Nappies; disposable or non disposable please? What are the merits / drawbacks of both please?

Answer 1

I say disposable. Have you ever tried to clean out a messy, sticky diaper? Not fun. The only drawback is the cost.

Answer 2

As a baby, I had towling nappies as disposable ones had only just come on the market. Non disposable ones definitely save money, but on the other hand disposables allow the child to do more like swim for example. Disposable ones also cater for babies at different stages of their lives, newborn up through to toddler, where potty training pants come into play. I would imagine, disposable nappies are now just more convinient too. Quick to change, and throw away when finished.

Answer 3

Disposable - not good for environment. That is the only (important) drawback. Disposables are also very comfy so can delay potty training in some children.

non disposable - these days do not work out much cheaper unless used from the very beginning. The cheap old fashioned terries are not as comfy for baby either and you have to change after every wee or two. Extremely labour intensive compared to disposable - I would have never coped with non disposables personally but that is just me.
Then again think of all the electricity, bleach etc etc you use cleaning the darn things.

I think there are eco friendly disposables out there but they would cost more.

Answer 4

My wife and I used cloth diapers for our 4 children. It cost a lot less than disposable and they are better for the environment. Cloth diapers can be also be used to protect your shoulder when burping the baby. They can be used for years going to the next child because they are very durable, in fact when they are no longer needed as diapers they can be used as cleaning cloths. The biggest drawbacks are the need to change the baby more frequently because they don't keep bottoms as dry as disposable, and the messiness of cleaning them. Yes, I stuck my hand in the toilet to swish them around before rinsing and laundering. After the first few times you don't even think about it. If you are really squeamish you can hire a diaper service, but the cost is higher than disposables, at least it was 19 years ago. If they are the same now as they were long ago you just remove the dirty one and just put it in the diaper pail. No rinsing needed. Hope this helps you.

Answer 5

I'm sorry if this is going to upset the hippy parent brigade out there, but wasn't there a recent Environmental Impact survey done on Disposable versus Terry nappies and they were judged to have equal environmental impact. So I would say to you that it is hard enough trying to be a good parent without being up to your elbows in Sh*t all day. If you have an issue then maybe use less of them.

Answer 6

I've done cloth diapers. and washing them myself with no diaper service.

For us paid $300 for a full time dipering need. The first 3 months I was washing those diapers EVERYDAY, seemed like no end.
But now my daughter is 1 and goes thru 4-5 diapers a day. SO I get away with washing if needed once a week.

For me the advantage is less diaper rash and yeast infection. I had recieved disposables from friends when shes was born, used them and she had the WORST DIAPER RASH EVER. Blisters and raw, then a yeast infection. ANd because she was pooping almost every hour, you cant say it was long exposure in the diapers.

She does still get the occasion diaper rash, but its more because she has my sensitive skin. I love the fact, I'm saving diaers from going to the landfill and never getting biodregrated

There are ways to traveling and cloth diapers, honestly We didnt do it on our 1 week vacation. AS we would not have the time to landry the diapers, but if your staying at family, not gonna kill their washing machines by doing 1 or 2 loads of diapers

Answer 7

I used both. I found that with disposables my children didn't have such bad nappy rash. The cost of disposables and the environmental damage is a consideration. I felt very guilty for using them. However, you use energy to boil your terries and dry them in a drier, use bleach etc. I gave up and guiltily used disposables.

Answer 8

We decided on disposables, for our convenience and the baby's comfort, as i believe they keep him drier. Also, there is less of an environmental issue for us as our local waste is incinerated rather than put into a landfill.

However they do work out far more expensive than non disposables, so those are very good if cost is an issue for you. There are loads of different 'nappy systems' and i believe most of them sell trial packs.

Answer 9

I only used disposables. They were great when we travled cross country three thousand miles from New York to California. Can you imagine the stench after 5 days of dirty cloth diapers in the car?

Answer 10

I have 4 children, always used cloth nappies, except on long journeys. Obviously disposable are easier, but harder to potty train from, cloth nappies need to be changed more frequently but are kinder to the environment, disposables do not bio-degrade! Cloth nappies are cheaper, can be boiled easily, but can be messy.