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Real Nappies - What are They?
Today’s availability and convenience of disposable nappies has meant that most parents have not even considered using washable cloth – or REAL – nappies.
Long gone are the days of soaking and boiling old-fashioned terry nappies, fiddly pins, and scratchy plastic pants - real nappies have improved!
I’m a mum and I use real nappies on my own daughter. The advantages of reusable cloth nappies appeal to me for so many reasons; they save me money, are easy to use, are environmentally friendly, they work really well and I love them!
It’s been estimated that using real nappies can save
you over£500 for a first child! This takes into
account the cost of buying washable nappies and laundering
them. There are lots of different types and styles of
nappies on offer to suit all tastes and budgets.
The majority of modern nappy systems use either Velcro
or poppers, so they’re easy to use. Comfortable, soft
cotton means you get a snug fit, which can help reduce
leaking. Fewer leaks means less washing!
Laundering them is just as easy. The majority of nappies
just need popping in the washing machine and a 40 or
60-degree wash cycle. Many are specially designed to
dry quickly (particularly helpful if you don’t have
a tumble drier).
Using real nappies doesn’t increase the likelihood of your baby getting nappy rash either. My own daughter has only had nappy rash twice, once was when she was wearing disposables, the other was when she was in cloth but was teething badly. I was also reassured that at the time she was wearing cotton washable nappies and her sore botty was not exposed to the super absorbent chemicals found in disposables.
The environmental impact of using disposables makes challenging reading (summarised below). Even if you consider the amount of energy and raw materials required to manufacture and repeatedly launder cloth nappies, the impact made on the environment is far less than that made by using disposable nappies.
Nappy Facts…did you know?
Each baby needs around 4500 nappy changes from birth to potty training
In the UK alone we discard 63 million disposables each week
Fife Council are converting to fortnightly collections
for our grey bins, this could mean around 160 dirty
nappies sitting in your bin on collection day.
Four and a half trees are destroyed to keep one baby in disposables for 30 months
One cup of crude oil makes one disposable nappy.
Its estimated that disposable nappies will take anything up to 500 years to decompose
I retail one of the widest range of washable nappies in Fife, and have personal experience of using them all so you can buy with confidence knowing I will be there to support you every step of the way.
Free demonstrations and friendly advice mum to mum!
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