Cloth Nappy Week, New Zealand

It would seem that this week is the week for Weeks. 


Today marks the start of Cloth Nappy Week, run by a website by the same name and sponsored by, well, practically everyone. www.clothnappyweek.co.nz says:

Cloth Nappy Week 2011 is dedicated to educating and celebrating the benefits of stylish, eco-friendly cloth nappies in New Zealand. Whether you're new to cloth nappies or have a collection that's taking over the nursery, we welcome you! 

There are lots of events on, experts available for advice on the use of cloth nappies and heaps of specials.
As we've said before, we are passionate about cloth nappies and love to walk down the baby aisle in the supermarket and buy NOTHING.

If ever there was a time to give cloth nappies a go (even just a trial) then now is the time!

Some things baby... cloth bums... by E

I have to be honest here- it took me a long while to care about my environment and things in it. K had stopped eating fish a long time before I even asked why and I was pretty much a non-thinking consumer. 
While I haven't done a full 180 degree turn on many things, becoming pregnant with bub made me a lot more aware of how I live.


We made the decision to use cloth nappies on our baby from day one. A few people baulked at this idea, imagining the big white towels that our parents generation used. Luckily for us, the modern cloth nappies (MCNs) are quite simply, the bees knees. Its so satisfying walking right past the baby department and not having to buy disposables!


Here's a few reasons why I am a complete cloth bum convert:


1) The sheer expense of disposables is one aspect- www.Snazzipants.co.nz, which is a New Zealand cloth nappy store has estimated

"based on the figure of 8 nappies a day for the first 6 months (you'll probably use more than this for a newborn, but I’m estimating conservatively!), and 7 a day thereafter, using el cheapo disposables worked out to $3670 for 2/12 years or $4510 for three years."

Buying a fulltime set of MCNs is between $300-$500 is a huge saving comparatively. 


2) It's honestly not any extra hassle to put on an extra load of washing per day. Babies, particularly at bub's age, are sticky, grubby creatures so there's always washing to be done anyway! Most of the MCN's available don't need any soaking, so you can just put them straight in the wash.
Disposables recommend (in the fine print) that you flush any solids down the toilet [makes sense huh?] so with MCN's you aren't actually handling any more poo then you would with disposables. 


3) The landfill issue... There are dozens of websites out there which tell you about the world's landfill waste problems, so I wont bother spelling it all out here. 
At our 20 week scan, some kind person had left a balled-up used disposable in the carpark. Nice! What got me is just how big that balled-up plastic nappy was. I started wondering how many a baby would go through in their lifetime and it horrified me- along with making me feel a little sick at someone disposing of what is effectively raw sewage in the carpark...
We can and will re-use the MCN's on our next bub too (whenever that happens)  


4) Toilet Training-  I have heard anecdotal evidence that a bub in cloth nappies is likely to be easier to toilet train as they can tell when they are wet- unlike with many brands of disposables which wick away the moisture. As to whether this is really true, it'll be a wee while before we are able to put this theory to the test! 


5) A colourful cloth nappied bum is cuter! 

A and his cloth covered bum

If you have a bub and haven't tried the way of the cloth, I'd just love to encourage you to do so. :)


-E