Real Nappy Week

Okay I know I said I was going to be blogging more but that was before my computer once again broke down. Boooo! So after no blogging for a while I decided to take over the other computer in the house for a bit whilst I had some spare time (Abel is currently sleeping).

Right now it's Real Nappy Week meaning just about every brand and online outlet of real/cloth nappies are having daily competitions which seem to be fueled by www.reusablenappyassociation.com and www.goreal.org.uk

Some of you may remember when I was pregnant I was weighing up the pros and cons of real nappies vs disposable a few months back on this blog. Nearly four months of nappy changing adventures later I have now fallen into a pretty regular routine with it which is to only use disposables when out and about and one for night time. I've done some number crunching and this, in the long run, means I'll be saving a bare minimum of £200 from birth to potty and that really is the bare minimum. This includes the energy bills, the various deals around for both disposable and washable nappies - everything.

I know some people would argue that the extra effort you have to put in to washing the nappies would surely not be worth it but I'm honestly not washing all that much. I do maybe four baby clothes and muslin loads a week. I have ten Bambooty Easy Dry all in ones which are the closest to convenience you can get in the real nappy world which last him a day. So I do the last nappy change before bed and then they all go in the wash then the dryer and are ready for morning. I'm going to have to extend my nappy stash for spring/summer when I intend to use the washing line to dry them - thus saving even more money!

I know some people would also argue that using reusable nappies is no different to using disposable in the long run for the environment and so has no real benefit. I would question this research. Proctor and Gamble are the international, big-dog, multi-million company behind Pampers and a whole range of other house hold products. Reusable nappies have really started to take off over the past few years and I'd wager that they are ploughing funds into any report that claims that disposable nappies are just as ethical and environmentally sound as real cloth nappies. Let's not forget also that for the past four years a report continues to reveal Proctor and Gamble (specifically Pampers) are in the top 50 UK least ethical brands which include research on carbon emissions, child labour, corporate corruption, environmental impact, ethical accreditation, fair and unfair trade, human rights abuse, nuclear power, political donations, rainforest timber and third world debt.

I leave you with Abel in his Bambooty: