As much as we acknowledge and agree that parenting is extremely difficult and challenging, you can’t deny that diapers have made the lives of mums and parents at large much easier than before.
It’s a no-brainer to invest in diapers for daily use. Whether you’re at home or stepping outside, it just gives mums that extra five minutes of peacetime in the day and you exactly know how precious those few minutes can get amidst the chaos.
However, some parents are still keen on the idea of wrapping their precious babies’ bums in gentle fabric rather than scratchy paper diapers. So what can we expect from disposables and cloth, and which should we use?
Here’s what these parents think about the nappies or diapers debate.
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The Disposables
Gone are the days when mothers have to spend hours breaking their backs to scrub the waste and stains out from soiled cloth diapers. Now, it’s simply a matter of removing the soiled diaper and throwing it away. No matter how convenient disposables are, problems like nappy rash are more common due to the nature of the materials.
The convenience of disposables also comes at a cost. Disposable diapers can range from 15 cents per piece to almost a dollar each. The average newborn uses up to 12 pieces of nappies a day with the minimum being five once your baby turns a year old. The cost just keeps adding up until your child potty-trains completely. If it’s a situation of nappies or diapers for you monetarily, the former definitely win this round.
With the new emphasis on conserving mother nature, need I also remind you of how much garbage these disposables will turn into? There are biodegradable disposables that you can buy, but they are more costly and not as easily found. So, as far as nappies or diapers go, the disposable ones aren’t really much to the diaper’s side.
Cloth Nappies
Previous generations of babies hardly suffered from nappy rash because of the breathable comfort that cloth nappies provide. Of course, parents need to change them immediately or risk dirtying the rest of the house once soiled.
Because of such habits, a baby’s bum has a much less chance of soaking in the acidity from their own waste and it again greatly reduces the chances of nappy rash.
Cloth diapers remain unaffected by the constantly rising prices of living. You can use them countless times and hand them down to younger children as well. When you are done having babies, pass them to other mothers to use for years to come.
You hardly generate any garbage either because there’s nothing to throw away (except for the poop that collects in the diaper). The torn nappies can even be converted into rags for everyday household cleaning.
Despite the obvious extra laundering work that cloth diapering brings, some modern parents still swear by the benefits of this traditional method. I was one of these converted parents when my boy ran into problems while in disposables.
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Nappies or Diapers: How Our Diapering Journey Began
When my boy Joshua was born, we started with expensive newborn diapers that barely gave him any skin problems, but were costly. Being totally breastfed, my boy passed out waste that was runny and very toxic.
Diapers had to be changed after each excretion to make sure his bum would not be irritated by his own poo. This easily meant 10 diapers a day, and each pack of newborn diapers only came in small packs, which meant no bulk savings.
We tried out cloth diapering but being a stay-at-home mom recovering from a recent C-section and no other forms of help from domestic helpers or in-laws, the need to scrub and wash soiled diapers proved too much for me.
Cloth diapers also failed to hold in the runny poop, leading to even more washing of stained crib sheets and rompers. Thus we started the search for wallet-friendly yet gentle disposable diapers.
Some of the brands we tried irritated Joshua’s bum tremendously. An hour into wearing it, his bum turned red and he started to scratch himself constantly.
We put it down to the thick material and the fact his skin could not breathe through it. After weeks of trial and error, we chanced on a wonderful brand that was not only comfortable but also friendly on our wallets. We were overjoyed!
Venturing Into Modern Cloth Diapers
Months down the road, Joshua started teething again. This led to another round of loose stools similar to diarrhoea. On one occasion, he pooped at night and we failed to notice and change him. His red angry bum greeted us in the morning when we woke up to give him the first feed of the day.
Despite the steroid creams prescribed by the doctor, the rash refused to go away for days. We tried to cloth diaper him but he refused to stay still long enough to wrap his bum up. Even when we did manage to put one on him, the nappy just didn’t stay put on his bum as he crawled and explored the house.
I was so distraught with the situation that I dug up any related information on the internet. And this was when I found the solution – micro-fleece pre-folded diapers with removable and washable inserts.
We immediately ran out to the retail store to get our hands on a piece, just to try for starters. It didn’t come cheap at $30 per piece but my boy immediately fell in love with the soft comfort it provided. He was happy all day and didn’t scratch his bum at all.
Using the micro-fleece pre-folded diapers
Putting on the diaper was a breeze with snap closures, and washing up was fairly easy as well. All we had to do was direct the showerhead’s spray on the poop, and it all washes out almost immediately. A few rinses of the pee-soaked insert and we can just pop everything into the washing machine for pain-free washing. Joshua’s nappy rash cleared up three days into using the pre-folds and that left us with great relief. You can say the product was a God-send.
Joshua is 17 months old today and we interchange between disposables and pre-fold cloth diapers. This nearly halves the amount of garbage we create. Yet it does not put us into too much trouble with the laundry.
We use disposables when we go out and at night. He toddles around happily in cloth comfort in the daytime at home.
This combination makes his bum and our wallets happy and is the best investment we have ever made as parents. The micro-fleece pre-folded diapers have won this round of diapers vs nappies for sure.
Also! We are currently running a giveaway on 6 months’ worth of diapers for 10 lucky winners! Don’t miss out on saving money!
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