Confessions of a cloth addict

A rainy day means catching up with the laundry that needs putting away. With the assistance of some toys and books, Eden's always pretty content to hang out and help me with this job. Of course one of the things that is in a constant turnover of washing and drying are cloth nappies - it's always satisfying tidying these away nicely because ah, the designs are just so pretty.



The thing is, I like to focus on the environmental and potential money saving benefits of using cloth. I often kind of downplay the prints, like they're a bonus but not an essential. But the reality? The prints are what make cloth parents want to purchase! The prints might make that shift from disposable to reusable, or be the final push to get hold of enough nappies to go from part time to full time. They look much lovelier in photos, oh, AND they save the planet, y'know - apparently in Hampshire (my county) alone around one million disposable nappies are thrown away *every single week*.

We feel guilt about having too many nappies but do we feel guilt about having too many baby clothes? Many (not all!) reusable nappy brands have an ethical core and care about  their impact on the environment and their employees when manufacturing - but it's much harder to find fashion brands can boast the same morals. In addition to this, nappies are so durable and most are designed to last for full time use on multiple children, whereas even with my careful washing I can't say I find many of Eden's clothes are remotely as hard wearing.

Picking a print is even helping us to make changing time a little easier - our wild girl is usually far too busy for something as trivial as a nappy change so picking out a pretty nappy sometimes(!) helps distract from an inevitable indignant tantrum.

So, y'know, I'm easing off feeling guilty about coveting beautiful prints or purchasing a style that's working best for us at the moment. At the end of the day, nappies can always be used by future children, resold, or passed on, and somebody will always be glad of them - how many wouldn't like a chance to stop sending disposables to landfill and have their baby wear something that's truly kind to their skin?

Are you a print addict or a practical cloth parent?