Recently we have been bombarded with information about how much damage we are doing to the environment and just what the effects are. After bringing my son home I was horrified to see in the first week our waste was doubled just because of nappies and wipes so I was determined to go as green as possible.
These are the pro’s and cons and a general day to day schedule of what being green involves for us.
Cloth nappies
I really wanted to cloth nappy as I think not only would it be good for the environment but it would save money and I think big cloth bums look super cute!
I did loads of research about which brands to buy as there are a lot out there currently and so many of them look beautiful and well made but I wanted to be absolutely sure as they are quite a pricey item.
From what a lot of the other mums out there said I knew I needed about 17-20 to comfortably last if I did a wash every other day and the cost of cloth nappies can vary between £10 - £20.
I finally settled on a brand called Baba & Boo. A fantastic instagrammer called ZeroWasteCardiff recommended them and they had got 100% fabulous reviews so we were gifted some and bought the rest along with a bucket, liners and a wet bag.
Firstly the look, the patterns are gorgeous! I think my favourite has to be the forest friends one.
Secondly the feel and the quality are lovely. They are super soft. The ones I bought were all one size as I just used single use nappies until he was big enough which was 10 weeks in his case. One size nappies mean they fit comfortably from 8lbs to 36lbs. Personally I found them a perfect fit from 10lbs but it is possible I just wasn’t putting them on quite right before. Because my son is only little at the moment I only have to use one bamboo insert and this lasts around 3 to 4 hours comfortably.
One of the best things about the nappies is no more poo explosions up his back! It was becoming a massive chore in the night. At 2am which is when he normally wakes up for feed number 2, he would do a massive poo and this would leak all out of the top of his nappy soaking his baby grow and sleeping bag. This would involve a full-on strip and wash which would of course wake him up properly and then it would take ages to get him back of to sleep. It didn’t matter what we tried with the single use nappies, nothing worked. Once we moved over to the reusable ones this stopped happening, all the poo was safely contained meaning a sleepy change and a quick rock back to a deep sleep! Hurah!
The cons are that they are quite expensive but they are an investment as you won’t need to buy any single use nappies and you will definitely be saving money if you use them for more than one child.
The washing. Currently I am doing a daily wash but that is because I only have 3 breastfeeding tops and I am too tight to buy anymore! We have 20 washable nappies and get through about 7 a day so a daily wash gives them plenty of time to dry. I pop them in with my clothes on a 40 degree very long cycle with an extra rinse but breastfed poo is completely water soluble so I am happy doing this at the moment. I will probably change this when he is on solids.
So the verdict for us is we absolutely love cloth nappies. They work for us, they are simple to use, comfortable for my baby and great for the planet, it’s a win win win!
Cloth wipes
As you may know as I have written about them before, we love cheeky wipes in this house. I got so fed up of wet wipes coming out 10 at a time from the packet and knowing I was contributing more to landfill wasn’t great either.
We both find using cheeky wipes so easy with the 2 boxes system one for clean and one for mucky. They wash well and I also think they are nicer on his bottom than a wet wipe, plus they work much better at getting sticky poo off too! I pop in a bag of dirty wipes along with the nappies daily and dry them on the radiator. They dry super quickly. I have about 50 wipes and this is more than enough for a wash every other day with some spares.
Cons, I really haven’t found any yet. They are cost effective, great for washing stinky poo bottoms and so much better for the environment.
Second hand baby products
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We were very lucky to be gifted a friend’s buggy after their little one had grown out of it. I love second hand products as we don’t need to buy new all the time and big items like a buggy can really be expensive and there are some fantastic second-hand ones out there! All these items are full of plastic and non-recyclable materials so they are great to reuse as much as possible.
Funky Giraffe care passionately about the environment and we strive to be as eco friendly as possible. We use every last bit of fabric we can to avoid waste, which is why some designs are cut upside down (they’re still perfectly good at absorbing dribble, so we make them and give them away). We re-use clean boxes, and anything we can’t re-use ourselves we pay to have recycled. We aim to have the lowest possible carbon footprint.
We also use the smallest amount of packaging we can while still ensuring that the items arrive in good condition. The packaging we use has an additive called Biothene®, which makes the plastic biodegradable – so it won’t be around when your baby has grown up!