Reusable nappies and baby wipes – the verdict

You may have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while. Well that’s what having your first child does to you! The sleepless nights did allow me to catch-up on all eight series of Game Of Thrones though, so it’s not all bad.

Anyway, little Charlie is now 12 weeks old and it felt like the right time to report back on how our reusable nappy and baby wipe missions are going (see previous blog for context).

I’m sorry to say that it has all been a miserable failure.

Nah, only joking. Both have actually been a great success. Let’s take the wipes first.

Reusable baby wipes

A Washable Wipes Kit

The Cheeky Wipes (other brands are available) – essentially small squares of material with a before and after box – are a no-brainer. One wipe goes way further than a baby wipe, they are softer on the baby’s skin and they can be washed and reused over and over. By my calculations we’ve already saved over 2,500 wipes from going in the bin / down the loo in 12 weeks (4 per nappy change and 8 nappy changes a day). By the time he is two and a half years old, we’ll have saved over 20,000 wipes.

One recommendation though, go for the colourful microfibre wipes not the white, cotton ones. The former dry fast on a drying rack and retain their bright colours. The latter turn yellow once they have encountered baby poo and become a bit abrasive if not tumble-dried (undermining the energy-saving benefits).

Reusable nappies

The reusable nappies have also been a success.

Charlie rocking his super cool reusable nappy

Before Charlie was born, we used the questionnaire on the The Nappy Lady website and advice from a few of our friends to identify a couple of nappy types that might work for us. We started by buying two of each of these and giving them a go once he arrived. This turned out to be a good idea, as we – and Charlie – much preferred one type to the other.

12 weeks on and we have gradually been buying more and more – we now have ten in circulation. They are just as simple to put on as disposable nappies and on the whole do a better job at containing the regular poo explosions than their throw-away cousins (sorry, newborn parents just love to talk about poo).

Having more of them has actually reduced both the chores and the environmental impact. We now have a nappy bucket, which takes about 48 hours fill up and then we do one 60-degree wash overnight with all the dirty nappies and wipes. Both have mesh bags, so you don’t need to touch any of the contents. They are dry and ready to use again by mid afternoon the following day.

Reusable nappies drying quickly overnight

One of the things that has helped us to embrace reusables is not being too militant about it. We do also have biodegradable Kit and Kin nappies (the brainchild of former Spice Girl Emma Bunton!) and biodegradable nappy bags that we use as well (though see previous blog for issues with biodegradable nappies). We’ve found these particularly useful for holidays and when we are out and about. 

So long as you are using your reusables enough to make the environmental and financial investment worthwhile, then every single time you are doing so you are keeping a nappy out of landfill. Doing the sums, we have already saved around 450 nappies (assuming 8 nappies a day for 8 weeks to account for using the biodegradable ones too). At this rate, we’ll avoid using over 4,000 disposable nappies over the next two and a half years.

One word of warning, we had a big baby (8lb, 13oz – Sarah you are amazing!) so the reusables just about fitted him from the start. For a smaller baby it may make sense to wait a few weeks until they have grown a bit and the number of nappy changes has reduced. Buying lots of reusable nappies that will only fit for a few months is not good for the environment (unless you plan to use them again for other children or sell them on).

These successes got me thinking about what other ways there are to embrace the circular economy and be more sustainable with a baby. More on that to come next month…