I have known about Real Nappies since I worked at Crawley
Borough Council, some eighteen years ago now.
I championed Real Nappy Week as part of my jobs with Local
Authorities. And as such I thought I
would use real nappies when I had a baby.
I did all the research.
I looked into the different services and I bought the kit. Late 2010 my daughter was born and we used
disposables…. I just wasn’t ready and I
didn’t have the energy to train/argue with her Dad about why we should use
them. I uhmed and ahhed and I wanted to
try them but the closest I got was putting her in them for some photographs –
and they did look lovely. I kept on
thinking about them and then suddenly she was six months and I was returning to
work and I didn’t have the heart to tell the childminder. We stayed on disposables.
I know ALL the arguments as to why we should use reusables
and how much better they are for the environment and for the child. I can remember the big nappy pins my mum used
– with the coloured safety ends that clipped down. I even remember the big
metal pail that mum used on the hob to clean the nappies. So why, if she could do it, couldn’t I?
I could blame the modern world, the stresses of modern-day
parenting. I could blame
peer-pressure. At the end of the day it
was my decision – it was me that left the resuables in their box (and then put
them into the loft). It was me that
didn’t push the idea. Disposables were
just easier. I felt guilty at times,
knowing that every single disposable nappy that has been landfilled is still
there and that we (as a family) were not helping.
So my next pregnancy came along and I didn’t even think
about it. I also didn’t build up a stock
of disposables (like I did with my daughter – part of the reason why it was SO
easy to use them). I just did what was
easiest and maybe even cheapest. I was
parenting two kids on my own, falling v=over two dogs and trying to play
house. Using reusable nappies just was
never a consideration.
So who uses them? The
same people that use reusable sanitary pads?
Better people than me? People
that care about the environment more than me?
I really don’t know. Is it for
wealthier people, the middle classes?
Honestly I don’t know. I just
know that it didn’t work for me. Maybe
it will work for you?
LuluSLR The Honest Environmentalist
THE INFO IN BRIEF (pun intended):
In the UK we dispose of over three billion nappies every
single year – around 3% of all household waste.
One baby can use up to 6,000 nappies from birth to potty trained. In fact the average amount of waste from a
family can be halved by using resusable nappies in comparison to
disposables. Real nappies are more
expensive initially and need to be laundered, however a family can save up to
£500 over the 2.5 year period (and even more if the nappies are used for
subsequent children)
