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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
