Easing our environmental consciences (Nature Boy and Girl Nappies)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Nature Boy and Girl Nappies
Date:	29/04/05 (1099 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good for the environment

Disadvantages: none

Before Scarlett was born we had noble ideas about using cloth nappies, good for the environment and good for our pockets.

Like lots of things in life it didn’t work out quite as we had imagined. During the fog of Scarlett’s newborn days when the practical tasks of looking after her took so long in our inexperienced hands, not too mention the sleepless nights and complete lifestyle change, we used disposable nappies. It would be just until we were feeling a little bit more competent with the mammoth task of looking after our little one. However, disposables are so convenient and nearly eight months later the cloth nappy equipment is still in a draw.

We used pampers for a couple of months and then came across nature boy and girl. Excellent we thought a nappy to ease our environmental conscience! Nappies literally stay on in this world forever, they don’t biodegrade which isn’t good for the environment. Nature boy and girl are made with material that is 70 percent biodegradable. I’m not sure how this is possible so I had a quick look at their website (www.naty.se) and apparently the outer layer is made with GM free maize starch and a decomposable and compostable biodegradable polyester. Also this leads to the nappy being able to ‘breathe’ making the nappy airier and drier for the baby.

This is all the brainchild of a Swedish lawyer, Marlene Sandberg, who became disturbed by the amount of nonbiodegrdable nappies in landfill sights. The nappies feel cottony and have little green leaves on them, fitting in nicely with their environmental theme. We’ve used tescos own nappies a couple of weeks ago and really noticed the difference. The tescos nappies seemed to have a really strong, plasticy smell which wasn’t very nice. Nature boy and girl nappies smell inoffensive, before use anyway.

They are easy to fasten on with Velcro stick down strips and in my opinion are just as absorbent as other nappies we have used. They don’t irritate Scarlett in anyway. They aren’t sold everywhere we buy them from Sainsburys and have seen them in boots and waitrose. According to the website they are available in six sizes ranging from newborn (2-5kg or 4-11lb), Mini 3-6kg or 6-13lb, Midi 4-9 kg 9-20lbs, Maxi 7-18kg 15-40lb, maxi plus 9-20kg or 20-44lb and junior 11-25 kg or 24-55 lbs. Unfortunately Sainsburys only sell 4 sizes, we buy the maxi size from Sainsburys, so I think they must sell midi through to junior. They cost £5.65 for a packet of 34.

So they have all the convenience of disposables and make us feel better about being lazy! If we have any more kids we’ll definitely dig the cloth nappies out!

Summary: