Earth Babies Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Disposables’

Change the nappy often!

Nappy rash is for the most part as a result of long periods between changing.
When skin is left wet for extended periods, it becomes sensitive and easily irritated or broken from constant friction. A nappy is a warm, moist and isolated environment which is ideal for the formation of micro-organisms (bacteria), if the skin becomes damaged these microbes move in and cause infection.
Abrasion of fabric and wet skin are the most common arguments for using disposables over cloth, however there are support products for cloth nappies to prevent these perceived problems – nappy 1-way liners function in the same manner as a disposable, drawing the urine away from the skin and keeping baby dry.
A basic rule of thumb is to check your babies nappy once an hour – most parents do this naturally without conscious effort – only change when necessary though (this is generally at longer intervals than one hour, but as it is not a controlled routine the gap between changes would differ and checking increases awareness).
Nappies have a saturation point if nappy is not absorbent enough you can add a booster – this should be done to increase absorbency but not to stretch the time between changes.
Nappies containing faeces should be changed immediately.

cover free time

Be conservative when applying barrier cream.
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For most people, if you say ‘cloth nappy’ the first thing to spring to mind is ‘nappy rash!’ Contrary to common perception nappy rash is not caused by the type of nappy used – whether cloth, disposables, top of the range or a no-name brand are used, nappy rash occurs.

Research commissioned by HUGGIES® reveals that nappy rash is still a big problem for little people – a massive 57% of all babies experience some form of nappy rash every two to three weeks.

Jean Golding, Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children did research which has shown that “the type of nappy used is not a significant factor in the incidence of nappy rash” (Getting to the Bottom of Nappy Rash, R. Philip, A. Hughs & J. Golding. British Journal of General Practice, August 1997; pp.493-497). The major causes of nappy rash were found to be infrequent nappy changing and ill heath of the child. “

Statistically the most common cause of nappy rash is infrequent nappy change, and a large part of this percentage is due to diarrhoea.

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Having a newborn baby, especially your first but even subsequent babies, are a lot of adjustment and change one’s world completely. One thing you do not want to worry about is a nappies.

The problem with cloth nappies and the newborn stage is that unless you get a specific newborn nappy size any cloth nappies even One-size-fits-all nappies are going to be very bulky on a new baby.

For cloth nappies and newborn I think you have 3 options:

1. Buy a nappy specially made to fit the new born stage.

   If you are very concerned about the environment and do not want to use disposables at all but would like a nappy that fits for the newborn phases then I would buy a nappy made specifically for that age. We have the Earth Babies Newborn Nappies and the Stegi small which will see you through this stage. It is more costly to buy the newborn stage but if you have more than 1 child they last very well or can be give on to friends or sold in our preloved section. Be prepared that these nappies are not going to last all that long but it is like buying newborn or 0-3 clothes you know that they are not going to wear them for all that long but at least they will fit well. Depending on what size your baby was at birth you can get anything from 6-8 weeks out of your newborn nappies. If you are expecting a big baby it may not be worth getting newborn nappies.

1. Buy disposables for the first stage while you get used to having a new baby and while they grow a bit so they can fit their cloth nappies better. They can then use Earth Babies Medium, Mother Nature one size fits all, Earth Babies one size fits all, Stegi medium, Bio Baba medium. We now have some new eco disposables in stock so you can use disposables and be kind to the environment

2. Buy one size fits all nappies which are said to be birth to potty and just deal with them being a little big and bulky at first. It really does not last long and before you know it they fit really well. It is a bit like putting a newborn in 3-6 month clothes but the savings can be well worth enduring the extra bulky.

Hope this helps you decide what to do with your newborn and cloth nappies. I used cloth from the beginning for both of mine and will have them ready for the 3^rd one next year, they have also been used by a few friends too, so have certainly done there bit.

♥♥WIN  Newborn Trail Nappy Pack♥♥

In order to win it you need to comment below AND do one of the following (or already be listed on one or all):

Like us on Facebook / Follow on Twitter or register on the Earth Babies website to qualify.
(remember to let us know in the comment what username to look out for, so we can make a match)

Retweets of this post, Comment on the related Facebook post and Blog posts mentioning Earth Babies Cloth Nappies (remember we need to be aware of the post) get extra entries

South African Entries only
winners name will be drawn 25  September 2010

The prize consist of:

2 newborn Earth Babies Nappies,

1 booster,

1 reusable fleece liner

1 newborn waterproof, in one of our new waterproofs which you can choose from 7 new lovely colours ( Pink, Blue, Lavender, Sage, Butter, Seafoam and white)

and for the competition we are adding 5 newborn eco disposables for 2-4kg to try.

If you don’t have a new baby enter for a friend or as a baby shower gift

Sally(pinkhairgirl) passed this on to me and i also got tagged by Louisa (123blogmyself) thank you both ÜÜ

Since this is the EB blog I will do the meme about me but connected to Earth Babies – long winded sorry.

1. Sally is correct I don’t consider myself a blogger (maybe a plodder lol). I blog here as it gives a space to post those things that I would love to share but our website is either not the right place or does not have the space for them. I don’t blog personally as I would probably write all those things I think and never say – and there is maybe a good reason they remain unsaid.

2. I am not a ‘green-person’, so feel like a hypocrite at times when getting shoved into a box of someone else’s expectations– what enviro-awareness I have, has come (and still is) secondary to my original motivations for the choices I have made. Like many things on EB if it makes sense I will discuss it, incorporate aspects of what I learn, share info with others on things they find interesting but don’t do anything that is not practical and possible for us as a family.

3. This company I love & co-founded is considered by many as a ‘green’ company – I don’t see it as such though. For me natural and green are very different (but ‘green’ is where most people categorize us, marketing seems to work for us and a large part of our supporters – and our green-passionate Sally Ü view themselves). I try to keep us available/open to everyone (and myself lol) – organic and middle of the roader’s. Sally and I both agree nothing in life has to be all or nothing you incorporate what works for you and leave the rest.

4. My lifestyle, focus and intentions with Earth Babies are different to Sally’s (which is what makes us work – we balance each other). My personal passion for EB is supporting South African parents who want to birth naturally, breastfeed and cloth nappy. I love the products we carry, I love trying to keep the focus local, I love offering practical alternatives to the commercial norm and really enjoy trying to help customers find the right information/product etc for them. All the rest is complementary to this focus, is what Sally is passionate about and I don’t oppose or our clients have asked about.

5. I birthed naturally, breastfed, used cloth nappies, did elimination communication with my 1st (not 2nd); baby signing with my 2nd not my 1st; am a doula and have a business that supports these things and more. Based on these points a lot of assumptions are made so I thought I would clarify: I have used disposables (was a combination user – so actually know very well the pro’s and cons of both); I did not do Attachment parenting (and hate being called an attachment parent); I did wear my babies in slings; I am not a co-sleeper though our kids do sleep in our bed on and off; I did not and would probably not breastfeed past 2 years though I have no issues with others breastfeeding or encouraging it for as long as it is beneficial to both parties; I tried very hard to get my kids to take dummies – they would not; I breastfed publicly but always covered because that is what I was comfortable with; I don’t believe everyone should birth naturally or breastfeed etc, I feel strongly for informed choice; I don’t homeschool (would not consider it unless there was NO other choice); My kids do watch TV and play on computers (no specific limits); eat junk (and healthy too) and have plastic toys (natural and some organic too).

6. I hate being told what to do so as such am repelled by anything that carries a label and has a set of rules you are meant to follow. I am not an all or nothing person and approach everything instinctually. (Sally and I have in the past differed on many things parenting related and in the journey of Earth Babies have had discussions and arguments with each other and others. Through these debates, time and personal experience we have both learnt to be more open and non-judgmental. Because of these differences though there were many subjects that we have ended up not incorporating into the website even though some readers have suggested we should – the subjects on the site got lots of editing till we both felt comfortable with what we are sharing).

7. A question I am asked often is which is the ‘BEST’ nappy on the market – in experience there is honestly NO best nappy – each one has their pros’ and cons’ and these are very subjective according to individual & lifestyle criteria and baby’s (body shape, elimination pattern etc) – I do have a personal favourite just the same as any other nappy user though.

8. I am put off from many natural/green/alternative approaches because of their esoteric connections. Many of them make actual or scientific sense but the strong esoteric jargon connected make me careful about them.

9. I have read very very few parenting books, I prefer to learn through observation and discussion (For the same reason as my label aversion thing – it is someone else’s 123 step guide on how to raise YOUR children and I feel this represses the natural parenting instincts). Basically my theory (unproven lol) is that your children are a combination of you and your partner and so have a combination of your personalities – so between the two of you, you should be able to realize what approaches will and wont work for your children based on what your own gut reactions to it would be … If it does not come naturally to you, all it will probably do is create stress, expectation and feeling of failure.

10. I am a pretty quiet person who write-talks way too much lol

I am meant to pass this one to other bloggers I like and admire – I am pretty new to blogging and following them and most have done it already so I am going to reserve the right to put some thought into this before I tag others.

When I first started read about cloth nappies I saw the figure 2 tons of waste produced per child from birth to 2 1/2 years in disposable nappies mentioned quite a bit. I was quite shocked at this amount, I think most people just see disposables as the ultimate convenience and do not think very much about the accumulative waste that adds up. I knew that for environmental reasons if nothing else I had to research cloth nappies more, but that this amount of waste was not something I could have on my conscience. It is a huge number considering all the babies in nappies.

When we came to writing the information for the Earth Babies website, the sceptic in me wondered if it was really 2 tons or if this was just some slightly random rather inflated figure for shock value. I wanted to check this myself before quoting it in our reasons to use cloth nappies. The problem was that as a cloth nappy user I had no idea how to check the weight of a used disposable nappy.

I have some great friends on Baby Net a South African parenting forum and when I asked if a couple could weigh a nappy for me at change time, they all thought I was mad but were willing to help. The weights varied but a conservative estimate was about 400g as the nappy is not always totally full when changing it.

calculations:
400gx 6 changes a day = 2400g per day (newborn nappies will obviously not weigh as much but ones tends to change them more often so I think it evens out)
2400g x 7day a week = 16800g per week
16800g x 52 weeks in a year = 873600g per year
873600g x 2 1/2 years of a child being in nappies = 2184000g so therefore about 2.18 tons

Seeing as most kids in disposable nappies actually potty train a lot later than 2 1/2 this figure could actually be significantly higher, especially if you add disposable swim nappies and disposable potty training pull ups.

To read more about reasons to use cloth nappies you can visit our website