Real Nappy Week

Well, I've been very good recently at resisting temptation and haven't bought Eden any new cloth nappies for ages. However, having moved house to a new area we will have some money to claim back from the council incentive scheme here to use cloth nappies, which is well worth doing for cloth-nappy lovers like us.

With this in mind, I bought Eden a new Universal Gen-Y cover that arrived yesterday. This is currently the top rated cover on diaperpin.com. She looks super-cute in it. I like it so much I've ordered her another one, selling 2 of her other nappies that we don't get on with to pay for it. Eden likes the 'shish'. 

When we first started cloth nappying Eden at 6 days old (17 months ago) we used a prefold system that we got from freecycle. Although it was all brand new and we were extremely grateful for it, it was boring white, as prefolds were at the time. The two-part fitted and prefold systems tended to only offer white, or if you were lucky, plain colours, no patterns unfortunately. I soon got hooked on the prettier pocket nappies and all-in-one types that offered a variety of colourful patterns and designs. In our own collection our prefolds were put away at the bottom of the drawer and replaced with the 'exciting' patterns and designs out there.

However, over the 17 months that we've been cloth nappying, I've watched the market for cloth nappies really take-off, which has been fantastic in promoting all the benefits of using real nappies! As cloth nappies have gained in popularity in recent years, and continue to do so, there's loads more variety in designs and styles out there. As a family, we're slowly going back to the prefold system we originally started out with recognising the benefits that come with this type of real nappy system, albeit now with pretty wraps to add to our 'collection'.

This coming week is real nappy week, promoting the benefits of using real nappies. In my own experience I've come across many Mums who have misguided ideas about modern cloth nappies. We've come a long way since terries, nappy pins and soaking in napisan! The idea that it's 'hard work' I guess is down to individual ideas of what hard work means - but to me the 10 seconds it takes to load the machine and 5 minutes to hang them out, twice a week, isn't hard work at all. There are ways around the issue of perceived messiness, and I find cloth nappies no less convenient than disposables. The thought of having something soft, cute and natural next to my daughter's skin is far more preferential than a paper, plastic, chemical combination, and despite the temptation to buy lots of new pretty nappies, cloth nappies do work out a whole lot cheaper than disposables.

Yes, some people may think we're a little strange to use cloth nappies, let alone write a blog post about them, but for me and my family, we just think they're great and I wish more people would give them a try. Here's hoping Real Nappy Week will help 'Share the Secret' of the modern cloth nappy.