Using gNappies on holiday with a toddler

Last year, I wrote a blog post about using gNappies on holiday with a baby. We recently went to Spain, and since our little one is nearly 2, I thought I would write an update on how I found using gNappies abroad with a toddler.

We still use cloth nappies at home. But we would find it very difficult to use them on holiday due to the amount of space they would take up in the luggage, as well as storing wet nappies and washing them. So for us, gNappies are the next best thing. 

My gNappies drying in the sunshine!

Although they are not completely reusable, the outer "pant" part of the nappy is made from cotton and washable, so softer and more natural against his skin. And the disposable insert is 100% biodegradable and apparently decomposes within 50-100 days. Plus they look super cute :) 

I was concerned that we might have issues with leakage as my son drinks a lot of water and, well, it has to come out somewhere! However, we did not have a problem at all. He was pretty much dry the whole week and didn't have any issues with nappy rash or soreness.

Another great thing with gNappies is that they do up at the back (unless your husband puts them on an forgets, frequently). This means that, if you have a toddler who is prone to taking off their own nappy it's much more difficult for them to undo the Velcro tabs because they are round the back. So, in hot weather, you can have them running around in just their nappy without having to worry about it flying off.

gNappies are perfect for
toddlers that undo nappies-
fastening at the back!

We had three of the gNappies nappy covers (Good Fortune Red, Guppy Green and Gigabyte Blue) with us and a 32 pack of the disposable inserts. This easily lasted us the week with us doing a wash every other day (which we would have done anyway with our messy toddler!).

All in all, I'm a big fan of gNappies. They look really cute and, although not completely reusable, I think they are a good eco alternative for holidays. Especially if you consider that disposable nappies take 500 years to degrade in landfill and we'd have probably used 30 of them in a week which is a horrid thought.

Ps I wrote this on 16th June and they have a special offer on gNappies until 20th June, with 20% off all purchases. Use the code SUNNYSUMMER apparently.

Using gNappies on holiday

Since our little one was first born, we have used reusable nappies. We mostly use Charlie Bananas and Bumgenius Freetime, but we also have some Bambino Miosolo nappies. We also use cheeky wipes dipped in water which I think are kinder to his skin than wet wipes.

However, on holiday, we have always had to resort to disposable nappies. Reusables simply take up too much space in the suitcase and it can be difficult to store and wash dirty nappies. When we went to Australia at Christmas, we used disposables and wet wipes and he got ever such a sore bottom.

Drying my gNappies in the
sunshine

So when we went to La Gomera this June, we were keen to use an alternative to disposables.

Fortuitously, I was gifted some preloved gNappies. These are like a halfway house between reusable and disposable. They are a three part nappy system with a washable fabric outer, a breathable plastic snap in pouch into which you put a disposable insert. The insert is 100% biodegradable and you can put wet nappies in the compost heap and they will degrade in 100 days. The rest gets put in the wash.

We never found that wet nappies leaked through to the fabric, so we could just take out the insert and use the same nappy and snap in pouch. And, even with soiled nappies, although the pouch got dirty, the actual fabric nappy stayed clean. So we just snapped in a new pouch and a new insert and we were off. 

The little changing station I
set up in our room

They are good for travelling because you only need a few of the fabric nappies (we had 3) a few of the snap in pouches that hold the inserts and then a stash of the inserts. I found that a pack of 32 inserts was perfectly sufficient for a week's holiday. We then washed the nappies twice during the week, but if we'd have had more of them, say 7, we probably wouldn't have needed to do a wash at all.

The gNappies themselves cost from £14.95 new, the disposable inserts cost £8.95 for 40 and the pouches cost £12.95 for 6. So, it probably won't save you money compared to disposables. But once you have the gNappies and the pouches, they will last you a while and I guess the inserts are a comparable cost to disposables. Plus, they are obviously much better for the environment.

My little one crawling around
in his gNappy

My son didn't get a sore bottom at all during the week and, although not fully reusable, it felt more natural and gentle than using scratchy, sweaty disposables.  They also looked much cuter when he was crawling around in his birthday suit. 

I've noticed on the gNappies website that they also do cloth inserts so you can use the system and be 100% reusable. They come in packs of 6 and are made from 2 layers of micro fleece and 2 layers of hemp and cotton. I'm off to France at the end of June, so maybe I will give those a try.