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Thoughts after two years of cloth nappies

Carlotta Cerri
Salva

As you might know, almost two years ago I switched to cloth nappies after three years of disposables.

Today, having experienced it all—the good, bad and the ugly—and knowing what I know about just how bad disposable nappies are for the environment (they generate so much trash and take forever to decompose), for the skin (have you seen how many chemicals go into producing the things that stay in contact with our Babies’s skin 24/7?) and for the wallet (thousands of euros for disposables VS a couple hundred for cloth), I would never ever go back!

I’m also proud to say that many families have made the switch to cloth nappies after reading my post: how I switched to cloth nappies after three years of disposables.

So here’s a little update on our experience with cloth nappies since we started using them:

  • When living normal life at home, I stopped using cloth nappies only once: Emily had seven days straight of a nasty diarrhea, and at the third day I bought a small pack of disposables and waited for it to be over. There’s nothing bad in choosing the easy way out sometimes, let’s not be too hard on ourselves!
  • Emily was 21 months old when she decided to start using underwear, and since then she’s been using nappies only at night. I kept only six cloth nappies and I chose Pop-Ins with night boosters: we actively use only four nappies and I wash every three days (I have two extra nappies for emergencies, ie. when they don’t dry quick enough on a rainy day).
  • Last year we lived in Canada for two months. In July we stayed in an apartment in Montreal so we kept using cloth nappies despite the condition of washing and drying weren't ideal (in photo), and it was harder than expected because for some reason—water, temperature, heat—they smelt a lot like ammonia even when cleaned. In August, we were on the road, so I decided to switch to disposables as I wasn’t sure how often we’d be able to wash and how to store the dirty ones in the car without smell. Compromise is the elixir of life!
  • I decided to give almost all my nappies (except Pop-Ins that we still use for the nights and five BambinoMio that I sold) to a friend who just had a baby, so she could start her eco-friendly journey, too. Had I decided to sell them all, though, I’d have still gotten more than half than what I paid for them. Cloth nappies are even cheaper than the initial investment, because you resell them at the end!
  • Switching to cloth nappies was way easier than I thought, and it quickly became part of our routine, like washing clothes or vacuuming the apartment. Still now, that we’re traveling full-time, I’d never go back to using disposables (we do have an emergency stash, though): they take up quite a bit of space, but it’s a small price to pay to live a more eco-friendly life.
  • How are we cloth nappying while traveling? Simple! We use cloth nappies the whole time, except the night before we travel (we use one disposable from our stash). I make sure the cloth nappies are all dry the day before we leave an apartment and start using them again at the next apartment. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Honestly? I might have become one of those moms who see families using disposables and would like to tell them how easy it is to change. Oh wait, I actually do tell them! But only because I wish everyone would try and see for themselves: it’s so easy!

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