared to washing all the cloth nappies all the time.
3) Cloth nappies are not immune to nappy rash. If anything our first had far worse nappy rash in the cloth than she did in the disposable. At the first sign of any rash desitin quickly has it sorted.
4) The bin outside stinks anyway, really who cares what their bin smells like? If it a real problem put them in a nappy bag. Really a non issue. A bin full of cloth nappies will stink as well. So does standing over a toilet trying to get the 'solids' off. You will be exposed to far more stink working with cloth.
Points from your earlier post:
- Disposables do not have to cost 40c each. Aldi ones are about 20c and babylove around 30c. The cloth nappies are pretty expensive themselves.
- 10 a day? not likely.
- Washing: you forgot to include drying them. What do you do in the middle of winter when you cant get them dry outside?
- Easier? There is no way that doing a heap more work is easier. You would have to be kidding yourself to think all the work of cloth is easier than chucking out a soiled disposable nappy.
Note: I am not anti cloth nappies. We have several and have used them off and on for 3 of our 4 kids. If someone wants to use them, go for it, but dont argue it is easier.
It must be a preference thing. I find them way easier to use and put on. But as I said, it's just my preference though.
If we do run out of clean cloth nappies we have a spare pack of disposables for those situations, so no need to drop everything and run to the shops. Detergent is a quarter of a cap every 2 days. Never run out of that!
We have had a couple of explosions with a cheap pair of MCNs, but not once with the more expensive pairs we have. But every brand has their pros and cons.
That has saved us a lot if money too, not having to buy nappy rash cream. The cheaper nappies will give your baby a rash as the materials they are made from aren't the friendliest to babies. But grab a good quality one and your baby will never rash up. Especially with those 13 hour nightly sleeps!
I dunno about your bin outside, but ours only stinks to high heaven when we have baby poo in a nappy bag in a shopping bag all tied up. Its great flushing it down the toilet where poo belongs.
We so far have found them easier with 1 baby, but after 4 kids, I wouldn't find anything easy. lol
10 nappies a day is a bit extreme though, we only use 7-8 disposables or 4-5 MCNs (more absorbent), and the good brands only cost 25-33c each, but they all come with their own costs.
I think the main thing I love is having them all ready to go and just being able to pull them on in a second. So much easier with our 7 month who loves to roll on the change table!
You can say I'm strange but I rather my outside bin stank than having dirty cloth nappy full of germs lingering inside the house waiting for the next wash. Also if you are willing to stand in the toilet scooping shit off the cloth nappy because you are afraid to stink up your outside garbage bin, I don't see why you can't scoop it off the disposable nappy.
Compared to disposable nappies that stink up our bin and attracts flies, they are very hygienic. They come with a disposable bamboo liner which catches the mess which you just flush away. The nappy then just gets rinsed. No poo involved!
You also don't require hot water as the UV light from the sun kills all he germs. Anyway, baby clothes get done at 30-40 degrees so I cannot see how that really kills any germs. (That is the perfect breeding zone for bacteria.
I know I might sound like a fanatic, but after using disposables for the last couple of months we are wishing we got some of these earlier. (Bought the trial pack a couple of weeks ago and haven't looked back). Plus, they actually last the night whereas the poor disposables where crushing and squashing our poor little boy by the morning!
Is cloth better than disposable in terms of hygiene?