20-7-2009 - Cloth Nappies or Disposables - "Urea Offset" A Personal view

My mood while writing this blog: Frugal!

Lots of us girlies are now approaching the half way stage, and the main bones of contention of motherhood are starting to appear:

Bottle Vs Breast

C-Section Vs Natural Delivery

and Cloth Nappies Vs Disposable

As a modern mum who has tried both nappy (or diaper for my US friends) methods, I can honestly say that for me disposables actually worked out better value in the long run. If you don't want free advice or an alternative opinion - PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW ;-)

With the new style fitted cloth nappies you have additional outlay for new cloth nappies as the baby moves upto the next size. The old-fashioned Terry-towel nappies that you fold up yourself at least prove their worth until potty training is a success (provided you stick with them til then). Using cloth nappies out and about is much more difficult than disposables. I used a mix of Terry and disposables with my first until I went back to work at 4 months, when I switched completely to disposables.

I tried the Terry's again a few times with my second one, and cos I went back to work when the 3rd one was just 4 weeks old, she never had a Terry nappy at all.

As I was a child born in the 70's, my mum was a stay at home mum, she walked to the local shops every day for fresh bread (5 minutes away) and had milk delivered to the door. She then did the main shop once a week, putting everything under the pushchair (or occassionally squished in between my sister and I!)

Disposables nappies then were a new fangled thing and very expensive. It was Mum's contribution to the household budget to sluice the nappies, wash them in the twin tub (poking with a big wooden stick) and then boil them in a big nappy pan on the stove for a further hour to sterilise them.

Yes, with that and breastfeeding, and two kids 16 months apart she was worn wragged! She would have never been able to work outside the home aswell.

But fast forward 30-something years, yes we have automatic washing machines but many of us mums still have to go out to work to earn a crust, get up and feed baby in the night, and still try and function like a rational human being the next day.

My new washing machine has a baby nappy/baby clothes function which ensures sufficient aggitation and hot temperature to kill germs - program time 3 hours!!! Then you have to add the drying time on top (great if you live somewhere hot, but if you're in the UK you need to use a tumble drier even in summer - its horrible to return home from work to find your nice white nappies soaked through because of the rain). Burning all that additional electricity 3 to 4 times a week (or more!) is hardly helping to save the planet or the purse/wallet.

For me, I found that buying "top end" branded nappies in the first few weeks is false economy. You pay for the absorbancy of wee that you just dont need, when they seem to poop every 5 minutes! Using a supermarkets own brand or budget nappy PLUS a disposable liner (suitable for cloth or all in ones whichever!) if baby decides to "let one go" shortly after bath or nappy time, you can whip out the liner, flush it away, clean and cream and if the nappy has not been wetted fasten up it without adding a liner, ensuring on NEXT change fresh nappy is used with a liner inserted. This way you will easily keep track of how long the nappy has been on for.

This way in the early stages you will only be paying 1/4 to 1/3 of the price of those mums using "Premium" nappies alone at every changing time. Also, you will find that baby will settle back to sleep more quickly on those were you can whip the poo out quick as the nappy is already at body temperature, than the alternative changes where the nappy is already wet. Meaning you and baby get a better quality of sleep - WHAT PRICE CAN YOU PUT ON A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP!

As baby gets slightly older and you can start to predict baby's habits its worth using the budget nappies during waking hours, when baby's carer and/or you have time to change slightly more frequently. THEN only use the Premium quality nappies at night. This will allow baby to get longer stretches of sleep (5-6 hours) you are still only paying about 1/2 that of a mum who using Premium nappies all the time. Joining "baby clubs" offered by the Premium nappy companies is a good way to get free samples and money off vouchers by post, which all helps reduce the cost!

Also, because you are not clogging up the washing machine and/or drier with nappies, the baby's everyday clothes and towels plus everyone else's laundry is kept upto date, so they are happier too.

Yes, there will always been the green debate about how much landfill space they take and how long they take to decompose, and thats one argument that wont go away. However, people do "Carbon Offsetting" to effectively "pay" for their environmentally damaging choice to fly here there and everywhere for recreation.

Personally, I am not going feel guilty about my decision to use disposables again this time around to keep my baby dry and comfortable, however I am going to do what I call my own "Urea Offset" (sounds nicer than Poo Offset!). I already recycle 80% of my household waste, but with the disposable nappies, I will be putting out an extra black bin bag each week, which I do feel a little bit uncomfortable about.

At the end of last summer, I gave away my well-rotted compost heap to a lady who runs an animal sanctuary. She wanted it for her greenhouse to grow vegetables for the animals to supplement the donations she received from the public and I was glad to help.

As my new grass-clipping pile is getting larger and larger, and my DH has removed a number of offending tree stumps from my back garden, I got to thinking about about the impending compost heap and maybe cultivating a patch in my garden. A large part of our food budget is taken up on fruit and vegetables (some fresh, some frozen, some canned), which means a drive to the supermarket twice a week.

I imagined if I stacked up a years worth of dirty disposable nappies how much space it would take up. I thought if I got the kids to help prepare that area size for cultivation, it would be my "Urea Offset" to "pay" for the disposable nappies.

We would have a harvest next spring/summer and autumn of fresh fruit and vegetables and I could probably take advantage of the supermarket home delivery service once a month for all the other stuff (including the offending nappies!), meaning less driving and its associated emissions. I wouldn't have anywhere near as many fruit & veg cartons to put out for recycling, so they will have a bit more room in their recycling truck each week too. If I put in a few more fruit trees, they will be bearing fruit many years after I am dead and gone.

And to ensure my grass clipping pile rots down into compost more quickly, I intend to work in all the vegetable peelings etc as part of my "Offset". Baby will be able to have organic vegetables when weaning too!

I am never going to completely irradicate my effect of choosing to use disposables, but my decision to "Urea Offset" is certainly making me feel better about it.

Anyone else have any other ideas to improve my "Urea Offset" idea, please let me know