A personal choice. (Nappies in General)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	Nappies in General
Date:	06/02/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: for both nappies

Disadvantages: For both nappies

When I found out I pregnant with Noah I quickly made a decision that I would use disposable nappies. Before I became pregnant with Noah I worked as a nursery nurse and I had a few bad experiences with children in reusable nappies so this really put me off using them. I remember one little boy inparticular who used to constantly smelling of wee and within an hour of wearing his nappy he used to really stink. It was awful! I felt so sorry for him and I just assumed that this was a result of reusable nappies. Looking back now and having experienced other children who wear them I think that maybe his mum didn't wasn them on a hot enough wash so they weren't properly cleaned in the washing machine.

Reusables.
Reusables are a great idea and of course thats all my mum used on me and they did the job. I have a few friends who swear by them. One of my friends uses traditional terry towelling which she finds the very best and they are the least expensive. You can also buy starter packs of reusables that are shaped and they don't need any folding or messing around with. They go on like a disposable and are really easy to use. They come in all sorts of different colours and look really trendy.
I had to look after my friends little boy a little while a go and I no problems with the disposables he was wearing in fact they were just as easy as the disposables my son was in.

The pluses.

Environment.
If you are green then you will probably want to use these. Obviously you don't throw them into the bin when you've used them. They go straight into your washing machine and won't be shipped to a landfill to sit for years and years.

Cost.
They can save you lots of money. The initial payout seems quite a lot (although some councels will pay for you or offer a finance plan) but if you actually work out how much you spend over two years on disposables, then it is quite alot.

Not just for one child.
The great thing about these is once your little one has outgrown the size then you can store them until your next child comes along and use them on them too. This makes for a whole lot more of savings.


Minus.

Extra washing.
Not only will you have a lot of extra washing of your little ones clothes which can become overwhelming in the beginning, but you will also have to stay on top of keeping these clean and dry.

Changing.
You will have to make sure that your childs nappy gets changed much more frequently than you would will disposables.

Expense.
When you first purchase a load of these nappies it can be quite expensive. Obviously it saves you money in the long run but you have to have a bit of money put back because yoou will need quite a few.




Disposables.
These nappies are widely available and in my experience the shop brands are just as good as the leading brands. I think Tesco's are by far the greatest and Sainsbury's seem to be pretty good too. They cost around £4 for a bag of 30ish but the new born sizes are cheaper. They do go quite far and I only tend to change my boy a few times a day.

Pluses.

Easy.
I find disposables easy to use and it's great that I can just throw them away after using them.

No extra washing.
I'm bad enough trying to keep on top of my washing as it is so adding the reusables to it would be worse for me.

Minus.

Environment.
I do feel guilty sometimes that I am adding to the problem but I suppose I am lazy and don't always think of the long term affect that I am causing.

Expensive.
Buying these week in, week out does add up and I dread to think how much I have spent. Thankfully my two year old has just come out the other side and we no longer need to buy for him.


Over all it's a personal choice and you just have to weigh up the pro's and con's. I know for myself having a few bad experiences turned me off using the disposables but I wish now I'd kept an open mind. Once I had started using them with my first there was no going back because I got used to the ease of it all. In my head I talked myself into the fact that it would be much harder for me to use reusables and focused more on the minus which was probably the wrong thing to do. Anyway we are happy with the choice we made although there are times when I wish I gave them a try.

Summary: What do you fancy?