Yucky smelly horribly things (Nappies in General)

Member Name: Paul Bed

Product:	Nappies in General
Date:	23/05/03 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See review

Disadvantages: Yucky, Smelly, Horrible

Disgusting yucky horrible and smelly. Why on earth would you wish to spend any more time with the things than you absolutely have to. No I’m not talking about my youngest son, in fact quite the opposite. I am however referring to his rear end.

Ok so my initial comments may be a bit disproportionate but he didn’t clamber into your bed this morning with a full load and proceed to sit on your head!!!!!!!! Whilst I realise that this experience would have been equally disgusting no matter what type of nappy he was wearing you can understand why I am a little sensitive on the subject of nappies at the moment.

Having read some of the latest reviews on this using the well rehearsed politically correct lines about caring for our environment I thought I would try to put the argument for disposables. I also realise that I am male and therefore at an immediate disadvantage as I am sure my opinion will count for less on this very point alone.

Disposable nappies are a relatively new invention and have been frowned upon by traditionalists since they were first produced. They do however revolutionise babycare and allow new parents to spend far more time with their children and less time worrying about domestic chores.

Anyone who has had childen, particularly their first will remember the massive change it makes to your life. For the first few weeks and months you are unlikely to be getting enough sleep, it is also likely that there will have been more pressure to keep up other domestic chores as there will be far more visitors to the house. Additionally you will also have an overall heightened awareness of cleanliness and hygeine to ensure the new arrival is kept well away from dirt, germs etc. Reusable nappies are an added and unnecessary burden to this load for which there is a modern simple to use alternative.

What most arguments against disposables fail to take account of is the fact that whether we like it or not life i
s very different now to what it was when our parents raised us 30 years ago. For a start a far higher proportion of mothers did not work and therefore had more time to spend on domestic tasks than today. A significant number of mothers these days have careers and are only able to take a short period of maternity leave before hurrying back to work to enable their families to financially keep themselves afloat. The very last thing that a parent wants to do once they have got home from work and got children into bed is to start worrying about washing nappies (the normal laundry load is quite bad enough without adding to it).

From the limited research I have done for this review it appears that disposable nappies are not the environmental nightmare that we are led to believe.

For example did you know that (source – Nappy Information Service website):

Around 80% of a used nappy and its content are biodegradable. Although the rate at which any material is able to break down is dependent on the individual management and construction of each landfill site.

There are no known public health issues connected to the disposal of nappies in landfill.

The pulp used for the manufacture of Europe's disposable nappies accounts for approximately 0.1% of Europe's total wood usage. By comparison, paper and card use around 15%.

Wood pulp used in disposable nappies comes from softwood trees such as spruce and pine. These are grown as a crop in well-managed forests, where more trees are planted than harvested.

A proportion of the pulp used is obtained from sawmill residues

So things aren’t as bad as we might think!

By now you will have realised that I am very much in favour of disposable nappies but at the end of the day it is down to what you feel is best for your baby. From the research I have done neither nappy type has any advantage in terms of the baby’s health, the importan
t thing is to change the baby regularly and as quickly as possible when it is wet or soiled.

As for me… I am going to hide under the duvet when youngest son clambers onto my bed in the morning!!

Summary: