The Nappy Gurus

Apr 19

Hi! My name is Laura and I am company director of The Nappy Gurus…

When the “David Attenborough effect” began sweeping the nation, nappies and wipes were an area that drew significant attention- and rightly so. A child in disposable nappies will go through over 4,000 single use nappies during infancy. Quite the legacy. Having used reusable nappies with both of my children from birth, I knew that there was a better way, and I have dedicated the past 13 years to sharing my experience and passion for reusable nappies and wipes with other families.

To be honest, it can sometimes be an uphill battle, as our industry contends with the likes of the 2005 Environment Agency report, which concluded that reusable nappies were no better for the environment than single use ones. This goes against both common sense and logic of course, and this report was immediately discredited upon publication as it was based on inaccurate assumptions and flawed science. Unfortunately, the damage was already done, and the report led to a generation of people believing that reusable nappies produce just as much (or more) carbon emissions than disposables.

This simply isn’t true, and as a member of The Nappy Alliance, I am involved in supporting an exciting new nappy LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) being produced by DEFRA, and I look forward to the results!

Many of us are familiar with wheely bins being full of nappies waiting for bin day, and then never giving a second thought to where they go once “thrown away”. If landfilled, a single use disposable nappy can take over 450 years to break down [2]. But when we think about disposable nappies, we need to think about much more than their disposal. It takes 1,500 litres of crude oil to produce enough nappies for a child’s first two and a half years [1] and plastics make up over 30% of the materials used in a nappy [3].

Reusable nappies as an alternative aren’t perfect of course, but there can simply be no denying that by washing and reusing one nappy, hundreds of times, and on multiple children, it will without doubt be the more environmentally sound option. Many modern cloth nappies are made from natural fibres such as bamboo and hemp, and at The Nappy Gurus we run a donations programme stretching each nappies’ value and lifespan as far as possible. When a family has come to an end of their nappy journey, we will pass them on to charities providing vital equipment to families in need, including orphanages in Zambia and Romania.

As for wet wipes, we have all become more aware of their devastating impact in recent years. Personally, I was horrified to learn that in the UK, 75% of the weight of the identifiable items found to be clogging pipes came from wet wipes alone. [4] Such a needless waste when the alternatives are quite simply fantastic! I quickly realised that I use could 1-2 cloth wipes in place of 5-6 disposable wipes during a nappy change. This is because they are just so much better at the job. They have texture to them for one, and you can use your cloth wipes with water or a wipes solution, plus you need never worry about chemicals being absorbed into the skin (you’ve seen the Youtube videos of baby wipes stripping paint right!?)

I have actually found that parents are making the switch away from disposable wipes before they ditch the disposable nappies. They are such a high impact, low hassle swap, it makes sense.

As parents we all share the responsibility to not only be accountable for our choices, but to lead by example in the eyes of our children. Don’t be put off by stereotypes of reusable nappies- they don’t need boiling, they don’t need folding, they don’t leak if used correctly- modern cloth nappies are easy, stylish and effective.

It has always been important to me that we made reusable nappies accessible. We aim to break them down into user-friendly starter packs, and offer a variety of “trial and return” options, enabling parents to find the right system that is going to work best for them. Grabbing any old nappy from a supermarket shelf can actually sometimes do more harm than good. If you haven’t had support to get a nappy that gives you what you need from it, you could walk away thinking “cloth nappies are useless”. This is such a shame, and I urge any parent to get online and do some research, or find the support of a local Nappy Library or nappy Council Incentive Scheme.

I do understand that reusable nappies can be a little overwhelming when you start to research all the different types and what you need. One of my missions when I set up The Nappy Gurus was to present the options available in a clean and simple way, and to provide support in a variety of content forms - from articles to video guides, to live chat and personalised advice from our expert team. We now have over 20 Nappy Gurus dotted around the UK and Europe who work to connect, inform and inspire the next generation of cloth nappy parents.

Together we can #makeclothmainstream !

By Laura Davies

Website: The Nappy Gurus

Instagram: @thenappygurus

Facebook: @thenappyguruplace