I was determined to not allow >4000 nappies to sit in landfill for over 300 years, so when I was pregnant I started doing a lot of research into nappy alternatives. The first thing my mother, and mother-in-law said to me was ‘oh, just get a nappy service! We had those when you were kids’ – well, not so easy to find these days (if someone needs a business idea, I think it’d be a very lucrative business).
The next thought was ‘eco-nappies’ – there are a couple of brands out there, of varying ‘eco’ credentials and costs. The last thought of course, was cloth nappies. So, here’s my experience.
Nappy Service
If you google ‘nappy service Melbourne’ a few hits come up. When I was googling (over a year and a half ago), I had varying success with responsiveness, and accuracy of listings. I was able to get a really quick response from Australian Cloth Nappy – who have a trial pack that you can rent and then work out which nappies work best for you to go forward with. Botanic Baby also came up, but from memory they were fully booked for the Nappy Wash service when I enquired. However, looking at costs, the costs I was quoted for the nappy wash services were around $30/week – if you run that over 2 years, you are looking at over $3,000.
Eco Nappies
So, EcoOriginals seemed to be leading the way with sustainable nappies, made entirely of plant based materials, so easier to breakdown over time. On subscription they work out to around 74c per nappy. So, for 2 years of use, you are looking at around $3,700. There’s a few others too like Comfy Koalas.
I also investigated ‘home compostable’ nappies (as we know there is degradable, bio-degradable, compostable, and home compostable, which tells us how bad these things truly are for the planet). So, we have Eenee Nappies – Eenee repute to be Australia’s only compostable nappy, and there is a caveat to that. It’s not really a disposable nappy, it’s a hybrid of reusable cloth and compostable inserts. Cost is around the same as EcoOriginals.
Cloth Nappies
I began to do some research into cloth nappies – soooooo many to choose from out there these days. I came to the conclusion that a short term nappy hire (from someone like Australian Cloth Nappy, mentioned above) would be a good way to try a few different styles, and see what worked for us.
However, I was then extremely fortunate to have a friend give me her entire set of 32 cloth nappies and inserts, that she had purchased for her son, and hadn’t really used. These were the Itti Bitti Tutto nappies. Minky style (super soft on the outside) and a slim bamboo insert. We started using them from the day we returned home from hospital (day 5). They buttoned up to tiny size for our 3kg wonder, and they were lovely and soft on bub’s skin. I got into a routine of a bi-weekly wash (60C Hygiene cycle), and off we went.
This worked really well, until my daughter started sleeping a little longer at night.. once we got to 4-6 hour sleep blocks, she was wetting through. I watched a tonne of YouTube videos to try to see what I was doing wrong – was I not fitting the nappy right, or tucking her legs in properly etc. Couldn’t find fault. I resorted to buying some waterproof ‘covers’ for the nappies from Designer Bums, on sale. So, I would layer up bub, with the minkies, multiple inserts and an extra cover over the top. This worked! .. for a while. At around 4-5 months, we started getting a bit of leakage during the day (not to worry, change the pants, put them out to dry and swap again at the next nappy change 2 hours later…). Once our daughter was at child care we would be providing 3-4 changes of clothes for her each day.
Fast forward to around 9-10months old, and we start getting leaks at night. Badly. Three out of four nights, we would be wet through the nappy, the pyjamas, and soaked the sleep sack. I had tried the Designer Bums nappy with its own inserts, and also had a Bare & Boho nappy that someone had given us.. none any better. It was at this point that I decided it was time to investigate a new nappy.
After some online research I came across the Cloth Bums Knight 2.0 Nappy – it seemed one of the only companies that had a specific night nappy design. I bought two, skeptical that they would work when the others seemingly had not. The Knight nappy comes with three inserts – a ‘trifold’ which sits in a back pocket, and two bamboo soakers for inside the nappy. It also has extra elastic at the legs, and two press-button wide waist band so once in position it stays there. It is bulky, and I mean, super bulky – you can squeeze it (‘taco-it’ together), so that between the leg width there is less width, and that pushes the bulk down between the legs, meaning depending how long you child is you may need to go up a size in the pyjamas or you won’t be able to zip them up anymore! The result – dry baby. Our daughter sleeps for 12 hours, and this absorbs like nothing else I’ve tried, not a single leak from legs or waist. We also only use the trifold and one bamboo insert, so we have room to increase absorbency capacity if needed.
After a great success with the Cloth Bums night nappies, I decided to buy some more, and also start to swap over my day nappies. Cloth Bums has a Velcro option for the day nappies, which sounded amazing, as my mother-in-law was starting to really struggle with the press-buttons.
Image above shows from left to right: the original Itti-Bitti nappies, when bub was very little; the newer Itti-Bitti nappy (that still leaked for us); and the Cloth Bums Velcro nappy.
Itti Bitti recap – I contacted Itti Bitti, to explain the leaking, and question the durability of the nappy – the elastic was gone in around 85% of the nappy shells, hence the leaking. They wrote back and suggested that the nappies I had were over 10 years old (yes they were ‘second-hand’ from my friend), and as such it was not a surprise that the elastic had gone, and that the nappies ‘had a great life lasting 10 years’.
Cloth Nappies are not cheap – around $25 each if you can get them on sale. I wash twice a week, and I have 5 night nappies, and 27 day nappies (with as many inserts), and a handful of the old Itti-Bitti ones that haven’t completely lost elastic, for use an hour before bed. So, around $500-600. Add to the washing, water and electricity to do the washing, yes you add a bit more $ for maintenance. (Still cheaper than 2 years + of disposable nappies). When I’m done with the cloth nappies, the companies take them back to upcycle.
The Up-Shot
Pros: reduce (a lot of) waste, save money.
Cons: washing, time to hang and fold nappies, bulky.
I’m super glad we went down the cloth nappy path. I think for our newborn (~3kg), the slimmer Itti-Bitti was perfect. As she has become more active and drinks more liquid, the watertight, more absorbent Cloth Bums are gold.
Would love to hear from your experiences, or answer any questions. Hope this is useful for someone else’s nappy journey!
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