NEWS: Crappy nappy update
We have a reader update re the original Crappy Nappy But Happy post on May 19th 2005.
Ted, originally of Texas, USA, recently of London, UK, wrote to tell us that:
Funnily enough we had a damn hard time researching about green nappies.
We ended up getting some test ones through the hospital via a local agency but most of the numbers they had for us to call were out of business. So it took a couple of weeks to get sorted with some tester nappies.
Then when we got the test kit it was useless. The sample cover nappie, which is a terry cloth exterior and then plastic lined, goes over a cotton pad with a disposable degradable liner. Well, the pad didn't soak up any pee and the poo oozed past the liner and padding and out of the cover (which had been washed alot). So the test kit was off putting as it didn't really have any instructions and it didn't really work.
Cleaning poo off baby, clothes and the house 2 or 3 times a day turned us off. I draw the line at shit.
We do our best and do not give our wee one sweets/choco/sugar, salt and try to make his food ourselves from as much organic as we can (about 75% of the time) and if we give him premade stuff we aim for non E numbers and preservative crap.... I try to buy free trade etc... But shit is my limit.
I wish I'd had your site to access as I like the look of those Bamboo nappies. They look and appear to work like the plastic ones.
But yea we gave up with the green stuff from the Hospital/Council as they really weren't much help. The reality was far different from the theory.
We hear you Ted and feel your pain...now that you have found the City Hippy site of course you will always be able to refer to us for help on green and fair issues. Hurrah!
And we are gonna put our money where our mouth is. We have two friends who are pregnant and will be giving birth over the next 3-6 months and will be road-testing, (or should that be butt-testing? Ed.), various green and fair nappy/diaper options. Plus I myself am having a baby...well my wife is...I will just be standing there looking useless. And so we will give it all a good go and report back.
We intend to try a variety of systems including Old-fashioned Cloth re-usables, Moltex & Bambo organic disposables and the hybrid re-usable/disposable One Life World system. Watch this space. Will provide as much info on this as possible.
To check out all of these cool green and fair nappy/diaper options and our other related nappy/diaper links visit: The Cityhippy Delicious Diaper links.
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UPDATE (20/07/05): Just found a great reply to this 'report' from the Womens Environmental Network. Read it here
posted by City Hippy @ 10:30 PM
2 Comments:
Congratulations to all you young new parents and parents-to-be. My youngest just graduated high school last week. So I don't even know how nappies have evolved over the last 17 years.
However, I used traditional cloth with all my children, unless I was traveling and needed the convenience of disposables (and I always felt guilty).
Folding the cloth diapers jussssttt right will prevent the nastiness from oozing out the sides. That....and don't procrastinate the changing routine. That's my 2 cents.
Hi there
I think it's too easy to give up after a few tries with real nappies, which is a real shame people don't have more of a conscience about their actions these days...it was only 20 years ago that terry towling was the norm!
There are so manty different types of real nappy now, that you can get whatever suits you. One of the best things to do if you want to try before you buy is to log on to http://www.realnappycampaign.com/nappyfinder/index.html
Select 'agents' and make an appointment for an agent to call round to your house to give you an obligation free demonstration with a wide variety of nappies. From what I know, Lollipop agents carry one of the widest selections of what's available. Basically, you will have the chance to get a good hands on feel of what you will use on your baby.
Now, with regard to 'shit' - from my experience the only way a real nappy leaks is if it hasn't been fitted properly. You need to make sure that the nappy is contained well within the wrap and that the edges of the wrap fit snugly to your babies body/legs. The other alternative is infant potty training, which my devoted partner has done with our daughter since she was 6 weeks old. In the last year I think there have only been a handful of poo soiled nappies! Which is not only great for you and the baby (lets face it no one likes to sit in their own excrement), but also the environment.
With eco-disposables, you will find that there's only 1 brand (to my knowledge) that are 100% bio-degradable (Weenies from Australia). All the others are only a certain % bio-degradable. Now bear in mind that even bio-degradable nappies don't break down when sent to land fill. The only way to get them to break down would be to send them to an industrial sized composting unit. Also, many of the eco-nappies still contain gels to soak up the moisture. Gels in disposable nappies are commonly know to contain hormone disrupting chemicals and who in their right mind want these chemicals sitting next to their childs genitals for 3 years? I know I wouldn't.
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