A day in the life of a nappy cleaner

My day starts like this: 6.30 to 7am feed Seb, burp Seb, change his nappy, put him on the mat to wriggle around and stare avidly at the louvers – they seem to be so interesting! Then check for signs of sleepiness and settle him to sleep. This is the cycle of my life and is getting to be pretty predictable unless I happen to miss the signs of sleepiness and Sebby gets too overtired and then its a bit harder to get him to settle down for sleep. I made the mistake of nipping over to the neighbours house for about 10 minutes when I thought seb had drifted off into a fitfull sleep. Oh how I was wrong. On my return I found him howling his little lungs out and I felt remorseful. How could I be so cruel! From then on I couldn't settle him to sleep so he missed an entire sleep cycle and was content to sit in the little swing while I made dinner. There was not one chance he would fall into a blissful sleep. Note to self – be a better mother!

Sad boy :(

Besides this ritual I have one other in my daily life – nappy cleaning. This is an all consuming necessity that cannot be put off or wait a day or two. First I collect the nappies in a bucket with a lid throughout the day. Once I have a bucket full I commence poo cleaning. This consist of using a dish brush to scrape the poo off the cloth nappies under running water. As I am trying to be water concious I have the water going at a trickle only but its hard to say how much I really am using here. I estimate around 5 to 10 litres depending on how many nappies I have to rinse. I collect all the liners or disposable compostable nappies in another bucket and fill it with water to help them start breaking down, then they are put into my compost the next day – mmmm looks like brown pooey soup!

Nappy Station - 2 buckets for soaking, eco nappy soaker, bench full of nappies and accessories, nappy cleaning brush, the most essential item: rubber gloves!

Nappies all ready for little Sebs bum - folded cloth nappies, microfiber nappies, nappy covers, extra towels for burping and changing, massive role of nappy liners, disposable nappy inserts, barrier creams

The rinsed nappies go back into a big bucket with some Eco brand nappy whitener that as far as I can ascertain consists mostly of Bicarbonate of Soda to help clean off those lovely bright browny yellow poo stains. Leave these to soak overnight and pop them in the wash the next day and hey presto I have lovely white nappies again! They hang on the line like white sails in the wind. One of the maternity nurses remenisced with me recently about her white cloth nappies flapping on the line and how much she missed the sight. I almost invited her over just so she could get her fix of cloth nappy heaven.

So there you  have it, a day in the life of a nappy cleaner :)

Weehugger Nappy

Weehugger Nappy

Review of Nappy

• Insert either paper disposable pad or cloth nappy folded up
• Can only use the nappy once or twice before it needs to be washed or dried out before you can use it again
• May leak around the legs if using the nappy on a new born baby

Nappy Rash Blues and on the hunt for the Perfect Nappy

Well the inevitable occurred – Seb developed nappy rash... Bummer, I was really hoping I could avoid it. When it didn't clear up after a couple of days I began to panic. What was I doing wrong? Shouldn't a little rash like that clear up pretty quickly if I kept the barrier cream on him? It was getting worse not better and an irrational fear was building inside me. I realised I had to take a structured approach to the situation and combat the issue with a multi stepped approach.

1. 
   
   Air out his little bum every day for as long as possible – this equated to nappy free time with his nether regions basking in what ever Melbourne sunshine I could get every day.
2. 
   
   Thick applications of Pawpaw cream, aloe vera and sudocrem every nappy change
3. 
   
   The use of nappy liners with every nappy
4. 
   
   I even purchased some Eenee compostable disposable nappies so that I could use them at night.

Well im happy to report that I seem to be on top of the problem for the moment The disposable nappies have helped because Seb goes for longer periods at night with a wet nappy and the paper in them really draws the moisture away. I think they play a vital part in reducing the effects of nappy rash. The nappy liners also seem to be doing a good job too as they protect him from the wet cloth nappy.

Does the perfect new age nappy exist?

I purchased the Weehugger pants and unfortunately I was pretty disappointed with them. They are not as sturdy as I thought they would be and they don't seem to fit Seb well enough around his legs and as a consequence they leaked all over the place the first time I used them. I also purchased a bamboo nappy cloth which is basically a strip of bamboo cloth that folds up to fit into the Weehuggers. However it was useless on its own as it wasn't thick enough to hold all the wee and poo in the pants.

I have experimented since purchasing them trying to work out the best inserts to put into them. I now use the microfiber nappies folded up in them or the bamboo pad with an extra disposable pad insert on top to soak up all the wee. This works better however the design of the pants is not that great either. At each end there is a fold of material where the pad or cloth nappy folds under and each time I use the pants on Seb this strip of material gets wet and I have to let it dry out or wash it before I can re-use the pants. This means I would need to purchase about 8 to 10 pants at $28 each so that I had enough to use through out the day. At the very least I would need about 6 pairs of pants to get through the day and I would be constantly washing them every day. Not quite as good as I thought they would be.

I am tempted to purchase another brand to see how they differ and if they are any better but at the same time Seb will only be using this size for another 2 months or so and then I will have to purchase another 6 to 10 of them. This would be a pretty expensive option. I wonder if I can get any second hand ones from Ebay? The Baby Beehinds seem to work just as well and the large terry toweling nappy with the pilcher is definitely the best at stopping any leaks as there is so much there to soak everything up..

The Eenee compostable disposable nappies also leak at night when Seb does a lot of wees through the night. I have used a disposable pad to boost up the nappy and this has worked well too in reducing leakage. I'm still to come up with what I am going to use once he progresses to the next size. I don't really want to use the large terry toweling nappies with pilchers as they are just too large and bulky and increase the risk of nappy rash. So I'm still investigating the best options out there. I have already spent almost $450 on nappies and accessories. When will the spending stop!?? I just feel I haven't found the best option for me yet so I guess the spending will continue until I find it or my money runs out... :)  

Welcome little Seb!

Finally the day came when little Seb arrived into the world. I really know now that you cannot be prepared 100% for labour and in the end you just have to go with it. I can say for sure that it wasn't what I expected even though I was sure I had the right tools to use to help distract me from the pain – in the end those tools were almost irrelevant. Thank goodness for my support team my fantastic partner and my wonderful mum, without them I would not have lasted as long as I did – it was a life changing event that is for sure.

So now the real adventure starts and I have begun to explore the different options in nappies in the first few days of Seb's life. I took to the hospital the disposable nappies I had purchased awhile ago from an eco shop. They are the bamboo brand which I found out later from Kim at Chris's dial a nappy that they are no better than a standard nappy in the sense of being more environmentally friendly as they generally have the same amount of non-biodegradable material in them as a standard nappy. But I thought “I have them I may as well use them”. The hospital used cloth nappies but they were different from the ones I had purchased. They were thinner and not terry toweling material. When folded in the kite fold they fitted nicely around my baby and over the top the hospital would use plastic snibs.

When I got home I started to use the cloth nappies I had. I found that the terry toweling nappies are quite bulky and hard to use with the baby beehind pants that I had purchased. So I am now using the terry toweling nappies with the pilchers I purchased from Big W. They work pretty well except that they make my child look like a frozen chicken from the waste down as they are so bulky!

The Kite Fold

The microfiber nappies that I purchased are a little difficult to fold into the kite fold as they are not square but a rectangle. I am folding them in the kite fold and they are a little out of shape but they are better to use with the baby beehind pants as they are more compact. Either way I use the nappies I am finding that they hold a lot of moisture close to Seb's body and so at night he goes for longer periods with a wet nappy next to his bottom increasing the risk of nappy rash, which thankfully I haven't experienced so far.

The Kite Fold

One thing that I didn't count on was how I would feel after giving birth and I have to say that this is probably the biggest obstacle to using cloth nappies. I did heaps of reading about the birth and birthing skills to be prepared on the day but I neglected to read up about how I would feel after the birth. Some of the midwives at the hospital would mention certain things like “you may feel feverish when your milk comes in”. Well can I just say that this was a major understatement! My milk coming in felt like I had been hit by a truck!

Feeling pretty sore and recovering from the marathon of birth with a million hormones racing around my body I was faced with breast feeding and nappy changing every 2 to 3 hours. Thank god for my mum! In the first week and a half she has soaked and washed every nappy that Sebastian used. She fed us and cleaned for us and I could just focus on sleep and feeding. My house is immaculate and I'm a little worried that it will deteriorate into a chaotic mess when she leaves. But at least she has given me the time to explore and use cloth nappies the way I wanted to and not only that she has done all the washing with grace and ease. I am forever eternally grateful to her!

So today I have ordered 2 weehugger nappy pants with 40 biodegradable inserts. Over the last week I have almost used all the disposable bamboo nappies that I purchased and the Eenee compostable disposable nappy sample pack that I also purchased a while ago. The Eenees are great! They work just like a normal disposable nappy and using the velcro belt that comes with them to do them up isn't too difficult. If I could start again from Seb's birth I would definitely use the disposable compostable Eenee nappies while I was recovering from birth. You really need a stress free option at this stage and disposables really are the way to go. However saying that I haven't used the nappy pants with the disposable inserts yet so they could be just as good. I will let you know in my next post how I get along with them.

As I have only used 4 compostable disposable nappies I have put these into my compost to degrade. The ammonia in the wee should help break them down and activate my compost a bit more.

Anyway I must dash, little Seb is waking up ready for his next meal...

Eco mum :)

Browsing Nappy Options

To date I have purchased 24 terry toweling cotton cloth nappies as I thought that this would be the best option while my baby is very little. The idea was to use biodegradable nappy liners that I could line the cloth nappies with. That way I could flush the pooey ones down the toilet and compost the wet ones in my own compost. I have also purchased biodegradable baby wipes that I will compost as well. The problem I faced was what was I going to cover the cloth nappies with? I was at a Baby Bunting store and one of the shop assistants who was very helpful suggested that I go to K-Mart to purchase plastic pants as her daughter had used cloth nappies and the plastic pants seemed to work well for them. They also used the Pea Pod brand of nappy pants and she said that they had a great result with these too.

Pea Pod and Weenie pouch pants are just a few of the new age option of nappies available out there. They consist of a nappy in the shape of a disposable which is made out of material and do up via velcro straps. You insert either a cloth nappy, microfiber nappy or a disposable pad in them making them very environmentally friendly. I was really excited when I found out about them and have decided that this is one of the options I want to use a bit further down the track when my baby is a little older.

Weenee Pouch Pants with Pad Insert

Also through my online research I found out about the brand Eenees which are an Australian company with the first 100% compostable nappies on the market in the world. Go you good thing! Not only could I use a disposable nappy but the carbon miles to get it would be very low as they are made in Australia. What a bonus. I ordered a sample pack as soon as I saw them. They are made from corn starch and sustainably farmed wood pulp. The corn starch acts as a waterproof barrier (like plastic – in fact they have started making plastic bottles out of corn starch too). The corn starch breaks down in a hot composting facility without leaving any evil chemical residue or uncompostable bits. The wood pulp has been designed to draw moisture away from the baby like a normal disposable nappy and has the same capacity as a standard disposable on the market.

WeeHuggers

If you were really keen to have a complete stress free nappy experience without the bother of washing and composting the waste yourself, you could invest in this option as though you were using a normal disposable nappy. Eenees have been working hard in conjunction with composting services around Australia to set up a home pick up and delivery service so that you can have fresh nappies delivered to you and the used ones picked up and composted in a hygienic and controlled composting facility. All you would need to do is collect your nappies in a compostable bag or bin – like a cloth nappy washing service in a way. For more information you can visit their website:  www.eenees.com.au

Eenee 100% Compostable Disposable Nappy

Anyway... I purchased the plastic PVC pants and some pilchers. I now know that pilchers are fluffy pants that cover a cloth nappy and have a plastic inner liner. I must say that I wasn't very happy about buying them as they didn't seem quite what I was after. They just didn't seem that durable. Anyway I have them now so I will be trying them out with the cloth nappies I have purchased. I will let you know how they go.

I have refused to buy snibs. Snibs are plastic covers that tie up around a cloth nappy. The hospital where I will be having my baby uses these and initially I thought they would be a good idea, however I could only find them at Baby Bunting and they came in a pack of 50! Way too many and I could see that they weren't very durable and would split after a while, then I would have to throw them away. As my aim is to reduce landfill I really couldn't see how they were much better than disposable nappies.

Went to visit Chris's Dial a Nappy shop today in Northcote Melbourne. Finally I could have a look at all the alternative nappy options and speak with someone knowledgeable about it all. I feel so much better now and have a greater direction with my baby's nappy options. I spoke to a wonderful lady called Kim who gave me the low down on all the options out there. She especially explained to me the difference between so called “eco nappies” that are on sale at a lot of eco stores and online, compared with the Eenee 100% compostable nappy. She said that these “eco nappies” actually have a large amount of non-biodegradable material and therefore are not really very eco. She showed me one of these nappies and explained that the outer shell is still made out of plastic but has paper between the fibres to make it seem as though they are made out of a biodegradable material. At the end of the day if you are throwing them in to landfill it doesn't really matter how biodegradable they are as not much happens in a large garbage tip. You still have a product that is a combination of organic and non-organic material that cannot be easily separated. If you tried to compost these nappies at home you would end up with a large portion of plastic in your compost bin.

I am a little annoyed that I have purchased those PVC pants and pilchers as I found a much better option that was a little more expensive but I can see they will last while my baby is still classed as a “new born”. I think this means that I should be able to use them until my baby is about 3 months old... They are called Baby BeeHinds and they are made of 100% polyester and are designed to cover a cloth nappy just like a pilcher except they are more durable and breathable. I purchased 2 which I will use in conjunction with the pilchers.

Baby BeeHinds Nappy Cover

One of the issues that I may face with this method of using cloth with a cover is nappy rash. Kim was passionate about the modern eco parent exploring different options than cloth as advancements in nappies had come so far that the modern eco parent didn't need to go down the cloth nappy path anymore. With the baby Weenee Eco nappies made by Eenee, along with many other brands such as the Pea Pods you simply add a compostable and flushable pad into the pants and have a similar system to disposable nappies. This new technology helps to reduce issues like nappy rash as the pad is made from sustainably farmed wood pulp and draws the moisture away from the baby's bottom. This is definitely an option for me when my baby gets a bit bigger but for now I will see how I go with the cloth nappies I have purchased.

Today I also purchased 6 microfiber cloth nappies. I wanted to use a different type of nappy other than the standard cotton nappy to see if there really was a big difference between the two. I have also purchased 500 biodegradable nappy liners to line each cloth nappy with. So now I am all set for when my little fella arrives.

I've just got to learn how to fold a nappy...