Last September I wrote a ranty type post about my rubbish and the lack of weekly refuse collections. Asides from all the smelly general household waste that gathers over two weeks, one of my main complaints is all the used nappies I have to store each fortnight which back then was for my baby and my toddler (the latter of which is now potty trained so thats one lot of used nappies I no longer need to worry about). Its staggering to discover that on average one baby will use 5,000 disposable nappies during their nappy wearing time! This actually adds up to a bottom boggling 8 million nappies per day, which equates to 3 billion disposable nappies in the UK alone!
As a result of the above mentioned post, a few people commented and asked if I had ever considered using REAL nappies as this might help to eliminate some of my household rubbish, as on average only 48 re-usable nappies are used during a baby’s nappy wearing years. Indeed 4% of ALL household waste within the UK is disposable nappies which can be as much as 50% for a 1 baby family!
I have to be honest that I had never really contemplated using real nappies. While I was pregnant with Burton it did cross my mind once about whether I was going to use real or disposable nappies, and because the latter are so easy to use and well disposable, I didn’t give real nappies another thought. I guess I just weighed up all the washing I would have to do, which would include costs of
……….That is until the comments I received on that post, which actually got me thinking and I had a look on the internet and realised that real nappies had come along way since the days when I was a baby and my mum had to use safety pins to keep them on me and they had to be boiled washed or something like that (from what my has Mum told me!). So I took the plunge and sent a tweet out asking if any real nappy companies would like to let me review any of their products on my blog, and the lovely people from Bambino Mio replied and here I am about to start my journey as a first time user of real nappies!
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| my welcome nappy pack |
Starting tomorrow, Monday 16th January, I along with 9 other bloggers will be taking part in a 5 day challenge to test and review the new Miosolo nappy. To be able to participate in this nappy trial I was sent a welcome pack which was beautifully presented and has already opened my eyes to how much more different real nappies are than what I had imagined!
The Bambino Miosolo nappy bonbon collection is available in 6 delectable colours
and has some great features including
- 1 size fits all
- can be used from birth
- contains a stay dry inner layer which prevents moisture escaping back onto baby
- contains a super absorbent core, which draws moisture away from baby and into the nappy
Obviously, apart from the fact that these nappies look great, parents who use real nappies do so because they are re-usable and are a ‘greener’ and possibly a more cost effective nappy choice. I must admit that I was fairly naive to the facts about these verses disposable ones.
According to the information I was sent from Bambino Mio, did you know that:
- Re-usable nappies could save you up to £700 for your first child
- Some UK councils offer cash back incentives of up to £70 to encourage people to use real nappies – in fact if just 10% more parents adopted re-usabe nappies for their children, a whopping £10 million would be saved by councils
- Re-usable nappies can be 40% more suitable for the environment than disposable ones according to the 2008 Environment Agency’s revision of their Lifecycle Analysis Report on nappies
BUT
All the facts in the world added with some gorgeous looking products are not really going to determine how good re-usable nappies are until I actually trial them on my son. So as of tomorrow morning (probably around 6am!) I will be using re-usable nappies for the 1st time ever and I am curious to see not only how Jenson gets on with them but how I will cope having used disposable ones for the last 2 1/2 years!
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| Jenson 9 1/2 months old and raring to go! |
I will be posting each day until Friday with my daily challenges and please feel free to come back each day to see how we are managing.
WOW!
Thank you xx
Oooh good luck – I did not even consider re-usable nappies when pregnant with Leo but it has crossed my mind this time. Disposable nappies are so much more expensive here than in UK and there is the advantage in the summer that reusable ones would dry in seconds!
I just can’t imagine using them though so will be following your progress with interest 🙂
i absolutley love mine, I used them on Steven just before I potty trained him and I now use them on Isla, ok they’re a bit bulkier than a normal nappy but the advantages are you save loads of money on nappies and you find they will suffer less nappy rash.
I went with the one life 1’s, just wish i knew about them when i had baby number 1 :d
Good luck and i’ll be following
thanks xx
Good luck!
I have used real nappies since Elliot was a teeny tiny little tot! I use a mixture of BumGenius and some chinese unbranded ones I buy from eBay (which I actually prefer to the BG ones because they have poppers rather than velcro) Elliot looks SO cute in his nappies.
I am sure they have told you all this, but wash at 60, with half the amount of washing powder, no softener and if you can let them dry with some sunlight hitting them (even through a window) this will help get stains out.
x
I will be very keen to see how you get on as am considering using them for the new one. Husbands not convinced so will need some evidence x
Good luck! I use real nappies with my daughter and they’re brilliant. So easy to use. Even my husband and the childminder are converted!
thanks – its surprising to see how many of my twitter friends use them x
oooh i hope i can help you! x
thanks for your comment. i have given them their first wash tonight (pre wash) and they have grid very fast on my heated towel rail. thank you for for tips – always handy to have some insider knowledge 🙂 xx
Good luck – would suggest more than 1 prewash or expect a few mishaps, as they won’t get up to full adsorbency until washed about 10 times. I usually recommend 3 prewashes and avoid putting on towel rail directly as will reduce their life and make them hard to the touch. By or above the rail on a hanger would be good
Always handy to see how others get on. Good luck x
I agree with Rose re drying, I put the inserts from my stuffable nappies on the radiators directly, and then lay the nappy shells on top of them, they don’t get stuff and the PUL lining isn’t damaged by the direct heat!
Don’t use a tumble dryer for the shells unless you really have to for the same reason, and it’s not good for the elastic x
by stuff, I mean stiff.
Good luck! I did a Bambino Mio challenge last year and quite enjoyed using them. Unfortunately within about a month or so of getting them, C decided she wanted potty training so I didn’t get to use them that often.
I’ve got a mini stash of about 6 nappies saved though, ready to try out if we have another baby as, after using them, really wished I’d got the chance to try them out sooner.
oooh, how did you get on today? We are liking ours! x
Good luck. I have used reusable nappies for five years and have found it pretty doable on the whole. In fact while I’m in hospital it’s shocking me how much I’m spending on nappies. Keep us posted.
thank you for your words of advice – its great to hear from established re-usable nappy users. x
thanks again Steph i really appreciate the tips c
i have just posted about it – ok really. i will pop over and see how you got on x
thanks Emma – so far ok really i would say x
Hi Ella – i have just posted about how it went today and i would say it was good actually asides from a slight leakage x